Does anyone know how much memory FSX sees on a video card?

[McCrash 3]

This might affect my decision on my next video card.

[Guest firehawk44]

From what I have seen on FSX forums, anything above 512MB is probably too much. Look at Note 2 of this graphics article on Phil Taylor's Blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/ptaylor/archive/2007...ork-in-sp1.aspx.Best regards,Jim

[Guest harleyman52]

>This might affect my decision on my next video card.Its not a question of FSX..Your question almost makes no sence..LoLIts your computor that uses the memory..If you have 512,it will use that...If you add SLI cards with 512 each..it will still only use 512...Now then...It also relates to your onboard memory..If you run three video cards,and only have two gigs ram in your computer,you will likely get many OOM errors(out of memory) and then CTD...Hope this is clear enough to make sense.....FSX uses no video mem...Your computer uses it to render graphics...

[McCrash 3]

>From what I have seen on FSX forums, anything above 512MB is>probably too much. Look at Note 2 of this graphics article on>Phil Taylor's Blog:>http://blogs.msdn.com/ptaylor/archive/2007...ork-in-sp1.aspx.>>Best regards,>Jimfrom Note 2 of Phil's blog ..."We changed our bucketing code in SP1, so if you use

[Guest UlfB]

McCrash,I'm very curious on an expert answer to your question. My conclusion from reading Phils note is the opposite from Jim's. Seems that FSX will benefit if you got more than 512MB texture memory.But probably there is a limit where more video memory won't matter, because FSX haven't any time available to send more textures to card. So how much video memory that FSX uses depends on how fast your system is. But that's my guess. It would be really intresting to here what Nick Needham has to say on this matter. And it would be fun if Nick had time to test the GTX 280 with FSX and some good nVIDIA drivers. I believe that we won't see the true benefit of the GTX 280 card until the faster Nehalem based systems are availabe during Q4.Ulf BCore2Duo X6800 3.3GHz4GB RAM Corsair XMS2-8500C5BFG 8800GTX, Creative SB X-FiFSX Acc/SP2, Vista 32

[Guest D17S]

How about this: "With the 768m 8800 card out, there was no way (under any circumstance) to stratify that (much vcard memory) above (our previous maximum vcard memory usage) the 512m 7950s. So we (did the best we could and) detect 640m of graphics memory and treat 640m and greater as

[GHD 21]

I can induce VRAM OOM with very dense custom scenery on a 512MB 7900GTX with 4GB RAM running on XP:A slight change of angle shows artifacts:This doesn't happen with a 768MB 8800GTX running on Vista 64.George

[McCrash 3]

GHD, I have seen these kind of artifacts before when using a custom scenery demo on my 7950 gx2. At that time I didn't know what was causing the artifacts.The red arrow points to video memory usage. Below that is another value. What does the Local video memory value mean?

[Mace 1,896]

>This might affect my decision on my next video card.What do you all think about this?32-bit OS, 512 card64-bit OS, 512 or greater card.Some people now say, "Not applicable anymore, as Windows patches/updates have solved the OOM issue with high-mem video cards".I saw some allusion to video mem starvation on 32-bit OS's earlier in this thread, but no one really expanded on that issue.RhettFS box: E8500 (@ 3.80 ghz), AC Freezer 7 Pro, ASUS P5E3 Premium, BFG 8800GTX 756 (nVidia 169 WHQL), 4gb DDR3 1600 Patriot Cas7 7-7-7-20 (2T), PC Power 750, WD 150gb 10000rpm Raptor, Seagate 500gb, Silverstone TJ09 case, Vista Ultimate 64ASX Client: AMD 3700+ (@ 2.6 ghz), 7800GT

[PhilTaylor 45]

>>>from Note 2 of Phil's blog ...>>"We changed our bucketing code in SP1, so if you use

[Guest UlfB]

Phil,Thanks for clarifying :-)Ulf BCore2Duo X6800 3.3GHz4GB RAM Corsair XMS2-8500C5BFG 8800GTX, Creative SB X-FiFSX Acc/SP2, Vista 32

[Guest djt01]

>It would be interesting to experiment with a 1G card by>inducing turning stutters, then working up the bufferpool>number. Where does it stop helping? Same with LOD_RADIUS.>Who's got one of these things?! I

