I just built my new rig last month with a BFG 8800 GT OC1And yes there was issue about the FSAA. But it was an easy fix really. Do some Google search.Now my FS9 is flying with addons and stuff!!! So does some other games.---------------------------------------VincentE67503G DDR2 Ram8800GT OC

>I'm about to order a new graphics card, but I'm not sure what>will be best for FSX - the Nvidia 8800 GT or the Radeon ATI>3870 (the single version). The 8800 is supposed to be the more>capable card, but it runs at 600 mhz and has 112 stream>processors. The 3870 runs at 775 mhz and has 320 stream>processors.>>I don't run any other games except FS9 and FSX and I'm getting>acceptable fps. I had a difficult time getting FSX SP2 to work>with the Nvidia driver (finally used nHancer to solve this). I>think going to a 512 mb card will help texture loading.>>I've read lots of reviews on both cards, but they don't tell>me much about performance with FSX. Any advice?>>DaleTry the Visiontek 3870 overclocked version at Bestbuy. Only $250.You have 30 days to return it!I got it yesterday and it works great in FSX. I set my frame limit to 30 and it almost never moves. The fan at 100% is somewhat loud but I let the fan run at the default 25% and the card barely gets hot too. About 49C with Cod4. Rivatuner v2.08 can be used to change the fan speed and I tried setting it at 65% and can hardly hear the fan. The drivers are really smooth in FSX and FSX looks great. I can run FSX at 1900 X 1200 X 32. When installing the ATI drivers the fan sometimes go up to 100% and is loud. Don't let that bother you because it will be dead quiet after the installing routine is finished. I plan to replace the fan anyway.http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?sk...d=1203815034383YES, no more nVidia driver problems!

>Try the Visiontek 3870 overclocked version at Bestbuy. Only>$250.>You have 30 days to return it!McCrash what size monitor do you run?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

I play other games, so if the OP is only using FS might as well get a 8600GT or something

>I'm about to order a new graphics card, but I'm not sure what>will be best for FSX - the Nvidia 8800 GT or the Radeon ATI>3870 (the single version). The 8800 is supposed to be the moreAccording to Toms Hardware the 3870 should be compared to the 9800and the 8800 is clearly more powerful at least with 512M.

There was a discussion about the neutrality of Toms Hardware reviews on this thread. http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=sho...id=36787&page=6Read Nick's post - no 21.Cheers,

Well, I made my decision and ordered a Diamond Viper 3870 512 mb GDDR4 video card. It should be here in a few days and I'll report how it does with FSX on my system.How do you monitor the video card temperature?Thanks again to all who replied.Dale

Hi Dale,Get yourself Ray Adams' ATI Tray Tools latest beta from here http://forums.guru3d.com/forumdisplay.php?f=52That includes options for monitoring GPU temp as well as several other useful ones.I think you'll be very pleased with the 3870. What resolution will you be running?

I agree that you will be happy with the 3870. I have my system tweeked and running at 1680 X 1050 and am getting 45 FPS almost constantly. I have most everything cranked up and am running CCC at TEMPORAL AA Checked, 4X Narrow TentAF: 16XIn FSX I have set it to Trilinear with no AA selected.Also, I set the FPS lock to about 40FPS and that took out some more stutters. Haing it set to UNLIMITED caused stutters for me.MIMAP Detail Level: QualityAdaptive AA: Checked and set to QUALITY & Super SamplingTurnipSPECS:VISTA Home Basic 580 WATT Sunbeam PowerCrucial Ballistix 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAMASUS P5N-E SLI LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 Conroe 2.33GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80557E6550ATI Radeon 3870 512250 GB WD SATA HD 120 GB WD IDE HD[/url]

Thanks for the tip on ATI Tray Tools. I will be running 1400 x 1050. A little unusual, I know, but that is the native resolution for my 20.6 Westinghouse lcd monitor, and it seems to work well with both FS9 and FSX.The latest driver from ATI is 8.4 - is that good for FSX or is there something better?Dale

This is a real Bummer, guys! I purchased the 3870 about two months ago - and was pretty happy with it - both performance and price.. then last week my lovely wife "allowed me to get the Triplehead2Go along with three VA 926 monitors. Well, I hafta tell ya - FSX at 3840 x 1024 brings the 3870 to it's knees, and you simply cannot play Crysis. I've been an ATI supporter and promoter for the longest time - but two days ago I went over to the dark side and purchased the new 9800GTX. It fully, totally, completely, irrevocably - blows the 3870 into next week. I am so disappointed because I really liked the ATI line: I like CCC, and the card worked just fine at 1680 x 1050. You can't run everything full tilt with any card, and I don't much like the high-end water anyway - nor boat traffic; but I do like my ai aircraft, road vehicles, autogen houses and trees, and the 3870 just can't deliver most of that at 3840 x 1024 - and that's why I purchased the card in the first place!It cost $260 Can. The 9800GTX cost me $325 Can. I didn't know it was coming out, and the 8800gtx was just SO expensive that I figured the 3870 was a real deal. Experience is expensive....

