FSX and nVidia GTX280 anyone yet?

[Guest SpeedBird192]

Would like to get feedback on those that have the new nVidia GTX 280 and use it with FSX? Stability, performance increase/decrease, visual quality, etc.?I'm also looking at the soon to be released ATI 4870. But early reports is that 4870 suffers AA performance hits.I don't want a multi GPU implementation (Crossfire or SLI) as neither is truely useful to help FSX along.On a Side note: good to see someone is re-writing the FSX engine for use in TS, we've long since known the FSX engine needed a re-write from ground up. XPlane 9's current ability to use hi-res textures at all distances (still DX9 too) and be very frame rate friendly on current hardware, is proof of concept that it can be done and FSX texture swapping is very out dated. This IS good news.

[Silverbird 115]

>Would like to get feedback on those that have the new nVidia>GTX 280 and use it with FSX? Stability, performance>increase/decrease, visual quality, etc.?>>I'm also looking at the soon to be released ATI 4870. But>early reports is that 4870 suffers AA performance hits.>>I don't want a multi GPU implementation (Crossfire or SLI) as>neither is truely useful to help FSX along.>>On a Side note: good to see someone is re-writing the FSX>engine for use in TS, we've long since known the FSX engine>needed a re-write from ground up. XPlane 9's current ability>to use hi-res textures at all distances (still DX9 too) and be>very frame rate friendly on current hardware, is proof of>concept that it can be done and FSX texture swapping is very>out dated. This IS good news.>>HI Phil has some links in his blog. http://blogs.msdn.com/ptaylor heres the Nvidia GeForce GTX 260/280 Review from tomshardware. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/nvidia...80,1953-15.html

[Guest Pilot533]

Btw the 4870 doesnt suffer any hits from aa, that was one of the main fixes with r700, Infact heavy use of aa is where the 4870 really moves ahead.

[Guest djt01]

>Would like to get feedback on those that have the new nVidia>GTX 280 and use it with FSX? I just installed an EVGA GTX 280 FTW in my machine last night.The card so far leaves a lot to be desired and is a big disappointment. Issue number one is the fact that Nvidia provided no fan control with the drivers that support the card, I

[Guest D17S]

However noise aside, does it help the game in any way? If yes, in what way? For grins, play with this (add these lines to the FSX.cfg file):{BUFFERPOOLS}Poolsize=512000000The chat has it that FSX can only use 512M of Vcard memory directly (hope not, but that's the scatt). However if it's so, that leaves the other 512 available. Set bufferpools to 512M (512000000). See what happens. This is supposed to help in direction changes when whole new scenery areas need to be loaded. The buffer stores this data for quicker access. I'm running mine at 50M. I have a 8800GT/512, so I'm "buffering" 50Ms. I'm still playing so can't tell if it works or not. A lot of this is soooo subjective. Don't expect dramatic . . . anything. When you're done with that, THEN play with TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=XThis sets how many frames the system renders per second. For instance, lets say you are locked at 20FPS - and (generally) maintaining that in the frame counter. However you are also getting the stutters. This means that some of those 20FPS are Not making it to the screen. By setting the TBM to 40, the system will render 40FPS in the background. It will "fire" 40 FPS into that 20 FPS environment and (hopefully) it will pick-up some of the frames the system is loosing. In other words, it will (might) reduce the "stutters." Start at 100 and work your way down to 20. Increasing this number will increase the frames (PS) available, but will also Significantly INcreAse CPU (GPU?) load. There will be a crossover point where the increased load overwhelms the increased FPS availability benefit. In other words at some point, higher will NoT be better. Find this point and nudge in a click below it. I tried 80-90, but the extra system load actually slowed things down. I ended up at 40. It seems to be my sweet spot (It's the default too. Whatdya know). I'm not sure if the load is CPU or GPU dependent, so play around with it and see what happens. This will change the Stuttt-t-tter characteristic, so turn stuff up until it starts to stutt-tter, then play. You might notice they don't entirely go away, but "soften." Next: Now . . . get Process Explorerhttp://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinte...s/bb896653.aspxNow delete the bufferpools lines and let the system have all the Vram it'll take. Set up a killer flight into a huge environment (JFK?). Set everything to the right. Big clouds, the works. Set the columns to to watch "Virtual Size" while you are playing. If you are running a 32bit system, I'm betting you'll take out that 3G switch limit in a heartbeat. Lookee here (with a 512 card): http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/190001.jpg(Also note that "WS Private" is my physical ram load. Everyone go spend $35 for that 3rd and 4th gig already!)The op system's "Virtual Size" function adds in the Vcard's memory. If VS uses the GTX280s entire 1G of Video memory, we are in Big trouble. 32bit users are pretty much out of business. I'm just outta LFPG in the PMDG 744 inbound to Aerosoft's gigantic airport addon, EGLL. The only reason I'm still running at all is my 64 bit op system. A 32 bit's 3G limit would have ended this show (OOM'd) about 10 minutes outta Paris. However I'm not sure if even my 64bit op system will survive this impending EGLL approach. Stay tuned.Don't send it back yet. We gotta shake it down.

[jackcnd 0]

djt01 ... can you comment on the 280's FSX performance vs your last card?

[McCrash 3]

I think that review might be misleading because we don't know what the settings are in fsx. On the graph it shows 'max details'. So what does that mean?

