One...last...try

[CaptKornDog 288]

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year to all,I've been helping my father pick out a new computer today (part of my family's Christmas present to him). And it got my pondering about one last holiday splurge for myself with a bit of the money I received myself over the holidays.Some of you may be familiar with my FSX frustration post a few months ago: http://forum.avsim.net/topic/288838-my-fs9fsx-reinstall-and-tweaking-journal/page__st__50__p__1820020__hl__journal__fromsearch__1#entry1820020Tomorrow I'm going to head to my local Microcenter to browse (and hopefully purchase) a new video card. It seems to have been one of the overwhelming recommendations I have been given for my system (see my specs in my sig). I am posting this because I would absolutely love to be able to use the MD-11 and JS41 that I own for FSX (maybe even use REX and FSDT too). I purchased the MD-11 combo maybe the second day it came out and have used it for a majority of the time for FS9. I also have maybe ever gotten 3 successful JS41 flights too. In hindsight perhaps I should have gone the Nvdia route for my current system for FSX but I also intend on using it for beyond FS, hence my original decision for an ATI. Now with the ATI 5870 2GB (what I was originally leaning toward), I am uncertain what to select. I'm $4200 deep in my system now so this may truly be one of the last upgrades I invest in for quite some time. I am not a hardware guru by any means and I know there are plenty of NVidia vs ATI threads out there that I have read but perhaps I can ask one more time for opinions tailored to my system. I have tried to listen and compromise all opinions previously to get my system built its current state (for better or worse since I still can't get smooth graphics/flying experiences in FSX) but could perhaps some of you that have enjoyable performance on their FSX systems help a fellow simmer out with this decision? I would greatly appreciate it. I want to be able to purchase, and fly, the 737NG as well, not just let it gather dust like FSX and my add ons are currently. Maybe one of the developers of the 737 could offer an opinion to, based on what you use on your test systems?Thank you so much, I greatly appreciate any insight.

[xamil 0]

Hi. I would go for nvidia gtx 580. My favourites are asus and evga. Also get a good cooler and overclock the cpu. you will see huge improvement on fps

[cslawrence 5]

Hi. I would go for nvidia gtx 580. My favourites are asus and evga. Also get a good cooler and overclock the cpu. you will see huge improvement on fps

To go along with this, if you do go the nvidia route, go with evga. They have a lifetime warranty, which is invaluable. If you decide to go down the ATI (AMD) route, go with XFX. They also have lifetime warranty. FWIW, I have the 6870 and FSX performance for me is stellar.

[NoahBryant 26]

Of all paces on AVSIM - some of the best simmers hang out here so you'll get a good answer here. I would stay with AMD, just because you can crossfire the two together and have plenty of room to add multiple monitors down the road.Your system is superior to mine in every way, except that I have been using dual 4850s until now, and now I am using a 4850 crossfired to the 5870. For whatever reason, my system has always performed better than yours with more add ons and I spent 1000 less almost 2 years before you.

[CaptKornDog 288]

Hi. I would go for nvidia gtx 580. My favourites are asus and evga. Also get a good cooler and overclock the cpu. you will see huge improvement on fps

I would like to avoid over clocking to maintain my system warranty. So, if I solely kept the variables here to a new video card; that is the opinions I'm primary looking for.Thanks

[CaptKornDog 288]

Of all paces on AVSIM - some of the best simmers hang out here so you'll get a good answer here. I would stay with AMD, just because you can crossfire the two together and have plenty of room to add multiple monitors down the road.Your system is superior to mine in every way, except that I have been using dual 4850s until now, and now I am using a 4850 crossfired to the 5870. For whatever reason, my system has always performed better than yours with more add ons and I spent 1000 less almost 2 years before you.

So I guess I'd look for opinions for a 4870 crossfired to a 5870 as an option (I only intend on using my single monitor for now).

[CaptKornDog 288]

And it looks like the 580 and 5870 has a price difference of over $200. $500 for a video card is definitely pushing the limit to me.

