FPS

[Bizman]

i tried default settings and then i lowered all of my graphic settings.
i lowered resolution and changed FOV and i am now getting 40 fps but my graphics is terrible.  Is my video card sufficient?

It's way above the baseline. However, it's showing its age. It used to be a good bang for the buck back then. However, things have evolved so what used to be a "good enough" card almost a decade ago now falls in the category of "barely acceptable".

For some reference of what you might get, look at http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html. You know how your card performs at default settings. Cards scoring about 3500 (like my HD 6970) give an average of ~45 FPS at default settings. People having a card scoring past 5000 don't seem to complain much. There's quite a lot of cards to choose from even as second hand for a low budget upgrade.

[Skuzzy]

i tried default settings and then i lowered all of my graphic settings.
i lowered resolution and changed FOV and i am now getting 40 fps but my graphics is terrible.  Is my video card sufficient?

It is about as good as it will get with that video card.

[715]

I've seen people make various suggestions about settings to increase frame rate so I thought I would test some on my system*.  My default configuration (which is Post Lighting off, shadows off, reflections on, Environment Map set to None, Tree Detail set at 18%, Detail Range at 3 miles, Object Detail at 100%, 4096 textures, graphics card set for 4XAA, MSAA, 8XAF) gives a baseline frame rate of 37 fps.  Here are how some changes to a single parameter affect the frame rate (an average of 8 values, 4 locations and min and max view zoom).  Note these locations are all close to or on the ground; frame rates when flying at altitude are usually pegged at 60.

Texture Size: 4096  2048  1024  512
Frames/sec:     37     37      37      37    (yes the textures got progressively worse so it was changing)

Field of View:  80    106
Frames/sec:    37      39

Option:   Shadow off   Shadow on   Reflection off   Reflection on   Clutter off   Clutter on   Post Lighting off   Post Lighting on / AA off    Post Lighting on / AA on
Frames/sec:     37            24                    45                   37                   39               37                   37                               37                                         36

Tree Detail:   18%      50%     100%
Frames/sec:   37        26          15

Object Detail:   0%     50%      100%
Frames/sec:     44      43           37

In summary, on my system the settings that significantly reduce frame rate are high Tree Detail and Shadows On.  Although not tested here, setting Environment Mapping above None also significantly lowers frame rate.  Texture size and FOV had little or no effect on frame rate.  Your mileage will undoubtedly vary.

* Intel E8400 @ 3GHz, 8GB RAM of which my 32bit Windows XP only sees 4GB, Radeon HD7870 w 2GB, 1920x1024, DX9