Supported Video Cards

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Video cards for flight simulation

General considerations

!!! Note: Legacy integrated 3D GPUs or video cards using less than 512MB of dedicated video memory for 3D graphics should be avoided for any high-end 3D simulations or hardcore gaming !!!

This page is meant to provide a list of those video cards that are known to have good OpenGL support to run the latest versions of FlightGear, based on contents taken from Hardware Recommendations. Please help maintain this list so that fellow FlightGear users can more easily make hardware decisions.

When buying or updating a graphics card for a computer system, over 512MB of dedicated video memory (i.e. VRAM) is preferred for advanced 3D gaming, with at least 1024MB being recommended as of 08/2012.

Basically, you should be fine with any Nvidia or AMD/ATI products having 512-1024MB of *dedicated* video memory for 3D graphics. However, you need to take into account that some of the newer features in FlightGear may not work as expected or may not even work altogether with older hardware, especially Intel-based graphics card (GMA).

Support for Unix-like operating systems

If you are using FlightGear with a Unix-like operating system (i.e. Linux, BSD, Solaris, SGI, etc.), check for the latest video driver that fully supports your graphics card or integrated GPU. When using free and open source drivers, support is generally better with AMD graphics cards than with nVidia products, because of differences in the manufacturers' policies towards providing documentation for their hardware. [1] [2] As progress on the free drivers has been significant in recent months, try to stay as up to date as possible to get the best results. That means use most recent distribution versions instead of long term supported ones. Given the fact that there are such alternate "proprietary" vs. "free" implementations, please mention the one you are using when adding cards to the list below.

Graphic Cards recommended for FlightGear 2.10+

NVIDIA

• Quadro K5000M
• Quadro K4000M
• Quadro K3000M
• Quadro 5010M
• Quadro 4000M
• Quadro 3000M
• Quadro K5000
• Quadro K4000
• Quadro K2000D
• Quadro K2000
• Quadro K600
• Quadro 6000
• Quadro 5000
• Quadro 4000
• Quadro 2000
• Quadro 600
• Quadro FX 5800
• Quadro FX 5600
• Quadro FX 4800
• Quadro FX 4600
• Quadro FX 3800
• Quadro FX 3700
• Quadro CX
• Quadro VX 200
• GeForce GTX TITAN
• GeForce GTX 780M
• GeForce GTX 770
• GeForce GTX 690
• GeForce GTX 680
• GeForce GTX 670
• GeForce GTX 660
• GeForce GTX 650
• GeForce GTX 590
• GeForce GTX 580
• GeForce GTX 570
• GeForce GTX 560
• GeForce GTX 555
• GeForce GTX 550 Ti
• GeForce GTX 480
• GeForce GTX 470
• GeForce GTX 465
• GeForce GTX 460
• GeForce GTS 450
• GeForce GTX 295
• GeForce GTX 285
• GeForce GTX 275
• GeForce GTX 260
• GeForce GTS 250
• GeForce 9800 GTX
• GeForce 8800 GTX

AMD/ATI

• FirePro S10000
• FirePro S9000
• FirePro S7000
• FirePro W9000
• FirePro W8000
• FirePro W7000
• FirePro W5000
• FirePro W600
• FirePro R5000
• FirePro V7900
• FirePro V5900
• FirePro V4900
• Radeon HD 7990
• Radeon HD 7970
• Radeon HD 7950
• Radeon HD 7870
• Radeon HD 7850
• Radeon HD 7770
• Radeon HD 7750
• Radeon HD 6990
• Radeon HD 6970
• Radeon HD 6950
• Radeon HD 6930
• Radeon HD 5970
• Radeon HD 5870
• Radeon HD 5850
• Radeon HD 5830
• Radeon HD 5670 (with free radeon driver, kernel 3.13, Mesa 10.1)
• Radeon HD 4870 X2
• Radeon HD 4850 X2
• Radeon HD 4870
• Radeon HD 4860
• Radeon HD 4850
• Radeon HD 4830
• Radeon HD 4770
• Radeon HD 4730
• Radeon X1950 (runs smoothly with free Radeon driver, version 6.14.4)

Troubleshooting Rendering Issues

If you get strange visuals, disable shaders in the View > Rendering Options dialog.

For problems with graphics cards or GPUs, see FlightGear's Graphics support forum

External links

• Comparison of NVIDIA Graphics Processing Units
• Comparison of ATI Graphics Processing Units
• Comparison of Intel graphics processing units

Related content

• Howto: Improve Framerates