Thanks for this series of posts guys- I was seriously just about to order the 8800GTX online but wanted some reviews first- think I'll stand down on those plans based on this issue- I want to increase performace and video quality- not degrade it! :( :DKD1156

Well, I'll tell you--I have never seen or heard from an nVidia user (of which I am one) who has totally stamped out the shimmering effect.Reduced, yes (via tools like nHancer), But eliminated? Nope.Yet for ATI users, this appears to not be a problem??RhettAMD 3700+ (@2585 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2gb Corsair XMS 3-3-3-8 (1T), WD 150 gig 10000rpm Raptor, WD 250gig 7200rpm SATA2, Seagate 120gb 5400 rpm external HD, CoolerMaster Praetorian

>Sorry Rhett, I fly FS9 only (returned my copy of FSX soon>after release). Hopefully, someone flying current ATI and FSX>will be along soon.>>Regards,Oh, I might add...it doesn't matter which FS. FS9 has the same shimmering too.Are you getting shimmering in FS9 with your ATI card? And which ATI card do you have again?RhettAMD 3700+ (@2585 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2gb Corsair XMS 3-3-3-8 (1T), WD 150 gig 10000rpm Raptor, WD 250gig 7200rpm SATA2, Seagate 120gb 5400 rpm external HD, CoolerMaster Praetorian

it doesn't matter which FS. FS9 has the same shimmering too.Indeed, an alpha is an alpha. :-) Though some will surely disagree and claim the textures are different between sims (hence, the reason I don't spend as much time here as I use to... tired of the bickering).Are you getting shimmering in FS9 with your ATI card?We both know alphas shimmer, no matter what the card. But it does seem that the ATI drivers are easier to tweak for quality (or maybe I'm just use to tweaking the ATI's for quality), thus mitigating the shimmers better. I still find it hard to believe that so many nVidia folks are having a difficult time tweaking the current drivers for quality. I would hope the drivers are entirely tweakable for quality (hey, they're drivers... thus it should be possible to manipulate them. :-) ).And which ATI card do you have again?I have two here, an X850 XT that I BIOS flashed to PE, and an X1950 XT. I test numerous driver packages with each card (K, so I'm an inveterate tweaker :-)), but I'd have to say the X850 XT PE is my primary card for FS9. It doesn't use that ridiculous 2D/3D speed profile and still loads textures almost as fast as the X1950 XT. Difficult to give the latter any clear edge in performance in FS9 on my FX-57 system, and quality is great out of both.As Chris said earlier, it's not possible to screenshot shimmering (wish we could). All I can say is that it's not a major issue on my system... I simply see little shimmering. I rarely notice it, and I place alot of importance on eye candy. If it doesn't look good I'm not happy. :-)MSFS... CPU for performance and video card for quality.Cheers,

Thank you for that info GregIn my sim, with my card, the shimmering is pretty bad on the water. However, my trees look good. No shimmering there. (a lot of people have shimmering trees, but I don't).The water though, is a shimmer-fest when the sun hits it.I may very well end up with an ATI HD3870 vid card in the next few months, and I hope I can tweak it well. I may need your advice then, because I am not familiar with ATI's Catalyst driver (do they still use that?) nor with any of the ATI tweaking programs (I assume there are some?).Thanks again for the info.RhettAMD 3700+ (@2585 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2gb Corsair XMS 3-3-3-8 (1T), WD 150 gig 10000rpm Raptor, WD 250gig 7200rpm SATA2, Seagate 120gb 5400 rpm external HD, CoolerMaster Praetorian

The water though, is a shimmer-fest when the sun hits it.Shouldn't it shimmer when the sun hits it?Here again I believe we have a difference of perception (and, hey, that's what flying on a computer is all about :-) ). There have been times flying in RL that I've been almost blinded by the shimmer off a body of water. Like you my trees look fine. Buildings are great. Bridges are a bit of a problem for me (suspension wires, etc.).I might try one of the 3870's for kicks. Would certainly come in handy with some of the other games I play (occasionally... that's when my 1950 XT goes in the box). Not sure about the value of a 3870X2 in MSFS, primarily because cards like the 3870 and 8800GT offer great bang for the buck.Cheers,

Have you tried nHancer and set it up per the readly avaliable directions. It makes a huge difference. Give it a try.XP Home w/SP2, Core 2 Duo E6600 OCed to 3.0 GHZ, 7950 GT 512MB,300GB sata HD, 2GB Corsair 6400 DDR2, FSX w/SP1

yeah you're gonna need nHancer, follow these instructions, you'll have to scroll through a few pages:http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=38921