Flight Sim PC recommendations??

[jdog0411]

Hi All,

This is my first post to this board. I am a pilot and I like to use my PC to run Flightsimulator 2000. My current PC is a Pentium III 500Mhz with 256MB SDRAM, with a GeForce2 GTS 64 video card. The monitor is a 19" Viewsonic ps790.

The machine is two years old and is still pretty current technology, with the exception of the processor, but I wonder if I should upgrade to get better performance from Flightsim 2000 and the new 2002 coming out shortly. With these types of processor intensive applications, my thinking is that the more processor speed I have, the better. What would your recommendations be for upgrading the processor, memory, video card, etc. for peak flight sim performance? I am thinking of upgrading to a P4 1.5 ghz with at least 256MB DDR RAM and a new motherboard with the latest P4 chipset (what is the best chipset for P4 chips??) I think my graphics card is sufficient as it is. Any input you could provide would be greatly appreciated.

[RJ]

Well I don't use FS2000, I use FS98 with 1024x768 and all graphic options available, because my PIII 800 with GeForce 2 GTS 64 MB DDR-RAM and 128 MB SDRAM was not fast enough to run FS2K smoothly in 1024x768 with good graphics. . .
I haven't tried it with my current 320 MB though, but I don't expect much from it.
Loading times are very slow, too (UDMA 66 5400 rpm hard drive. I will test it again when my UDMA 100 7200 rpm HDD arrives), it takes ages to load something there.

A very good friend of mine (we also fly FS98 together) also tested FS2000 on my PC, and he told me that that reminded him to his old P75 days with FS98 (5 to 15 fps).

Of course I could set the detail level down to increase the fps, but then the pic quality would be worse that the max. pic quality the FS98 can do.
Therefore I use FS98.

Okay, now to you: You have the same graphics chip as I do, and the double amount of RAM that I once had when testing FS2000. Only the CPU, 300 MHz less.
If you use 800x600 and lower the graphics level (disable dynamic scenery etc.) then you should be able to get a decent 25 to 30fps with FS2K.

Not sure about FS2002, though. From what I've seen with FS2000 I won't test 2002 with a CPU less than 1,5 GHz with GeForce 3 or the new Radeon card.

About your upgrade: Intel has two chipsets for the P4, the i850 that supports RDRAM and the i845 that supports SDRAM. No DDR-RAM chipset available from Intel, but VIA has one or will release one shortly. I haven't heard good things from VIA chipsets, so either wait till Intel's DDR-RAM chipset comes out or go with RDRAM (will give you more performance anyway), it costs twice as much as DDR-RAM (for the money you get 256 MB DDR you get 128 MB RDRAM).

RJ

[jdog0411]

Thanks for the reply! That helps a lot.