Vid card / CPU upgrade - query

[markadeane 272]

Gents,I'm about to overhaul my PC to bring it into Flightsim fluid FPS country.As fellow Flightsim 'power users' has anyone had experience with the X800GT 256MB PCI-e card?The CPU I have in mind is the Athlon 64 3200, anyone want to comment on the performance of that CPU in FS?Appreciate any feedback. Chrs.

[Tabs 2,790]

Very fluid here with my system, 40+ FPS in most cases. (see signature for specs) - definitely pricy though.

[Guest brettdonahue]

I have an X800 PCI version and it works just dandy, but the CPU of my box is a little slow only an AMD 2800.Bretthttp://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/800driver.jpg

[Guest D17S]

Don't forget about the power supply. That card will probably be a much bigger load than your old one. The wierd problems that a overstressed PS causes will make you crazy! It'll seem like anything else.

[Guest Boaz]

Ryan that is one #### of a system you got! I think 40 is a bit low compared to your rig! :-)I simply would recommend GeForce instead of ATI... ATI is compatible but not 100% unfortunately!GeForce newest member the 7800GTX and if you wait just a little bit longer, you can buy the 512mb version!P.S I have a RADEON 9800PROBoaz...

[Guest Buck Bolduc]

>Gents,>>I'm about to overhaul my PC to bring it into Flightsim fluid>FPS country.>>As fellow Flightsim 'power users' has anyone had experience>with the X800GT 256MB PCI-e card?>>The CPU I have in mind is the Athlon 64 3200, anyone want to>comment on the performance of that CPU in FS?>>Appreciate any feedback. Chrs.>>FPS is more dependent on CPU performance.Video quality is more dependent on your video card.So a balanced system with enough Quality memory is important.A system thats sub standard in any of those 3 catagory's will not be satifactory For MS FS9.My system when first built was fairly expensive.Antec 430 watt PSU.Athlon 64 3400+MSI Fsr2 mobo.I gig Corsair DDR 400 Mhz LLP memory.MSI NVidia 6800GT NX.21" ViewSonic monitor.2 WD Raptor 74GB HD's RAID-0CD-Rom, DVD RW.FPS never goes below 30 FPS in VC, wherever.Using AAx4 Anostrophic x8, graphics look great.Sliders all maxed or allmost.Locked at 60 FPS. With this particular card FS handels AA.I can fly for 12 hrs. without memory problems, in fact no problems whatsoever.The 3400+ cost me $400.00, you can by much better for the same $ today.The drives are about 60% of what they were.Here's the deal.Allway's buy a decent case & PSU. That way your good for an upgrade or two, i.e. mobo, proc., memory and you have an upgraded machine at a lower cost. Cases really don't wear out. HD's are cheap today.If you go with an AMD based machine, go for a mobo with socket 939, soon 940-M2.Get the best DC chip you can afford, unless you want to spend a ton of FX money. MS Vista will take advantage of DC 64bits, why not take advantage now?Will FS-10 be DC enabled? I wouldn't be suprized, 64-bit? I doubt the 64-bit bit but who knows. If it does, your equiped.I've been custom building machines since machine were builible, about 20 years.Time goes by fast, my machines getting dated!You get a feel for it after a while! :)

[markadeane 272]

Thanks all for your advice. Will take it into account. Smooth flying conditions here I come!

[Guest jdrago]

>Very fluid here with my system, 40+ FPS in most cases. (see>signature for specs) - definitely pricy though.Hi Ryan,How does your system do with 100% 3d clouds, sliders at max, and real weather? I have a 3.2ghz HT, 2gb ram, geforce 5900 ultra 256. I get an average of 25 most of the time, however with real weather and those darn grey low clouds, my system can get hammered. Using the "fair weather" theme, or no weather, FPS is great all the time... but how realistic is that!I am currently using FE2004 with their high performance clouds, but I have also tried Chris Willis' HP clouds as well.Any advice?Thanks,John

[Guest Paragon]

I'm sorry, it's not that I don't believe what you say but I have a better system than yours and I certainly don't get 30FPS wherever I go. I have a 3500+ and a 7800GT and just standing at Heathrow 9R using the Heathrow Pro scenery in the VC I get max 20 FPS. If I'm up and flying, sure I get 30FPS or more, but not at highly detailed airports. Maybe I'm doing something wrong but honestly, I don't think there is a PC today that your can get 30FPS average unless perhaps it's the most tricked out PC today.Just wanted to add that most of my sliders are not maxed out, but almost. I'm using 4xAA and 16xAniso plus my CPU is overclocked to 2,4GHz.

[Guest]

I have an AMD dual core 4800 with Gefore 7800 and SATA hard drive (RAID 0) config etc. Everything is tweaked for max performance with NVidia Ntune, Tweak XP etc etc..Even so, I must still drop the sliders back and comprise on traffic levels etc. It still is not fluid, sometimes around 17-18 FPS at a major airport. Quite disapointing.John.

[Guest Edwin]

FPS can vary quite widely according to resolution. Neither of you mentioned what resolution you are using so you can both be right - it's just that you two are using different resolutions!Edwin

[aerdt 0]

I have the Athlon 64 3200+ with a Geforce 6600GT and I am very happy with it. With all sliders maxed out, I have about 27-30fps in 2D and about 18-25fps in VC. I would not invest in a high-end graphic board, because the performance increase is marginal.Personally, I would not buy any ATI card again. I have been there and I won't look back after getting nVidia, but that's my personal opinion and not "law".Cheers,Pat

[Guest Buck Bolduc]

>FPS can vary quite widely according to resolution. Neither>of you mentioned what resolution you are using so you can both>be right - it's just that you two are using different>resolutions!>>EdwinEdwin, good point. I use 1200x1024. The guages are perfectly round, the way i like em. I see screenshots on this forum where they are not, that would aggrivate me. On a 21" monitor the guages are sharp and readable, no problems in that dept. With the 17" I had a hard time reading the small stuff.I'v built many dual channel NVidia based systems. I cen't figure out why but my mobo based on a VIA chipset actually seems to give better FPS. Call it luck! To be honest the dual channel setups should out perform a single channel system.FS9 has not been optimized for PCIe as far as I know. PCIe drivers are not as mature as later AGP vid drivers. I'm told that some of the new first shooter games have been written to take advantage of PCIe where FS9 has not? FS9 does not use dual core procs. to it's advantage, again, FS10, I hope will.As far as anyone believing me or not, what can I say? It's been pointed out a more than a few times on this forum that certain scenery addon's etc. have a detrimental effect on PMDG's code.PMDG has extended functionality that goes beyond FS9's code base from what I can see.Everyone has a different computer configured somewhat differently, now throw in additional addon's, now consider the various way to configure the Queen?It's a mirical Lefteris and crew gets any sleep.

[Guest chrispy]

Personally I think no matter what system you have unless it's like a amd kick butt processor and a good video card you will sometimes still get studders. It would be nice if microsoft made their next version with NO or little studders using their system requirements. Just my thought on the subject.

[Byrna 0]

With the new X800 or X850 series, you'll literally blow away your present 6600GT card. Even me, with a relavitely slow Athlon XP3200+ I just upgraded to the X850 PRO 256MB retail version and my framerates (despite FS2004 being CPU intensive) have gone up 25-60% with no other changes to my system.I upgraded from an ATI RADEON 9800 PRO 128MB.John