Processor: Intel (R) Celeron (R) CPU 2.60 Ghz
Memory: 256 MB  RAM
Video Card: Intel 82845G/GL/GE/PE/GV Graphics Controller (64 MB)
Windows XP - Home
80 GB hard drive

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i've now  upgraded to 512 RAM  but i am seeing absolutely NO DIFFERANCE in frame rates .it plays the same as when i had 256 mb and i'm playing on the same low settings i was before too .i'm  STILL getting only about 5-10 fps over a big city.(sometimes lower)

i was wondering if maybe i got the wrong type of RAM or something?i didnt really know what kind to get, so i got  DDR 333. i'm guessing it's right though because  when i go to start/run/dxdiag , it DOES say that i have 512 now  but does that mean it's actually working?

i don't understand this. if i'm not seeing any improvement with frame rates after adding more memory, then whats the use?

I thought installing more RAM would decrease graphic loading times.

You definately need a new graphics card. You'll want to look at a Geforce FX5200 or above, or a Radeon 9600 or above. That's because these cards are compatible with the latest version of Microsoft's DirectX.

A quick way to tell if you have your memory installed correct is to run DXDIAG from the run command.
But as everyone has said that on board video needs to hit the trail. If your system does not have a AGP slot you can still use a PCI slot for a graphics card.
You might have to move a jumper on your mother board in order to disable the onboard graphics. I had to do this on a older system when I added a AGP video card. The system did not recgonize the card untill I moved the jumper than every thing worked ok.
But do not move anything untill you add the card and try it you will know if it is working or not. 8)

I see a lot of people here recommending a RAM upgrade to improve graphics performance.

You really shouldn't do that. Because it's leading people astray and wasting their money.

Brundlefly, you have an El Cheapo computer; that is.... it has a celeron CPU and a "all in one" motherboard with onboard graphics chip. If you have an AGP slot as earlier mentioned, you can add an AGP Graphics card, these are very expensive items if you want one that actually works well in FS9. You get what you pay for, and you didn't get a Pentium4 processor; therefore, your front side bus speed (the speed at which your mainboard shuffles all the data around) is slower than what it could be.

Iroquois, you shouldn't be recommending the FX5200 for FS9, it doesn't perform well enough and some poor sod will go out and buy one, wasting their money. Also, the latest or last 3 versions of directX has stuff all to do with graphics performance in FS9, except for a couple of minor frills.

Garymbuska recommends a PCI graphics card if you don't have an AGP slot for an addon AGP graphics card...
Well,..... don't waste your time or money there either... they are bad... real bad, and probably show no improvement over what you have now.

You need:

1. A decent AGP graphics card, minimum 128mb, but don't let the 128mb of ram on the card fool you, there are lots of junk cards with 128mb of ram on them. The "class" of the card is most important..
Here are some that work well in fs9:
GF4 TI4200, 4400, 4600,
Radeon 9600XT, 9800pro, 9800XT
GF FX 5700 ultra, FX5900XT, FX5900,pro and ultra
NVidia 6800, pro and GT
The new Radeon card (the name escapes me at the moment)

2. an AGP slot to put it in, (a new mainboard if you haven't got an AGP slot on your machine now, and the mainboard should be an 8x AGP speed compliant one or it's too old of a design)

3. new RAM to suit your new mainboard (now that you just wasted money on your recent purchase... assuming you bought ram only fast enough for the celeron.)

4. A decent CPU to fit into your shiny new rig.

5. possibly a larger power supply unit to fill the new power requirements.

Saying all that, if you have an AGP slot, buy a decent graphics card (you need extra power in graphics to overcome the other shortcomings of your system), and you should get reasonable performance on what you have now.

Good Luck.

You got that right Gixer.... well, at least you got 20 FPS lol, and that's with just about the latest gear! Sheesh!

Why on Earth do so many people think RAM makes a PC's video capabilities better?

It's Random Access Memory..... not Really Awesome Magic!

That's pretty amazing Selbio, considering the fact that the 9200 is about half the power that a TI4200 is.

The TI4200 handles AA at 2x reasonably well, but higher settings will drop it back, as will AF.

Overall, I'm surprised you didn't see an obvious advantage using the TI4200 though. As long as it works for you, I guess that's the main thing.