Jump to content
Sign in to follow this  
tfm

GTX285 = big peformance improvement on 8800 Ultra

Recommended Posts

I don't want to sound like an advertisement for Nvidia. But in my personal "acid test" flight, framerates have gone from the ~13-18fps range to the ~18-27fps range (PMDG MD-11, UTX Europe with night lighting, heavy weather, ASA, FEX clouds 1024 bits, 40% airline traffic with My Traffic, final approach to EGLL with Aerosoft scenery, demanding sliders). As anyone who has used FSX with the "heavies" will appreciate, this sort of improvement in the most demanding of situations makes a crucial difference in terms of fluidity and immersiveness. In less demanding scenarios, the framerates are of course much higher.I bought the new card because a couple of glitches made me suspect my 8800 Ultra was dying on me and I had not expected a noticeable performance increase. It's still early days and perhaps I'm still a little over-excited. But my immediate impression is that the simple (if costly) step of upgrading my graphics card has given FSX a new lease of life.On the downside, this new card does NOT resolve the "black screen" problem when using ALT+ENTER or exiting to the main menu after using the PMDG 747X and MD-11X in some situations.For anyone interested, my other (relevant) specs are: Windows 7 beta, E8600@4.32GHz, 4GB DDR3 @ 1600MHz, with FSX + add-ons on a separate RAID0 made up of 3x15k RPM 300GB Hitachi Ultrastar SAS drives attached to a 3ware 9690SA controller. Tim

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Guest Nick_N

NaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaCoMMON!You know ALL you need is a 8800GT!Those high memory/buss cards are just a gimmick!Your seeing things! Especially if you use DDR3 with such cards that can take advantage of the bandwidth.. which by the way is just a myth too! :(Being on DDR3, running the FSB you do on 4+ and coming from a 8800 Ultra the 285 would be the correct card in your case Tim

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Guest UlfB

Fast CPU + GTX 285 = Increased fps in FSX :(

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Fast CPU + GTX 285 = Increased fps in FSX :(
Fast CPU + Fast video card + fast ram (6 gig) and the best overclocking motherboard = increased fps.
Fast CPU + Fast video card + fast ram (6 gig) and the best overclocking motherboard = increased fps.
Did I forget 2 Raptors in RAID = increased fps.There are no shortcuts. LOL

A pilot is always learning and I LOVE to learn.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Guest UlfB
Did I forget 2 Raptors in RAID = increased fps.
2 x 300GB VelociRaptors in RAID0 (not onboard controller), but I don think that performance increase in flight won't make that much difference.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
On the downside, this new card does NOT resolve the "black screen" problem when using ALT+ENTER or exiting to the main menu after using the PMDG 747X and MD-11X in some situations.Tim
I have been getting these too, with both my previous 9800gtx and my new gtx285, across multiple versions of drivers and nHancer. It is especially evident (alt-tab or alt-enter) while using the combination of the PMDG MD-11 and FSPx. I don't think either one by itself is a culprit and I can continue to hear the audio in the background during the screen freeze or black-screen. I can sometimes enter a ctl-alt-del and hit the taskmanger button to 'jiggle' the frozen/black screen video back to full screen; and it continues the session. Something to do with FSPx window being different than the FSX window when AA or AF is concerned? Tripping the driver during task-switching? There are more threads like this in the PMDG forum but it seems to be a combination of things rather than one developer's issue. Much like the early days of troubleshooting the OOM in FS9 before the user address space limits were known on 32bit systems.It acts like a friggin' GPU driver issue and I'm sincerely starting to think, as one other gentleman did in the PMDG forum, that it has to do with GPU settings, specifically AA and AF, which I set in nHancer, following Nick's guides for the past year or so.Is anyone else getting frozen or black-screens when alt-tab or alt-enter out of full screen mode? If running nHancer, have you tried any other settings to aleviate this?

