Simviation Forum - GAME CARD OR VIDEO CARD

Jan 8^th, 2009 at 9:36pm

carlosa2009 Offline
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Fly FS

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What does kind of game card, I will need for Flight Simulator 2004?

Thank you to all

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Reply #1 - Jan 9^th, 2009 at 6:58am

Harold Offline
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Knowledge Is Power
EHTE

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Hi Carlosa,

Welcome to SimV or the nuthouse as many around here call it Grin

I find it to be a friendly, knowledgeable and helpful bunch of people and hopefully you will come to know us the same ...

As for your question: I would way the best graphics card you can afford, if possible a Nvidia 8800 or 9800 series. Maybe even a GTX280 or better (285 or 295 - but those cost a lot of money!).

We just can't really tell 'what is best', as FS9 likes a combination of rather high-end components (processor - memory - graphics card - hard drive - power supply etc).

And the choice of your card also depends on if you have a PCIe or an AGP slot on your motherboard. If you have an old machine (5+ years old like mine) then you probably will have an AGP slot and for those it is rather hard to find a new graphics card anymore. If you have a 'new' machine, then you will probably have a PCIe slot on your motherboard and all modern graphics card will fit in that.

A new and good graphics card will help but if you have a slow processor or little RAM then Flight Simulator will not run very good.

And you should also look after your Windows installation. Windows can be tuned to run Flight Simulator like a charm. But that requires A LOT of patience, blood, sweat and tears ...

As a reference look at my (5 year old) system specs ... this machine will run Flight Simulator 2004 pretty nice.

If you need anything ... just let me know Wink

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Reply #2 - Jan 9^th, 2009 at 7:07am

Vodka Burner Ex Member

The most memory bandwidth possible on a Nvidia card. At a reasonable price that would be the 8800GTX.

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Reply #3 - Jan 9^th, 2009 at 7:25am

Fozzer Offline
Colonel
An elderly FS 2004 addict!
Hereford. England. EGBS.

Posts: 24861

carlosa2009 wrote on Jan 8^th, 2009 at 9:36pm:

What does kind of game card, I will need for Flight Simulator 2004?

Thank you to all

...the best bet would be to describe what your system is, at present...

Processor, Memory, Graphics Card, Power Supply, Hard Drive, etc....

We can then tell you is anything needs improving, to run FS 2004 successfully.

Many quite lowly systems, (like mine), will run FS 2004 perfectly smoothly, with most/all options at Maximum settings!...

...(FSX is quite different though!.. Shocked

...)

Paul...G-BPLF....FS 2004..FS Navigator...and an Oxtail Stew... Wink

...

...!

Dell Dimension 5000 BTX Tower. Win7 Home Edition, 32 Bit. Intel Pentium 4, dual 2.8 GHz. 2.5GB RAM, nVidia GF 9500GT 1GB. SATA 500GB + 80GB. Philips 17" LCD Monitor. Micronet ADSL Modem only. Saitek Cyborg Evo Force. FS 2004 + FSX. Briggs and Stratton Petrol Lawn Mower...Motor Bikes. Gas Cooker... and lots of musical instruments!.... ...!
Yamaha MO6,MM6,DX7,DX11,DX21,DX100,MK100,EMT10,PSR400,PSS780,Roland GW-8L v2,TR505,Casio MT-205,Korg CX3v2 dual manual,+ Leslie 760,M-Audio Prokeys88,KeyRig,Cubase,Keyfax4,Guitars,Orchestral,Baroque,Renaissance,Medieval Instruments.

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Reply #4 - Jan 9^th, 2009 at 2:29pm

Harold Offline
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Knowledge Is Power
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Fozzer wrote on Jan 9^th, 2009 at 7:25am:

Oxtail Stew

You British ... Huh

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Reply #5 - Jan 9^th, 2009 at 7:31pm

Sean_TK Offline
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Hello
USA

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As the others have said, Nvidia graphics are the way to go when it comes to Flight Simulator use. I know two people with ATI cards, and even they said that they would switch to a GeForce series when they get the chance.

Also, you may want to indicate to us how much, and what kind of RAM you have, as that also make a large difference in processing speed.

And last but not least, welcome to the Simviation Forums, the friendliest FS group on the web, in my opinion. (A few of us are a little strange too....but that's not necessarily a bad thing.) Wink

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Reply #6 - Jan 10^th, 2009 at 6:48am

Harold Offline
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Sean_TK wrote on Jan 9^th, 2009 at 7:31pm:

I know two people with ATI cards, and even they said that they would switch to a GeForce series when they get the chance.

Except waspi maybe. But he's cheating ... he has two of them Roll Eyes

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Reply #7 - Jan 11^th, 2009 at 6:15pm

Mazza Offline
Colonel
:D
Melbourne, Australia.

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Harold wrote on Jan 10^th, 2009 at 6:48am:

Sean_TK wrote on Jan 9^th, 2009 at 7:31pm:

I know two people with ATI cards, and even they said that they would switch to a GeForce series when they get the chance.

Except waspi maybe. But he's cheating ... he has two of them Roll Eyes

I loves my ATi/AMD system Tongue

Sunset Chasing...RULES

AMD 9550 2.43 X4 - 2Gb RAM 800Mhz DDRII - Asus 4670
Corsair TX-750W

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Reply #8 - Jan 12^th, 2009 at 5:23pm

todayshorse Offline
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'Ten Thousand Blister.....'
England

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Posts: 2806

Harold wrote on Jan 9^th, 2009 at 2:29pm:

Fozzer wrote on Jan 9^th, 2009 at 7:25am:

Oxtail Stew

You British ... Huh

Oxtail stew huh? I remeber as a kid Oxtail soup was somthing specail, it was to be had when you were off school due to illness, or on cold evenings.

Now i think its a big no no and i cant for the life of me even remember what it tastes like, and have no intention of ever finding out again. Not now i know it has real oxtails in it Lips Sealed