ATI 4870 STOMPS 4850

[Guest JIMJAM]

Like alot Ive been waiting for a excuse to dump Nvidia.The menu CTDs and driver musical chairs has got the best of this 10 year Nvidia owner.The bfg 8800gt was a great card but I put in a 4850.Same old FSX aa/af problems were still there but the overall clarity and look was better.Hard to explain but just cleaner looking.BUT!-It CHOKED BAD in the clouds.Bad enough that the card was almost useless unless you are vfr and stay out of em.Forget real weather settings when its ifr.ActiveSkyx. HA HA YOI GOTTA BE KIDDING!Needless to say I was upset.Today I moved up to the 4870 which requires 2 power hookups and is larger.Its also VERY hot.http://www.xtremesystems.org/FORUMS/showthread.php?t=192932A MUST MOD is the "fan fix mod". Its easily done simply by creating a profile, editing it by changing the fan from automatic to manual. Then entering you number you want. In my case I used 50. When you activate that profile that big ol fan comes to life and cools it way down.I have a open case with a artic fan cooler but even with my clock settings maxxed, cooling is no longer a problem.Fps overall is approx 20% or so better but the big difference is that the clouds/haze do not choke the card.I also noticed vc drawing speed up 2x as fast. Tree shimmer is also better.I run 1900x1050 and can tell a difference in the overall smoothness.Running fast and low in helis I can see a noticable improvement in the fluidity. That critical landing flare in planes is also smoother.Im guessing the faster ram is making the biggest difference.For 1/2 the price as the latest monsters which may or maynot do FSX any good, I can report IMO that the 4870 does rather well.I have not ran the card with other games as I have converted over to the PS3 but results Ive seen are very positive.

[flying_w 58]

I didn't think there was a huge difference in GPU clock speed between 4850 and 4870, but between the RAM there is, GDDR3 v. GDDR5. So perhaps RAM speed is a significant factor. Do you fly with AI, and notice any differences between the cards in that department?It will be interesting to see how FSX handles on some future Nvidia card with the wider memory bus connected to GDDR5.

[FLEX1978 373]

AI is Cpu intensive... but yes the 4870 is mindblowing when hooked up with a fast CPU, the best GPU upgrade yet.Rob

[Guest JIMJAM]

Gotta Love Competition!These 2 cards are going up against $400-$600 cards. Well they were now Nvidia is slashing prices.Judging performance is hard for me especially if I get ask how it fares against the BFG8800GT OC I have.I run GEX,FEX,512 clouds,UTX and Use X-graphics runways,lights,airport candy ect.I dropped ActiveskyX and use FSX weather.Most scenery settings are all left, Buildings and autogen are one down from full. Whats that dense?I also use Mytraffic X at about 20 -30 airline and 20-40 GA.I have most ALL the payware planes and helis worth having.One day I am flying at tree top level in the Alphasim Blackhawk into bases I created with Instant Scenery.The next I am at Edwards with the X-15 doing mach 4 at 300 thousand feet.The next flying the Aerosoft Twinn Otter out of lukla or FlyTampa's St Barts.A2A 377 out of Megascenery Hawaii.I still have problems with aa. Its a MUST that I have aa/af enabled in game.It seems I cannot override them with the Catalyst.Remember I am new to ATI so I am still learning.The overall picture is GREAT. Still have the warts but thats FSX but Nvidia or ATI's fault.Ive also noticed some settings seem free.Bumbing up water from high/low to 2 low had a big graphics efffect but NO fps hit.Same with bumping up the ai,cars and some other settings.I am getting a occssional stutter but have not touched the .cfg or fooled with the cards settings much.----The catalyst AI,Box,tent,edge detect are all unknowns to me so any ATI users feel free to school me.I also just saw a new driver released from ATI and Nhancer and ATITOOLs are due to be released with suport for these new cards.Nvidia or ATI users this is a good time for us all.

