The recent artical at Tom's re FSX/SP2 and video cards seems to make the case for 8800GT, esp the 1GB version, with monitor settings at 1900x or below, certainly per dollar spent, if not outright in some situations. What exactly would the additional GDDR3 memory offer, if anything, in FSX? The memory interface is the same of course (8800GT 512 adn 1GB model comparison). You can get teh 1GB version for about $169 now.QX9650 w/ Retail HSF|ASUS P5E3 Premium WiFi|4GB Muskin Ascent 7-6-6-18 1T DDR3-1600|EVGA 8800GT|Seagate SATA 2 x 2|Seagate Cheetah 15K.x|XP Pro SP2|Vista 64--maybe never to be installed

>The recent artical at Tom's re FSX/SP2 and video cards seems>to make the case for 8800GT, esp the 1GB version, with monitor>settings at 1900x or below, certainly per dollar spent, if not>outright in some situations. >>What exactly would the additional GDDR3 memory offer, if>anything, in FSX? The memory interface is the same of course>(8800GT 512 adn 1GB model comparison). You can get teh 1GB>version for about $169 now.>I haven't been keeping up lately. $169?? That seems like a very low price point--not a price point for a high-performance card. If it were me I would be wary of a $169 card being "hamstrung" in some way--such as with fewer pixel pipelines--for example. Double check all of this. I know you will, you know what you're doing.I would rather have one of us FS people test such a card, rather than Tom's Hardware, before I made any judgments.To answer your question, about GDDR3, I do not know, but would like to know. I suspect that 1) mem bandwidth, and 2) gpu core clock are most important, in that order. #1 is what I would look for in an FS card above all else.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

I went from an 8800GT/512 to the GTX260 running my 42 at 19x10. With that bigger pipe (448bit) and all that Vram, I simply saw no difference in nottin' . . . but the 8800GTX/Ultra would make a difference? How be dat me wonders?

Noel, if you're running the 8800GT 512MB now, I wouldn't drop money on the 1GB version, even at that cheap pricepoint. Any performance improvements would likely be very small, and not likely worth the money. They might also be limited to lessening any texture popping, as opposed to raw FPS improvements. (SPECULATION FOLLOWS) It's my understanding that video memory needs to be addressed by the computer just as system memory does, so your available system RAM will effectively decrease when you add in a card with more video RAM. A 64-bit OS with a much higher RAM addressing capability would eliminate this issue, as it can directly address gigabytes and gigabytes of memory more than what you would have in total (4GB + 1GB)(END SPECULATION) For what it's worth, (which is usually not too much!) -Greg

>I went from an 8800GT/512 to the GTX260 running my 42 at>19x10. With that bigger pipe (448bit) and all that Vram, I>simply saw no difference in nottin' . . . but the>8800GTX/Ultra would make a difference? How be dat me wonders??? I am not sure what yer talkin bout there but I can tell you, and you already know this, that vid card manufacturers release vid cards at price points. Low range. Mid range. Hi range. $169 sounds like low to mid to me. 'dat is all.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

Me thinks yall been sniffin to much of that electronics cleaner.You know that air that comes out of that bottle that gits cold.:-badteeth This video card talk has been goin on for over 2 years and is startin to look like one of them varmints chasing his tail with $100 bills shootin out his as*!Do any of you actually fly the sim?And YES, I am from SC and we do talk like dat and YES I am laughing with you,not at you so dont get a attitude.

>It's my understanding that video memory needs to be addressed>by the computer just as system memory does, so your available>system RAM will effectively decrease when you add in a card>with more video RAM. GB)If so would this be a good reason for avoiding cards with 1 gig video ram ie it you end up with less available system ram compared to card with 512MB (at least on a 32bit OS)? Grateful for an "expert" opinion on this.Bruceb

>>It's my understanding that video memory needs to be>addressed>>by the computer just as system memory does, so your>available>>system RAM will effectively decrease when you add in a card>>with more video RAM. GB)>>If so would this be a good reason for avoiding cards with 1>gig video ram ie it you end up with less available system ram>compared to card with 512MB (at least on a 32bit OS)? >Grateful for an "expert" opinion on this.>>Bruceb>Nowadays, 32-bit operating systems must be avoided for flight simulation because using them with modern video cards may decrease radically the available memory for the operating system, programs and data, including the simulator program itself.Modern PC BIOS can remap the large MMIO (Memory Mapped Input/Output) region used by modern video cards (that support 64-bit Base Address Register - BAR) to any available - not reserved by RAM or other hardware devices - address space above the 4GB address, but it only works on 64-bit operating systems.-Emerson

Actually it's not physical ram that is involved in this process. The stuff that (might) come into play with bigger Vcard memory loads is called "Virtual Space" (VS), or a number of other monikers. But whatever one wants to call it, this is ONLY a stratch pad the op system keeps to forcast its best guess about future physical ram loads. It does Not use any physical ram itself (well, maybe a .txt file's worth). This is the 'notepad number' (VS) that causes those OOMs. It's still not 100% clear (to me), but VS could also be tallying-up Vcard ram projections too. If so, this could ramp up VS and cause OOMs. The 1GB/GTX280 has been out for a while now and I haven't seen a ramp in OOMs, so maybe this is not an issue. Hope so.

:-wave From my experience our 1 gig card was the bottle neck in our system. We have a high end system that new 2 years ago and the bought the nvidia 7950 gt2(sli) 1gig ($700.00 CAN at the time, ouch). We were happy at first as it gave us a great looking screen shot and really nice performance. We were able to use FSX from the start. But over time we just kept getting the OOM errors more and more. Recently we switched to the BFG 9800 GT+ 512meg ($179 CAN, what a difference), card and have virtually eliminated the OOM errors. I have done several 15 hour flights and even a 18 hour flight with no trouble. We have notice a some increase in frames in both FS9 and FSX and in picture quality as well, but that's not what we were going for. We just wanted to fix those dam OOM errors In my opinion, I would not have a video card with more than 512megs for now. But that's just me and what works on our system does not mean it will work on someone else system. That is what I have learned over the past few years chasing the golden Frame count!System specs.Core 2 Dual 6800extremeBFG 9800 GT+ 512 meg2 gigs of Corsair 8500 ram2 150 gig rapor X in raid 0750watt power supplyAsus mother boardcreative sound cardblack caseand other things I can't remember

>Me thinks yall been sniffin to much of that electronics>cleaner.>You know that air that comes out of that bottle that gits>cold.:-badteeth >This video card talk has been goin on for over 2 years and is>startin to look like one of them varmints chasing his tail>with $100 bills shootin out his as*!>Do any of you actually fly the sim?>And YES, I am from SC and we do talk like dat and YES I am>laughing with you,not at you so dont get a attitude.JimJam,"And YES, I am from SC"Where in SC are you from? I'm currently in KSPA.Regards,jack

KCUB/KCAEBack 20 years ago I worked for BankAir so I know your area well.Good to hear from you.Jim

I think that the fsx code used to access the video card is just to archaic and out of touch with todays video card technology.