ATI 4870 STOMPS 4850

[Guest JIMJAM]

Ive been playing Crysis since I posted here on my initial FSX opinion so I have not had time to experiment with settings.I am new to ATI s if anyone wants to post their Catalyst settings,feel free.For example, edge detect,adaptive ai,smooth vision,box,tent?Does FSX even know they exist or use them?I have most my settings at let application decide.I am afraid FSX could care less about all these new graphics tec advances. Usually FSX bites back if you try to use them.I am unable to turn off the in game aa/af and let the ATI driver control them.I get NO aa/af but after doing some searching, I do not think anybody is.So any advice or settings you are having good luck with plz post.

[Chuck_B 2]

JimJam - Go into CCC and start with these 3D settings:Standard Settings: Move the slider all the way to the right to 'quality' and then CHECK "Use Custom Settings"Anti-Aliasing: UN-check "use application settings" and move the slider to 4X -- start with this and then move up to 6X or 8X depending on your system's performance -- and leave "Box" in the Filter dropdown.Enable Adaptive Anti-Aliasing, set slider to "Quality".AF = Set Slider to 16XCatalyst AI: Move slider all the way right to "Advanced".Mimap Detail Level = Set slider to "High Quality".Review All Settings, and then under 'More Settings' tick the check the box to "Support DXT texture formats".That should get you started -- YMMV.

[Guest JIMJAM]

I will try these Thanks.Earlier tonight I think I tried every combination but I always had to enable them in game to get any aa/af.Even then, the runways are slightly jagged and while airborne, the ground in the distance looks like heat rising from the concrete in the summer.Overall its not bad but its such a pretty picture with GEX and FEX that you want it right. Jaggies and shimmers just irk me.Just fooling around, I lowered my native res from 1900 down to 1280 and it looked about the same.I hit alt/enter into windowed mode which btw with the 8800gt would ctd, the picture actually looked better with less shimmers and that heat effect.BTW-What should my settings be in fsx.Trilinear,Ansio?Filtering on/off?As is,I cannot turn them off and override them like I could with nvidia/Nhancer.Thanks, Jim

[Chuck_B 2]

After you adjust your settings make sure MOM.exe is always running in the background -- don't shut it down. That's ATI's native program that holds all of your AA and AF settings for your display. If that doesn't work, keep ATI's CCC panel running at all times until we get this sorted out -- Your jaggies should be near non-existent at 4x or 6x AA -- even at your higher res. I run mine at 4x across 3 screens -- ANALOG connection no less -- and it's crystal clear.Let me know what happens. BTW, Thanks for your original post. I switched to nVidia's 8800 GTX card 3 or 4 months back and have always been disappointed in the picture quality. Had I not spotted your post in the daily digest, I would never have even looked at this card, thinking ATI will never get the clouds right.Do we think new management over there kicked somebody in the pants? Really, really HARD??

[Guest JIMJAM]

I know Nvidia,s shareholders are taking a beating.I did a quick stock read and they are bleeding red.Releasing so many cards and flooding the market with one after another with small performance gains if at all and mostly all hype caught up to them. I remember I always bought the top of the line and then skipped a generation.The whole dx10 debacle hurt but their official excuse refers to alot of $$$ lost on returns and warranty repairs.Enough on Nvidia. They got my money for years.I still cannot get my aa/af.Changes in the Catalyst still do not seem to make much of a difference.I was getting some stutters and by accident and desperation, clicked on alternate dvi operaton mode and the alternate pixel center.Now its smooooth as butter.Was it those changes or did something else kick in?Maybe in the morning the computer will not even boot.BTW-I run dvi from the card to the Sharp Aquos at its native 1920x1050 32bit 60 refresh.Looks really good at altitude and the planes,cockpits are incredible.Just low or sitting, straight lines are jagged. The horizon looks fine also.

[Chuck_B 2]

Make sure AA is unchecked in MSFS. I'll look at my settings again tonight when I get home.When you uninstalled the nVidia drivers did you do so from Control Panel and then boot into safe mode and then run Driver Cleaner Pro to remove all trace? You shouldn't have ANY jaggies, but if you've been running nVidia for long, I remember that when I switched it took me some time to finally get ATI's AA to kick in -- can't really remember why right now but I'll try to do some research and email you back.

[Guest djt01]

>I still cannot get my aa/af.>Changes in the Catalyst still do not seem to make much of a >difference.I just got done installing the

[Guest JIMJAM]

Looks great.When I originally removed the Nvidia drivers,apon reboot I could hear the xp "sound" but had a black screen. I had to boot into safe mode and load vga drivers so I could see what I was doing.Same thing when I uninstalled the 8.7s to reinstall the 8.8.Yes I have driver cleaner.In game if I turn down the setting to tri or bilenear,the ground blurs and does not load.If I uncheck the other,no aa no matter what I do in Catalyst.QUESTION-When you uninstall ATI drivers if gives you 2 options. One they "recommend". I do not remember exactly what if said but which method should I choose?Would the latest ati tool beta be worth trying?They say the 4 series cards are now suported but as I have learned, FSX does not get along well with other programs and being a beta......

