Hi All,I said I would let you know the result of my 200 mile drive to get my new pc checked out.This was done free by Overclockers, my suppliers as they told me it was for being a good customer over the past year.They spent 7 hours checking out and rebuilding as reqd.they found seven faults my builder had done wrong these were rectified and the cards,memory etc.were set up correctly in the bios. The 3D Mark full pro stress test successfully looped for 3 hours showing flawless graphics.It will now play Farcry flatout with no problems.but here is the sad part for me, FS9 will not play correctly on my pc.Andy McLean Overclocker UK Technician did say that I would have trouble with FS9.I now have to down grade my pc or wait for the new flight sim. Microsoft will not comment on what I have just wrote.But if anyone is wanting a fully cutomized computer with 100 percent after sales service at a cost of about

Rex,What are you saying? Are you saying that FS 2004 will not run with a 7800 GTX in SLI?I feel for you!Here's my system:AMD FX 57Asus A8N SLI Premium1 Gig Ram2 XFX 7800 GTX (IN SLI)(81.87 Drivers)2 Raptors in RAID OX-FI SoundcardI think you will concur that this is a pretty modern and powerful system. My machine runs FS 2004 extremely well.To give you an idea of how well fs performs, in NYC (Manhattan Scenery) with Megascenery, above first layer of clouds with the fogged in theme, and 4aa, 16 anis, 1600 by 1200 - fps do not dip bellow 25 fps. This is using the Spitfire at 200 knots. Very few blurries, but I have tweaked my system. Framerates are set to unlimitted, and all the sliders are to the right. 3d Cluds are at 100% and FS still runs great; 60-100+ fps with defaul scenery.When I switch to 8AAs, framerates drop to no less than 17fps. To get 4aa performance, I switch to SLI AA and 8x. Now one card runs 4aa and the other runs the other 4aa. So I get the same performance with 8x, thanks to SLI AA.There are many who feel that SLI does not benefit FS 2004. If you see the improvent in quality from 4AA and 8AA using the NVIDIA 7800 GTX, I think many will agree that SLI AA does improve performance in FS 2004. You do not need an SLI setup, but if you have it, you should take advantage of it.I think you just need to check your drivers. Try using a different set of drivers. Don't give up. There's no reason why it should not work.Best of luck,Jose OteroCFI, CFII

There seems to be several levels of confusion here, mostly compounding the absence of understanding.1: SLI is not supported by FS2004. This is known, and given that FS was released two years before SLI was even demonstrated hardly surprising. The fix is (ho hum) not to run in SLI mode.2: Other than that, there is no reason why ANYONE wanting a simming rig would pay someone to screw up their system so bad that it no loger works, and then recommend them in these forums? If you want FS to work, then why did you pay the bill?and 3: SLI is not supported by FS2004. This is known (again), and if you have got SLI working with FS2004 then please tell us how you did it, and how you persuaded SLI to perform a split AA calculation when that's not how it works in any of its standard rendering modes. We'd be facinated to learn how you did it, because I've held back from purchasing a new PCI-X mobo and two SLI'd cards until the next version of FS is confirmed as supporting more than one card. Because this one doesn't.Allcott

Hi Allcott.No confusion I paid a local

OK, that's reasonable. But if FS was such a big part of your reasoning, why did you settle for a rig that won't run FS?And Jose, if a higher level of AA is giving you better fps in SLI mode, it suggests strongly that something isn't right when you use the lower levels because SLI does not work with FS `out of the box`, which is why I asked you for details of how you got it working. Because that would be so valuable to many, many simmers.Allcott

Hi Allcott.When I decided I was going down the SLI/Doul Core road No one Had said it may cause problems with FS.All the Best.Rex

Allcot,FS 2004 works fine with ONE 7800 GTX (performance is excellent.) FS 2004 works fine with SLI enabled. Is there a performance increase? NO. However, when you increase AA you decrease performance. What SLI allows you to do is run at higher AA and not degrade perfrormance. The new drivers allow you to enable SLI AA. Then you can choose 8AA or 16AA and improve performance at higher AA.So, the idea that FS 2004 does not work with SLI is NOT TRUE. The fact that FS 2004 does not take advantage of SLI is also NOT true. SLI is independent from FS 2004. SLI could work for any game. You just need to try and see.It's important to realize that SLI technology is "cutting edge" and that drivers will have to be improved in order for games to take advantage of the new technology. Nvidia will have to improve their drivers so that they can work properly with the games we love. I'm not an expert in SLI, but with my new system I'm able to experiment with different configurations and see immediate results.I'm NOT going to tell anyone to go out there and purchase and SLI system, but if someone has one, and their running FS 2004, they can certainly try enabling SLI AA.You probably know about these links:http://www.slizone.com/page/home.htmlhttp://www.slizone.com/object/slizone_sliAA_howto1.htmlJose OteroCFI, CFII

