I have the hercules 3d prophet 3 t-500
does anyone know of a beeter card for sim 2002
I have a fews days before I have 2 return
I know the radeon 8500 has no good drivers

• RE: video card ,Madape, 10:42z, 12-30-01
  • RE: video card ,Ben Chiu, 19:44z, 12-30-01
    • RE: video card ,Hodgo, 19:05z, 01-01-02
• RE: video card ,Bob, 11:12z, 12-30-01
• RE: video card ,RayProudfoot, 13:10z, 12-30-01
  • RE: video card ,normster, 22:15z, 01-01-02
    • RE: video card ,RayProudfoot, 15:58z, 01-02-02
      • RE: video card ,JohnSDavison, 21:34z, 01-02-02
      • RE: video card ,JohnSDavison, 16:17z, 01-12-02
        • RE: video card ,RayProudfoot, 16:43z, 01-12-02
          • RE: video card ,JohnSDavison, 19:09z, 01-12-02

Hi mirror

You might want to check out some reveiws for the GeForce 3, pretty hot stuff, although the new Radeon its pretty quick off the mark!

Sam

Greetings Sam:

>although the new Radeon its pretty quick off the mark!

Personally, I'd stay away from ATI. They have a history of buggy drivers and abandoning products (e.g. no driver updates) once their latest and greatest comes out.

I've been burned by them like that twice. I'll never buy another ATI product again.

Ben

I have to agree with what you said about ATI, Ben.
I've only ever had one ATI card but I will not make the mistake of buying another.

-Stephen.

Hi Mirror

I believe your card is based in the Nvidia GeForce 3 Titanium 500. This is probably the best card available to date. You may want to visit the www.nvidia.com website and up-date your drivers. What processor does your system have?
Unfortunately most flight sims require a lot of processing power. A 1 Gig processor is probably the minimum required once you start adding 3rd party aircraft & scenery.

I can tell you a lot of people would be very happy to have a GeForce 3 card.

Kind regards

Bob Buckley
Coventry
UK

Hi Mirror,

The GeForce3 is expensive and FS2002 does not use a lot of the facilities of that card. You will save a lot of money by considering the GeForce2. My own preference would be for the GeForce2Ti 64Mb with DDR memory. This has the same fast RAMDAC (350MHz) as the GeForce3 but is quite a bit cheaper.

Regards,

Ray Proudfoot,
Cheshire, England

Norm at Sunrise, FL

Hi Ray!

After numerous lockups and adding RAM up to 512 MB, I finally came to the conclusion that my lockups had to do with my video card. There was no other viable explanation that I could think of.

I went to PRICEWATCH and looked through the stuff on the GEForce-3 cards. After much head-scratching and budgetary considerations, I bought (online) a GEForce-3 TI-200 video card for which I paid a total of $159. Shipping costs added another $8.

After installation, I was totally stupified by the superb images I was seeing and rushed to make a few comparisons with FS stuff that I had noted on paper using my former card. In general I found that now the frame rates were at least TWICE and sometimes THREE times what I had been getting previously. The images of the planes and the scenery were absolutely superior to what I had been seeing in the past.

I can't say enough in favor of this new card!

Cheers,
Norm at Sunrise, FL

Greetings Norm!

It just goes to show how much cheaper it is to buy in the US and not the UK. That same card over here is over £250 ($400)!!!

I'm very pleased that you are enjoying the benefits of the new card. The increased frame rates come as something of a surprise - your old card must have been holding things back quite a bit. I suspect the increased RAM will also help things run a bit more smoothly too.

Although I love what my G400 gives me I'm now sure it's not giving me the best FS performance. Despite the great performance of the GeForce3 on your system I will probably still go for the GeForce2Ti unless the forthcoming GeForce4 (128Mb of memory!) forces all prices down.

Great FS performance and no snow! Life's pretty good in Florida eh?

Regards,

Ray Proudfoot,
Cheshire, England

Hi All,
I'm visiting the USA next week (from the UK). Do you know if there are any problems associated with buying a new video card there and bringing it back for use here, e.g. with getting support if needed? I've never bought hardware from overseas before, so wondered if there are any snags in doing this. I'm currently using a lowly ATI Rage Pro / Voodoo2 combination which doesn't work properly with FS2002 despite experiments with different drivers, so an upgrade to something like the GeForce3 should improve matters. And at US prices it's affordable. Actually, I need a motherboard/processor upgrade too (currently using only a P2/400), but that will have to wait awhile yet.
Regards....John

Hi Ray,
Well, my question following your previous post about lower cost of video cards in the USA seemed to stop this thread dead in its tracks <BG>! I'm now in San Francisco visiting my son and am still wondering whether it's worth considering buying a new video card while I'm here for my PC back in the UK. I'd appreciate any comments from you or anyone else reading this on what the possible snags might be, as I've never purchased hardware from overseas before. For example, I've assumed that an AGP card bought anywhere in the world will work with a PC with an AGP slot in use anywhere else in world. Or are there different models with subtle differences for use in different regions? This may seem a naive question, but I've never actually seen that stated anywhere. And what about retailer/manufacturer support if you need it, e.g. if the card is faulty? Is "cross border" support major hassle now, or has the Internet made things easier.
Regards....John

Hi John,

I hope you're enjoying life in the US - it must be a lot warmer then here plus the added benefit of sunshine!

Let's consider the price issue first. Whilst prices are lower in the US you will probably have to pay State Tax on any purchases. I'm not sure what % this is but maybe someone from California can say. Secondly you will have to pay Import Duty when you return to the UK. I have a feeling this is the same as VAT - 17.5% but again, if anyone knows better please say.

Once you've added these extra costs the final cost may not be that different from over here. To give you a comparison a Elsa 64Mb AGP GeForce3Ti 200 over here will cost around £200 - lower than I suggested in my earlier message.

Norm Sternberg bought a similar spec'd card in Florida for $160 (£110) so you might want to consider if, after tax, you would save much. Personally I don't think you would and given the problem of warranty if anything went wrong I would advise against it.

Rest assured that AGP is the same the world over. There may be differences in graphics card models but I'm not certain.

I hope that's helpful.

Regards,

Ray Proudfoot,
Cheshire, England

Hi Ray,
Thanks for the swift response. Yes, it's certainly warmer here in California than in the UK. We're getting thick fog first thing in the morning, but it soon burns off.

>> ...Whilst prices are lower in the US you will probably have to pay State Tax on any purchases. I'm not sure what % this is but maybe someone from California can say. Secondly you will have to pay Import Duty when you return to the UK... <<

You tend to forget this little detail! I think the total tax/duty ends up adding around 25% to the purchase price, which means the card would still end up cheaper than in the UK. However, it's the support/warrany aspect that bugs me, so I think I might just wait until I can find a decent card at the right price in the UK - unless I just can't resist the temptation of a bargain found here, of course

Regards....John