I'm on my way to pick this up at best buy and I'll let you know how it works on my system.Ain't nuthin' like a good product return policy! I wish all retailers would "get a clue" with regard to returns. :-)

http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=67928Some really good oc information for any 4870 users who might end up here.Loaded Crysis and the 1.2 patch.Wow. I was actually able to crank up the details and not have a slide show.The highest res was 1600 and my native on my 32 inch Aquos is 1900. Looks great to me but alot of tree/bush/leave shimmers.Whats the deal with trees and video cards anyways?

>Whats the deal with trees and video cards anyways?I think it has to do with the fact that many trees/bushes are made by using flat surfaced objects with alpha channel on the "leaves" and "branches" in the textures. (the area behind the leaves is still your scenery object, but it is made transaparent).Often the boundary between the visible and non-visible part of the texture has a lot of pixelization and near-RGB-0,0,0 black color (if the alpha was made from black, which a lot of them are). Together, this creates a difficult anti-aliasing scenario.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

Here

Nah man this Sharp Aquos is probably one of the best investements I have ever made.I have always loved a big screen and can remember paying over 3 grand for a 27 inch crt.Thing must have weighed 300 pounds.I run both my PC and PS3 on it and LOVE it.First few times flying FSX on it I about got air sick.I am sure my model 32GP1U has been replaced.I originally got the 37 inch from BB but thats just to big. As is I sit back 5 feet in my Pyramat gaming chair. Not the floor model but the executive looking one. Got it from Sharper image before they closed.Pushing the throttles forward and feeling your gutts rattle:-cool I can HIGHLY recommend it!But if either the Aquos or chair broke, I would replace them the next day.Tonight I am giving FSX a break and been playing Crysis.No mouse lag or delay.The tv is loaded with connections and menu settings so you can about set it up for anything.I have different settings for FSX,PS3 and now Crysis.I just need to get a better understanding of ATI's settings,what and how they affect performance.I found using the tvs sharpness has the biggest effect on shimmering.Take your pick. A shiny,glossy shimmering world or a slightly blurred one.Ok, back to saving the world

>my 4870X2How does it perform with...1. Heavy clouds (where the 3870X2 trips-up), aaaand...2. Micro-stutters?Most interested in your reply as am about to get one meeeself!Cheers,-jahman.

MUCH better than the 3870 X2 1 gb OC on my system at least! I just got it last night and bypassed the install CD in favor of the 8.8 ATI drivers and I've flown two complete flights in FS9 with Active Sky, Radar Contact, FS Passengers, and FDC Live Cockpit in my WideFS machine, 90% AI, all sliders fully right and Overland aircraft on my FS9 machine, and the 4870 Frames (which I still keep locked at a modest 28) are AT LEAST as good as my 8800GTX, with the added benefit of ATI's great visuals. NOTE: I did NOT buy the 4870X2. I may have actually cured that nasty "marquee lights taxiway lines" issue at KEWR!! I'm also using Bird's Eye View, Fight Environment, Ultimate Terrain, payware mesh, custom freeware taxiway textures, and all airports are either payware or custom scenery downloaded here at AVSIM. The 4870 wasn't even intimidated by my crappy Simflyers KPHL!I'm about to start approach on the third flight, an 8 hour long overnight haul into LIRF from KEWR, with all of the above addons sans ActiveSky (didn't want too much heat generated while I slept!), and I' pulling less than 270 watts, my cpu temps are at 65 c, and I don't think the card gives off any more heat than the nVidia. I run my box with 5 fans and the side ON. May be too soon to tell for sure, but so far I'm very, VERY pleased. I've always preferred ATI for Multi mon (AA and AF on all 3 screens!!!) but was sure this card would go back to Best Buy before the end of this weekend. But now it's definitely earned a longer stay -- at least through the labor day holiday.