[cmpbellsjc 2,963]

I would like to avoid over clocking to maintain my system warranty. So, if I solely kept the variables here to a new video card; that is the opinions I'm primary looking for.Thanks

How much longer is your warranty good for?Changing video cards can and will make some difference depending on what you get, case in point, Ryan (Tabs) just bought one of the newest nVidia cards but is going to either return it or sell it since it doesn't perform as well when using FSX as his old card did.However, the one thing you can do, of which you dont want to do because of your warranty, is overclock that chip and starting running FSX closer to how its capable of. IMHO, it was almost a waste to spend the money on a CPU that costs as much as I am assuming you spent ($1000 ?) and not take advantage of it. You could have bought an i920 and OC'ed it 3.85 or higher, safely I might add and for a fraction of the cost. Not only that but as cheap as an i920 is in relation to an i975, you could have fried it (hypothetically speaking of course) and still had money to buy 3 more replacements.I have a rig that is more than 1/2 the cost of yours, however I am able to run FSX with almost every setting maxed and in most cases and still get FPS in the 20's and higher, mostly around 25 FPS in busy hubs like KJFK and with the PMDG 747 and LDS 767. The key for me has been not so much what video card I have been using, but more about the CPU speed at which I am runing my older E8400. Just going from 3.0ghz to 3.85 ghz has made a world of difference and given me so much more overhead when in dense areas. If you lived in close proximity to me and were able to come watch me do a quick flight out of a busy hubs in the 744X, you would truely be amazed on how good it can run, even on system much worse technically than yours is.It's up to you obviously since its your money and your computer, but once your warranty is expired, I would unleash that beast of a CPU you own and start running FSX nearly all out. I will say this as well. The rig in my sig is the first one I have ever overclocked. Like you I was concerned about voiding the warranty and frying the CPU, but if you take it slowly, use a cooler and check the stability/temps along the way, using todays mobos with the safeguards they have built in, make it nearly impossible to fry a CPU. In fact, it was so easy that I was able to get my first overclock from 3.0 to 3.85 after only a few days of slowly stepping up the speeds and running stability tests along the way. It's been 2.5 years now, and my rig is still in great shape with no signs of slowing down. Even if overclocking takes a year off the life span and the CPU still ends up lasting you 6 years instead of 7, wouldn't it be worth it to get the performance our of it that its capable of?Good luck whatever you do, however whatever change in video cards you make, while it may make a tiny difference, I would imagine it will still leave you feeling unsatisfied, unless the card you have now is actually degrading performance. If you really want to run FSX with some big after market airports, addon a/c like PMDG, and a fair amount of AI, your really going to need to up the speed of your CPU to make a real noticable difference. Of course you can always just stick to FS9 like you have been and wait to see if Flight brings any performance improvement over FSX. Regards,Sean Campbell

[Guest 413X3]

Wow that's a lot of money! $4200 already sans a new video card?? I built one for half that, i7 950, gigabyte router, 6gb ddr3, 1tb wd black, and now a nice Nvidia 580. Finally tweaked fsx and found a sweet spot, everything runs great. I did need to get my cpu to 4ghz but that's only to run high autogen and maxed sliders.

[rocketfs 2]

I would like to avoid over clocking to maintain my system warranty. So, if I solely kept the variables here to a new video card; that is the opinions I'm primary looking for.Thanks

Overclocking is the way to go here. Maybe next time, buy a cheaper processor and overclock it... And maybe a bit lesser memory. 12 Gb is less ideal for max performance (when overclocking)The 4870 X2 was maybe not the best card to use for FSX (it's internally crossfired and I don't know if FSX is supporting it well. Normal crossfiring on FSX is completely useless unless you have very large screen resolutions). What resolution are you running?Any recent high end graphics card should be able to run FSX. But take single graphic cards, not the X2 stuff or crossfiring...I have an ATI 5870 with three times 1400 * 1050 and it runs great.Maybe it's time to stop focussing on getting the maximum of eyecandy and start enjoying the sim by slightly decreasing graphics settings. Stuff like bloom and 2x water settings for example can immediatley decrease your FR's to 1 quarter of what you could have without. Artificial traffic is a killer too.Best Regards,Bert Van Bulck