[Guest djt01]

>Looks great.>When I originally removed the Nvidia drivers,apon reboot I>could hear the xp "sound" but had a black screen. I had to>boot into safe mode and load vga drivers so I could see what I>was doing.>Same thing when I uninstalled the 8.7s to reinstall the 8.8.>Yes I have driver cleaner.>In game if I turn down the setting to tri or bilenear,the>ground blurs and does not load.>If I uncheck the other,no aa no matter what I do in Catalyst.Its sounds like a driver installation issue. Going from an Nvidia video card to an ATI video card I never take any chances, I always reformat. I

[Guest JIMJAM]

I would rather have my nails ripped out than do a FSX reinstall right now.The last time after a new raptor HD flew apart, it took me 3 days to reinstall all my addons.My best freind owns a computer store and he has been waiting for me to crash it good again requiring a os reinstall.At that point, we plan on doing some upgrades to the mob,proc and ram.Maybe around XMAS but right now I am fairy content with my performance other then the lack of aa/af which has plagued me since sp2.

[Chuck_B 2]

Don't reformat: I've gone back and forth between nVidia and ATI so many times this past 6 months my computer is begging for therapy. :-)Are there still nVidia entries in your .cfg file? I only fly FS9 so I can't remember if it's called FSX.cfg or what, but make sure you clean all references to nVidia out of the configuration and untick any AA and AF settings in FSX (see Sam's posts above) -- CCC should be the one to handle all that, and then restart an FSX flight using the new card.If that doesn't work, try a complete unistall and reinstall. In case you don't know what I mean, here's the process: Download the latest v8.8 CCC manager software to your desktop. Now, uninstall ALL existing ATI software and drivers through the Windows Control Panel "Add/Remover Programs" applet -- EVERYTHING, sound drivers all of it. Reboot into safe mode. Run Driver Cleaner Pro to clean out ATI. Shut down when done. Physically take out your ATI card and put your old nVidia card back in. Reboot. Click cancel when windows finds your new card - do not reinstall it. START AN FSX FLIGHT -- just open one, don't fly it, just open it and then close it after a few seconds. Then, reinstall your nVidia drivers. Reboot into normal windows mode. Now, unistall all nVidia software through control panel. Reboot into safe mode and run Driver Cleaner Pro to remove ALL nVidia Software. When done, shut down completely and put your ATI card back in. Reboot into normal windows mode and click Cancel when Windows finds your new card. (You should have a display of about 800x600 at this point.) Double click on the CCC software you just downloaded onto your desktop. When the install is done you will need to reboot.After the last reboot, make all your settings at the various levels in CCC manager and make sure you have the very first selection unticked so that you can make custom adjustments in the various user levels of CCC manager. When you next run Flight Simulator you should be good to go.One last thing: if you get any black screens during this process be patient -- let windows do it's thing. Part of the reboots during this process is windows "unlocking" the drivers and deleting them -- if you click through or force it into Safe mode you could be short stepping that process and driver remnants may be left behind.

[Guest djt01]

>I would rather have my nails ripped out than do a FSX>reinstall right now.>The last time after a new raptor HD flew apart, it took me 3>days to reinstall all my addons.>My best freind owns a computer store and he has been waiting>for me to crash it good again requiring a os reinstall.>Don't reformat: I've gone back and forth between nVidia and ATI so many times this past 6 months my computer is begging for therapy.LOL, not very good advise but to each their own. If you

[Guest JIMJAM]

I will try an driver reinstall and do a good cleaning.Earlier I did check my fsx.cfg and there were 3 4870 card listings all showing 3 display resolutions I tried.I eliminated all but one but did not see anything from Nvidia.I do not think a os reinstall is going to make a difference.When my raptor hd failed, we replaced the hd,reinstalled the os and I still had problems with NVIDIA. Menu CTDs,NO AA/AF. Nhancer had mixed results but never fixed the menu crashes. I was able to get FSX more stable by running in windowed mode but lost ALL aa/af.Betreen me screwing with settings,XP,FSX,lightning and all this made in China hardware, a os reinstall will come soon enough on its own.

[Guest JIMJAM]

Earlier, I would activate a profile and open FSX.Overall ok but the usual jaggies.Turn aa/af off in fsx and it looks BAD.Exit FSX, activate profile.... FSX looks BAD.Obviously NO aa/af at all.Turn them on in the menu, back to looking ok.Ok so both MUST be checked ON in the menu.------I just opened my FSX.CFG and changed the 1 to 0 on both aa/af.Saved, activated the Cat profile and did not close it but minumised it.Open FSX and even though the menu shows bilenear and antio off, its looks good.Same mild runway/taxi jaggies but considering both are OFF in the menu, I am making progress.So either the Catlyst control must remain open when I fly or when I make a FSX menu change, its not being carried over from the .cfg or vice versa.Ohh geezzzz......FSX and Xanax.:+ Think I would have blown a fuse in my head by now if not for modern chemistry.

[jdk2 1]

Same issue here at 1680X1050 on a 2232BW. No amount of fiddling will make AA and AF look spectacular on this 4870 in FSX. The 8800GTS 640MB card that it replaced was no better with blurring textures and such.Hopefully, these ATI drivers are not mature enough yet to take advantage of the latest hardware. Of course I said the same about nNidia, what... two years ago :-roll Regards,Jim Karn