FS9 and HD2900XT?

[ehasanov1 1]

HiI'm planning to buy ATI HD2900XT, so somebody with mentioned card, please post your oppinion.I will use at the moment only FS9 with addon scenerys and aircrafts like F1 ATR72,PMDG B737&747, LEVELD 767.The question is to buy ATI 2900XT or 8800GTS.I read on some forums that 8800GTS have problems with AA/AF with FS9.Thanks in advanceEdin Hasanovic

[Guest Scratch1964]

EdinHappy to provide some first hand knowledge and experience for you.You may not need to pay out for a 2900XT or 8800GTS if its only to run FS9. It all depends on what resolution you are running and any possible CPU/system limitations/bottlenecks. What about the rest of your system (Motherboard, CPu, RAM, monitor etc)? What are you running?Out of the two I would certainly choose the 8800GTS over the Radeon 2900XT. I run an 8800GTS with FS9 and it screams along at over 70FPS. It's as smooth as a whistle. Even FSX runs well for me, once tuned to my liking (30FPS)The eagerly anticipated introduction of the 2900XT was, for many people, rather a let down. This GPU was hyped up to be a real Geforce killer. Some folks had it down as being better than the 8800GTX let alone the GTS. However, the card has not lived up to these expectations. Many benchmarks show it failing to beat the 8800GTS. I believe the 512Mb 2900XT is slightly slower than the 640MB 8800GTS in FSX.My 8800GTS runs cool, quiet and has no problem with AA, even at 16x. Whilst the Nvidia AA set up is not to many folks' liking we are fortunately blessed with a more than adequete 3rd party utility by the name of "nHancer." It takes AA right up to 32x, is multi configurable and works flawlessly with both FS9 and FSX. I have been very pleased with it so far.If you have a good system and are running a display no larger than 1600x1200 res and only plan to run FS9 for the forseable future then I would strongly consider opting for either a Radeon x1950 or Geforce 7900 GPU. These will serve you fine for FS9.Good luck!Scratch1964

[ehasanov1 1]

Hi Thanks for your reply.I'm building new system which will be:Intel E6750MBO Gigabyte P35-DQ62GB DDR222'' Samsung SM226BWSo I would like DX10 VGA ;-)I also think about X1950, but then I will need to upgrade again in few months, when DX10 came alive.I don't know.I will see...Thanks Scratch1964Edin

[kaydub 3]

Hello: I tried five different video cards when I upgraded. First a 7600GT. It was faster than my outdated 6800GT, but not a whole lot, so I then tried a 7950GT. It screamed in comparison, but the price was a little high, considering it was DX9 only. You can find a slow 7950GT for about $140, or a 565mhz one for about $200. Those are 256 MB. A fast 512MB by EVGA or BFG will set you back almost $240. Ouch! I returned mine and fot a 7900GS for $100. It was slower than the 7950 but about 50% of the price. I was spoiled by the 7950 and couldn't stand it, so I decided to forsake Nvidia and try a X1950 Pro. Again, kind of expensive and a little hard to find. About $160 for a 256. It worked pretty well, but the clouds weren't as realistically transparent, although flying in a lot of clouds doesn't slow the frame rate down like it did with the 7900. Finally, I gave in and got a 8800 GTS. About $30 more than the 7950 512MB with only 320MB. Talk about fast and pretty! If you can swallow the $270 price, it does the job. 8X AA, (using nHancer on global settings) runs as fast as the X1950 on 2X AA and goes right through the clouds smooth as butter! It's a lot of money, and who knows what will happen when DX 10.1 comes out, but it does do as advertised.KayDub

[Guest baksteen33]

Hi everybody, some good conclusions here. A 8800 320MB should indeed be the ultimate pick for FS9. I would mainly advise getting the X2900 if FSX SP2 is on the 'Want To Have Quickly' list. Current Radeons are better at DX10 whilst Geforce 8800s are better at DX9. Until the next changes occur... :-) As Scratch pointed out, this whole part depends on the resolution you use. Have fun, Jaap