I really need to upgrade my video card...

TangoWhiskey

TangoWhiskey

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Funny how every time I upgrade to a new version of Flight Simulator, I need to upgrade my computer. FSX doesn't run worth beans on my 3.2GHz P4 with 1GB of RAM and a GeForce 5600 video card.

Check this out: http://www.gametrailers.com/player.php?id=14590&type=mov&pl=game

That's how it SHOULD look. Wow.

Went reading on video card reviews, and the new G80-based cards (nVidia 8800's) are $650 each... that's right, EACH... if you do an "SLI-based" system you'll have TWO of them in your computer (I just learned that SLI acronym tonight... has technology changed THAT much in the 18 months since I last rebuilt my computer?).

SLI stands for "scalable link interface"--you buy an SLI-capable motherboard, and put two of these SLI-capable video cards in it, and it can do alternate-frame rendering for any game... while one card is rendering frame 2, the other card is showing frame 1, etc. Makes for some amazing performance and increased frame rates.

I've turned everything down (almost) and only get at best 12 Frames Per Second, and you ideally want at least 20 for a good smooth experience.

What are the rest of you that are running MSFSX getting for frame rate (press Ctrl-Z twice to show frame rate)?

BTW, thanks for the suggestion on the joystick; my USB yoke came today, and you're right, it's fantastic. The pedals should be here soon, too, which will be good so I can exit the runway without using the keyboard. :)
 
Another good card to watch for is the ASUS X1950Pro. They are a great card and relatively cheap (~$160-$180). The problem is that everybody else realized this also so they are currently sold out everywhere . They should be back in stock in a couple of weeks. I bought 2 of them for my Brother in-law (also a pilot) and my self to run MSFS X. The other X1950 pros are gong for $225+ so only look for the Asus
 
JRitt said:
Another good card to watch for is the ASUS X1950Pro. They are a great card and relatively cheap (~$160-$180). The problem is that everybody else realized this also so they are currently sold out everywhere . They should be back in stock in a couple of weeks. I bought 2 of them for my Brother in-law (also a pilot) and my self to run MSFS X. The other X1950 pros are gong for $225+ so only look for the Asus
Click to expand...

That was the other card I was going to recommend, but the ones I saw at newegg were over 200 and by companies I don't necessarily know or trust. (Powercolor was one of them. Bleh.)
 
True, FS X is amazing.

But I figured I would need to invest around 2500 bucks in order to get a decent system for it...

So, I guess I'm gonna use this money to purchase around 17 hours of flight time in our club's derelict C-172 instead...

Can't afford that many hobbies I guess...

By the way, if you're investing in a deceny yoke and rudder pedals - you might want to check the GO-FLIGHT products as well...for 300 $ you can increase the realism of your simulator significantly.
 
Six series Nvidia isn't going to do it for crap. 7 Series is probably the same. I have a Nvidia 6800 Ultra and I have to have everything set to low (i can turn airplane up to medium) for it to be playable. That means no autogen scenery at all. Also G1000 is not playable no matter what I do.
 
jangell said:
Six series Nvidia isn't going to do it for crap. 7 Series is probably the same. I have a Nvidia 6800 Ultra and I have to have everything set to low (i can turn airplane up to medium) for it to be playable. That means no autogen scenery at all. Also G1000 is not playable no matter what I do.
Click to expand...

I'm seeing a number of reports of framerate jumps after graphics drivers were updated, so that might be something to try if you haven't.
 
wbarnhill said:
I'm seeing a number of reports of framerate jumps after graphics drivers were updated, so that might be something to try if you haven't.
Click to expand...

Latest video drivers.
 
Troy Whistman said:
Funny how every time I upgrade to a new version of Flight Simulator, I need to upgrade my computer. FSX doesn't run worth beans on my 3.2GHz P4 with 1GB of RAM and a GeForce 5600 video card.
Click to expand...

That's not funny. That's intended.

Hardware makers love that Microsoft sells product for them.

My "screamer" PC is about the same except I have a 64 bit AMD chip. Sad.


Troy Whistman said:
Check this out: http://www.gametrailers.com/player.php?id=14590&type=mov&pl=game

That's how it SHOULD look. Wow.

Went reading on video card reviews, and the new G80-based cards (nVidia 8800's) are $650 each... that's right, EACH... if you do an "SLI-based" system you'll have TWO of them in your computer (I just learned that SLI acronym tonight... has technology changed THAT much in the 18 months since I last rebuilt my computer?).

SLI stands for "scalable link interface"--you buy an SLI-capable motherboard, and put two of these SLI-capable video cards in it, and it can do alternate-frame rendering for any game... while one card is rendering frame 2, the other card is showing frame 1, etc. Makes for some amazing performance and increased frame rates.

I've turned everything down (almost) and only get at best 12 Frames Per Second, and you ideally want at least 20 for a good smooth experience.

What are the rest of you that are running MSFSX getting for frame rate (press Ctrl-Z twice to show frame rate)?