[flying_w 58]

Glad to hear of your great experiences with ATI. Now if only we had that sense of competition between Intel and AMD, at least as far as processor for FSX are concerned.Simon

[Guest JIMJAM]

These massive gig cards are like mini space heaters spinning your electric meter like a saw blade and its getting ridiculous.Reminds me of the muscle car fad in the 50s-60s.There are only a few games which really even use any of this massive power and ram and they are bugggy as ####.FSX is a fossil by todays standards and its shouldnt take all this firepower just to get acceptable performance.The 4850 stomps the 8800gt in all games except FSX.I think this race to see who has the biggest and fastest needs to slow down and we need some quality games and let the programmers catch up.Yes, Nvidia,Ati,Intel and AMD going at each other is good but having someone go after MS and FSX is what I want to see.$500 mini jet engines that can run a small town just to get 5 more fps is insane.

[Guest djt01]

>but yes the 4870 is mindblowing when hooked up with a fast CPU, the >best GPU upgrade yet.The best GPU upgrade yet for what? With CPU bound games/sims the GTX 280 still out does the 4870. With the exception of a few games I have that take advantage of multi-GPU (which do run amazing) my 4870X2 still falls short of the performance that I get with the GTX 280.

[Guest JIMJAM]

How much was that GTX 280 a few weeks ago?You can find some real steals on Ebay on Nvidia cards right now.Sub $300/200 ATI cards right up there with the $600, I mean $500,no wait $400 Nvidias :-lol -Were you the one that said I needed to get a clue?"Unlike others I don

[FLEX1978 373]

[Guest JIMJAM]

"Anyway I'm not one of those guys that like to start ATI V NVIDIA wars"Me neither.I have no product loyality betreen either ATI or Nvidia.I have not used a ATI card in 10 years.In another post, I brought up the observation that alot were upset with the poor perfomance of the expensive and new Nvidia 280 card.These new monster dual gpu gig cards just were not living up to the hype.Especially among FSX users.The usual "the drivers need to mature" was the usual excuse.Anyways,This guy laughs at me and tells me to "Get a Clue".Just a freindly jab at him.He post 2 pics of 2 vid cards still in the box worth over a grand easy.Anyone with that kind of disposable income in this hobby should not take it personally anyways.But telling me to "Get a clue" got me a little :-fume

[flying_w 58]

I have gone from Ati Rage, Nvidia ti4200, Ati 9800 Pro, Ati X800XL, to Nividia 8800GT. Whom gets the turn next we'll have to wait and see. At the time, the 8800GT was the best game around. I really look forward to what will be on offer in 6-9 months time. Which ever camp you sit in, if either, the competitve situation make you a winner. And that is without even mentioning "larabee"Simon

[Guest JIMJAM]

Agreed.FSX is the only game I have installed.I went strickly PS3 for my shooters and racing games.But I am going to reload Crysis today.Its been patched 2x and reviews are that the 4870 run it VERY well.When I played it 6 months ago with the 8800gt, the fps was bad and I had to lower the details down to nothing.So out of curiosity, I am going to reload it amd see.Same with Bioshock.

[Guest djt01]

>But telling me to "Get a clue" got me a little :-fume I said get a clue because you stated that the 8800 Ultra performs better than the GTX 280 with FSX, which is total BS. You then posted a link to Toms Hardware and to a review that used the beta 177.39 drivers with the GTX 280. Please let

[Mace 1,939]

>>But telling me to "Get a clue" got me a little :-fume >>I said get a clue because you stated that the 8800 Ultra>performs better than the GTX 280 with FSX, which is total BS.>You then posted a link to Toms Hardware and to a review that>used the beta 177.39 drivers with the GTX 280. >Well even if he was wrong (which he was) that's still no excuse to tell him to "get a clue". That's not very civil and should have no place here. ;)Regarding the 4870 series cards, looks like ATI/AMD has finally got something that can handle clouds--is this correct? This is what I am gleaning from this thread.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

[Guest djt01]

>Regarding the 4870 series cards, looks like ATI/AMD has>finally got something that can handle clouds--is this correct?Not really, I tested FSX with the ATI 4870X2 over the weekend and it looks like it still chokes in heavy weather. I