Regards,
Al Jordan | KCAE

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Guest Nick_N

Sounds like the same issue as the dreaded

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Thanks Nick, I will check that out and give it a try. I hope your time away from the forum isn't too stressful. :)I also see the new final version of nHancer just dropped, so I'm going to try that and maybe tinker with a few of your golden nHancer settings to see if I can get to react differently. It must have something to do with the different between 2D and 3D at the driver-level and gets hung somewhere in the transition between windows.


Regards,
Al Jordan | KCAE

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Guest Nick_N

You are wasiting your time with driver settings.. you would not want to run anything other that what I postedThe issue is FSX/DX and the new cores/driversIt was not seen until SP1/SP2 and the newer drivers were released that support its functions

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Thanks Nick, I will check that out and give it a try. I hope your time away from the forum isn't too stressful. :)I also see the new final version of nHancer just dropped, so I'm going to try that and maybe tinker with a few of your golden nHancer settings to see if I can get to react differently. It must have something to do with the different between 2D and 3D at the driver-level and gets hung somewhere in the transition between windows.
I've got a possible update on the black screen issue. I've had plenty of false dawns before so I'm a bit hesitant about speaking out in case I turn out to be wrong again - but on the other hand even if I'm only getting NEAR a solution, someone else might be able to take it all the way if they know what I've found. So here goes:For the last few days I've had trouble-free flights in all my "acid test" flights.The first improvement I noticed was when I uninstalled nHancer and set the Nvidia control panel to use applications settings. I then used FSX's own AF and AA. This helped, but I could still get some textures to disappear at Heathrow.But the next improvement is, hopefully, more profound.The big benefit seems to come from installing a WDDM1.1-compliant Nvidia driver under Windows 7 beta using the "Windows Update" feature. I am not at my FSX machine right now but I think the version number downloaded from the MS site was 181.72.If you believe the MS blurb, WDDM1.1-compliant drivers minimise the overhead on system RAM caused by having multiple windows open. There's a recent bit of marketing spin - ahem, I mean careful journalism - about this subject on the Tom's Hardware site. This is being sold as "new" for Windows 7: but I recall the same claim being made for Vista. I suspect what's happened is that the technology exists in Vista, but the hardware manufacturers are only now beginning to write drivers that can use it. Anyway, the difference IN PRACTICE is this. If I monitor memory useage using a non-WDDM1.1 driver, with FSX and the MD-11 I get a constant creep upwards in FSX's "working set" in the system RAM: 1.5GB, 1.6GB, 1.7GB, 1.8GB, 1.9GB, sometimes 2.0GB, 2.1GB. I can expect the black textures etc at any stage after about 1.9GB. I speculate that FSX runs out of RAM, or contiguous RAM, at about this point.But if I'm using this WDDM1.1 driver, FSX's "working set" creeps upwards - but it STOPS creeping upwards at about 1.8GB or 1.9GB and then seems to "reset" down to 700MB before creeping up again.I don't pretend to have any real idea of what's actually going on, but this behaviour is a definite change from what I previously observed. And I have not yet had any more black texture etc problems.Now two points of caution: (i) I have done so much fiddling with my PC to sort this out that I cannot any longer be sure which solution, or combination of solutions, have worked. For example, I tried installing the "Cleanmem" program (the one which caused a stir a few weeks ago), but this did nothing for me and I believe I have uninstalled it. Therefore, so far as I can tell, the decisive factor seems to have been this new (to me) Windows 7 driver. (ii) I have never been able to use the MD-11 without black texture problems for this long before, but of course I cannot yet be sure that the problem is fixed: it may just be one of those bits of random "good luck" which go away after a while.Tim

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Guest Nick_N

Are you guys talking about textures missing (displaying black) or a completely black screen?What I posted is for a solid screen, not missing textures