[Guest D17S]

What was the rest of your system? The trick will be to load the system until it just begins to stutter. For instance: With a Q66@3.6/4Gs (@ 60ns/800Mhz BTW;)/ 8800GT512. Res, 1920x1080 8xQ/16AF/std-FSX-etc (Nvidia CP only), I can induce discernible stutters here:Graphic:AnisotropicAA un-chkG Tex VHighLens FlareAdv AnimAircraftGlobal-Ultra HighScenery:LOD LargeMesh comp 100Mesh res 10m Texture 7cmWater 2-lowLand detail tex onScenery Ext denseAG Ext denseG shadows OFF!SE detail HighWeather:Cloud draw 60miThermal noneDownload wind onDisable Turb un-chkCloud Detailed / Coverage maxTraffic Airline 25GA 25Airport 0Road 10Ships 20boats 20Labels onFlight: Download Gary's Seattle test flight and run it.This is my test setup. Now, lock frames at 20 FPS and try to smooth it out. You will generally be able to maintain 20 FPS at these settings. However, a ~ 10 FPS stutter needs to be clearly apparent in forward flight. Panning results more dramatic (and erratic) 1/2 second skips as peripheral scenery loads. It is critical to find this "stutter induction" baseline for - your - system. Then, tweak the FSX.cfg file to improve these intentionally induced symptoms. Note: From here, all I have to do is decrease AG one notch and I have a stable, smooth (enough) FSX platform to fly the default airplanes for fun. That's how "dialed-in" this thing can get. However, PMDG requires All AG/AI/Traffic totally OFF. Even then, it's No fun.GTX280 horsepower test: Forward motion stutters are significantly improved by changing the cfg line:{DISPLAY}TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=X Even though I'm locked at 20 FPS, the system will try to "Fire" (for instance) 40 FPS into that environment to fill the "stutter gaps." It works. I find that 40 is my optimal setting. If a user sets this too high, the additional workload will offset the (supplementary) FPS benefit. But what's getting the workout? If it's the Vcard. Maybe, (just maybe!) the GTX280's additional horsepower might be efectlvely put to work. Set your system to intentionally induce forward flight stutters, then play with this setting. It won't be dramatic. You will likely notice the stutters seem to smooth out, but not entirely disappear. GTX280 Memory test: Pan around. Notice the visual hops and pops? Copy this line into the .cfg file (square brackets): {BUFFERPOOLS}Poolsize=XThis will store surrounding textures for quick pan-around access. I have the 8800GT/512. I use 50M of that 512 for the bufferpool. I need more, but I Don't have it to spare. Gotta Gig of it just hanging around? Cool!Start loading it up and watch for Any other visual anomalies. Start with poolsize=100000000 (100M). Relative to a 512 card, the GTX280 can load 512 into bufferpools and still have 512 for normal Vcard ops. Give it a try and see what happens. Using 512 in the bufferpool should smooth out panning, but -- did it hurt any other video function -- ? If not, 512 is all FSX needs for normal Video operation. This is a science project. What happened . . . and what does it mean?If you need more load on the system to induce your stable-stutter experimental environment, play with this line: {TERRAIN}LOD_RADIUS=4.500000Take it easy with this one, though. I 'bout killed my poor ol' 8800. I went to 10.5 and it hasn't been the same since! 1.0 is Plenty of increment per test run.Just some ideas. Fun to play. See what you get.

[Guest djt01]

>What was the rest of your system? The rest of my system specs are below.So far the only setting in the CFG I

[Guest D17S]

OK. If you want to play, get Gary's test flight from the Avsim library (search FSX/Utilities/Benchmark). Run it a couple of times to get the feel of how it responds on your current setup. Now reset TBM to 40. We're dealing with a Quad vs a Dual, so the settings might not cross reference precisely (even at the same clock). So, just start dialing up the game settings 'til forward flight stutters become apparent. If a TBM of 70 totally smooths out forward flight, crank in some more AG/AI/traffic to get the stutters back. Then go some more with the TBM. I'm hoping the Vcard is providing this TBM function and 100+ will be possible before the GTX280 runs out of umph. This totally theory though. Only the science (shadow!) knows.