Hi all,Lately I've been getting fed up with the fact that my video card gives me silky smooth performance in every game I play except the one which I play the most: FS9. As a result, I've been considering selling off my HD 4870 X2 and replacing it with an nVidia GTX 285, mostly because I've heard that my ATI can be "outperformed by a clocked GeForce 8800 GTS," and because the 285 looks like its going to be lowest priced nVidia card that I can get that will give me the same single card performance as my 4870X2 in all of the rest of the games which I play. The problem is that I can expect about $200 from selling my ATI card and the GTX 285 costs about $350 - $400, so the added price will be about $150 - $200, so that leads me to why I'm here asking about all of this...How much improvement can I expect in FS9 above the 10-20 fps I'm getting in high detail areas and with weather with my ATI card, with the GTX 285? Will it take me from somewhat choppy graphics to snot-smooth fps in all circumstances? Or will it give me a minor boost to fps, but nothing good enough to justify the $150 - $200 cost of the deal?I guess you could apply those same questions to FSX as well, as poor frames is one of the reasons I've switched back to FS9, though when I made the switch I was getting 9-18 fps in FSX and 25-50 fps in FS9 (both in high detail areas), so the very fact that the fps counts for both programs are about equal means there is something else going on thats slowing down FS9 at the moment. I guess I would also like someone to point me to any really useful information (stuff that will really get fps back, not random tweaks that might add 0-2 fps under certain circumstances) to help me re-tune FS9 back to working order in the meantime while I'm sorting out the graphics card question.Thanks,Greg

I believe the problem is with FSX/9. I don't sacrifice hardware just for FSX/9, my other games like CoD4 and FEAR2 are more important.

That's just it though... for me at least, I spend at least 3 hours in FS for each hour I play in one of those other games. Thats why I'm trying to figure out if the straight performance gain in FS9/FSX is going to be worth the cost.

One user of the just-released 5870 (single GPU card) has reported great results with FS9, at least. See this post

One user of the just-released 5870 (single GPU card) has reported great results with FS9, at least. See this post

I see, thoguh that cars still costs as much as the GTX 285, and they didn't really clarify the actual boost. I guess I'll ask over there for some quantitative information.

I don't think any of us will see a large gain in FSX performance no matter how much we spend on hardware.FSX was not written to take advantage of todays new hardware and software.However throwing some more megahertz at it does seem to help.Before spending any money I suggest running through Nick's FSX tuning guide here --> http://www.simforums.com/forums/forum_posts.asp?TID=29041 and read about nHancer.

I don't think any of us will see a large gain in FSX performance no matter how much we spend on hardware.FSX was not written to take advantage of todays new hardware and software.However throwing some more megahertz at it does seem to help.Before spending any money I suggest running through Nick's FSX tuning guide here --> http://www.simforums.com/forums/forum_posts.asp?TID=29041 and read about nHancer.

I don't think that nHancer works for ATI cards, does it?

I see, thoguh that cars still costs as much as the GTX 285, and they didn't really clarify the actual boost. I guess I'll ask over there for some quantitative information.

The 5870 performs fine with FS9 but to give an answer about what the

The 5870 performs fine with FS9 but to give an answer about what the

How much do you think having a Q9550 instead of an i7 would affect those numbers? I might be willing to replace my video card, but not rebuild the whole guts of my machine...

Have you tired this clouds for FS9High Definition Clouds from Pablo Diaz! I use them in FS9 with no problems they talk about them here.http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/show...2757&page=8A link to get them is at the bottom. For some reason the 4870x2 from the post I have seen really has more problems with FS9 and FSX weather then the single HD 4800 cards don't know why but there has been tons of post on that card and its problems. Hope this helps.

If your problem is with clouds in the sim, then for all means swap the ATI with a NVidia card (doesn't HAVE to be the 285, really). If your ATI renders dense clouds fine without significant frame rate loss, I wouldn't swap.I changed from a 4850 to a 285 - because of the clouds. Fair weather was 35fps with the ATI, overcast was 12. Fair weather now is 40 with the 285, and overcast is 36 to 40. :-)

If your problem is with clouds in the sim, then for all means swap the ATI with a NVidia card (doesn't HAVE to be the 285, really). If your ATI renders dense clouds fine without significant frame rate loss, I wouldn't swap.I changed from a 4850 to a 285 - because of the clouds. Fair weather was 35fps with the ATI, overcast was 12. Fair weather now is 40 with the 285, and overcast is 36 to 40. :-)

If you don't want to spend the money on the 285, I would seriously consider the 275.

Right now, the choice is between the 5870, the 285, or no change at all... the price is about similar for both of them and I'm just trying to figure out the best to go between the two of them. That being said, not changing is still on the table because I won't be making any $350 upgrade if the end result isn't 100% snot smooth graphics in all conditions and in all locations, add-on scenery in heavy weather included, for both FSX and FS9.Right now I have "acceptable" performance for FS9 (something that still irks me because I get super smooth performance from games which are much heavier on the system than FS9) at about 20-40 FPS in urban areas in weather. I can run FSX, but have to hamper it so much that it just isn't worth the effort and I am sure I won't be able to use any of the high end add-ons like PMDG with my current setup without dropping my frames down to the choppy point even for FSX. So basically, if I am to upgrade, the card must be able to play all of my other games at the same level they are at now, plus do away with FPS worries for FS9/FSX altogether.

I don't think that nHancer works for ATI cards, does it?

Woops! Should clarify.If he goes with the new nVidia card he should check into the nHancer utility, otherwise there are ATI tools to use as well. http://forums.techpowerup.com/But with my ATI and noVidia experience with FS9 and FSX I would stay with the ATI card.

Right now, the choice is between the 5870, the 285, or no change at all... the price is about similar for both of them and I'm just trying to figure out the best to go between the two of them. That being said, not changing is still on the table because I won't be making any $350 upgrade if the end result isn't 100% snot smooth graphics in all conditions and in all locations, add-on scenery in heavy weather included, for both FSX and FS9.Right now I have "acceptable" performance for FS9 (something that still irks me because I get super smooth performance from games which are much heavier on the system than FS9) at about 20-40 FPS in urban areas in weather. I can run FSX, but have to hamper it so much that it just isn't worth the effort and I am sure I won't be able to use any of the high end add-ons like PMDG with my current setup without dropping my frames down to the choppy point even for FSX. So basically, if I am to upgrade, the card must be able to play all of my other games at the same level they are at now, plus do away with FPS worries for FS9/FSX altogether.

100% smooth graphics in all conditions in all locations with heavy weather and addon scenery? Not gonna happen.