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Are you guys talking about textures missing (displaying black) or a completely black screen?What I posted is for a solid screen, not missing textures
What usually happens (or happened) for me was this.After a while, using the PMDG products, pressing ALT+ENTER (for example, to get at Vroute) would shrink (obviously) FSX to a window. The window would usually show SOME texture - typically a blurred version of the ground texture - but the cockpit and any buildings or clouds would disappear partly or completely. Pressing ALT+ENTER would make the same mess go full screen for a while and then, usually, after a few seconds, turn completely black. The sim is still running in the background and - usually - I could press the escape button to end the flight and get back the main menu. But at the main menu, the preview screen (where the rotating aeroplane should be) would be black and I would have to re-start the sim.Even if I mangaged to finish a flight without these problems (basically, if I didn't need to press ALT+ENTER at a "sensitive" moment), when I exited to the main menu the preview screen would almost always be black. I would have to re-start the sim for another flight.It was absolutely maddening and it has bothered me for months. I tried all sorts of things (including, obviously, undoing all my overclock settings). What does it sound like to you? RAM? DirectX? A combination? Or none of the above?Anyway - fingers crossed - I seem to have stumbled on a solution that works, at least in my case.Tim

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

OK, Nick I won't touch the golden nHancer settings but I can tell you the layout on the new version is somewhat different, but the same checkboxes can all be eventually found by searching around the GUI.As for the screens, I was talking about completely black screens when switching video modes. But now that tfm has mentioned it, sometimes I can get a paritial full-screen backup such as panels and what not, but the view-window (out the front window) would remain black. I have also seen the white-screen after screwin' with the task-manager restoration trick enough times in an attempt to get back to full screen.With FS Passengers X (FSPx), it becomes a problem, because some of their screens such as the Progress Report card usually blanks and pauses the FSX screen (when in full mode), much like the FSIUPC GUI does when you bring it up. Well this FSPx report card exagerates the black-screen issue on a regular bases because it's one of it's main features. But now that I'm writing this, how come the FSUIPC GUI doesn't seem to generate a black-screen? Maybe because it doesn't try to force FSX to some kind of minimized, alternate video state?Well, I'm off to load up a saved MD-11 flight along with FSPx, the new nHancer, and your tips from the simviation thread, and see if a can use them in a consistent workaround.


Regards,
Al Jordan | KCAE

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Sounds like the same issue as the dreaded 'white screen' which has been around since the new cores and drivers were released with SP1/SP2http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/Ya...240687624/11#11When you see it.. go to FULL SCREEN mode (with the solid screen)... then instead of hitting ALT-ENTER hit the WINDOW key on the keyboard which should drop you to the desktop.Wait about 10 seconds and then click the MSFS tab. If it does not take you back to FSX, hit ALT-ENTER once and click the tab again (there may be a pause so BE patient)See if the image returnsIf not and still white try the same thing again and see what happenshttp://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/Ya...240687624/15#15
Hmm, interesting result; in full-screen with the MD-11, still on the ground, engines off, without even starting the FSPx add-on.I hit the Windows-key and FSX minimizes from full-screen like you would expect. I click once on the mimimzed FSX button on the task-bar and I then hear the audio of FSX session but no screen. I then press alt-enter once and I get the white-screen in window mode still hearing the FSX audio. A repeated attempt of alt-enter several moments later, turns the all white screen to an all black screen, still in window mode. Several moments after that, I hit the windows-key one time and now I can see FSX in a window mode. But of couse one more alt-enter after that locks the FSX session in window-mode.Who knows...

Regards,
Al Jordan | KCAE

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this  

  • Tom Allensworth,
    Founder of AVSIM Online


  • Flight Simulation's Premier Resource!

    AVSIM is a free service to the flight simulation community. AVSIM is staffed completely by volunteers and all funds donated to AVSIM go directly back to supporting the community. Your donation here helps to pay our bandwidth costs, emergency funding, and other general costs that crop up from time to time. Thank you for your support!

    Click here for more information and to see all donations year to date.
×
×
  • Create New...