Considering a video card change

[tlabbe]

Greetings,
Considering the upcoming release of JFK, I would like to know if it would be worth to perform a video card switching. I am currently equipped with an All-in-wonder Radeon 9800 Pro (128MB RAM). I have a BFG tech Nvidia 7300GT 512 MB laying around, just in case I would experience issues with my main graphics card.

Here are my current specs if this could help:

ASUS P4C800 deluxe w/ latest BIOS revision
Intel P4 2.8c Ghz
1 GB Kingston Hyper-X DDR 400 RAM
ATI all-in-wonder Radeon 9800 Pro, w/Catalyst 8.3 drivers
Western Digital VelociRaptor 300 GB SATA-II (downgraded to SATA-I), recently acquired due to hard disk failure
Creative SoundBlaster Audigy sound card
Enermax 350-watt PSU
Pioneer A08 16x DVD-RW

I don't expect a large performance increase from the switch, the only gain would be the 512MB instead of the current 128MB of video RAM.

I currently run ZRH around 20-22 fps, same with ORD at 20-22 fps. For KORD I have to lower AI traffic during landings and taxiing to the gate however. Zurich is fine, even with AI at 100%

Another question, if I perform this switch, will I need to reactivate all FSdreamteam sceneries and Cloud9's? Will that count as an hardware change? When my hard drive crashed, when my backup was restored (used NT backup w/ASR) upon startup of FS2004, it asked me to "activate" all of my installed Cloud9 & FSDT sceneries, of course I said yes to this.

Will I also need to create new .REG files since this qualify as an hardware change?

Thanks for all your inputs,
Thierry

[LH865]

I dont think my swapping Graphic Card will give you a boost. I'd say upgrade you memory to 2GB. Do you have a budget?

[tlabbe]

I dont think my swapping Graphic Card will give you a boost. I'd say upgrade you memory to 2GB. Do you have a budget?

Actually its no problem upgrading. I have found a 2GB Kingston Hyper-X kit for only 139$

If you believe upgrading the RAM to 2GB will have a better impact than switching from my AIW 9800 128MB to the 7300GT 512MB then its not a problem.

But so far with my current configuration I have never had any issues with the RAM.

With 2GB of RAM editing the boot.ini with the /3GB switch is not required.

[LH865]

AFAIK if you don't get OOM error then you don't need to use the /3Gb switch. I believe by upgrading to 2GB you will get more boost than swapping Graphic Card. FS is more CPU game than GPU game.

If you have the budget you might want to upgrade the PC overall. Get new CPU, Mobo and DDR2 RAM. It's a shame if you spend more money on this PC while you can collect more money and do the big upgrade. But as I said it depends on your budget and needs.

[tlabbe]

LH865:
Thanks to your advice, I have already purchased the Kingston 2GB kit, I will try it out. So far with 1GB of RAM I do not have any OOM errors. Some CTD sometimes (fe.dll or g3d.dll modules) while being in O'Hare. Let's hope this boost of RAM will help eliminate the CTD's I have at O'Hare and won't create new ones at the upcoming JFK.

If you have the budget you might want to upgrade the PC overall. Get new CPU, Mobo and DDR2 RAM. It's a shame if you spend more money on this PC while you can collect more money and do the big upgrade. But as I said it depends on your budget and needs.

Budget for a new machine, not a problem, I could buy a SLI mobo with a Core 2 Quad, 2x Geforce GTX 280 & 2x WD Velociraptor 300GB in RAID-0 tomorrow if I wanted to but the thing is, I have spent so much time building my FS2004 configuration the way it is right now (many add-on payware aircrafts, sceneries, etc.), it runs well on this system and I really enjoy it. I will probably skip Vista and wait for the new OS to come out... (I am testing Win Vista right now at the workplace and I don't really like it) Plus a new system would mean: reformat, installing FSX (Vista & DX10 combination). Staying on this system saves me all this hassle and I perform great backups for this config in case a disaster would occur.

[LH865]

Glad I could help. If you decide to upgrade you GPU get ATI 4870 or even better get the 4870X2, IMO it's better that the current NV

[tlabbe]

Glad I could help. If you decide to upgrade you GPU get ATI 4870 or even better get the 4870X2, IMO it's better that the current NV

Thanks again for your help, very appreciated. I am really anxious to see if the added RAM will indeed make a huge difference vs. the current 1GB. I never thought ATI were better than the current nvidia offering, is it still a pain updating drivers like in the past or things have really changed since then? During the times of the Catalyst 3.1 drivers those were a pain to update, so far I have the Catalyst 8.3 and they seem to have made an improvement since then.  Never had a problem updating Nvidia drivers (when I had a Geforce 2 back then...)

Thierry

[LH865]

A long time ago I only have 1 Gb ram then upgraded to 2 GB and I can confirm it will give you boost, especially FPS wise.

About the GPU I currently upgraded to ATI 4870 the 512 version and extremely happy with it. It's not just the price but also the performance. Before this I have GTS 8800 320MB and I was thinking to get the GTX 260. But lots of people recommend to get 4870 and seen lots of benchmark for it.

The newest ATI driver (8.7) is good as well maybe better than the current NV driver.

[tlabbe]

A long time ago I only have 1 Gb ram then upgraded to 2 GB and I can confirm it will give you boost, especially FPS wise.

Agreed. The 2GB of ram REALLY made quite a difference. Very impressed by the boost!

Thanks for your help mate! And all I thought my video card wasn't powerful enough, can't wait to test out JFK now!