Video Card Upgrade Advice

[Guest gwm1959]

Hi,I have the following computer setup and was wondering what video card change I could make to possibly give better FPS in FSX. I can get 40-50 fps with scenery detail sliders on the low to mid setting. When I increase scenery sliders past mid point the fps fall to 12-15 fps. Dell Dimension 8400Pentium 4 - 3.4 Ghz3.25 GB ramRadeon X800GT - 128 MBLatest ATI drivers and DirectX driversWindows XP with SP2 and all updatesGarth McNichol

[Sharpedge 0]

Garth,Have a look at this earlier post:http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=sho...27343&mode=fullJustin

[Guest gwm1959]

Thanks Justin,I looked at a few video card sites but have no clue as to what it all means with regards to comparing specifications. Bottom line is .... is there a current or older (say ATI) video card that I could replace my X800GT with that would provide a noticable improvement in video quality or performance over what I am currently seeing? I am using a Dell 24" monitor with 1920 X 1200 resolution. Garth McNichol

[Guest mcalpinep]

Garth,Ignore the previous forum topic, Amsterdamer needed an AGP card , you are looking for a PCI express card (new interface), your monitor has a massive resolution so you could spend silly money (>

[Guest gwm1959]

Thanks Phil ! If I go the X1650 XT or X1650 PRO or X1950 XTX will I need to upgrade my power supply over the original Dell power supply?? Any other modifications required to a stock Dell to upgrade to these cards??Garth McNichol

[Guest mcalpinep]

The X1950 XTX will place significant demands on your power supply, not sure what rating your current PSU is but the general recommendation is for at least a 450 W power supply ( this is the bare minimum), the wattage rating does not tell the whole story though, you can buy a 450 W PSU for not much cash but it's important to look at the current supplied to the 12V rails ,look for a combined rating of a least 30 Amps on the 12V rails.Power supplies are not very glamorous but they are the most important component in your PC, what the point is spending hundreds of $/

[Guest gwm1959]

Now what??? I replaced my Radeon X800GT - 128 MB with a Visiontek ATI X1600XT with 512 MB GDDR-3. I used the proper methods to remove old ATI files and loaded on the new files from the CD that came with the video card. It's driver version was from July 2006. I couldn't really tell any difference in the video quality or performance. I was tweaking the sliders and in the external view mode using the ultralite plane. FPS were 20 to 30+ then the screen goes black and the sound keeps going and the machine was locked up. The machine never crashed once with the previous Radeon X800GT - 128 MB. My stock dell power supply has 350 in the model number so I am assuming its 350 watts, the required minimum for the new video card. I went out to ATI and got the latest package of drivers for the Radeon X1600. I went to dell and got the latest BIOS A09. I installed all and was flying happily for a few minutes when the screen goes black and the sound started sounding like a machine gun stuttering. Machine was locked up and the FPS prior to crash were 19 to 38. Any thoughts as to what the problem might be??Garth McNichol

[Guest mcalpinep]

Garth,If you read back to my previous post, the power supply is an important component when it relates to your video card, you have a power hungry CPU and now a card that has a 'minimum' specification of 350W - as I said in the previous post the power output (350W) means nothing if the peak current that the PSU supplies is insufficient for the job - I don't know the current (ie. Amps ) specs for your PSU but if your screen is going black it stands to reason your graphics card is being momentarily starved of enough current hence the lockup's - FSX is a very graphics intensive sim, if you are trying to fly at your monitors native resolution I think you are asking too much from your card (and thus your power supply), the X1600XT is a 'mainstream' card - sorry but it's a bit too basic to expect it to fly FSX at 1920x1200 and trying to fly at 1920x1200 with the 'minimum' power supply is pushing it at best. To be honest, I think you need to reduce the resolution you fly at , and upgrade your power supply. This is probably not what you wanted to hear, my advice in this topic has been general in nature to try to help you understand:1) Wattage ratings of power supplies aren't the whole story,you need sufficient stable current.2) FSX places VERY heavy demands on graphics cards.3) Resolution is important , I have a 1920x1200 monitor - I cannot fly at this high resolution, FS9 is Ok at 1600x1200 but FSX needs to be 1280x1024 or lower (with the sliders less than halfway).I understand your frustration,crashes are a major pain in the *** ,logically - your system was stable then you changed the GPU and now it's not - put you x800 back in,reload the 800gt drivers - is your system stable again ?. One last point, changing the power supply is a pig of a job, I've done it numerous times and had to gut the tower unit - I'm sorry but this is just the way it is.Regards,Phil

[Guest gwm1959]

Thanks Phil for your thoughts. I see others have a similiar problem on this post:http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=set..._page=show_mesgI may untweak my FSX.cfg first to see what happens.Garth McNichol

[Guest abulaafia]

Try the Omega Drivers, they made an enormous difference for me: www.omegadrivers.net

[Guest gwm1959]

I tried the omega drivers and they made my DVD's unwatchable with large square blocks of pixelation. Even watching a simple DVD now locks up were it never was a problem with the X800GT. As the X1600XT is non returnable I would like to try and get it working properly. I currently have removed FSX from my computer for now and have re-installed the latest A09 version of the bios, latest Directx, latest ATI driver package and still no luck getting a stable video experience. What are the folks with newer systems doing that have the screen go black and crash? They have tried a new PSU and still no improvement. What a pain !!!Garth McNichol