Feeling VERY angry!

[ardypilot]

I'm feeling very frustrated right now.

After spending a whole lot of money buying and installing a new graphics card, I am experiencing the worst graphics I have ever seen displayed on my system.

Before hand, I had an nVIDIA Geforce FX 5600, which was fairly average. I was told by installing a the new nVIDIA Geforce NZ 6600 that "your graphics quality will increase by 200-300%"Â￾

Right now, I am getting a maximum of 8-10 fps, and during my previous flight, my fps were hovering at around 4-5fps, only going up as high as 8fps very briefly for a few seconds.

I am using EXACTLY the same setting as in fs2004 that I was using with my previous FX5600 card, and if anything my graphics quality has decreased by 200-300%

I have installed all the latest drivers available for my card, and scanned and removed any virus' and spyware from my system. During my flight, I had all no other programs running except for ScreenHunter (which I always use), yet the jolts between each frame displayed on screen is atrocious.

To make matters worse, I switched "off"Â￾ antialiasing on my graphics card control panel, and "on"Â￾ in the sim to make FSNAV load faster, yet it only loads marginally faster than with the anitalisaing settings the other way round, still loads slower than my old FX 5600. I still get horrible flickering between every menu I switch between, and FSNAV still takes ages to load.

And before you advise me to just swap my 6600 with my old 5600, I need to tell you the worst issue of all. As I was told my graphics would improve "200-300%"Â￾, I went ahead and sold my my 5600, which has now gone off in the mail.

What the heck can I do? This is a disaster. Believe it or not, my FPS where this bad for leg #2 of my Long White Cloud tour! Was I sold a faulty gfx card, or is there someway I can fix this??

[creator2003]

i think you should take it back to the shop where you got installed and ask them what is going on and tell them what setting you have change they should be able to tell you then what is wrong with it but to tell you the truth i dont think they would have given it back to you if the card wasent working there is a test they can do to judge the frames and cpu etc.. its simple but will tell you what going on plus you said you sound and stuff wasent going when you got it back this would be upto the shop to fix

cheers mike

[ZK-MAT]

Hi Trolly, is your card a 6600 or a 6600GT? I have heard that the stock 6600's aren't anything special and the GT's are a better bet.

I have a 256meg 6600GT, currently run driver version 81.98 and set AA on 4 with AF on 2.

Are you loading up and getting all ready for your flight in windowed mode? I always start in windowed mode, FS Nav loads in a flash, I get on the apron in a cold plane and I get ActiveSky, Vatsim/IVAO etc all ready before alt-entering to go full screen prior to taxi.

If you want to add me to messenger splatty@orcon.net.nz perhaps we could compare settings?

Matt

[towerguy]

Hi
I am in no way a tech head but did have some trouble similar when I built my last machine -
first some questions - what where your FPS before on your old card? flight sim is very CPU intensive so some times witha new graphics card you will get a nicer picture at a higher setting ie 1024x768 as against prev 800x600 but still at low fps.

did you reset your machine to standard vga and reboot prior to loading the new drivers?
under win98 I always did that to ensure windows removed any hangovers before installling new ones

one trick I learned the hard way is that not all drivers are created equal and with a prev nvidia card I downloaded the three previous sets of drivers before I found a set that was stable and ran the card okay - all were nvidia drivers but not all sets run all cards - why? computers!?#*

then check directx by going to RUN and typing in dxdiag and hitting enter, this will bring up all sorts of info and you can run a check on the graphics - may not show up a problem but it also may doesn" hurt anyway.

next step is to rant rave swear throw things etc - this step does not help your computer problem but I find it therapeutic anyway - then find every FAQ you can online about the card or manufacturer etc

apart from that good luck
cheers

[toprob]

Just a couple of things to look at.
First, I recall a lot of discussion about the DISPLAY.device setting in the FS9.cfg file. On some systems when the graphics card was replaced, the display settings weren't built correctly, so deleting the FS9.cfg file forces a rebuild which could help.
I normally have all settings on maximum, for a good 20fps (locked), but the one thing which brings my system down is setting Water Effects to high. This just about halves my FPS.
By the way, I get better performance with the 1900D without the cabin, just the VC.

