PIC 767 with Geforce4 Ti 4600

[Guest CHRISH]

Has anyone got a system based on the Geforce4 Ti 4600, and if so what difference has it made to Frame Rates with PIC 767 and just as importantly the clarity of the images on screen, have they improved much.My system AMD 1800 xp512 RAM,20GB HDDGeforce2 GTSDirectx 8.1Win 98seAv FPS : 1152 x 864 all sliders set to max, with PIC 767, vis locked at 20 miles DME, AI traffic using add on aircraft mainly by the excellent Austair design people (as opposed to default traffic) best FPS 16-20.(After fresh re-boot)Best Wishes,Chris

[Tabs 2,790]

You're gonna see a pretty substantial increase iver a GF2GTS... The cool thing about the GF4 too is that antialiasing has no effect on performance - it makes the game look MUCH better.

[Guest]

I'm thinking about this upgrade too. Some time ago someone posted something about the GF4 screwing up the PIC panel's visuals, anyone care to comment?Greg

[B777ER 2,486]

Yes it does screw up the panel visuals but ONLY with antialiasing (sp?) ON. Off, it works fine with the panel.Eric

[Guest]

HiI have had no problems running PIC with a Visiontek Ti4600 with fullFSAA.It`s quite nice as a matter of fact.Ron

[Guest MB327]

Please guys keep this string going. I am on the brink of buying the "4" and I fly the PIC almost exclusively. I am using a GF2 TI now with 64mb of RAM on a 900 mhz AMD Athlon with 512 RAM. I have not been completely satisfied with frame rates, more accurately the frequent stutters. That was a way of life in FS2000 but not expected in FS2002. I have made about every possible tweak in display properties and still can

[Dean_EGTC 57]

Mike,I'm just about to rebuild my test rig which will include a Ti4600. I'm also interested to see if there will be much of a performance difference from my current GEF II Ultra. I doubt it. A few more notches to the right on the display sliders I guess. Just waiting for my supplier to get a new stock of Epox mobos in.

[Guest WorkingStiff]

Dean,Based on a number of similar discussions on video card upgrades I think youre correct. Anyone expecting a significant increase in frame rates is likely to be quite disappointed since the bottleneck to frame rates is in the processor and not the video card.After following a number of such discussions on the General board, I upgraded from a GeForce 2 MX 32 mb card to a Geforce3 64 mb two weeks ago. Since my processor an 1200 Ghz it made sense to go with a GF3 instead of a GF4. I was quite surprised to learn that a GF3, although older, is at least 15 percent faster than a GF3 Ti .... one has to ignore the marketing spiels and get the appropriate card to match the processor.I had my old card locked at 15 fps with most of the options set at 100%. With the GF3, I have everything maxed out and locked at 22 fps. The upside is infinitely better graphics, not necessarily a quantum increase in frame rates.

[Tabs 2,790]

Here's the rundown on the Nvidia speed hierarchy... I agree the "Ti" naming is very confusing, so here it is from high to low:GeForce4 Ti4600GeForce4 Ti4400GeForce4 Ti4200GeForce3 Ti500GeForce3GeForce3 Ti200GeForce4 MXGeForce2 Ultra (now called a Ti)GeForce2 ProGeForce2 GTSGeForce2 MXAs you can see, they've further complicated things with the GF4MX, which is actually slower than any of the GF3 cards, the reason being that it is actually a slightly enhanced GeForce 2 chip core and not the full flegged GF4 chip that's in the two top cards.Even taking the processor into consideration, you're going to see a large increase between a GF4 Ti and a GF2MX. Today's CPUs can easily saturate the GF2MX chip, they can't however with a 3 or 4. The reason I'd get the GF4 now over the GF3 is for the antialiasing - it's totally free, the chip does all the work and you don't lose FPS by turning it on the way you do with a GF3. I can also confirm with the latest Detonator driver set (28.32 under XP), the blurring/smearing panel problems have gone away.Read this article http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.html?i=1613 - it's a shootout between all the availiable GF4 cards - personally, I'd get the Gainward card, which is what I have. They recommend the PNY card as well in the article. I love it and have never had a single problem with it. www.newegg.com has good prices on them.

