Best 1Gb or more nVidia GPU for LARGE screens?

[Airtrooper 12]

Just out of curiosity, what processor do you have? I have a Quad Core Q9650 3.0Ghz (hope to overclock some day, when I learn how).Also, do you know how much of your VRAM is being used at any one time whilst flying in FSX?

[darem 84]

Just out of curiosity, what processor do you have? I have a Quad Core Q9650 3.0Ghz (hope to overclock some day, when I learn how).Also, do you know how much of your VRAM is being used at any one time whilst flying in FSX?

I have the slightly slower one (Q9550), but it is OC'ed to 3.24GHz. And I have no idea how many VRAM is used, but I guess a lot of it, having installed VFR Germany 1-3, Switzerland X, REX clouds, UTX Europe and 4096x4096 textures on clouds and my Carendao Mooney *g*

[Airtrooper 12]

I was just wondering, how much regular RAM do you have? I'm using Vista 64-bit with 4Gb of DDR3 RAM and my 9800+ GTX 512Mb. If I upgrade to a 285 GTX 2Gb I'm expecting I'll have to increase my RAM by a similar amount.... BUT I read somewhere that FSX won't use RAM over a certain number of Gb (was it 4, 6 or 8, I can't remember?). Can anyone confirm if this is true? If so, will having so much VRAM compromise my performance in terms of regular RAM??

I have the slightly slower one (Q9550), but it is OC'ed to 3.24GHz. And I have no idea how many VRAM is used, but I guess a lot of it, having installed VFR Germany 1-3, Switzerland X, REX clouds, UTX Europe and 4096x4096 textures on clouds and my Carendao Mooney *g*

[Airtrooper 12]

OK, still procrastinating here! :(I'm set on 2Gb on a 285 GTX.I've seriously looked at the Palit 285 GTX 2Gb. It also has two cooling fans. Is it essentially the same as the Gainward, or is it a different beast? I can't get the Gainward here.Since I last posted EVGA has brought out the 285 GTX 2Gb, SC and FTW. Does anyone have any opinions on these in comparison to the Gainward and Palit 2Gb? The EVGAs have the standard 1 fan and they have compromised on the spec (even with the base model) when making the jump to 2Gb, which surprised me as the others don't. If it wasn't for the compromises on the spec I reckon I would've bought the FTW right away!MSI also have a 2Gb on the way. Anyone know when? Anyone have any advice whether it'll be worth waiting for?

[gman! 1]

Don't want to discourage you, but you are playing a very demanding game at resolutions over 1080p, and at a res that high the CPU will become even more stressed and the GPU will have a hard time keeping up as well. A 2GB card may help you, but it still may not have enough power to play at that res at smooth FPS (20+ FPS), your best bet is to get the card you need, and maybe lower the resolution if you want good frames. I would say 1920 x 1080 would be fine or you could use a different monitor. 2500 x 1600 is the max supported resolution of most GPUs these days, so do not expect great performance at that res. Memory will not help much if the GPU can not processes fast enough, and if you are going to use AA at that res, good luck to you my friend! So again, your best bet is to lower the resolution, or you can get the card and lower your resolution too if it is too laggy at max res. BTW 2500 x 1600 is really meant for Artists and people that do CAD and Video editing, but it is not really a res that is recommended for gaming. Everything looks so tiny at that res anyway! :(If you really want top notch, wait for the Radeon 4890X2. The GPUs will be clocked at atleast 1 GHz, and along with that it will have GDDR5 which is blazing fast, and will give you tons of bandwidth, or you can always go with 1 Radeon 4890 at OC it, because FSX doesn't utilize more than 1 card anyway, plus you still get the GDDR5. Performance still won't be amazing but it will be good at that resolution.

[LUFTY 0]

Hi ThereCan anyone explain why the GTX285 is better with FSX then the GTX295 without taking price into consideration ?I upgraded from an ATI 3870X2 to a ATI 4870X2 and saw no difference in framerate at all.My system is an i7 overclocked to 3.4 GHz on Windows 7 Beta 64 bit with 6 Gigabytes of RAM, 3840 x !024 screen resolution on a Matrox Triplehead Digital edition.Many thanksLufty

[jlohrenz 133]

Are you sure memory is your issue? I'm running 4320x900 which, when looking at total pixels isn't considerably smaller than what you're talking about and I'm using a GTX 260 Core 216 with no issues whatsoever. In fact, the GPU doesn't even heat up that much when flying, so I'm guessing I could push it to more if I wanted to. Just food for thought.

[LUFTY 0]

Hi ThereCan anyone explain why the GTX285 is better with FSX then the GTX295 without taking price into consideration ?I upgraded from an ATI 3870X2 to a ATI 4870X2 and saw no difference in framerate at all.My system is an i7 overclocked to 3.4 GHz on Windows 7 Beta 64 bit with 6 Gigabytes of RAM, 3840 x !024 screen resolution on a Matrox Triplehead Digital edition.Many thanksLufty

HI ThereWell I have tried a 2 Gigabyte GTX285 and this does not improve the framerate at all.My conclusion is that I am CPU bound at 3840 X 1024 and therefore the graphics card makes no difference what so ever.I might try a lower powered GPU to the 3870X2 to see at what sort of performance the GPU starts to limit framerates.RegardsLufty