[ardypilot]

I have discovered that my motherboard is not 8x compatible, which I need in order to get better performance. I guess this was a mistake made by the guys at NFC, even though they knew what motherboard I had... oh well, that was a big waste of time.

I think I will give up simming for the time being, as I don't have enough time, money or patience to "resolve my problem", let alone restore my graphics to the previous state.

Thanks for your help.

[Charl]

I think I will give up simming for the time being

Breathing...rather give up breathing, it'd be a lot easier.
Or...beer.
Cheer up trolly, here's a tale to help.
(NB Jokes are not normally allowed on this forum, but read this first, then delete the post):
Why we split up: She told me we couldn't afford beer anymore and I'd have to quit drinking.
Then I caught her spending $65 on make-up, $150 for a cut & color, $30 for a manicure, $40 for a pedicure, $50 on vitamins, $300 on clothes and $600 for a gym membership. I asked how come I had to give up stuff and not her.
She said she needed it to look pretty for me.
I told her that was what the beer was for.
I don't think she's coming back.

[ZK-MAT]

I feel for you Trolly, you have created and maintained a great community here.

Is NFC a company that sells to the public? Will they not take the card back and replace with something suitable? If they knew what you wanted (ie you wanted to upgrade your existing card for something better) and you didn't get it then they have obligations under the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 to provide a product that's fit for the purpose. If it is not compatible then they may have breached the Act and you should be entitled to a refund or exchange.

How about we see what we can do for you?

* One way would be to start up a kitty that those who wish to donate could (anonymously if desired) $5 - $10.

* I have a MX440 AGP 64MB card somewhere around here you could have (if I can find it - I pulled it out of the kids PC and put my Ti4200 in it when I got my 6600GT). Perhaps someone else has a better proposition.

* Maybe, given the exposure and contributors this site has, approach a supplier of PC goods that cater for gamers and see if they are interested in sponsoring you/the site in return for some kind words their way. With FSX around the corner many of us may be looking to spend some $$$ to finally carry out the upgrade we've been meaning to do for ages. I know of at least one online gaming community that has a very good relationship with a respected supplier.

It would be a shame for you to not be able to indulge in what appears to me to be a big part of your life!

Matt

[ardypilot]

Hey, good-ish news people:

I took my PC back to the shop, they tweaked it someone (this cost another $45+ GST), and now when I fly at Neslon, with the same settings as I had with my FX5600, I get a steady 13fps- pretty pathetic I know, but still bearable to continue my tour for the time being.

On the downside, I have lost my sound completely FSNAV still does not work and I get flickering on every different screen of fs9 and on my desktop.

[Blackmagic]

Sounds like you have a faulty card and a shop that does not have good customer service!

Firstly have you admitted to them at any time you have played around with that card in a effort to get it to work?

Secondly, If above dont apply then you have a good complaint under the consumer goods act! If they want to charge you anymore money or refuse replace the card if it is faulty then contact your Citizians Advice Bureau for advice on consumer law and what you can do.

Worst case try Fair Go or some media type consumer progrrame that really rattles people when they are doing poor service.

[Zöltuger]

i'd have to say this is pretty slack. how could install a better graphics card and get a worse framerate?

just out of interest, how big is your power supply?

(p.s. try the pressF1 PC World forums or Gameplanet's Hardware and Tech forums for help, they're usually pretty good)

[creator2003]

as above he has a 4x out m/b not 8x this causing everything to go on it will not run at full power as not compat with his board

this is how this has happen ,plus the card is fully working ,
just wrong setup advice from the shop he deals with they should have told him this when he asked for there advice before i sold it to him
hope this clears this subject up ,i recomended he change card to reverse it to 4x out and it mite work like his old one
oh and andrew turning water off at so high detail would incres frames like robin said and turn the weather down then you mite get more than 13flps
cheers mike

[Zöltuger]

as above he has a 4x out m/b  not 8x this causing everything to go  on it will not run at full  power as not compat with his board

obviously, yes it won't run at full power with a 4x motherboard- but i'm saying it shouldn't run slower... as far as i know, 8x is fully compatible with 4x and the fx5600 is a 8x graphics card to begin with. something must be pretty wrong

[ardypilot]

obviously, yes it won't run at full power with a 4x motherboard- but i'm saying it shouldn't run slower... as far as i know, 8x is fully compatible with 4x and the fx5600 is a 8x graphics card to begin with. something must be pretty wrong

I was told be NFC that having a 4x mb with an 8x will not effect the cards performance at all.

