System Specs,
Intel i3 CPU
530 @ 2.93 GHZ
2.93 GHZ 3.24GB Ram
XP Media Edition 2002
Service Pack 3
Card
Radeon X1900 ATI
PCI Express X16
512 MB
DDR3
Motherboard - ASUS P7H55 - MLX
Want to upgrade to a newer card - budget is a couple of hundred dollars , looking for the usual stuff better frame rates,no stuttering etc etc ....
Appreciate some direction
What kind of case do you have? And what is the power supply rating? If those don't present a problem, I have a decent nVidia 560 card that handles FSX pretty good. And these show well within your budget at Newegg.
I went a did deal with a local computer store who supplied the following,
Case - CM Elite 342 M.ATX BLACK CASE
P/SUPPLY - THERMAL TAKE TR2 -430 W
Low end spec and quality but at the time $$$$ were hard to come by.
Cheers
Minimum spec for a nVidia 560 is 450W. That *could* allow for a little wiggle room with a 430W PSU, depending upon the rest of the system.
Everything inside wants some Watts, even some thing not so obvious. I have four hard drives and can hook up a couple of USB devices at times. These all want some of what my PSU provides. If your system has one HD and a couple of sticks of memory, then your PSU could provide the wiggle room to go to something like a 560.
A nVidia 550ti only wants a 400W PSU and that will give you a much better card than the old ATi, but a little less ummph than the 560.
My original FSX computer that I bought six years ago had an ATi X1900XT and I saw an improvement when I later put in a nVidia 9800GTX+ and more improvement when I went to my nVidia 560.
So you have a couple of options. The 550ti is a safe upgrade for around $120 and won't require any other system changes. The 560 *could* work in your system, but that's taking a chance. Or third choice would be to grab a sale on the U.S. Black Friday where you could get the 560 and a PSU with a higher wattage rating. Staying within $200 should be possible.
And I asked about the computer case because sizes/lengths of video cards can be a problem in certain situations. The ATi I have is similar in size to the nVidia cards, so I wouldn't imagine any problems there. But it might be worthwhile to take the side off (with the power off! and cord unplugged) and use a ruler to see how much room there is. If your computer is fairly recent, last couple of years, then I'd be making sure that the PSU connectors for a new video card are available. Generally, unless you were trying to put today's behemoth video card into a six year old system (thinking of my first built FSX system) then power connectors shouldn't pose a problem.
...thank you for your insight , always been an ATi user .... maybe its time to switch to the other team.
Cheers for now.
Aircanuck:salute:
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