I have been playing this game with a 64 Meg 420MX NVIDIA card for over a year now. It’s not a 4100 or a 4200 it’s a 420... It was the special offer card over the net from some company

It’s half the reason I get my hind quarters handed to me in a game with no Icons.... No different looks in planes to me unless I am close enough to die. Believe me I could pass any test given on silhouette, not a problem.... they just all look alike with no resolution. Something with wings.

Now with the exception of ERSKY buying his 9700 I haven't heard jack good about ATI cards in the FB forums...actually its like 20 to 1 against with apparently Oleg programming toward the NVIDIA Chipset.

Tiger has a special right now:
XFX GeForce FX 5200 256MB DDR AGP8X with TV & DVI Video Card 99 bucks.
Is this a decent card? I can not afford the best cards right now, this has to be an improvement? Any input here?
S~
TX-FlightRisk
Black 3

As long as you stay away from the MX version of anything made by Nvidia, you'll be good to go. The 5200 is a nice card, a buddy of mine at work has it and it runs the game really nice. It should be a plug and play upgrade. Good luck.TX-BomblastRed2

Thanks BB..S~TX-FlightRisk Black 3

I might think about going for the extra 29 bucks for the XFX 5600 which also has a fan on it. . . these cards run pretty hot.I am a little skeptical about the statement that these have 256mb ram though. . .And buy the way, newegg.com is my vendor of choice, though oters seem to think Tigerdirect works allright for them. Newegg usually has nearly the best prices, with return service that makes me feel comfortable.S!TX-EcoDragonBlack 1TX Squadron XO

I don't know why it seems like the Forums are so down on ATI. I was running an Ati RAGE3D Pro 64 meg card before I got this 9800 and it ran just fine...albeit I had to cut the game settings down in order to get decent frame rates. Guess you are doing the correct thing and reading all you can before upgrading but I have never had any trouble with ATi....but you need to get the most bang for your buck these days......Carpal Tunnel in my trigger finger....Rocky...TX-CUDA on UBITX-CUDA on HyperLobby

Thank all of you. I think I might just do that Eco... 29 bucks... what the hey....S~TX-FlightRisk Black 3

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Originally posted by TX-CUDA:I don't know why it seems like the Forums are so down on ATI. I was running an Ati RAGE3D Pro 64 meg card before I got this 9800 and it ran just fine...albeit I had to cut the game settings down in order to get decent frame rates. Guess you are doing the correct thing and reading all you can before upgrading but I have never had any trouble with ATi....but you need to get the most bang for your buck these days......Carpal Tunnel in my trigger finger....Rocky...TX-CUDA on UBITX-CUDA on HyperLobby

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Absolutley agree.  I use an ATI 9700 here at home, have had no issues with it.  I tend to prefer ATI because I have a few systems which are dual boot LINUX/WIN2K and ATI supplies the source code with their drivers, NVIDIA does'nt (or at least the last time I checked they did'nt).In the end however, it should'nt matter for resolving FlightRisk's issue.  Whichever I got the better deal on, that's what I'd buy for a home system.Good luck

It also seems like ATi pulls better image quality, I think they have teh edge at teh top level right now, even though at higher settings it looks like nvidia has the performance nudge, the IQ is still in ATIs favor. Of course these are nitpicks, as the only way to tell the diff is in sideby side magnifications of screenies. The big reservation I have about ATI is simply that I have an nVidia system now, and I have seen enough troubles with respect to ATI drivers, conflicts etc. THat said, nVidia has been less and less impressive the past year. . .S!TX-EcoDragonBlack 1TX Squadron XO

Looky ,Looky,5600 card for under $100.http://www.imagestore.us/product.asp?pf_id=NV31%2DFX5600XT%2D128

but it's the 128 meg of ram version... however there is nothing out right now that will use all that memory... Also its funny but the 5200, 5500, and 5600 all came out within like a month of each other... CONFUSION SETS IN.........guess I need to look at the clock speedsS~TX-FlightRisk Black 3

Yes, bigger numbers aren't always better with all teh little dodads here and there. .. the 256 meg mem interface is in the newer cards, and results in a faster card, even though it looks slower on paper.I didn't even know the 5200 had a 256 version. .. I know it has a 64 meg and a 128 meg. . . and at 99 bucks. . .well, my .02 is that they are confused and saying that a 256 Meg memory controller is 256 megs memory. .. if ya know what I mean.Anyway, I wouldn't worry about that anyway. . .on these cards the ones with big mem may even be slower, as they often use slower rated chips. . .its silly, but its been going on for some time. The GF3 ti200 with 128 of ram got everyone excited, until they realized it was slower than teh 64 meg variant. . . as the speed rating on the ram was higher for the 64. To use that ram in the 128 would have made the card 2x more expensive.S!TX-EcoDragonBlack 1TX Squadron XO

I also have doubts about a 256 meg card for $99....even in Canadian funds, thats under $150, which is unheard of.I was always pro nvidia, but now have the ati 9800 xt pro, and it runs fb like a dream....graphics are superb.  Only issue right now is driver support...card is too new so to speak.I'm a ati fan again...this coming from a solid nvidia guy.

