To Upgrade to FSX or Wait for Flight ?

[IslandBoy77]

QUOTE (cowpatz @ Nov 3 2010, 06:32 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Why have you locked the frame rate. from my research this should be left unlimited as FSX uses valuable resources to limited the frame rate!
I believe the 5850 still suffers the curse of ATI cards when used with FS.........shimmer.

Yes, I've heard that too & don't have mine locked.

I've also heard this "shimmer" things spoken of before - what does it look like? Can you describe the effect? I can't say I've noticed it on my 5770.

[veryshort]

hi all please help urgent ..... i was cleaning my puter today and have found my 8800GT card has stopped working I need to replace ... I am prepared to buy a new card { hoping this is the problem and not the mother board } I havent got a lot of time to research this .... first question ...ATI or Nvidia I was leaning toward ATI Whats the different between the 5850 and the 5830 from the specs the 5830 looks better I need an answer tonight as I need to buy it tomorrow .wife not happy I have poked the puter !! I want to replace my old card with something better but dont want to spend anything more than $500 I really would prefer just the card [ OEM } not interested in gfx cards with bundled games ... waste of money .

Cheers
Andrew

[Ian Warren]

Pete would have the data on ATI cards , im a Nvidia man , you would get a good 1gig for the 250/300 region or even cheaper , simply ask and don,t rush !

[veryshort]

The cheaper the better but i want a better performing card than what i had bugger have too sleep on the couch tonight wifey not happy

[IslandBoy77]

Go here to check the spec diffs:

http://www.gpureview.com/

I agree that the 5830 is a better buy than the 5850. I personally just don't trust the nVidia drivers and way-high power consumption. But then there are those here that don't trust the ATI drivers and don't care about power usage. Both the nVidias & ATIs are good cards, with problems of their own. My experience and observation has been that ATIs have less, hence my swing away from nVidia to ATI. And I still think that the ATIs represent better value for money.

Using the website I gave you, you can do comparisons between the 5830 & the nVidia 460, 470 & 480s. Presumably you'll be purchasing thru TM or PriceSpy (the place where people go to purchase from those who sell for next to no margin and ruin the computer industry ), so you'll be able to see how much dosh each of the cards is vs performance and power usage.

[Ian Warren]

On other side ... Shite Muslim , what if its your mobo bout to kick the bucket , putting a new g/card aint going to help but today its all very cheap , dont go to a brand named PC shop for jeepers sake , contact your local small dealer , make it personal !

[veryshort]

hi guys thanks heaps ... im pretty sure its the graphics card as I pulled the heat sink off the chip to clean and then re-applied thermal paste but i think the paste may have shorted across some pinns { i have some electronic knowledge so had a good idea of what I was doing } heres what happens .... machine fires up monitors are on but then drop into sleep mode straight away which means its not getting data from the GFX card well thats my understanding so its pointing to the card but hey correct me if im wrong .Im open to both makes of card but leaning to ATI I like the idea of running 3 monitors the reason I asked about the 5830 and the 5850 is I cant really see a diff between them ... both cards are simular in speed mem and bit rate so why pay more for the same Im trying to souce a good place for both cards with a good price have looked on TM .

Cheers
Andrew

[dart15]

QUOTE (cowpatz @ Nov 3 2010, 06:32 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Why have you locked the frame rate. from my research this should be left unlimited as FSX uses valuable resources to limited the frame rate!
I believe the 5850 still suffers the curse of ATI cards when used with FS.........shimmer.

Well, simply because, through trial and error, I have found that produces the best visible result. While unlocked I was getting stutters - and the "bufferpools = 0" tweak did not work for me. Which all goes to prove one thing: getting the best out of FS is dependent upon a combination of factors - a huge number of variables in fact - and there is no "one size fits all" solution. Tedious it may be, (enjoyable for some perhaps) but there is no substitute for putting in the hard yards when it comes down to getting the best out of YOUR particular system!

Re the shimmer - all I can say is that what i see on my monitor is not detracting in any way.