[Guest ilh]

I wonder where my Quadro2 Pro falls in that ranking. I'm guessing at the top of the GF2s. Antialiasing is "free" (no effect on frame rate).Lee Hetherington (KBOS)

[Ray Proudfoot 8,960]

Chris,I have the Creative Ti4600 in a system comprising Athlon 2000XP, 512Mb PC2100 RAM, Iiyama 19" Pro 454 and Sony 400PST 19" monitors. The last two items are especially important since they work hand-in-hand with the graphics card. I'm going to put the cat amongst the pigeons here by saying there's no point buying this card unless you have a 19" monitor or higher. You will never get the full performance from the Ti4600 unless you are running it near its full capability which means high or very high resolutions. 1280*1024 should be considered the minimum with 1600*1200 or higher being preferable if your display allows it. At 1600*1200 there's no need for FSAA and it's borderline at 1280*1024.Additionally, the Ti4600 supports dual displays and again, I wouldn't recommend it if you are going to run it with a single display. Buy a Ti4400 instead.Image quality is superb but again, it depends on the quality of the display. I suspect if you're running at 1152*864 you have a 17" monitor and to be honest I would suggest you upgrade that before spending so much on the graphics card.Cheers,

[Guest CHRISH]

Thanks Ray,I have a 19" Monitor, I have set to 1152 x 864 because its playing on my eyes at higher resolutions. (Which for a Illyama monitor is surprising).Others in the forum have reported problems with the anti-aliasing have you had problems?Many thanks,Best Wishes,Chris

[Tabs 2,790]

Chris what do you have your refresh rate set to for those higher resolutions? Anything under around 72 will hurt your eyes, I run all my resolutions at 85...I'm pretty sure the antialiasing problems were all caused by the older drivers - once I upgraded to the new ones, the problem totally went away.

[Ray Proudfoot 8,960]

Hi Chris,I have a 19" Monitor, I have set to 1152 x 864 because its playing on my eyes at higher resolutions. (Which for a Illyama monitor is surprising).Bear in mind that when FS2002 is loaded a gauge will appear the same size irrespective of resolution. You don't see any more at 1600*1200 than you do at 640*480 - you simply see it in much more detail.Can you quantify what problems you're having at higher resolutions? Is it too low a refresh rate? 85hz is necessary for flicker-free viewing? Or is it that the monitor is not high enough quality to display higher than 1152*864? That would surprise me for an Iiyama. What model is it?As far as anti-aliasing is concerned it only works in full-screen mode and I've found that when the colour depth is set to 16-bit in Windows but 32-bit in FS2002 the panel exhibits a strange colour. Switch Windows to 32-bit and the problem goes away. But as I said earlier, at 1600*1200 there's no need for AA (to my eyes at least).I see many people discuss various graphics cards and which one is best for FS but discussion on quality displays (either TFT or CRT) is much less common but equally important. There's no point in buying a quality graphics card unless a display is up to displaying that image. For the Ti4600 a display of 1280*1024*16-bit should be considered the minimum and if you can afford a 22" CRT seeing FS2002 at 2048*1536 @ 85Hz will knock you over. The Ti4600 can deliver that resolution but only the very best displays can support it. Unfortunately my Pro 454 only supports 85Hz up to 1600*1200 but then again, I'm not really complaining :-)Hope that helps.Cheers,

[Guest]

I just installed a evga (reference cooling) geforce 4 TI4400 in my computer. I had an Asus geforce 2 GTS with 32Meg's before the upgrade. I offer the following observations:1. I do not have any panel issues with FSSA on.2. With this card you can enable a 4XS FSSA mode. I was stunned at the difference in the anti-aliasing improvement over the geforce 2.3. With the Geforce 4 series you can enable a feature called digital vibrance, which allows you to enhance the color saturation. With that said the colors are for a lack of a better term more vibrant. The sky has a nicer blue, the ground textures are greener, etc...4. The geforce 4 series has better video output filters, this translates into clearer display both in 2D and 3D.5. No noticable difference in FPS.6. I use the Dual head feature (running a 19" viwsonic a90 for primary and a viewsonic a70 for secondary)it is much more convenient than using two video cards. No messing with IRQ's and the displays are more even in color saturation and quality. The Pic panel looks better than it ever has on my second monitor.7. I had some driver install problems with win XP pro, but got them figured out. Shouldn't be an issue for you running 98se8. This card has VIVO so I can do video inout, which I plan on using with my camcorder. Not sure if that feature is something you would be needing but I should mention that. Not all TI4X00 have that feature so be aware of that if you purchase a card. I would say for me that it was worth it to upgrade. I got the card at NewEgg, the order shipped the same day, and I only paid 235 for it as well.Hope this helps.Scott..