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Simviation Forum › Old Flight Simulator Series › FS 2002 › Video Card questions

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Video Card questions (Read 260 times)

Mar 10^th, 2003 at 5:15am

ross607 Offline
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Hi Guys.

First off, some of these questions have probably been answered umpteen times before on this forum... so sorry if it has already been convered, anyway...

I'm running FS2002 with a donkey of a processor at the moment and a Geforce 2 mx 64meg card. Am planning an upgrade of main board soon and thinking about having a cheap upgrade of graphics card.... I can't afford anything major so was just thinking about upgrading to Geforce 4 mx card... the place I'm thinking of getting one from lists two different kinds - "GeForce 4 MX440-SE 64MB " and a "GeForce 4 MX440-8x 64MB" Does anyone know if theres a difference? whats the significance of the "SE" bit and the "8x" bit??! the latter is the more expensive so am presuming there is some difference.

Secondly, I have always set my water display setting on detail which runs fine, can see the wave animations and everything no problem. The other day I decided just to have a quick look at what it would look like on reflections, now all the water surfaces just flash - is this my card not being powerful enough to run the reflection setting or is it my processor that is at fault here? just curious as i'm hoping my upgrade will eliminate this problem so I can start running the sim somewhere near how its supposed to be run!!

Anyway, hope someone can offer advice, cheers anyway

Ross

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Reply #1 - Mar 10^th, 2003 at 5:23am

RollerBall Ex Member

Forget the MX Ross

If you're going for GeForce, it has to be Ti or nothing.

Probably even a 3 Ti would be preferred to a 4 MX - but other's with direct experience will let you know.

And soon is my guess knowing the guys on this forum!!
Cheesy

Roger

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Reply #2 - Mar 10^th, 2003 at 6:42am

ross607 Offline
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Near Leeds, United Kingdom

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Cheers for the reply roger,

I'm on a bit of a tight budget what with the motherboard upgrade but as you suggested I did look at the Geforce 3 Ti and I might be able to squeeze to that but I'm not sure yet... i may have to go with the mx whether I like it or not!!! I'm just after a little prettier graphics... nothing mind blowing, just an improvement over what I'm running currently and so I can notch those sliders up a little bit more.

Anyway thanks alot for replying roger, would appreciate any advice from anybody else too.... what kind of specs are people running here graphics card wise??? and are you happy with what you're getting?

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Reply #3 - Mar 10^th, 2003 at 7:24am

FSTipster Offline
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Hi Ross,

Being a similarly poverty stricken individual Grin

I run a GF4MX440.

First, the `MX` denotes that there is a bandwidth limitation on the card not present in the full blown TI series. This means it isn't as fast as the TI series and could possibly cause a bottleneck in your system if the other elements like your CPU are fast enough. If you can avoid it, do so, but it will run FS2002 with good graphics if needs be.

Secondly, if you can actually see the difference on the screen, you're a better man than I. I've watched FS2002 on a system equipped with a GF4TI4600 and there was no extra eye candy that I could spot. It's not really about that though, it's about the speed of processing the graphics and the benefits you gain from having a fast card.

Finally , the "8X" represents that it can process at 8 speed AGP if you have a board equipped with it. Save your money. 8 speed AGP does not mean the graphics get processed 8 times faster. The difference between 2 identical systems processing graphics through at 1X AGP versus 8X AGP was benchmarked at 3%.

The SE card will support 4X AGP. If you don't have an 8X AGP slot in the first place, you won't get the benefit of the 8X card. If you do, it will amount to roughly a 1.5% improvement over the SE. I doubt you'd be able to tell.

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Reply #4 - Mar 10^th, 2003 at 8:38am

ozzy72 Offline
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Ross, try and hang on a few weeks, there are a huge load of new super hi-powered graphics cards due to come out, so the Ti range prices are going to take a hit.
I've recently changed from an 2MX to a Ti4600, and OMG was it worth waiting 3 months for (problems with deliveries here in Hungary!). WOW! Shocked

Ozzy

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Reply #5 - Mar 10^th, 2003 at 10:55am

ross607 Offline
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I love YaBB 1G - SP1!
Near Leeds, United Kingdom

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FS2002 Tipster: Cheers for that mate, very informative, I'm sure I'll be more than happy with the G4MX.... looking at your round the world pics I would be very pleased with screen shots of that quality..... although as Ozzy suggested I may hang on for a few weeks and see if the Ti does come down in price. Once I get my processor upgraded I should be able to cope with the G2 card for a bit longer seeing as I should have faster frame rates.

Thanks again for the advice guys 8)

Ross

Ps - anyone got any ideas on the cause of my flashing water issue?

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