(FS9) - clouds (cumulus) killing FPS

[Guest JU108]

I have ATI4850 (512Mb), Q9550 (stock 2.8Ghz) and 2Gb RAM. I run FS9 at 1920x1200 with NO AI, no autogen.Whenever the view is toward some cumulus cloud the FPS drop to 15 or so. Otherwise they are stable at locked 30 (i.e. 29.9).Is this due to the ATI card? I had one post previously about switch to new card. If it is ATI and nVidia does not suffer from this, would move to GTX260 be good?Thank you all!Aleks

[Garys 209]

I have ATI4850 (512Mb), Q9550 (stock 2.8Ghz) and 2Gb RAM. I run FS9 at 1920x1200 with NO AI, no autogen.Whenever the view is toward some cumulus cloud the FPS drop to 15 or so. Otherwise they are stable at locked 30 (i.e. 29.9).Is this due to the ATI card? I had one post previously about switch to new card. If it is ATI and nVidia does not suffer from this, would move to GTX260 be good?Thank you all!Aleks

Be sure to check that Super Sampling is not selected in CCC. I have found since moving across to ATI that Super Sampling and clouds dont work well together even with some of the latest 5000 series of cards.

[red1 0]

Also, what type of clouds are you using? Certain ones are the biggest performance hogs.

[TechguyMaxC 516]

What driver revision are you running? According to some other ATi users on these forums, this issue is at least somewhat resolved with newer drivers. It's also possible that your card's limited frame buffer and bandwidth may be restricting performance in this situation.

[Guest JU108]

I am using ATI Catalyst 9.10 with Driver Packaging Version 8.661-090923a1-083743C-ATI 3D settings in Catalyst (NOT ticked boxes for application settings) are:AA=4xAF=8xCatalyst AI=standardMipmap=qualityWait for vert. refresh=offAdaptive antialiasing=disabledI don't see any supersampling option on my card.As said, whenever clouds (except for cirrus or very few) are visible, the fps go down and I can hear the fan speed up. As soon as view is not on clouds FPS goes right back to 30 and, after few mins, fans go down. And just in case it is Saphire ATI4850 with 512MBThank you all for trying to help me out!Aleks

[McCrash 3]

I have ATI4850 (512Mb), Q9550 (stock 2.8Ghz) and 2Gb RAM. I run FS9 at 1920x1200 with NO AI, no autogen.Whenever the view is toward some cumulus cloud the FPS drop to 15 or so. Otherwise they are stable at locked 30 (i.e. 29.9).Is this due to the ATI card? I had one post previously about switch to new card. If it is ATI and nVidia does not suffer from this, would move to GTX260 be good?Thank you all!Aleks

You should double your system memory. What O/S are you using? Is it 32 or 64 bit? What ATI driver release are you using?What are your other FSX settings? Do you have Bloom on? Are you using aircraft add-ons that are tough on a system?

[Guest JU108]

MrC I am running FS9.Anyhow, I gave in and bought PALIT GTX 260 Sonic 216SP.Result = WOW. 8AA, 16AF, 1920x1200. No framerate hit WHATSOEVER in CB clouds... or any cloud for that matter and that is in PMDG MD11, GEPro 2, FSDT Zurich! And my GOD the picture! I never thought FS9 could look like this.I was blinded by all the talk that CPU is the bottleneck... all while it was the ATI4850. I was ATI user since FS98 as I was afraid of all the talk about nvidia drivers/settins issues. With tutorial on AVSIM I set it up within few minutes. Awesome.Next upgrade is from 2GB to 6GB... No idea if FS9 will benefit from it though.Thank you people and thank YOU NVIDIA!

[G-SWSM 1]

Hi.I am in the same position as you. I too am looking to up-grade my tired card, but I have never heard of these PALIT people.Is this PALIT GTX 260 Sonic 216SP really any good, and where did you get it from and how much.Many thanks for any info.PS with the sliders in FS9.1 all maxed out, and in some weather / clouds, did you see any improvement in FS. IE No Blurries etc.Thanks again.

[TechguyMaxC 516]

Yeah, ATI's cards are great for pretty much every game but MSFS. The drivers just aren't optimized for MSFS. Also as mentioned previously your 4850 card is limited by the amount of memory which it has onboard, as well as the speed of this RAM.

[G-SWSM 1]

Hi Gang.Techguy.I'm confused at your reply above, and it seems to be conflicting to what you told me in the other thread.You stated "I'll second Bob's thoughts. A new video card won't help your FS9 experience. MSFS is largely CPU-limited, and your CPU is severely under-powered compared to modern CPUs"And yet in this post you said "Yeah, ATI's cards are great for pretty much every game but MSFS. The drivers just aren't optimized for MSFS. Also as mentioned previously your 4850 card is limited by the amount of memory which it has onboard, as well as the speed of this RAM."And yet Aleks said "I gave in and bought PALIT GTX 260 Sonic 216SP.Result = WOW. 8AA, 16AF, 1920x1200. No framerate hit WHATSOEVER in CB clouds... or any cloud for that matter and that is in PMDG MD11, GEPro 2, FSDT Zurich! And my GOD the picture! I never thought FS9 could look like this.I was blinded by all the talk that CPU is the bottleneck... all while it was the ATI4850. I was ATI user since FS98 as I was afraid of all the talk about nvidia drivers/settins issues. With tutorial on AVSIM I set it up within few minutes. Awesome.Next upgrade is from 2GB to 6GB... No idea if FS9 will benefit from it though.Thank you people and thank YOU NVIDIA!"But he is only on a 2.8 GHz CPU.I'm getting slightly confused now.Woulden't the PALIT GTX 260 Sonic 216SP do anything for me then?Surely it would improve FS for me as it's newer technology that utilises the pipelines etc much better than my older 7800 ever could, plus the almost one gig of on-board RAM would come into play as well..Thanks.

[G-SWSM 1]

Hi.Forget everything I stated above, I have only just realised that the PALIT GTX 260 Sonic 216SP is a PCIE card, not an AGP one.Boy do I feel stupid.Oh well, thanks for the opinions anyway everyone.

[TechguyMaxC 516]

If you're still on AGP it's time for a new system.