Oh Joy! New Graphics Card time

[racartron]

Looks like I'm finally gonna move on from fs2002 to the vaunted fs2004 soon. My IT addicted friend has found a slightly used PC that will in his words, "Change my computer experience forever." While that is yet to be seen, he did suggest I look for a good graphics card as the one in the PC is minimal at best.

Sooooooooooo, since this box will be pretty much dedicated to FS, what is the buzz on the streets in y'alls respected opinion as to the best graphics card out there for fs2004? I've heard the nVidia GeForce 8400 is pretty good but am totally open to those with the experience.

Any and all advice will be most appreciated -- except ideas that could result in bodily harm to me.:salute:

[TARPSBird]

My graphics card is a nVidia GeForce 8400 GS and it runs FS2004 just fine for me, consistently 55-70 FPS in chase view. If you have a decent motherboard with plenty of RAM you should be good to go.

[stewpot]

Hi racartron,

I too have an Nvidia 8400GS [ with nhancer installed], it does the job very well.

If you decide to keep FS 2002 to run alongside FS 2004 as I have, you may need to install an older driver , as the newer drivers don't seem to like FS 2002.

Stuart :salute:

[PilatusTurbo]

It'll probably be a PCI-express slot on the new motherboard, so you'll definitely be able to upgrade big. I had an Nvidia 8800 GT OC, which was quite gnarly, and then when I rebuilt I upgraded to this BFG GTX 260 OC... Which is POWER OVERWHELMING... :d

You should be able to grab any Nvidia G 200 + series card for around $130 and up. Now the 400 series are coming out, and they're not usually below $200 or 250. Just goto your local Fry's Electronics, or Best buy if that's all you have in the area, and look around for your price range.

Post back here before buying, and I can give you the skinny on which model you're lookin' at before buying. :) :ernae:

Oh, and buy only BFG or EVGA if you want quality, with great warranties. PNY used to be good, but they're not so hot anymore, and their warranty isn't any good. BFG and EVGA will do conditional lifetime warranties if you register, and BFG has supported me very well in the past with this. I've bought only BFG for 8 years now, and they're awesome.

[racartron]

Thanks for the info guys.

Based on your QC comments, Pilatus I looked for and found this similar card with 1Gb of on-board memory:
EVGA 01G-P3-N959TR GeForce 9500 GT 1GB DDR2 PCI-Express 2.0 Graphics Card

Being an old retired fart (used to a circa 1999 Dell 550 processor,740Mb RAM and a 10 year old Geforce card with a "HUGE" 32 Mb on board setup) pretty much anything is going to blow me away. Also at $65 it is a much better fit with my budget -- the primary reason I'm still on such a piece of antiquity.:rolleyes:

I am upping the memory in the "new" box from 1 to 3Gb. I'm not sure of the processor speed yet but it is running HD movies on it with no problems. Also it has Windows 7 installed. From the limited data I've seen, this does not appear to be a problem for fs2004. If it is I can always hp back to NT.

[Z-claudius24]

Hi,

EVGA 01G-P3-N959TR GeForce 9500 GT 1GB DDR2 PCI-Express 2.0 Graphics Card

Good
As I dunno the PC specifications .. just in case .. be sure you are able to power this graphic card (cable and socket) and also be sure to have a good power box with enough Watts :)

[rich12545]

Don't get the 9500. It's a budget card. I had it and wasn't all that happy with it. Got a 9800 GT 1 gig vram from TigerDirect and it works great.