[IslandBoy77]

QUOTE (dart15 @ Nov 4 2010, 09:05 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well, simply because, through trial and error, I have found that produces the best visible result. While unlocked I was getting stutters - and the "bufferpools = 0" tweak did not work for me. Which all goes to prove one thing: getting the best out of FS is dependent upon a combination of factors - a huge number of variables in fact - and there is no "one size fits all" solution. Tedious it may be, (enjoyable for some perhaps) but there is no substitute for putting in the hard yards when it comes down to getting the best out of YOUR particular system!

Re the shimmer - all I can say is that what i see on my monitor is not detracting in any way.

That's one of the things I really hate about FSX - with all the tweaks & "guru says" stuff floating about, each and every computer (it would seem) is capable of doing things "against the flow" depending on the myriad of variables peculiar to hardware and software mixed together. For myself, I've tried locked and unlocked, and have found a minor improvement with unlocked. But if Dart says his works better with locked, then it does - guru wisdom or no guru wisdom. Sure does make it hard, though, for the likes of Veryshort and others trying to make sense of it all!

So Dart, that "shimmer" referred to by Cowpatz, how do you interpret what he is referring to? And you say "...what i see on my monitor is not detracting in any way" - does that mean you can see something but it is of no consequence, or that there is no discernible display issue visible?

[dart15]

QUOTE (IslandBoy77 @ Nov 4 2010, 11:08 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

So Dart, that "shimmer" referred to by Cowpatz, how do you interpret what he is referring to? And you say "...what i see on my monitor is not detracting in any way" - does that mean you can see something but it is of no consequence, or that there is no discernible display issue visible?

This of course is highly subjective - one person's 'shimmer' may be another's 'sparkle'. What I took out of Cowpatz comment was something i recogise (but can easily dismiss) - and I thought may be associated with the tree shimmer issue I have read about. Shimmer is actually a good way of describing it - and its not a constant either. Diiferent settings can either accentuate or minimise this. For me its not an issue and bears some similarity to the shimmering you might observe from reflections. Whether that is the 'isssue' Cowpatz had in mind he will have to elucidate!

[veryshort]

Hi Guys ,
Wel Thanks again for all the advice ... what a day ... started out with getting a new GFX card ... I have switched I went with ATI I got a Sapphire 6870 I have to say its got a cooler the size of a P4 CPU one cool ! it turns out my old 8800GT card is fine and it was a in-correctly located stick of memory that was causing the problem ... why did I go the 6870 well after a lot of comparing this card for $70 more was more powerful than the 5850 { the 6870 is the replacement for the 5850 } I have lifted my win 7 points rating for graphics by one whole point which I think is pretty good I look forward to winding this card up .

Cheers
Andrew

[Ian Warren]

Andrew , Good luck on your mission , fingers crossed all works out , post some screens and would love to see your first composition for next months screen shot Competition

[Pete1800ftmin]

Hi there Andrew.
Your question on whether you should wait for the new SIM,upgrade for FSX,or stick with FS9 really interested me,as I am in the EXACTLY same position.
I know that you have just beefed up you computer,but like you had up till now,I have a low spec comp at present and FS9 goes so well,that there is a tendency I think to want to get FSX up to the same standard eh.
Ive got a nice worldwide mesh on FS9,and have added a couple of improved sound files for a few default aircraft,and Im going for flights just to look at the scenery.
So as I say Im in exactly the same boat with that new sim toss up,and I agree with Island Boy to tell you the truth.Im going to wait.This new SIM might be out of this world.It would be dissapointing to read about how amazing it is,and then know that for one reason or another,there were factors in the spec requirements that we had all overlooked.
Kind regards from Pete.

[IslandBoy77]

QUOTE (veryshort @ Nov 4 2010, 08:38 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hi Guys ,
Wel Thanks again for all the advice ... what a day ... started out with getting a new GFX card ... I have switched I went with ATI I got a Sapphire 6870 I have to say its got a cooler the size of a P4 CPU one cool ! it turns out my old 8800GT card is fine and it was a in-correctly located stick of memory that was causing the problem ... why did I go the 6870 well after a lot of comparing this card for $70 more was more powerful than the 5850 { the 6870 is the replacement for the 5850 } I have lifted my win 7 points rating for graphics by one whole point which I think is pretty good I look forward to winding this card up .