[Guest SpeedBird192]

Thanks for the information on your GTX 280 with FSX. After doing more research your experience would appear to be about the same as other GTX 280 owners. Very loud fan noise, moderate to worse performance, overheating, driver issues.One article (in german from Tom's Hardware) shows the GTX 280 as being about 30% slower than an 8800GTX in FSX. This was VERY surprising to see.Think I'll be waiting to see how the ATI 4870 does, supposed to be out within the next couple of weeks.As far as the re-write of FSX engine, not sure I wanna get into that cause it goes down a slippery road of how one wants to define re-write.Yes, Xplane uses OpenGL -- not sure what your point is there? Agree, the highest resolution in Xplane 9 isn't as high as FSX, but it is pretty close and with FSX you only get that very high resolution in a very small radius. Point being, Xplane appears capable of displaying on average a higher resolution images at considerable further distances than FSX and does not suffer texture swaping/morphing scenery like FSX. Don't get me wrong, not saying Xplane is better overall, it isn't -- both do certain aspect very well -- just need to figure out how to combine the best of each into a single experience :)

[Guest djt01]

>Thanks for the information on your GTX 280 with FSX. After>doing more research your experience would appear to be about>the same as other GTX 280 owners. Very loud fan noise,>moderate to worse performance, overheating, driver issues.>>One article (in german from Tom's Hardware) shows the GTX 280>as being about 30% slower than an 8800GTX in FSX. This was>VERY surprising to see.>>Think I'll be waiting to see how the ATI 4870 does, supposed>to be out within the next couple of weeks.So I don

[jackcnd 0]

Wow what a turn around!The nvnews forum link seems full of 280 overheating issues?Hope your able to compare framerates from your Ultra and the 280 with FSX.

[Guest SpeedBird192]

Any results yet with the GTX 280?Still not finding any positive results in FSX with the GTX 280 so far, everyone is still scratching their heads as to why it is so slow with FSX.As far as other DX9 and DX10 titles the GTX 280 seems to do very well, especially in Crysis and WIC and others.But would be interested in your results with DX9 and DX10 Preview mode if you have it running under Vista also. I realize you'll get a 10-20% hit under Vista, but that can be factored into your results.Cheers, Rob.

[Guest Stanknnewbie]

Hey Rob, I just installed an EVGA GTX 280 and let me tell you that this blows anything out of the water! I have gone from 1 8800GTX, to SLI, to Tri-SLI, then the lamest card ever 9800GX2. FSX... 30"... GX2? Not even. My System: Intel Q9450 oc'd to 3.6GHz 24/7 EVGA 780i Vista Home Premium 64 with 8Gb OCZ PC6400 DDR2800 EVGA GTX 280 (step-up from 9800GX2) PC POWER & COOLING 1200 Turbo-Cool PSU (Card runs 40-45 degrees, fan at 100%) Dell 30" at 2560x1600 2 WD 320Gb SATA Raid0 SB X-Fi ExtremeGamer The GX2 will get a fluctuating 18-20 fps, periodicly dipping into single digits upon loading in virtual cockpit using PMDG 747. Thats with scenery sliders at 50%, autogen sparse, anything more the GX2 croaks and crashes back to desktop. This card gets sustaines 20-22 fps upon loading the VC PMDG with all scenery sliders 100% and never crashed. Recording full-duplex with fraps at 2560x1600!!! I love this card! I dont know how it does on a smaller monitor since I got this 30" before my first 8800. Hope this helps, Wallace. check Stanknnewbie's latest youtube video:)

[jackcnd 0]

Seen a GTX280 setup on a 1920x1200 monitor, the system had a quad CPU at 3.9GHz using Vista 64.The card itself is interesting, it downclocks from 600Mhz to 300Mhz in desktop use. Surprisingly, It ran about 15C cooler at idle compared to the 8800GTS. Fan noise compared lower at idle, and higher under load. Temps were good, ranged from 40C - 80C.First impression was it offered little improvements for FSX, but will try and take a 2nd look today...

[Guest SpeedBird192]

Excellent, thanks, could you tell me what you were getting with your 8800GTX using the same resolution and FSX settings?I've seen a few reviews where the GTX 280 was slower (by almost 30%) over the 8800GTX Ultra (for FSX only). The Ultra was getting a solid 30 fps while the GTX 280 was only getting around 23 fps.Also, what driver version are you using.Thanks, Rob.

[jackcnd 0]

Had a chance to use the GTX 280 system again, it does handle FSX very well, once the settings were tweaked.To sum things up...If anyone needs a 8800GTS SSC 640 let me know, I think I may upgrade to the 280 :)Water at 2.x High, settings pretty much maxed within reason.Ground shawdows off, would lock at 30fps just about anywhere.In NYC, 20-30fps, with auto gen 1 click short of max.With the new GTX 280 prices at $499 its one to consider,if you looking for a single card solution, for FSX ...AND... games like Crysis.For FSX alone, the 280 does seem smooth.I don't think framerates have droppedas Toms Hardware indicated. My 8800GTS 640MB SSC does well in FSX too,and same with 8800GTXs and Ultras. If yourrunning one of those and mostly just play FSX,you may want to see whats next...If anyone is intetested in my 8800GTS SSC let me know as seeing Crysis run at 1080P , with AA, I just may upgrade :)