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Video Card Advice

Thanks Harleyman but I'm not putting a ATI card in my box. I've had them before and been very disapointed. NVIDIA for me.:engel016:
 
Plus you can't really compare them right off that like that since Nvidia uses, Core AND Shader clocks and different cores entirely. And the fact that the ATI card has lower memory bandwidth.

But if money is not an issue you might want to have a look at a 2GB
GTX280
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130487

Should do wonders with FSX tweaks that utilize graphic memory :)(such as LOD distance and bufferpools)
 
That card does not have good reviwes from what I see......

Why all the tweaks...I run FSX solid on an E5200 and a 3850 ATI card..No tweaks needed at all...


I do understand what you're saying about their different structures though !
 
Its a new card though and 3 reviews isnt pretty conclusive.

Anyway, the tweaks i mention arent just performance enhancers, the LOD distance tweak uses a lot of RAM and VRAM, but greatly increases the clarity of textures are greater distances and eliminates those blurries, the bufferpools tweak that was mentioned which success rate is highly variable allows for FSX to run great with extreme autogen density etc.

Even without tweaks lots of VRAM is beneficial, it allows for greater screen resolutions, as well as HD textures(4096x4096)

We all have different priorities and what we are satisfied with, and some of us like me really do want to push the limits ;)
 
I don't want to push anything. I just want a stable, cool running video card. Something that can improve my FSX experience which has been VERY unsatisfying! Something is crashing and locking up my system when I run FSX. Memtest ran fine. So it could be either the video card which seems to be running hot or my CPU.............
 
Then you might want to have a look at a standard GTX 285, slightly more pricy, and a bit faster, but has a 45nm core VS the 65nm core of the GTX 280, in english that means the 285 uses less power, and thus runs cooler.
 
I just ordered one of these: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150330

<TABLE style="BORDER-RIGHT: #000000 1px solid; BORDER-TOP: #000000 1px solid; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 1px solid; BORDER-BOTTOM: #000000 1px solid" cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=8 width=460 bgColor=#dddddd border=0 itxtvisited="1"><TBODY itxtvisited="1"><TR class=sectionHeader itxtvisited="1" span><TD align=middle bgColor=#005599 itxtvisited="1">Specifications Comparison</TD></TR><TR class=tableTitle itxtvisited="1" span><TD align=middle itxtvisited="1">
specs.png
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

The things I looked at was

<TABLE class=specification cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=name>Memory Clock</TD><TD class=desc>2300MHz</TD></TR><TR><TD class=name>Memory Size</TD><TD class=desc>896MB</TD></TR><TR><TD class=name>Memory Interface</TD><TD class=desc> 448-bit
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

448 Bit interface should make for good bandwidith. bandwidth = bits X speed (think of an interstate, # of lanes X speed of cars). I don't know what speed it is running at for sure but I would guess it runs at the Memory clock speed.
Bandwidth is how fast the stuff (textures) stored in memory can get to the graphic processors.

896mb of Memory, this will be how much graphic memory can be loaded on to card waiting to go to the graphic processors. This will determine the max resolution you can run on a monitor. More memory should help keep FSX running smooth in higher resolutions, but without tweaking FSX it will only utilize a certain amount of the memory.

72 Texture filtering units, Nvidia puts more of these in their cards than ATI does. I would assume this will speed up how fast textures will load in the game which is a big issue for me with my current 8800gt.


Anyway, I should get the card next week and will find out how well it runs. The only tweak on my current system is to Bufferpools as I recall. I greatly increased the amount of memory buffer being used and noticed it takes longer for plane textures to load and be drawn, but once it does it runs smooth as silk. It does the same with clouds too.
 
Just as an update on this thread I had to return my gtx260 because I had issue with it crashing in certain games. I really didn't see that much of a performance boost in fsx over my 8800gt. I tried all sorts of tweaks and nothing really seemed to help.

Now I have an ATI 4890 card that cost the same price. I just got off playing FSX and it looked amazing. I turned up all the eye candy settings in the ATI control center to max and loaded it up over seattle with low clouds and it looked stunning and ran with better frame rates than the gtx260.

I was running Catalyst 9.7 RC3 for XP on Vista 64 as the driver. I don't remeber what my tweaks in the FSX.cfg file were last, but this card seems to do well with them.

So that is my mini-mini reveiw from someone that has ran both the latest nvidia and ati cards.:wavey:
 
I love that new 4890...

Just built a Q9650 system with that card and it was amazing to say the least..What color and clarity it has..

Thanks for that...
 
Harley, I disappear for a while and you've jumped ship to ATI???
 
Wow, I can't believe it's been that long! Oct 28 will be the 1 year mark of me leaving Digital Storm. Now I am with Jetline Systems...

How do you like your ATI cards?
 
hey Major Spittle,
You're not going to notice ANY differences with your new graphics card and the 8800GTX when it comes to FSX. FSX isn't designed to utilize the GPU but mostly the CPU. If you want better framerates and performance with FSX, then you will need a better CPU.
 
Nsidious9 said:
Wow, I can't believe it's been that long! Oct 28 will be the 1 year mark of me leaving Digital Storm. Now I am with Jetline Systems...

How do you like your ATI cards?
Click to expand...



I really like the newer ATI cards...

I have a 4870X2 card that FSX just HATES....So I pulled it and now have a lowely 3850 and run FSX off that with no problems..I have even run a 24 and 19 inch off it at the same time...LOL
 
Nsidious9 said:
hey Major Spittle,
You're not going to notice ANY differences with your new graphics card and the 8800GTX when it comes to FSX. FSX isn't designed to utilize the GPU but mostly the CPU. If you want better framerates and performance with FSX, then you will need a better CPU.
Click to expand...

Actually I had the 8800gt with 512mb or memory. It couldn't handle light bloom, water textures, or the AA/AF settings that the 4890 is now doing. I am running a Q9450 @ 3.6 right now and won't be upgrading until I can get a 6 core Gulftown processor when they are released. I'm hoping that that will truely be the end all to my FSX woes.
 
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