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Home > Archive > Flight simulator > February 2006 > Where to upgrade?
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| xlar54 2006-02-26, 7:45 pm |
| Im pleased to say that I finally spent a few dollars and upgraded from
my old Geforce 2 GTS card to a Geforce 6600. I was rather surprised
though to find that maxing all settings in FS2002 still had sluggish
performance. Toning it down a little, I can find a nice area that is
fast with excellent graphics performance. Im not much of a gamer
really; FS is about it for me. But I am wondering how much of an
improvement I can expect from upgrading CPU and motherboard.
Back in the Mhz days, drastic differences could be seen in changing
from, say 20 Mhz to 66 Mhz, but I have been a slow adopter of Ghz CPU
speeds because Im rather skeptical of the numbers these days (theres so
much more to it anymore than CPU speed AFAIK). BUT, moving up to a
faster CPU would also require a faster motherboard, which _is_ likely
to show significant improvements (PCI Express and such).
I guess Im just curious - will a 3.x Ghz machine, 512 MB RAM, and
Geforce 6800 series (PCIe) _really_ be a huge improvement over what I
currently run, which is a 1.2 Ghz, 256MB RAM, Geforce 6600 (AGP).
Heheh... what I really want to do is be ready for FSX when it comes out.
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| "xlar54" <scott.hutter@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1140922130.995228.86440@i39g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
quote:
> I guess Im just curious - will a 3.x Ghz machine, 512 MB RAM, and
> Geforce 6800 series (PCIe) _really_ be a huge improvement over what I
> currently run, which is a 1.2 Ghz, 256MB RAM, Geforce 6600 (AGP).
>
> Heheh... what I really want to do is be ready for FSX when it comes out.
If possible, please take 1Gb RAM instead of 512Mb -- everything else looks
ok to me, at least for your (our) playing profile
Regards
Tihomir
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| John Doe 2006-02-26, 7:45 pm |
| "xlar54" <scott.hutter@gmail.com> wrote:
quote:
>
> Im pleased to say that I finally spent a few dollars and upgraded
> from my old Geforce 2 GTS card to a Geforce 6600. I was rather
> surprised though to find that maxing all settings in FS2002 still
> had sluggish performance.
Apparently the 6600 GT was a major improvement over the 6600.
Still, I'm surprised at those results. Then again, you didn't
specify your system or your screen resolution.
quote:
>
> I guess Im just curious - will a 3.x Ghz machine, 512 MB RAM, and
> Geforce 6800 series (PCIe) _really_ be a huge improvement over
> what I currently run, which is a 1.2 Ghz, 256MB RAM, Geforce 6600
> (AGP).
I agree with the other about getting at least 1 GB of RAM. And leave
one slot open if that's all you get.
quote:
>
> Heheh... what I really want to do is be ready for FSX when it
> comes out.
Then put off buying the video card. If you can't return the 6600,
use it until then. By then, the fast cards will be a little cheaper.
Good luck and have fun.
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| John Doe 2006-02-26, 7:45 pm |
| "xlar54" <scott.hutter@gmail.com> wrote:
quote:
>
> BUT, moving up to a faster CPU would also require a faster
> motherboard, which _is_ likely to show significant improvements
> (PCI Express and such).
Your CPU and RAM (listed below) could be limiting your new Geforce
6600 AGP video card.
quote:
>
> I guess Im just curious - will a 3.x Ghz machine, 512 MB RAM, and
> Geforce 6800 series (PCIe) _really_ be a huge improvement over
> what I currently run, which is a 1.2 Ghz, 256MB RAM, Geforce 6600
> (AGP).
Oh, there's your system, silly me.
Also, in my other reply I said put off buying another video card.
But unless you buy a system which includes an AGP slot, then you
couldn't wait.
And if the next Flight Simulator is going to be released next month
instead of several months from now like I was thinking, maybe I
shouldn't have replied. Oh well.
Maybe you should not have bought the 6600 (especially if it's the
GT), but yes you probably should buy a new system.
Good luck.
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| xlar54 2006-02-26, 7:45 pm |
|
quote:
> Maybe you should not have bought the 6600 (especially if it's the
> GT), but yes you probably should buy a new system.
>
> Good luck.
<sigh>... oh well, i guess its near time. Im a holdout usually
(generally because I dont see much reason to upgrade if things run ok),
but I cant hold out forever. But thanks for the replys 
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| Gary McLean 2006-02-26, 7:45 pm |
| "xlar54" <scott.hutter@gmail.com> wrote in news:1140939790.318148.293860
@i39g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:
I think you'd likely see a drastic improvement. Not only will a modern
CPU be a drastic improvement but bus speeds and graphics bus speeds have
drastically improved as well as memory speeds. I also think you'd be much
better off with 1G rather 512M of memory. The additional cost will be
relatively small compared to the cost for the whole system. Actually just
the increase in memory (going from 256 to 1G) alone will probably be a
huge speed boast.
quote:
>
>
> <sigh>... oh well, i guess its near time. Im a holdout usually
> (generally because I dont see much reason to upgrade if things run ok),
> but I cant hold out forever. But thanks for the replys
>
>
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| BeeFlow 2006-02-26, 7:45 pm |
| I agree with the memory upgrade as the biggest boost. I'm running an
AMD XP2800, 1G of ram, and the AGP 6600GT. With resolution at 1280 X
1024, I can set all the sliders (except traffic) at max, use UT, use
anti-aliasing, and maintain 26 fps--at least until ASv6 starts
piling-in the clouds. Some addon planes can degrade the fps into the
teens.
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| Matt B. 2006-02-26, 7:45 pm |
|
"xlar54" <scott.hutter@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1140922130.995228.86440@i39g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
quote:
> Im pleased to say that I finally spent a few dollars and upgraded from
> my old Geforce 2 GTS card to a Geforce 6600.
Last year I also upgraded my old GeForce 2 GTS (to a GeForce 5700 VE).
I was quite pleasantly surprised by the wave effect on the water in FS2004
that I hadn't been able to see before with the old card! Maybe you have
noticed this, too.
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| I also agree on the RAM, the more the better. XP by itself uses 256
megs so it doesn't leave much for gaming unless you have at least a gig
of RAM. You might want to check out the Sapphire Radeon 9600 card also.
It's a 256 meg AGP card thats really cheap now and works well with FS,
it's around $74 USD now and a great card if you don't want to spend a
lot of money.
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| Dakota650r 2006-02-28, 2:33 am |
| Where to upgrade? At home of course! That's where the FedEx and UPS guys
bring the boxes that come from Newegg!
Cheers
Roy
--
system specs
http://www.dakota650r.com/system.htm
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