Anyone?

Make sure you get a decent power supply and a processor to get the most of that graphics card too.

Thud wrote on Jan 26^th, 2010 at 5:48pm:

How many watts does your PSU have?

Open up your case, there should be a big box with power cords coming out of it (Top or maybe at bottom of case) on the side it should say how many Watts 

1. What PSU do you have? Open up the case and find out. It's what the external power cable connects to.

2. Does your motherboard have a PCI-Express x16 slot? You can grab a program called CPUID (aka CPU-Z), and it will tell your motherboard model in the mainboard tab.

3. Intel Pentium Dual Core CPU @ 2.0ghz is not very fast. Don't spend money on a really high end card (e.g. 5870, GTX 285) because you CPU will likely become the limiting factor. Look at 9800GT, GTS 250, GTX 260, Radeon 4870, Radeon 5770, Radeon 4890.

Quote:

Well with that said, if I was looking for that sort of power, would I be better off (price wise) upgrading my comp or getting a new one?

That is the question! How much! If your proc is only 2.0 GHz now, OCing it wouldn't yield much more, I bet: Or not enough, at least, to really notice a gain.

Not that I recommend spending a bunch of money (cuz that's just stoopid), every 2 years or so, I spring for a whole new system. If you use that as a guideline, it may be time for you. Right now you can get really good deals on components and even entire systems, and you wouldn't need to do it again for a while. With the advent of DDR3 and Intel's new I-cores (primarily i5 &i7's), you can get a budget system that really ROX, and will continue to rock for a while. I always go with AMD, just cause I go for the "underdog", but you should do your research before you choose, if you do upgrade or build new.

There isn't going to be a new Flight Sim like this one for some time, with ACES being ousted, and the hardware that's out there now has finally caught up with it. If you post your motherboard model # (unless you have already and wasn't paying attention) some folks in here, including myself, can help you look up its specs and see what you can upgrade to, or if it's even worth it. As far as components go, if you want power and speed, the MoBo is the most crucial component, as far as I'm concerned. That will dictate how far you can go, without an entire new build. If you want to go fast, you need to have the capacity for up-to-date processors, as those change more often than anything else.

Really, you would have to decide. Here's some places to look for stuff:

frys.com
bestbuy.com
newegg.com
tomshardware.com (for reviews, news)

plenty of others. I recommend frys, cuz I go to their stores all the time, and am just overtaken with their goodies. Ask my girlfriend! She's yelling at me about it right now!

A static wrist strap might be preferable. You should use one.




But is it required?

No. Especially if you're not touching anything.

I have never used one (and don't intend on getting one either). Ever. Never damaged anything either. Of course, there is always a first and I have heard stories of people damaging hardware.

Touch a part of the metal case to discharge any static, which I'd assumed one would do while opening it unless the OP has a plastic (Dell?) case in which case I apologize for not pointing it out.


Quote:

A new videocard like the 9800GT should improve your performance hugely.

But if you did want the performance of a Radeon 5870 then you would likely need a whole new computer (Phenom II, Core i5 750, Core i7).

Speed of flight, yes an anti-static wrist strap is not needed, but it is preferred and highly recommended.
Btw, it's best to touch the PSU for discharging.

Anybody have input on the ATI Radeon HD 4350?

Thud wrote on Jan 23^rd, 2010 at 9:29pm:


The Chipset is on the motherboard, so that describes the
basic architecture of your PC. The motherboard may have
integrated graphics built into it's chips, as is typical with
your particular chipset, so that could be why it's displaying
as the graphics card - just a guess.

Thud wrote on Jan 27^th, 2010 at 4:53pm:


You have a recent chipset, you shouldn't need a whole new
PC.

You simply need a decent graphics card and enough power
to run it. The cpu can be upgraded if it lacks power, not a
difficult procedure. Ram is not too expensive either if
required. But for best advice you might give more detail on
your current hardware.

It's possible you may just need a midrange video card and
you might be happy with that, but it's an expensive mistake
if you want more. Anything is going to be an improvement
I'd say, because by the sound of it, you're using onboard
graphics that don't support FSX properly..... ie, your
settings won't stick on high graphics options within the
game.