THAT is really weird! That seems to me to point more to an issue with FS9 itself and not your card. Have you posted over at the hardware forum? There are some there who may have your experience and a way around it.BTW, I've only flown 2 fights with these new drivers and I get they may have decimated my frame rates. Need to try a few more tweaks before passing judgment, though.

Even more weird as it still happens after a full HDD format and windows etc re-install! But I will have a go on the hardware forum - as others don't have it, there must be a clue somewhere in my system.John

Even more weird as it still happens after a full HDD format and windows etc re-install! But I will have a go on the hardware forum - as others don't have it, there must be a clue somewhere in my system.John

I'll watch the forum but please come back and report what happens -- even if you find nothing.

Steve,Thanks for passing the info. along. I installed 9.3 (4870) and I think the frame rate is more consistent in heavy clouds (FS9). I didn't notice an overall frame rate drop, however I keep the rate locked below my PC's maximum. IQ seems different as well, less shimmering. Just my preliminary opinion however, no time yet for extensive tests.

Hey guys Thanks for the feedback,ive done a bit more testing myself and found that heavy weather doesnt seem to have the same framerate bounce it did pre 9.3 where i had wild swings from 70+ down to 8 and anywhere in between while in or around clouds (regradless of there texture size) now the swings are within 5 or so fps of the max :) im just hopping that now they've started to tweak there drivers for FSX a little they'll spend some time trying to get there performance up to that of last/current gen NV cardsCheerssteve

And the 9.3 seems to have resolved the menu delays in FS9 - great.But "they" have removed the "Alternate Pixel Centre" setting in 9.3 - which means we still have the graphics tear in FSX FMC and other windows.John R

Any thing like these spikes ?http://forums.amd.com/game/messageview.cfm...p;enterthread=y

I had this problem with my 4870 in FSX on my last install with XP, was using the 9 1 drivers I think? I'm now using Vista 64 with latest drivers and this problem is completely cured.

I had this problem with my 4870 in FSX on my last install with XP, was using the 9 1 drivers I think? I'm now using Vista 64 with latest drivers and this problem is completely cured.

Hi All..New member here.Anyone had any more experience with the latest drivers?I'm tossing up between an OC 4890 and a FTX285.. the price difference (over here at least) is around $100+ for the same performance for everything, bar seemingly FSX.. I'd like to see if these drivers have fixed the cloud issues which seem to be the outstanding one.Cheers!

I'm tossing up between an OC 4890 and a FTX285..

Apart from the FSX performance, for mere power draw in idle/2D mode, I would prefer the GTX 285.

I switched from an ATI (Palit HD4670) to n NV (BFG GTX285 OCX) about 2 weeks ago.I appreciate the higher framerate of the NV card at FSX and the low power draw in 2D/idle mode,but on the other hand, I would prefer the colors produced by ATI (especially when watching HD movies)over those of NV.Since April 28 there is a new midrange 40 nm ATI card out (HD 4770). Of course a midrange ATI card cannotcompete with an OCed GTX285.But there is no doubt, that ATI has something more powerful up its sleeves in the performance and high-end sector. Has anyone seen this yet ? Hexus.net - ATI Radeon HD 5870 hits the rumour millWill those new 40nm RV870 based ATI cards (which are supposed to reach the retail stores for the first time at July 9this year, with a future Catalyst version something like 9.6 or 9.7) be able to outperform the current GTX 285 at FSX ?

I don't know about you guys, but I get over 18 FPS in clouds, but still, compared to Crysis, FSX performance could still be a bit better. The problem with FSXs cloud method anyway is it is a bunch of 2D clouds bunched together to produce the illusion of a volumetric cloud, and all those 2D billboards being rendered hurts the card badly, but there is still no excuse for the driver support, so we have to at least make them aware. AA quality is superb in FSX for me though, just use 4XAA or 8XAA in CCC, or if you want an even higher sample, try 4xAA or 8xAA with edge detect.This person has an ATi 4870x2, but he still gets earth shattering perfomance!

>I don't know about you guys, but Email? Nuts with that! I got their number off the website and called them on Friday. I got a very sympathetic but completely impotent tech support who said all he could do was pass along the comments. It was a very polite and respectful conversation on both sides, but lets face it -- I'm only one person.I gave up the FSX fight long ago and went back to FS2004 -- talk about relief from beating your head against the wall! 18 FPS??? That's crazy! But this topic of frame rates and FSX has been going on for over 2 years! If it hasn't been resolved yet . . .

For those that are having problems with their ATI 4870 card's VSync not working in FSX and giving texture tearing, I found D3D Overrider which is bundled with Riva Tuner (free download from guru3D) fixes the problem, but only in DX10 under Windows 7. D3D Overrider does not seem to fix VSync under DX9.Has anyone had any problems with VSync not working with nVidia cards under Windows 7?Cheers,Noel.

Chuck,Thanks. Your system's well up on mine {now 2 yrs old} but that should not affect this issue. Only real difference - mine is a 4850 card not the better 4870. I guess its something in the mobo/c2d/graphics card as I was one of the few with NVidia menu crashes with FSX SP2 {and I spent 6 months + trying to resolve that before I went to ATI}. Something I'll have to live with I guess until I do a full re-build.One pointer - when I am flying on VATSIM and fully connected via Squawkbox there is no menu delay in FS9. But as soon as I disconnect from SB2, the menu delay comes back. Odd eh?John R

I always had that problem with my ATI X800XL, and last time I tried FSX, it was still the case. Obviously only in DX9, but both on XP32 and Vista64 (haven't tried FSX on Win7), in full screen, I get stutters for 2-3 seconds each time I reach for the menu. Problem doesn't appear when in windowed mode, which I ended up using most of the time.I noticed the same problem on Windows Media Player under Windows XP. It seems to be a problem with rendering 2D menus over 3D accelerated graphics (the view in FSX, or a video in WMP). It's better under Vista, probably because of Aero, and the problem disappeared under WMP.I never found a way to fix it, so I'm just crossing my fingers that a new graphic card will solve it. For a long time I thought that the hardware on my Sapphire was to blame, since it was a discounted returned unit.