Help with tuning my XFX Nvidia FX 5600 card

[Midcon113 9]

Hello everyone,Just received my new Nvidia FX 5600 card last night, 256M RAM, 8x AGP, and installed it into my Dell 2.4G, 1G RAM machine. My initial results are good but not as good as I had expected. Image quality is definately a lot better, and FS9 runs much more smoothly (stutters are basically gone, at least for now). However, my frame rates are essentially the same as they were under my old Nvidia Geforce 440 MX card w/ 64M RAM, unless I run without 3d clouds. Somehow, I was hoping that going from 64M to 256M and from a DX7 to a DX9 card would show improvements in all areas, not just in looks. I'm running the 52.16 drivers.What tweaks and settings should I look at using for best performance? What about for best looks? Or best compromise between both?Thanks in advance for any help!Mark

[Guest allcott]

You can't have it both ways. If you want more fps AND better visual quality, buy a faster chip to go with the better video card!Allcott

[Guest Markyboy]

I bought the same card and was a bit disappointed after upgrading from a GF4 Ti. I was informed by one of my friends after I returned the card that had I reformatted my disk and done a clean install of everything that it would have run a million times better. I don't quite follow the logic but I am reliably informed that it had the desired effect for him and I am long since passed trying to reason anything involving PC's, Windows & Flightsim with "logic".Did you buy it from maplin?markyboy.

[Guest shanwick]

MarkHead over to http://www.fsinflight.com/ where you will find that you can d/load a beginners guide to Riva Tuner and NVidia cards. I haven't read it myself yet but it's claimed to be good.Hope this helps.David

[Bert Pieke 7,585]

You did not say what antialiasing and filtering settings you were using..they would influence the frame rates..Try something resonably conservative first:AA off in FS9 and set to 2X in the display properties along with AF at 4X. 1280x960x32 resolution (assuming your monitor supports this).I bet you a beer that this will give you better framerates than your MX would have given you with the same settings..

[Guest allcott]

The guide at that site is out of date. Later drivers and FS2004/FS9 will NOT benefit from those tips as the later drivers have a patch protection built-in. It is regrettable that old, out-of-date information is offered to simmers as if it was current.Allcott

[Guest Nathan Palmer]

Best advise I can give you as a simmer who did the same kind of upgrade is to delete your FS config file and restart the program. It will write a new config file and you will then see a big improvement. Make sure to make a copy of your old one in case you've made any changes.NP

[Midcon113 9]

Bert (and everyone else who responded),Thanks for your input. After a lot of tweaking around with settings within the simulator, I'm now satisfied with performance. I took your advice and turned on the 2x AA and 4x AF and that dramatically improved the look of the sim. Running 2x AA on the old MX card did tank the frame rate, so you're right, I'm getting much better performance than I did before.It all boils down to those clouds. I love the 3d clouds but they're real hard on frame rates. I was (mistakenly) assuming that the primary problem with the 3d clouds was video memory (or lack thereof). That's apparently only part of the problem; trying to do all the mathematical calculations must still be giving the CPU a headache.Something I am really noticing as being different is the fact that despite lower frame rates, the smoothness of the sim is incredible compared to before. In other words, even with the lower frame rate, the sim is still very flyable.Thanks again everyone!Mark