This most interesting information. I'm by no means a computer expert, in fact I have just enough knowledge to make me dangerous.
The reason I bought the 7300GT? I was looking for a card with 512mb RAM (cuz I read the sim likes it) and it seemed like a good deal. Please don't club the newbie.
I thought I had done enough homework, but it appears I have not. As stated earlier, I don't know that much about computers and am new to IL-2, so I'm bound to make some mistakes along the path. I've never re-installed the OS, and it somewhat scares me, as I'm not sure if I would be messing up any programs by doing so. I know this is not a tech site, but if anyone could give me some pointers there...
The reason I ask these questions here is because I know all are interested in the same thing I am-to get our beloved sim working as well as possible. When I ask on other sites how to get my system tuned for performance, it might not be what is best for this sim, which would then be useless. Here I know you folks know what I'm looking for. Point is, I'm just not interested in spending a wad of cash on something that will give the added boost needed to play the latest first person shooter up to snuff, because I've no intention on ever doing so. I'm interestested in flying in IL-2, or Oleg's new sim. Period.
I'm an aviation nut, and all else pales in comparison. (I'm sure a few here can relate to that statement
)
Many of you have been down this path before, and I'm just old enough that I can understand and learn to use other's information to my advantage....
I have not made the jump to online simming yet, as I have to "pay my dues" in the trenches fighting the AI before I move on. (while I can land a 737 in zero visability with a 30 knot crosswind under a complete ILS setting, this fighter buisness takes a little getting used to
) What I noticed initially was when playing some missions, my FPS began to stutter, which is no good when flying at tree top level. (I havent figured out how to display FPS in the sim, but will look around) I suppose I could cut everything back to the minimum settings, but at that point the sim isnt interesting to me. At a minimum I'm interested in running "Excellent" settings, with a goal of "perfect". I can set it up for the latter, but it turns into a slide show when getting in the thick of things....no fun. I know my system is outdated; It will be replaced when Oleg gets the new sim out so I can built it to the specs to run well in that. But we all know that's still a ways off yet.
So in conclusion, I don't want to buy a 200.00 card that will not make a difference because my cpu is the bottleneck. If the cards you talk about will work with my system, giving it an signifiant increase in FPS, I would be more interested in buying one. The money is not really an option, as long as I am being realistic about it. I'm not looking for 300FPS, I just want it to run like a movie insead of aslide show. I think a minimum of 25-30 FPS would be enough to get me through the rough spots on the settings I talked about earlier. I don't want to throw a bunch of money away in parts that can't/won't help an aging system in the first place. I have plans on using this rig for movie storage, media system and the kid's web brouser in the living room after I've got the new system up and running, which it should have no problems doing. I'm looking at another 5 years of use out of it before sending it to the glue factory....so spending a little extra now can be justified in my book. In this time frame, I'll probably be looking at over a year yet to be used on IL-2......
As an update, I have sent the card back, and am curently waiting on a new one. With a little reassurance, I will reinstall the OS if this is an issue again, as long as I know I shouldn't screw things up. (tips here would be appreciated) I do appreciate the input, and have a feeling there are others this is helping that have not posted due to a myriad of reasons.
Sorry for such a long post, but I guess I had alot to say. I really do appreciate all the help that has been given to me. My goal is to return the favor to others as I become better acquainted with the sim.
Baghr