[rocketfs 2]

Of all paces on AVSIM - some of the best simmers hang out here so you'll get a good answer here. I would stay with AMD, just because you can crossfire the two together and have plenty of room to add multiple monitors down the road.Your system is superior to mine in every way, except that I have been using dual 4850s until now, and now I am using a 4850 crossfired to the 5870. For whatever reason, my system has always performed better than yours with more add ons and I spent 1000 less almost 2 years before you.

So you crossfired a 5870 and a 4850? Are you sure? I think you mean you have 2 different graphic cards in 1 motherboard? But not crossfiredhttp://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/286632-15-crossfire-4850-5870http://game.amd.com/us-en/content/images/crossfirex/CF_combo_chart.jpgBest Regards,Bert Van Bulck

[Ramirin 0]

Interested in a Sapphire 5850 in like new condition including box and accesories for $160 shipped? I'm putting it on ebay later today or tomorrow.

[CaptKornDog 288]

My warranty has approximately another year on it. I also would not have the real estate to support any more cooling, especially liquid; I have 7 fans already (not to mention that added cost). I simply don't have the technical know how to trust myself to do it. Guess there isn't truly a stock, off the shelf, system that can do what I'm looking for (I certainly don't need to go looking for an i7 980X or above either).I run 1920x1080 resolution.I suppose I am leaning toward a 5870 (or 6870, I'm uncertain what the major differences are, still need to research). If a video card improvement would be marginal, no need for me to gamble an additional $200. Maybe I'm just destined to sit on the sidelines =P

[theack777 0]

Ok guys, just wanted to give my 2 cents. My system that I just built from scratch is WAY less expensive than almost all of your systems. It is an i5 760 2.8GHZ (O.C. 3.85) 9500gt SLI and 8GHZ ram. I can run FSX with PMDG products with all my sliders set to about 85% and I get 20+ FPS everywhere. I spent about $870 for my system. So that kind of shows that FSX really only cares about the speed of the processor. My i5 vrs i7 gets the same FPS as most of your i7's with mine being OC'd to 3.85

[rocketfs 2]

My warranty has approximately another year on it. I also would not have the real estate to support any more cooling, especially liquid; I have 7 fans already (not to mention that added cost). I simply don't have the technical know how to trust myself to do it. Guess there isn't truly a stock, off the shelf, system that can do what I'm looking for (I certainly don't need to go looking for an i7 980X or above either).I run 1920x1080 resolution.I suppose I am leaning toward a 5870 (or 6870, I'm uncertain what the major differences are, still need to research). If a video card improvement would be marginal, no need for me to gamble an additional $200. Maybe I'm just destined to sit on the sidelines =P

maybe this might help you in you descisionhttp://www.anandtech.com/show/4061/amds-radeon-hd-6970-radeon-hd-6950http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/01/05/amds_ati_radeon_eyefinity_performance_review/6Best Regards,Bert Van Bulck

Ok guys, just wanted to give my 2 cents. My system that I just built from scratch is WAY less expensive than almost all of your systems. It is an i5 760 2.8GHZ (O.C. 3.85) 9500gt SLI and 8GHZ ram. I can run FSX with PMDG products with all my sliders set to about 85% and I get 20+ FPS everywhere. I spent about $870 for my system. So that kind of shows that FSX really only cares about the speed of the processor. My i5 vrs i7 gets the same FPS as most of your i7's with mine being OC'd to 3.85

Well done!Why spend a lot more money for the last 15% of graphics?I would consider an SSD though. Improves overall PC experiance!Best Regards,Bert Van bulck