>Well........>>I'm absolutley astonished with the performance of this 3870x2>as compared to my 8800GTX.>>The visual quality is just awesome with the 3870X2 as well as>the fluidity of FSX. Per the FPS counter I have lost a few>FPS. However, FSX runs so much smoother with this card my>initial perception (prior to turning on the FPS counter) was>that I gained some FPS.>>The biggest thing of all, the card/drivers are rock solid. >All those pain in the arse random crashes are a thing of the>past. I can now defintely attribute those headaches to the>Nvidia drivers.>>I had some reservations purchasing this ATI card because I>haven't owned one in years. I really didn't want to spend the>money but it was well worth it and I am very glad that I did.>How many frames do you think you lost? I have been thinking about this card too. Fed up with NV.

McCrash,At my orginal settings maybe 3FPS. After some slight tweaking to FSX and the ATI drivers I'm about where I was at FPS wise with the 8800GTX.Do not let the decrease in FPS scare you. This card is much more fluid in FSX and the quality of the graphics on the ATI card just flat whips the snot out of the graphical quality of the Nvidia card.

>McCrash,>>At my orginal settings maybe 3FPS. After some slight tweaking>to FSX and the ATI drivers I'm about where I was at FPS wise>with the 8800GTX.>>Do not let the decrease in FPS scare you. This card is much>more fluid in FSX and the quality of the graphics on the ATI>card just flat whips the snot out of the graphical quality of>the Nvidia card.Do you experience any texture popups in FSX?How is the video card heat and fan noise?Have you tired overclocking that puppy?Thanks.

What are your experience with FS9?I recently change my 8800GTS/320 for a GTX/768 because I was thinking the 320Mb was a bottleneck at 1920x1200 but I am still not happy with the new results, not with FSX and fs9, still having sometimes stutter and blurries and tried al the tweaks and tips...I can swap this week the 8800GTX back to the dealer so I thing it's time to take also the step back to ATI but wondering how FS9 runs with all the add-ons and eye candy because this is what I'm using for 90%Thanks...C2D6750 at 3,2 Ghz - P35 Gigabyte with 4Gb Ram/800 - 2x Raptor 150 - XFX 8800GTX

Do you experience any texture popups in FSX?NoHow is the video card heat and fan noise?Actually its quiter than the 8800GTX and runs a tad cooler. Have you tired overclocking that puppy?Nope. Do not seee the need to with the performance I am getting out of the card stock. The CPU overclock is enough for me.What is your experience with FS9?None. I strictly fly FSX now.

Hi Ray,I'm in the middle of selecting components for my new rig and trying to decide between a 9800 GTX and the 3870 X2. One of the Radeon reviews points out a fairly consitent issue with being able to maintain a minimum fps: http://www.driverheaven.net/reviews/AMDX2Review/delay.phpI'm worried that in the FS environment, in which texture loads and drops are happening all the time, this same issue could lead to stutters. Thus, I'd be interested in hearing whether you've been able to minimize the amount of stuttering you noticed.Cheers, Holger

I might try and wait for one of thesehttp://www.nordichardware.com/news,7356.html

>I'm worried that in the FS environment, in which texture loads>and drops are happening all the time, this same issue could>lead to stutters. Thus, I'd be interested in hearing whether>you've been able to minimize the amount of stuttering you>noticed.>>Cheers, HolgerHolger,With my system, I have yet to experience any stuttering with the 3870X2 (running at 1920x1200). I do notice if I have the FPS counter active that in busy areas it tends to fluctuate a bit more but the fluctuation is not impacting my experience within FSX.FSX is much more fluid with the 38807X2 as compared to the 8800GTX. Even if the 8800GTX was maintaining a constant FPS there was always a "drag" (not really a stutter) associated with the Nvidia card within FSX.The difference in graphical quality between ATI and Nvidia is quite apparent and ATI wins hands down in this area.

Hi Holger,I had a read of that article although I profess not to understand how to monitor a minimum frame rate.I have tried the Hotfix 8.3 drivers but they made no difference to the stutters. I'm hopeful that the 8.4 drivers due out later this month will reduce them. So for now I'm back with the 8.2.They seem to be linked to AA. I've set it via ATI Tray Tools and also within FSX. If I switch it off and slew upwards it's a lot smoother. I might report this to Ray Adam's forum and see if anyone else is getting it. Is it necessary to have AA at 1920*1200? It was introduced when resolutions were a lot lower.I don't get them running FS9. Even with the higher frame rates I'm sure I would notice if I did. One way that's easy to spot them is by entering slew mode at EGLC Rwy 28 and hitting Q to go straight up. I get a lot of stutters doing this test.I haven't had any experience of the 8000 or 9000 cards from nVidia but I'm sure the ATI drivers will get better with each new release and they do seem to be ahead of nVidia in this respect.Good luck with your choice. Sorry I can't be of more help.

I found a 3870 overclocking version at Bestbuy. For $250 I said to meself, get it stupid, and try it out. OK, I did and it's excellent. Looks great in FSX and runs without a hitch. It came with the 8.2 driver release. I haven't done much with it yet but today I will check out FSX further, CoD2, CoD4 and Bioshock.I can't find a review for it so if anyone sees one please post it.http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?sk...d=1203815034383

Hi sargeski and Ray,many thanks for the feedback, highly appreciated. Ray, I've also seen your thread about AA and stuttering in the main forum. I'll be using a 24" monitor at 1920*1200 so I'll be in the same boat. Will keep you guys posted about my choice and experience with it.Cheers, Holger

The 8.4's are now available: http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx

You beat me to it! :-) Downloaded and will be installed within the hour.More later...

The new 8.4 drivers are returning virtually the same 3DMark06 score as the 8.2 ones - 12835 and a big improvement on the 8.3 ones (8422).No obvious changes in FSX. Still the same excellent visual quality. Hard to see how it could get any better.

Could some 3870 owners explain how the card tops a 8800GTX.Despite a lower framerate, its visually better?The impression I had from reviews was it runs a fair bit louder and hotter, and frame rate is a fair bit lower with FSX?I thought the 2nd Gpu and its related memory is not used by FSX so its effectively a 1 GPU video card with 512mb of 256 bit wide ram,compared to 768mb of 384bit wide bandwidth in a 8800gtx?I thought Phil Taylor suggested it was bandwidth that is key in FSX?Maybe someone can post/link to some full size screen shots , give a location and I'll post the same so we can compare.