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Author Best Video Card for Flight Sim X for $400?
Mark Findlay

2007-01-30, 8:39 pm

I have about a $400 budget for the best video card I can get for Flight Sim
X.

I know this is a somewhat subjective question - but not being a video card
person - what is the best option I can go for, for FSX? I imagine I want
plenty of memory (256Meg?) on the card. Should I go with nVidia or ATI?
Which model do you recommend for top FSX performance?

Many thanks!
Mark

The Traveler

2007-01-30, 8:39 pm

On Sat, 6 Jan 2007 13:51:52 -0800, "Mark Findlay"
<mfindlay@speakeasy.org> wrote:
quote:

>I have about a $400 budget for the best video card I can get for Flight Sim
>X.
>
>I know this is a somewhat subjective question - but not being a video card
>person - what is the best option I can go for, for FSX? I imagine I want
>plenty of memory (256Meg?) on the card. Should I go with nVidia or ATI?
>Which model do you recommend for top FSX performance?
>
>Many thanks!
>Mark


I use the $350.00 PCI-E based nVIDIA "BFG GeForce 7950 GT OC". It has
512 MB of DDR3 RAM and I run this with an AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+
processor on a Gigabyte GA-M59SLI-S5 w/nVIDIA nForce 590 SLI
motherboard, using 2GB of Corsair DDR2-800, PC2-6400 RAM. I do plan on
installing a second 7950 GT OC card in SLI configuration ;-)

Performance? Even with the above, there are times when the frame rate
slows down. I had read that FSX really pushes system demands when you
crank up all of the features (as I did).

______________________

The Traveller
Oceanside, California
Jared Jones

2007-01-30, 8:39 pm

For Nvidia, I would look at the GeForce 7950GT w/ 512MB GDDR3. It retails
for $299. Honestly, if you're not a "video card person," I'd save yourself
the hundred dollars and get this. If you look at the ATi camp right now, I
think the only thing comparable in price and features would be the X1950Pro.

I stress the importance of 512MB on a card now because of the high
resolution textures FSX and many newer games have. 256MB, once the king of
video RAM, is now falling short. I think a $300 solution right now would be
the best balance between price and performance. This is all assuming you
have a PCI Express-16 slot available for the video card.

Jared

"Mark Findlay" <mfindlay@speakeasy.org> wrote in message
news:OIbNhzdMHHA.4720@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
quote:

>I have about a $400 budget for the best video card I can get for Flight Sim
>X.
>
> I know this is a somewhat subjective question - but not being a video card
> person - what is the best option I can go for, for FSX? I imagine I want
> plenty of memory (256Meg?) on the card. Should I go with nVidia or ATI?
> Which model do you recommend for top FSX performance?
>
> Many thanks!
> Mark


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