I ran Nvidias for 10 years and the menu ctd plagued me since sp2.I bought the 4850 from BB and as my post says, its poor but GREAT in very other game but FSX.The 4870 on paper did not seem like a huge upgrade but I think the vid ram it uses is ALOT faster.I am tempted to say its either the same or a little faster than my previous 8800gt. However, I do not get the menu ctds but rather just a black screen which I can esc out of.Judging the clouds is difficut. I now use the FEX 256 clouds. Whats strange is even raising the cloud res seems to have no effect on performance.I guess its the combination of settings,addons,machine,ect ect that all come into play.PLEASE- The card with the stock drivers gets HOT HOT.Use the simply profile edit and manually change the fan speed. It loud but even running Crysis last night on mostly high settings for 2-3 hours, the card never got near to what it did earlier just sitting.I posted a link to the edit above or google it.

>PLEASE- The card with the stock drivers gets HOT HOT.>Use the simply profile edit and manually change the fan speed.>It loud but even running Crysis last night on mostly high>settings for 2-3 hours, the card never got near to what it did>earlier just sitting.>I posted a link to the edit above or google it.Thanks, JimJam -- I will do that, for sure, based on your (strong) recommendation.The difference I see is in my side view monitors. ATI has always handled multi monitors much better than nVidia, so I've been hoping against hope that they'd come up with a card or drivers that would handle MSFS and it's clouds. Looks like I may have finally found a winner.

>Nah man this Sharp Aquos is probably one of the best>investements I have ever made.>I can HIGHLY recommend it!>But if either the Aquos or chair broke, I would replace them>the next day.Thanks for the info, I

>> NOTE: I did NOT buy the 4870X2. PLEASE AMEND THIS STATEMENT IN MY POST ABOVE TO CLARIFY: I did NOT buy the 4870X2, but the 4870. I do not believe that I was clear in that I did indeed buy the card, albeit the less expensive, "non-X2" version of the card. Sorry if I confused anyone.

Yeah Ive got the side of my box open with a 1x1 ft fan blowing in.The usual 2 or 3 fans "big" most rigs have.Then I have a fan that sits in a slot above the card blowing down, I got it from BB.Antec VCOOL.Above the proc is a Zalman.Even with all that, when I activate a profile and that cards fan spools up, you can feel the HOT air being expelled.I guess all the fans in the world do not matter if the heat is trapped inside.I also have a fan from Walmart that are great for my 32 inch. The fan is low profile and only about 2 inches thick.It sits behind the tv and keeps it cool.Oh yeah, I have a ceiling fan also.And ac.The green people would go nutts if they saw it all!

Could someone explain why the 280 is better than the 4870 for FSX?I have an 8800GT OC which does fine for FPS (with lots of help from a Q6600 CPU). However, the FSX image is not the best. Most of what I see are blurry images. With GEX installed and flying at 7,000 feet, if I do a hard bank and look down, the image is picture perfect. Level out and look to the horizon and the image is blurry.So, will a new card (280, 4870, ?) fix this or is it still a texture loading issue from (Vista 64 Degragger) defragmented texture files?Regards,Richard

I suggest getting a 4870 from TestBuy, I mean BestBuy and try it.To be honest, I do not think there is answer and its total luck of the Draw with FSX.I have had "along with my freind on a totally different system" had jagged runways/taxiways/horizon in FSX especially after sp2.At 1920x1050 its livable.I also had CTDs when trying to use menus.Aces and Nvidia both point the finger at each other.Some are reporting the 4850's performance is killing the 8800GT in FS9. When I tried the 4850 in FSX, it choked BAD in clouds.Some nights I will go on these net surfing info on FSX.Ive concluded that if there ever was a "system specific" program, its FSX.You get 100 people with the same vid card and proc, you will get 100 different results.My totally uneducated,IMO,wild GUESS is that, "Crap in= crap out.":-lol

I replaced my 8800GT with a 4870 two days ago and I'm pretty blown away. It's faster in everything, FSX included. It's hard to judge with such a CPU intensive application, but I'm definitely seeing higher FPS with it. It absolutely kills the 8800 in other games like TF2 or Crysis, sometimes as much as double the FPS depending on the game.Their flat panel monitor scaling actually works too, unlike Nvidia's - I can play Diablo II now on my 24" LCD and it'll take the 800X600 display and scale it up but not distort the aspect ratio.Great card and a really amazing value considering it can be found online for less than $250 now.