ATI 3870 X2 and FSX

[jackcnd 0]

Will the 2nd GPU on the X2 will help in FSX?The memory bus is just 256 per chip, which Phil suggests is not the best for FSX?

[Guest Sascha Henken]

If it goes with FSX then no current PC will handle FSX well. Even this high end card will not because FSX is to complex for nowadays computers. I have the same card and get weak results. I just deactivate Autogen completely or download reduced trees and clouds that can give an extreme FPS boost. Also deactivating all the traffic like boats, cars, ships will help a little. Disable shaders where possible and try to reduce global textures that are responsible for Hangars etc. Those objects eat the most FPS from what i

[Mike_CFII_MEL 788]

Hi,With this card I am able to get my FPS in the upper 20's to 30, my system is locked at 31FPS. Here are my setting.

[Guest Sascha Henken]

Hello Mike,thanks for the pictures because now I have a reference I can rely on. I will give them settings a shoot but first I shall defragment my HDD once again :)

[Mike_CFII_MEL 788]

Hi,I almost forgot, here are my system specs. 1. Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 Processor 2. ATI 3870X2 Video Board 3. EVGA NF680i Motherboard 4. 4-Gig Corsair XMS2 DOMINATOR Twin2X2048-9136C5D Ram Modules 5. Enermax Galaxy 1000w Power Supply 6. 2 Western Digital 10,000rpm Raptor Sata hard drives (150Gig each) 7. Creative Labs Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Sound Board 8. Asus DRW-0804P DVD-RW Drive 9. Sony DRU-840A Dual Layer DVD Multi drive10. Thermaltake Big Typhoon CPU Fan11. Mitsumi 1.44MB 3.5" Floppy Drive12. Enermax Mid-Tower13. Coolmaster Musketeer14. Coolmaster Cool Drive 415. 2 THERMALTAKE CASE FANs

[Guest djt01]

>Hi,>>With this card I am able to get my FPS in the upper 20's to>30Which is no better than what a single GPU 3870 can do. I

[boris4356 4]

I get the same with a single HD3870 as well. I have most sliders to the right, except autogen at normal. Water 2x low, Cloud density at max, Ai at 30%. Vehicle traffic at 15%, ships at 60%. My FPS are locked at 30, and get that most of the time, except in larger cities, I get around 20.I just bought my HD3870, and really agonized whether to get the HD3870X2. The deciding factor was that the X2 was not quite available at the time, otherwise I probably would have gone with it.I am interested to see how the performance difference changes between the 3870 and the 3870X2 as the drivers mature.Bill

[jackcnd 0]

Noticed your settings have:Mesh Res at 1mTexture Res at 7cmIt's my understanding, there is no mesh or textures available at those high resolutions. It would only tax your system to set them so high, but get no gain.Try:Mesh at 38m or 19m ( if you have 19m mesh)andTextures at 1m That should allow you to up your autogen to dense or higher.

[Mike_CFII_MEL 788]

Hi,Thanks for the reply!. I'll give it a shot and see what happens. Although if 1m mesh and 7cm textures don't exist, I don't see how having these settings set could tax the system, there's nothing to display.

[scott967 62]

Anandtech review on the X2 benches FSX as:2560x1600 high quality Dx10 no AA3870: 44.43870 x2: 50.4http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3219&p=2scott s..

[Guest djt01]

>Anandtech review on the X2 benches FSX as:>2560x1600 high quality Dx10 no AA>>3870: 44.4>3870 x2: 50.4>>http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3219&p=2>>scott s.>.>>>The question is what would the difference be with resolutions around 1600x1200 or 1920x1200? My experience with Cross Fire and SLI in past with CPU bound games/sims like FSX tells me the difference is most likely nil.

[Guest Lith1um]

>Hi,>>Thanks for the reply!. I'll give it a shot and see what>happens. Although if 1m mesh and 7cm textures don't exist, I>don't see how having these settings set could tax the system,>there's nothing to display.>Actualy, objects in FSX that are composed of vector graphics, such as roads, are affected by the texture res slider. Try looking at the roads at 1m, then at 7cm.There is a difference.

[Reset XPDR 1,271]

A 13.5% FPS increase for 100% extra GPU is not what I would call a value for money difference. Also, we don't know if this is an average FPS or lowest FPS. If the former (which I expect it is), then I suspect that the lowest FPS is relatively unchanged, as I have experienced using FSXMark07 across a variety of different GPUs in the past. Since lowest FPS is often the beast we are trying to tame, then money is better spent elsewhere to improve this area.Gary