The person who sold it to me told me that my system is not 8x compatable so the card won't run at its full potential (I think that is what he meant, I couln't really understand)

So I am kind of lost and not sure what to think now...

[ZK-LGD]

Howdy Trolly,

Your current problem has highlighted one incredibly important aspect of upgrading technology that I had almost overlooked myself.

I too was thinking to upgrade my video card (to fly FSX), however, with my motherboard AGP set at x4, any new card would, at best, be an expensive excercise in frustration.

So, it looks as if a totally new rig is the order of the day. Sheesh! And I'd only just finished paying off this one.

[Christian]

Hi Trolly

I'm just reading this now. Now, I'm not an hardware expert, but from my limited knowledge it sounds to me as if this is a power problem.

1) Did you plug in the power connection to the card? If not, this is your problem. The GT6600 needs power!

2) If you connected the card to power, then there is a chance your power supply doesn't cut it. How much watts does it have? And is it an el-cheapo one or one that supplies the nominated power at a steady rate (the el-cheapo ones only supply the specified wattage at peak and generally fluctate a lot). I recently bought an Antec 550W - apparently Antec are quite good.

I've pretty much had it with building my own system, I have to admit. Every single time I buy parts (been doing this for years) there is something wrong and I spend weeks trouble shooting something. My current self-built AMD system is quite unstable and crashes about 1-2 a week - and I really don't have a clue what's wrong with it nor can I be bothered anymore...

The 8x AGP makes a difference for large texture loads, so it does affect FS performance, but you still should be seeing a big improvement as the 6600 has a much more powerful GPU.

Cheers,
Christian

[ardypilot]

1) Did you plug in the power connection to the card? If not, this is your problem. The GT6600 needs power!

I took my PC into the shop along with the card to advoid making any mistakes while installing it, I am no hardware expert myself!

How much watts does it have?

300W Is that good or bad?

[Christian]

I took my PC into the shop along with the card to advoid making any mistakes while installing it, I am no hardware expert myself!

Check if there is a power cord from the power supply feeding into your card. If not grap one of the free ones and plug it in - should be obvious which one. Alternatively take your box back to your supplier and hit them over the head with it. They should have connected the card to power in the first place!

If you're unlucky, your computer will be highly unstable once you do this. Reason being your weak power supply - read below.

300W Is that good or bad?

Bad, I suspect very bad. It depends a bit on which CPU you have and how much power it needs. CPUs and graphics cards are really power hungry (and it's getting worse, rumours are are a DX10 system will need a 1000W supply!!! Soon we'll see computer - mini oven combos). With my limited knowledge I'd recommend a higher end 500W supply (the el-cheapos fluctuate in output which means that your 500W power output could drop back to 300W sometimes causing your system to crash when that happens). I read somehwere that if your card doesn't get enough power it runs in unaccelerated mode (which is what you seem to be experiencing). Either that or it constantly crashes (I've been down that alley a few months ago). Again, your supplier should know what sort of power supply you need for your system. If they don't you're allowed to flog them (which you're already entitled to because if they put the card into your 300W system without saying anything these guys are just criminal)...

Christian

[Blackmagic]

I forgot about this power issue! Rememebr the same debate with Christian and a few other when I got my 6600GT.

I ended up upgrading my power supply to a 450w and I still occasionaly get a message on starting the PC that insufficant power to graphics card. What it also does is limit some features of the card enabling it to work.

Did the shop did not point out that 300w is a very limited supply? There are other factures in the determining of a power supply which has been pointed out to me that just because is say 450w does not mean to say it is a good clean 450w. Price of power supply comes into how good it is!

Christan has hit it on the head that a weak power supply will cause the PC to become unstable with this kind of card.

[ardypilot]

Right guys, thanks for that very helpfull information. I shall take the computer back to the shop tomorrow and tell them that.

Dam! I am such an idiot trying to upgrade my graphics, I guess the old saying really does apply here 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it'

Now I really need to find another card GeForce FX5600 256mb exactly like my old one... anyone wanna buy my NX6600?