ALL I CAN SAY IS THAT I AM NOT TOO IMPRESSED.....I CAN HONESTELLY SAY I ENJOYED G2 BETTER...I AM STILL TRYING TO SEE IF I CAN GET IT TO RUN BETTER...

So what do you see as the benefits?

What system and video graphics do you have?

Charles

i am running on Windows XP,with a Nvida card,g-force4 MX 420 with 64 MB,runs good on RF2...but then again,i didnt run RF2 on XP,and havent done so...only on Windows 98.I am going to check alll the gooda to see if i have the allowable amount of RAM(not video RAM),i should have a good enough card,just seems to be hesitant at times,and not smooth like it should....The prop spins,but you cannot see it rotating..even with throttle,the sceneary...well,i cant see that big of difference...the only big things i see is the shadows on the plane glimmer,the plane behaves alot better than RF2 when you have the "see ground mode" on at all times....should be good for IMAC...the planes also behave a little more realistic,more softer than RF2...also,when changing planes or airports or anything...it takes alot longer than RF2...I hope i can weed out the problems...what is the video card of choice nowa days???Mine is about 2 or 3 years old.

xtra330,
XP likes RAM. I really feel that 256 MB is the lower limit, my son who works as the IT manager won't install XP without 512 MB of Ram. I'm not up on the latest video cards either. I stopped playing with PC's when I started RC 5 years ago. Only so much disposible income.
John

xtra 330:

What type of Frames Per Seconds (FPS) are you getting with your PC/graphics card setup? How dies it compare from G2-G3.

Carl

where do i find FPS info??

On G2 you can turn on FPS under the "gadgets." Not sure in G3, but likely the same.

welp,under further investigation...i only have 128MB on the system...i checked it on the RF3 open page and it shows all of your setup...it says in the book if you have 128 or less"you may need to upgrade"...i guess i will have to upgrade,because this is pitiful as of now.

Xtra:

I'm a 20 year IT profesional. 128 is not reasonable at all for XP, as someone else said, you need at least 512 for XP to run smooth.

Once you get it sorted out, I'd love to hear more. If you get a chance check out the new "instructor" features for 3D. This is one reason I'm leaning toward G3, vs. AFP. If the instruction is good and the grapics and 3D is good, I think it will be a good combo for dumb thumbs like myself who have not quite been able to master those 3D moves.

I've tried 3D in G2, and found it impossible to even practice. I'm hoping G3 is a big improvement in this area.

Anyone see any details on rebates yet?

Regards,
Lee Snover

My Athlon64 w/1 GB Ram should run it. I'm worried about the nVidia 128 MB video card though...I'm presently running FMS @42 FPS @ 1280X1024, and it is slightly "jerky" when zoomed in at takeoff. Fine everywhere else. Nothing extra (no pun intended) running in background.

May need to get a super high-end gamers' video card. What is the best video card on the market right now? I've read some reviews of nVidia's high-end cards, that weren't too positive, compared to others' cards...thoughts?

Charles

There are better cards, but I just got a GFORCE FX 5700 with 128MB of RAM from Tigerdirect.com for $139.00 which is not too bad.

The next step up takes you into three to four hundred dollar cards, which is a little rich for my blood, most of them are now PCIX which is not that common yet.

I have a Geforce 4 card at present and it works pretty well with G2, but it was time to bump up a bit and give the kids the old card.

You can get an refurbed Athlon 3000 system from tiger for $399.00 after rebate. It comes with a DVD burner, 512MB or RAM and has an AGP slot so you can put a full tilt video card in. It's a E-machines T-3092. I haven't seen anything close to it bang for the buck. (No I'm not affiliated with tiger, just a programmer and a happy customer). Warning: Make sure you are purchasing what you intend, as their return policies are not the best.

Regards,
Lee Snover

Have been looking at the nVidia 6600GT PCI Express to AGP bridged card. Looks like mucho bang-for-the-buck. Less than 200 bucks too!

Charles

All this nVidia talk, and nobody has mentioned any of ATI's series of cards? For shame. ATI is the ONLY video card company that makes it's own cards. nVidia is a chipset, that everyone and their dog is making cards for. Some do it good, others don't. ATI always does it good. ATI chipsets are made by only ATI.

To me, there is only one brand of video card. ATI.

Deadeye:

I used to be a big Radeon fan, until I got G2, then my Radeon card would not work. Probably Realflight's problem, but I purchased a Geforce 3 card, and it worked like a champ. Since then, I've been sticking with nVidea. There are big differences in the cards though. I like Pony and Visiontek.

Regards,
Lee Snover

if you can find a nvidia 5900xt yet those are some extremely powerful cards for a good price. when shopping for video cards, avoid the cheap lines like the plague! MX's, and whatever the current cheap generation is, is not a good card. most people don't realize that a good card from a much lower model will easily outperform a budget version of a high numbered card.

(geforce 4 mx's were the worse, since the geforce 4 was a good card, the mx line just gave it bad name, and they didn't even use the same chipset!!)

What is the min system req for G3?

If ATI had a pci-express bridged AGP card, I'd buy it. I'm not going to buy a new motherboard for pci-express graphics, when the slightly slower bridged AGP will pop right in...

Charles

I'm running the Visiontek nvidia G-Force 4 with XP and my G2 runs great. 512MB RAM, card has 128MB.

Jim C

Deadeye,
I have a 128 ATI Card and love it.. I also am running XP Pro with ONE GIG of 2700 DDR
on a ASUS Deluxe M/B with a 2000 XP Processor, seems the handle stuff pretty well,
Can't wait to see how well it handles G3
The Video Card I have is Also running in my 8X Slot.. What a differance....
This week I will be upgrading the the new 64 Bit ASUS M/B I think.. That way the
pipe will love the Graphics Better!
Jeff

r1derbike where did you find the prices for the 6600gt AGP? The only one i have found is $230 and only one company is making it right now that i can find.

Cougar if you are upgrading your mobo i doubt you'll see a big difference in performance unless you ugrade the video card too.

nVidia 6600GT PCI-Express is $199.95...lowest price I've seen is $209.95 for the AGP bridged version of this card.

Charles

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2277

Anandtec lists the PCI-X card instead of the PCI-X AGP bridged card for $191.00 (NewEgg link), and the AGP bridged card is what is featured at the top of the page. Wrong link to Newegg for the featured card. I looked. Sorry!

Charles

i will be upgrading to more RAM tomorrow evening,from 128 ro 512 RAM,and possibly a better video card...mine is an Nvidia gforce4 MX420 with 64MB....i cant wait to see what the difference will be...this set up worked great with RF2...but not with RF3

Anybody want to post what the suggested resourses are to run G3. Real Flight still hasn't posted it on their web site yet. I'm running a 2GB Athlon 512 MB Ram with an ATI Rage 128 32MB video card. I know the video card will have to be replaced but if I have to change out the motherboard I'll stick with G2.
Thanks,
John