Cheers
Andrew

Don't you just hate it when that happens? So, how many nights on the couch is THAT going to cost you? I'm very interested to hear how you get on with the 6870 - I've had a reasonable run out of the Sapphire's in the past, so quality-wise it should be all good. Are you able to do comparisons in FPS over complex scenery between old card & new? Do you have any of the RealNZ stuff that you could fly over? I'll also be v interested to hear where your sliders are at now, and how that compares to previous etc etc. This is a rare opportunity to see just how much of a lift going from an older card to a brand new one on the same system works out. Let us know!

[AndrewJamez]

The next sim is yonks away. Microsoft have barely even started. My advise is dont wait.

[veryshort]

QUOTE (IslandBoy77 @ Nov 6 2010, 09:15 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Don't you just hate it when that happens? So, how many nights on the couch is THAT going to cost you? I'm very interested to hear how you get on with the 6870 - I've had a reasonable run out of the Sapphire's in the past, so quality-wise it should be all good. Are you able to do comparisons in FPS over complex scenery between old card & new? Do you have any of the RealNZ stuff that you could fly over? I'll also be v interested to hear where your sliders are at now, and how that compares to previous etc etc. This is a rare opportunity to see just how much of a lift going from an older card to a brand new one on the same system works out. Let us know!

Well first thing was that my old Graphics card wasnt faulty , it was a piece of memory that wasnt seated properly in the slot ... so yay more nights on the couch .But hey I got a new card .ok I dont have FSX so cant do any comparrisons there .... so far I havent noticed any difference with FS9 so Im picking due to 9's age its not making the most of my new card . I did however run a new windows 7 points test and the graphics componant was lifted by one whole point { its now 7.8 } .the size of the card it quite large and takes up two slots in the back of your puter so beware ! I look forward to sneaking another monitor into my current set up in the near future { I say sneak as I need to see if wifey notices I have another one ...haha} this card is capable of running 3 monitors but doing a little more research it looks like ATI are offering up to 6 monitors { COOL } I may struggle to convince my now grumpy wife we need 6 .ok here are my specs for FS9 ....

I have almost every piece of payware Scenery for NZ with all my sliders maxed out ... Triliner AA im getting 29FPS { I lock my FPS at 30 due to the human eye cant register anything faster than 25FPS } I have a friend who has a simular system to me and he has just put X on it and isnt getting the performance you would expect so he is ripping it out and going back to FS9 full pimped out .

Flight Sim : its funny when you look at the course of computer history mainly over the last 15yrs there seems to be a pattern with microsoft looks like this ....

Win 95 great

Win 98 Better

Win ME - darnation { Win 2000 - good }

Win XP - Great

Vista - Well lets not even go there

Win 7 { in my opinion } Great

Flight Sim seems to have adopted the same sort of pattern there are always versions to avoid ... FS2000 and I believe FSX falls into this bracket as well. so Im picking that Flight will only Build on FSX's major faults but wont require a major investment in hardware to drive it as X has demanded .MS are very slow to admit at times they get it wrong the thing I find frustrating with them is that you do go out and spend $3-4K on a new rig only to find it still struggles to drive the one game you really want to play and you get very Annoyed at having spent so much for so little .

I would really love to hear other peoples points of view here and to be proven wrong .... I would like to know if there is anyone here who can honestly say they have X running { with add-ons } and are getting good performance .As I cant play a game that drops to 10FPS on final approach .

Cheers
Andrew

[Ian Warren]

QUOTE (veryshort @ Nov 6 2010, 01:50 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I would really love to hear other peoples points of view here and to be proven wrong .... I would like to know if there is anyone here who can honestly say they have X running { with add-ons } and are getting good performance .As I cant play a game that drops to 10FPS on final approach .

I use all the RealNZ / VLC - REX for weather and freeware , all sliders turn to the max , 17-28 approach into Wellington in Captsim 707

[IslandBoy77]

Ian - what screen res are you using? Autogen setting? Is even your water maxed out? How about all those shadows & bits? I find that I'm good with a couple of the shadow things switched off & screen res less than HD. I can still do HD, but get down to slide-show material in places (that's sub-15FPS) over WN & the airport itself. No tweaks in FSX though - just "vanilla" install.