Video card suggestions for my father´s PC

[wolfram]

Hello guys!
My father is in quite a problem right now. He has an extremely old video card. He has a radeon 7200 32MB PCI. Very old one!
He plays just one game:
MS Flight Simulator 2004. That radeon can´t keep up with the game, sometimes he gets around 7-8 fps and mostly 14-20 fps. Very low score.
Since that´s the only game he plays, and in 800*600, what´s the cheapest video card that he can get for that game?
Here are his basic specs:
AMD Athlon XP 1800+ Palomino 333FSB
Asrock K7S41GX socket A motherboard
512MB DDR400 RAM

I told him that a Radeon 9600 vanilla would do the job, but maybe not. He does not want to spend more than 70 dlls, because he wants to change the CPU someday.
I heard that flight sims require a lot of CPU power, but I think that the major bottleneck on his machine is the video card.
What do you think of this???
Thanks!

 

[mailpup]

I think a 9600 AGP card would do the job. So would a 128 bit 9550 for a little less, I think. I checked and I know your motherboard has an AGP slot.

The minimum CPU recommended is 450MHz so it isn't a high demand game. Your father's should work fine.

 

[wolfram]

Hi and thanks for the quick response!

He likes to download a lot of user made airplanes for the game. Some are very exiggent.
In some planes, he gets around 2 fps, so I´m starting to think that he needs to overclock his CPU a little more (stock: Athlon XP 1600+).
Of course, a 9600 is WAY more powerful than the 7200.

Also, what´s the best, cheap CPU for socket A? He thinks about Sempron 2600+. He doesn´t want to upgrade the mobo just for a simple game.
What about that?

Thanks!

 

[mailpup]

Try a new graphics card first and see how much things improve. You can always upgrade the CPU later if necessary.

I'm not much of an authority on the Sempron line but as far as Semprons go, that one should be ok if it turns out you need an upgrade.