newby upgrade

[cooksey]

hello,
im new to flight sim and could do with some advise please.
i have fs2004 and im hooked!
but the quality of the graphics (particularly scenery) is poor.
my PC isnt particularly great but i cant yet afford a new one so im thinking of upgrading.
i have a 2.66GHz cpu with 512 Mb ram ... yeah dont laugh :-)
the graphics card is a geforce fx5200 128mb

can any one suggest an AGP graphics card that will improve things (they all seem to be pci e knoweadays)
yep im gonna upgrade the ram too ........

and one thing else .... when im learning and doing the slow flying thing ... it keeps cutting short the lesson saying im obviosly distracted!!
im trying ... im really trying!!!!
reminds me of when i was at school....

ok so when youve all picked yourselves off the floor and the hysterics have subsided i would be really gratefull for some gentle advise...
many thanks
chris

[forthbridge]

HI Chris

Well, questions!

Not to seem critical of your system, but I think perhaps it may be better to think about keeping any upgrade cash and sticking it toward a new machine?

Off the top of my head, and AGP card is going to set you back at least £50 for a decent one, and then you need RAM. I suspect you may have SDR DIMMS in you machine, and although it's slower, it's actually creeping up in price these days as it's (relatively) rare. So taking into account a Card, and a matched set of DIMMS, you would be more than half-way to buying a brand new Machine with about 2 gig of Ram which would be well capable of running FS9.

Personally, I would go down that road, then save money for a 'stonker' system in the longer term - maybe others can offer better advice?

HTH

[Garry Russell]

Hello Chris

Welcome aboard

Jim has a point there and also the power supply might not be able to cope with the upgrades you want to run. :think:

Garr

[tonymadge]

Chris
The set up you have can be improved but it depends on your budget and how far you want to go with the present set up. If you can go for a better machine that would be best and depending on what you want it to do, i.e. what other things you use a PC for can help decide how powerful you want it.
FS9 realy needs three things in order.
CPU thats powerful enough, I use a single core (old hat) CPU specs below
RAM 1Gb or even 2Gb if possible on XP
Video card.... now a decent AGP card the nVidia 6800/7800 gt would be ideal as a budget, if you can get one , maybe eBay would be the place to look.
for example: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/sparkle-nvidia-Ge ... 240%3A1318
I can suggest Overclockers.com for components should you want to go down the road of a upgrade, they are competitive on prices and service is good.
If you need anything else let me know
all the best Tony

[Quixoticish]

I can only concur what what has already been said. If you're in the market for a very quick upgrade and only want to change one thing then get rid of that graphics card and get the best AGP card still available on the market. The FX5200 was a load of utter rubbish, I had a lot of clients purchase them when they were first released and they all had to be replaced as their performance was atrocious, even for a budget card. If you bin the 5200 and replace it with a better card you'll notice a huge difference in FS2004.

http://www.tekheads.co.uk/s/department? ... rValue=AGP

[DelP]

Hi Chris and welcome ;-)

No one is laughing mate, we've all been there

In response, all of the above ;-)

Also check your motherboard specs and capabilities so you know the maximum the board will take: CPU, memory, etc., then budget accordingly.

Derek

[Nigel H-J]

Hi Chris and welcome, as Derek said we have all been there including me.

Very much depends on how well you know your computer as to upgrading the easy and cheap way, for my part I only allow myself the priviledge of changing Graphic Cards Sound Cards and Memory. Just a case of removing one and putting in the other!! When it came to motherboards and power supplies etc. I left that to my local computer shop who is very competitive on prices although you do have to pay for the labour which again, is not expensive when you compare prices to (cough)!! PC Whatsit!!

Try looking around your area for a local shop and ask for their prices or indeed ask here as some-one may be able to give you a hand if they happen to live locally.

Regards
Nigel.

[petermcleland]

I believe the best AGP card is the one I use...Gainward BLISS 7800 GS+ AGP 512MB

But I'm not sure if it is obtainable any more.

I think if I was lumbered with your machine I would be tempted to do one of two things:-

1. Build a new computer from scratch.

2. Buy a Dell bargain high end desktop with a high spec and possible just upgrade its Graphics card to the best available (obviously this would not be AGP).

I would actually do 1. because I've built a few, but if I was not a builder then I would choose 2.

[Seaking]

Try looking for a nvidia 7950GT 512MB that was the last AGP card I had and it worked a treat, you could try Ebay or Kijiji and of course your local
puter stores.
Are you located in the USA or UK.........or where in the world ?