BTW, thanks for the suggestion on the joystick; my USB yoke came today, and you're right, it's fantastic. The pedals should be here soon, too, which will be good so I can exit the runway without using the keyboard. :)
Click to expand...

If you're thinking of upgrading your hardware, you might want to listen to the current TWiT. http://www.twit.tv/77 In a nutshell they're saying to run Vista you don't want to upgrade, you want to buy new. Look for "Vista Premium Certified."

I shan't be there. I don't spend enough time with FS to make the upgrade worthwhile and I have no intention of running Vista unless I luck into a copy.
 
Is anybody running MSFS X and getting good results. If so post your system specs. I'm sending my Brother in Law his ugrade parts tomorrow (NF4 motherboard, AMD64 3500+ processor (it will get overclocked if needed), x800XT video card, and 1 gig of DDR3200 ram). Its a huge upgrade for him and I just hope its enough. It ran the demo just fine but there was not much traffic or scenery to deal with.
 
Without changing the system specs from my first post, I was able to get reasonable performance by following all of the tweaks listed here:

http://ops.precisionmanuals.com/wiki/FSX_FPS_Guide

It took me a while to find a site that still has FSAutoStart (the link he has is not good), but I think it probably made the biggest difference. It lets you specify which of the programs and services that are running on your computer you'd like to have suspended or shut down when you run Flight Sim, and then starts them back up (if you so desire) when you're done. As a developer, I'm running heavy footprint things like SQL Server on my machine, but even things like WeatherBug or my FinePrint print processor take away CPU cycles from FSX.
 
We assembled the PC this weekend and the results are in. We ran most of the visual selections an med-high and had frame rates around 12-15 FPS. On a flight sim this is ok because video does not move fast. The CH flight sim yoke had about 1/4 to 1/2 sec delay (you get used to it). Memory usage was a bit high (540K). All in All I was satisfied but not overly impressed. Machine specs were MB Chaintech VNF4 Ultra, AMD 3500+ (2.2ghz), 1 gig PC3200 ram, 250gig SATA HD with 16meg cashe, X800XT video card w/256 meg. I undervolted all of the case fans to 7v and changed the GPU cooler to Arctic Cooler (they exhaust the heated air out the rear of the computer). Temps were great and it was actually quieter (almost silent) than my water cooled system.
 
JRitt said:
We assembled the PC this weekend and the results are in. We ran most of the visual selections an med-high and had frame rates around 12-15 FPS. On a flight sim this is ok because video does not move fast. The CH flight sim yoke had about 1/4 to 1/2 sec delay (you get used to it). Memory usage was a bit high (540K). All in All I was satisfied but not overly impressed. Machine specs were MB Chaintech VNF4 Ultra, AMD 3500+ (2.2ghz), 1 gig PC3200 ram, 250gig SATA HD with 16meg cashe, X800XT video card w/256 meg. I undervolted all of the case fans to 7v and changed the GPU cooler to Arctic Cooler (they exhaust the heated air out the rear of the computer). Temps were great and it was actually quieter (almost silent) than my water cooled system.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that detailed writeup!
 
JRitt said:
Is anybody running MSFS X and getting good results. If so post your system specs. I'm sending my Brother in Law his ugrade parts tomorrow (NF4 motherboard, AMD64 3500+ processor (it will get overclocked if needed), x800XT video card, and 1 gig of DDR3200 ram). Its a huge upgrade for him and I just hope its enough. It ran the demo just fine but there was not much traffic or scenery to deal with.
Click to expand...

I'm bumping this up to see if any has actually gotten good results.

For Christmas I got X as a gift. I loaded it on my PC knowing a video upgrade was likely in the works. I have .8 gig RAM on a throttled down AMD processor running at 1 gigahertz and Nvidia 8 mb video card (cute huh?, made my kids green with envy when I got it!).

I was prepared to upgrade the video and went to Nvidea 6200. The four year old ASUS motherboard limits me to one AGP 3.0 slot. Gotta turn everthing down so much on MS X to get it to smooth out that it looks worse than my MS2004. Frankly I am ****ed at Microsofts disingenuos labeling.

My old 2004 ROCKS with the new Nvidia! What a rip MSX is. Unless somebody knows something good, this thing is NOT for PC gaming by the average Joe.

Am I wrong here?
 
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From other forums I have been to no video card less than an ATI X800 series or Nvidia 6800 series with 1 gig of ram and a 2.8ghz P4, 2ghz AMD64, or a 1.8ghz C2D or higher will returm satisfactory results. If you have less than this stick with MSFS 2004 (which is still a very good sim)
 
JRitt said:
From other forums I have been to no video card less than an ATI X800 series or Nvidia 6800 series with 1 gig of ram and a 2.8ghz P4, 2ghz AMD64, or a 1.8ghz C2D or higher will returm satisfactory results. If you have less than this stick with MSFS 2004 (which is still a very good sim)
Click to expand...

Thanks, I was afraid of that. MSFS X just ain't worth that much more money at this stage, MSFS 2004 is spectacular with Troys suggestions, earlier P-4 and 258 video card.
 
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