They state very clearly 256 meg DDR ram.. here please tell me I am wrong at least i will look at others:http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=588461&Sku=P450-8503S~TX-FlightRisk Black 3

Hmmm The clock speeds though are not much better than what I have right now....S~TX-FlightRisk Black 3

Oh I know they say it. . thats not what I question. . .  I jsut couldn't find refference to a 256 meg version of that card anywhere else, and haven't heard of it. And Never have I seen a  99 buck 256 meg card, however many of these cards DO have a 256 meg memory controller, which could lead to some typos.;-)S!TX-EcoDragonBlack 1TX Squadron XO

Careful when you read the add for the 5600 card. It's a "256-Bit" "Performance Graphics Core", "128-Bit DDR Memory Interface"

I picked up the nvidia FX 5700 128mb card a month ago from Best Buy for just at $200.  At the time it was a week old, had just been released.  The core chipset is the same as the 5900, but I haven't seen any benchmarks comparing the two.   The only 5900 benchmark I could find with head to head results against the 5700 was for the 5950 Ultra, which is a $500 card (at the time).I've been more than happy with my purchase, although Eco pointed out that newegg.com had a 5900 128mb version for roughly the same price.   I can max out FB at 1024 res and maintain 40-60 fps with no problem.   Good luck, I wish I knew more about all the cards out there to help you make a decision, but to me it is always simply overwhelming to keep up with every spec, and usually I just purchase whatever $200 will get me, every couple of years.TX-Deck out.

Yeah. . . the bottom line is, the MX cards are no good for FB, and you will certainly notice a nice improvement, nitpickings aside.S!TX-EcoDragonBlack 1TX Squadron XO

Thank all of you. i have decided on the 5600 with the 256 DDR for 139 at New EggS~TX-FlightRisk Black 3

Darn! I was too slow. Seems that Best Buy has the ATI 9800 PRO on sale for $399, but there is a $100 M.I.R. with it as well! I got my B.B. M.I.R. for a Maxtor drive in under 4 weeks.... ATI sucks, huh? Gee. It looks pretty *awesome* on my machine. Plus the one I just built. Would on FL-Bomblast's machine too, if the guy would just send me some money to build it! But I have been buggin him for years. Aint gonna happen. HA! Seriously. Black Death track at 1280x920x32, AA=4, AF=8, all settings highest except perfect.  Avg: 31.308 - Min: 14 - Max: 68 on FRAPS.  Every once in awhile I have Bomblast tell me about "Jaggies."  Fun story. No clue what he is talking about though.....~Bill

Almost forgot, Flightrisk. If that is still too rich, then I would heartily suggest that you invest your cash in a nice ATI 9600 card instead. The ATI cards kick the pants off the Nvidia cards in the image quality area. A high frame rate is sweet, but NOT if your canopy pillars look like stairsteps!! The 9600, while not the barn burner, smokes most of the competition. Plus, the fact remains that Nvidia is having hardware issues with the new games coming out, since their claims of DirectX 9 compliance have proven ill-gained.  Its pretty bad when the software company Valve, which is about to publish Half-Life 2, comes out and calls your product (Nvidia) "Crap." ~Bill

I would have to agree, and the 9600XT is looking pretty nice, it is 169 at newegg, and that is what I jsut suggested for my friend Ben (Hwkmn), but his system already has an older ATI card and seems to run his software jsut fine. . . the only issue that has made me think twice about ATI is that I have seen tooo many strange conflicts and errors. . .and good old CTDs with ATI 9700 and 9800 Pros. The few programs I use all have issues though, even when they work ok, like the DirectX only issue that IL-2 had with ATI, the blue screen shots (cant use in game screencapture), LOMAC didn't support them at all. . . but in the last build apparently did implement Radeon coding. . . which clearly can't be all that well tested since the game was just released. Apparently the CAT 3.9s are causing some trouble, but the older 3.7s are running many of the programs I use pretty well it seems. I myself like the stability that I have always had with nVidia, but right now ATI has the image quality in the bag, and either performs better or just a hair worse than the nVidia rivals (nVidia benchs faster in FS2004, X-Plane, IL-2 and FB, but probably looks not quite as good in screencaptures, and seems slower in most other games). . . and they are cleaning up their driver beta program too. All that said if I had a 500 gift certificate to a comp shop I would be going for the 9800XT!S!TX-EcoDragonBlack 1TX Squadron XO