Hi Dale,The 8.4 drivers are the best to use at present.

>Well, I made my decision and ordered a Diamond Viper 3870 512>mb GDDR4 video card. It should be here in a few days and I'll>report how it does with FSX on my system.>>How do you monitor the video card temperature?>>Thanks again to all who replied.>>DaleThe card arrived yesterday, wasn't too bad to install, just had to move my sound card to another PCI slot to make room. I'm using the ATI 8.4 drivers without CCC. I downloaded ATI Tray tools, but I'm not sure I have all the setting right as it couldn't read my GPU temperature. I downloaded Rivatuner 2.08 and it shows 42 C at idle, about 60 C with FSX running. I used Rivatuner to set the fan at 60% and the temperature dropped to 52 C.As expected, I don't see much change in fps from the 7600 GT. The image quality is definately better and textures do seem to load faster. It's hard to compare, but I think the "blurries" have improved. I set the AA on the card, off in FSX, and I'm not having any problems with fps around clouds. I'm running 1400 x 1050 resolution (lcd monitor native res) and everything seems clear and bright. I need to try more flights with different aircraft and locations, but, so far, I'm quite happy with the purchase.Dale

Short story: in my system the 8800GT wins over the 3870, but not by much.Long story:I just wondered onto this thread and although you have already made a purchase I thought that I would write about my experience w/ the 3870.I was disappointed because it had blurries while viewing distant water and trees. It was a great improvement over my 8600GT but I ended up running FSX in global high settings. A thought came to me that since I was going to have blurries no matter what I might as well get a faster one since Tom's Hardware reported a the nVidia cards over the ATI ones.So I bought a 8800GT 512 and a 8800GS to test them out. I used nHancer for the nVidia cards and a FSX benchmark that I found on avsim. I've got Q6600 @ 3.0GHz & 8GB PC6400. Here's the results:ALL SLIDERS MAXEDhttp://www.iwilliams.org/fs/bench/BMax1.jpghttp://www.iwilliams.org/fs/bench/BMax2.jpgGLOBAL ULTRA HIGHhttp://www.iwilliams.org/fs/bench/BUltra1.jpghttp://www.iwilliams.org/fs/bench/BUltra2.jpgGLOBAL HIGHhttp://www.iwilliams.org/fs/bench/BHigh1.jpghttp://www.iwilliams.org/fs/bench/BHigh2.jpgGLOBAL MEDIUM HIGHhttp://www.iwilliams.org/fs/bench/BMedHigh1.jpghttp://www.iwilliams.org/fs/bench/BMedHigh2.jpgCONCLUSIONI was impressed that the 3870 kept up w/ the 8800GS and GT (until reaching lower quality settings). The GT was the winner over the 3870 by an average of 1.19 fps. As far as blurriness went all cards have blurries with the 3870 and the 8800GT tied with the 8800GS with just a tad less. As far as pictures quality the cards were all comparable but I thought that the 8800GT did a tad better with the lines and shadows on the ultra light's cables.Normal flying around with the 3870 on global ultra I would get occasional jumpiness with the frames average around the higher teens to mid 20s. Changing to global high the frames increased about 10 and it was as smooth as can be (global high still has stunning visual quality, just not as much autogen).The 8800GT on ultra high I average probably around 30ish. It did dip into the higher 10s on takeoff but it was still smooth so I've left it on ultra.The 8800GS isn't quite as smooth as the GT. It tends to jump pretty bad while moving camera and watching the replays are a joke! The 3870 jumps on replay too, but not nearly as bad as the GS.Noise level the 3870 is the quietest by far of the three followed by the GS then the GT. The GT gets very hot!Links of the cards:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814103050http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/se...E=WEBLET03ORDERhttp://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/se...E=WEBLET03ORDER