Hi JoseI have not yet enabled SLI AA and I will give it a try.I tried the 81 87 beta drivers but were no better I am now useing the 81 85.I see you have a FX57 cpu this they say is compatable with FS9 but I have a 64 X2 4800 cpu experts around the forums say this is not compatable with some games inc. FS9.I have probly said it wrong again I always do.All the best Jose.Rex

>You probably know about these links:>>>http://www.slizone.com/page/home.html>>http://www.slizone.com/object/slizone_sliAA_howto1.html>>>Jose Otero>CFI, CFII>>Thanks for those links.http://www.simtakeoff.com/fs2004vid.htmhttp://www20.graphics.tomshardware.com/gra...ormance-30.htmlhttp://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthrea...171#post5810171All seem to indicate that FS cannot operate in SLI mode, hence why I asked you how you did it. Unless you have modified drivers or the core engine of FS I don't think you can have SLI and FS2004 at the same time. It's the engine of Flight Sim that can't do it, not a driver issue at all. SLI is NOT independant of the game - the software has to suport it, and FS doesn't.So please tell us how you did it and provide some benchmarks and screenshots!Allcott

Hi again.Well I set up coolbits & NV tweek But no matter what I do FS9 will not run on my pc in sli,but thanks for the advice it was worth a try. I must now go along with Allcott and await the new flight sim,if it ever comes.Thank you both for helping me.My spec.ASUS A8N -SLI Premum / CPU AMD X 2-4800 / GPU 2X XFX 7800GT'S in SLIH/D WD Raptor &WD Carviar /Mem.Corsair 2GB of 3200 TwinX /PSU 650W Akasapowerplus / soundblaster 2ZS /Viewsonic 923 4ms responce / Lian-liPC60.I did have 2 raptors in raid O striped but I 'killed one' trying things out.But right now I wish I still had my

"So please tell us how you did it and provide some benchmarks and screenshots!"Allcott,There's no majical formula, I simply enabled SLI AA from Nvidia software provided by the new 81.87 drivers.Why is this so hard for you to beleive?You want to see benchmarks and screenshots! Of what? For what? For me to prove that I can run FS 2004 in SLI? I'm simply trying to help some people who might be wondering if SLI works with FS 2004.Whatever you believe is true, IT IS.I truly hope that this information is of benefit to someone who needs it.One last time - FS 2004 works with my SLI configured system. Believe it, OR NOT.Best regards,Jose OteroCFI, CFII

>"So please tell us how you did it and provide some benchmarks>and screenshots!">>Allcott,>>There's no majical formula, I simply enabled SLI AA from>Nvidia software provided by the new 81.87 drivers.>>Why is this so hard for you to beleive?>>You want to see benchmarks and screenshots! Of what? For what?>For me to prove that I can run FS 2004 in SLI? I'm simply>trying to help some people who might be wondering if SLI works>with FS 2004.>>Whatever you believe is true, IT IS.>>I truly hope that this information is of benefit to someone>who needs it.>>One last time - FS 2004 works with my SLI configured system. >Believe it, OR NOT.>>Best regards,>>Jose Otero>CFI, CFIIOK, it isn't actualy running in SLI mode. It's defaulting back to single GPU mode. You need to show benchmarks because we hear from so many different sources that it isn't possible so you can imagine the scepticism when you say you did it without making any modifications to FS core files, many of which go back to days before even Windows XP was thought of, let alone SLI.I say again, the GAME needs to support SLI. FS2004 doesn't. Unless those drivers introduced a FS2004-specific mod, and there's nothing about it in the Release Notes. And the other reason that I ask you for benchamrks is because I have no intention of spending hundreds of bucks on one persons word. If you can prove it then it's really worthwhile us spending more time researching the issue and deciding whether to spend the amounts needed. That's why.Sorry, but around here it PAYS to be sceptical. It's a hardware forum for FS! Allcott

What Jose is saying is that FS9's rendering in a single GPU, but the AA is done in SLI. Is this what we want SLI to be? Certainly not. Does SLI work for FS9? Kind of. For me, higher AA only makes very little difference as I'm already running FS9 in 1600x1200. Jose,Can you disable the AF in FS9 and let the SLI handle it? If AF and AA can be using in SLI, I will go for a SLI system. Then again, it might be an over kill.

What

People, stop worrying about x2 processors. They work just fine with FS9. If not, what processor have I been using for the last two weeks?:-roll Regards,