Gainward GeForce 6800 Ultra...Some advice needed please...

[Guest RobbyGatHome]

Hi Guys.I bought myself an early Christmas present, the Gainward GeForce 6800 Ultra and am impressed so far. It makes a huge difference from my Ati 9700 Pro. What I was wondering was if anyone out there had a similar card, could I ask for some assistance for the best settings for FS9 in the GeForce Control Panel in the display settings. Coming from the Ati Control Panel I'm at a loss as to how the Anistrophic Filtering should be set on NVidia cards as well as the Anti Aliasing etc etc. to get the best out of FS9.I'm also running the card on the provided 61.76 drivers. Are there any preffered drivers out there which are better? I see NVidia's site has version 66 out already...Also - is there any particular way to make FS9 recognise the new card? I remember reading somewhere once that a version of FS - can`t remember if it was FS9 or not - that needed to recognise the card to take full advantage...?Thanks alot for the help in advance.Regards,RobFAJS

[bob34]

Rob:I have the same card w/ crummy frame rates. I'm watching this thread hopefully for some advice.I posted the same question over at visualflight.co.uk which seems to have more life in their hardware forum. You may jump over there and watch the thread on the Nvidia forceware setting.BobKMEM

[Guest CHRISH]

Hi Rob and Bob,I had the same problems, which are now resolved. this is an email I sent to PCP in Ireland a few days ago folowing some tweaks I made, I hope this helps. It looks as if the Geforce 6800 comes alive at 1600 x 1200, but you need a fast CPU probably 3200 + and a monitor that supports this resolution.BEst Wishes,ChrisJust read your fascinating article on your Meigs test with your new AMD 64 3400. I thought I would just update you on my system, which maybe of interest to you. I changed my FX 5950 video card to an Nvidia Geforce 6800 Ultra, which proves your point that updating just the Video card is not enough to increase Frame Rates, as Frame Rate increases are CPU dependant. Many maybe thinking why update my video card especially as the 5950 is a superb card? Well my eyesight needs high refresh rates, and the 6800 Ultra allows me to fly at 1600 x 1200 at refresh rates of 120 MHz at a constant and fluid rate, which is fantastic!! My 5950 struggled to give anything over 100 MHz, and flying was a bit of a stop start affair at Flytampa's KMIA / KSFO. Now I get frame rates of between 25 and 33 with the sliders set to maximum, and traffic at 75% at all complex airports made by Simflyers and Flytampa's without exception! At the Meigs test I reported FPS in the range of 70 at 1024 x 768 resolution, under the same test conditions I now get an average of 76 without traffic, dropping down to 63 with AI traffic at 100% (FStraffic 2004). Although the frame rates drop dramatically down when I switch to 1600 x 1200 x 32 bit to around 40 with Traffic at 100%. I am delighted with this because I get a) High refresh rates, :( little if any shimmering, c) Fluid and constant Frame rates, d) Quality images are very sharp, e) No waiting for texture build up !! However to achieve this I have had to take on board both George's and John's tweaks, and also some advice from the forums at PMDG, which has had a significant impact upon Frame Rates and fluidity. This tweak seems to have had the biggest impact thus far: Locate FS9.cfg:"C:Documents and SettingsChrisApplication DataMicrosoftFS9FS9.CFG" I've have now added the following lines: (Thanks Nick for explaining how this works!) [DISPLAY.Device.NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra.0]Mode=1600x1200x32TextureAGP=0TriLinear=1AntiAlias=1MipBias=8UPPER_FRAMERATE_LIMIT=0TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=400 (Standard setting is set to 40 so increase it to any figure up to 400!) Check to make sure no duplicate entries exist mine had references to three different Video Cards!) This has increased the framerates an amazing 100%, using all maximum settings, at 1600 x 1200 x 32 bit, Traffic at 100%, Visibility 40 Miles, Clouds set to few; From 14 FPS at Leeds Bradford (UK2000 Scenery) to 31 Min FPS, KORD (Simflyers( from 8 FPS to 21), On a slightly different note, I have an Nvidia FX5950 Card for sale or part ex for FS9 Scenery, my email address is [email protected] if this is of any interest to you. This is a fantastic card, because of poor eyesight I had to increase refresh rates, beyond that available on the 5950 and the 6800 Ultra allows me to do that nicely with decent frame rates! (Now that I have found this Cure to poor frame rates!) Interestingly I have noticed that the shimmering experienced by myself and many others has now disappeared, by switching resolution to 1600 x 1200 ! Thanks to George for a very interesting article! I hope this helps. Happy New Year ! Best Wishes to all,Chris.J.HickmanEGBB