Hi thereI was using an nVidia GTX280 for my FS9 setup. Resolution is 1680x1050, and I had a fully customized FS9 with all the AA and AF and quality options at their fullest from the nV control panel working nicely. In some very cloudy situations with many 3d clouds around me (I use REX HD clouds) I noticed the gpu was a bit overwhelmed with my FPS stuttering from the usually locked 30 to 20 or so. I know it is the GPU getting saturated because when I removed some of the AA it was much more stable. I have a core 2 duo 8400 cpu overclocked at 4,1 GHz and 4 GB's of RAM, FS9 with the 4GB tweak in Windows 7 64bit so it is quite ok for FS9.After that, I decided to upgrade, and found a good deal on a used Radeon 5870 PCS+ edition (a slightly o/c model with different cooling from OEMs). As expected, the 5870 literally does circles around my older GTX280 in benchmarks and most modern games. FS9 is a different story altogether though...After happily installing everything (clean drivers with driver sweeper etc) and seeing the performance available, I expected to be able to max out the catalyst control center quality settings and make FS9 look as pretty as ever and get hi fps as well (at least locked in 30). Well, that didn't quite happen... After setting supersampling AA, edge-detect 24x, AF16x hi quality etc. I loaded FS9 and I was amazed at the image quality! All the shimmering the GTX280 had was gone, the textures were so clear and crisp from all angles I almost thought I was using a different sim! All good, until I loaded some weather with ASE around EDDF... The steady locked 30 fps in fair weather with a few puffies around, became an unbearable and tear-inducing 18 or so stutter, with me not believing my eyes. Subsequent tests with AA at 12x, different modes like wide-tent or box, made little difference. Whenever I has supersampling AA and 3d clouds, the 5870 would kneel and surrender putting out a stuttering 16 to 24 fps... Multisampling made it all go away, but then even with everything else maxxed out, the image quality sucked considerably compared to the maximum settings of the GTX280...So, I am at a crossroads now, and I need the help of the FS9 gurus:I am about to sell this back, and pull the trigger on either a 6950 with 2gb's or a GTX560Ti. I would instantly buy a GTX570 but it is way off my budget. So, do I degrade my performance a bit in general use from the 5870 with the GTX560, or upgrade a little bit with the 6950 BUT with the risk of it being sh#t around clouds in FS9 too? Could it be that this "performance bug" is present only in the 5870? Or maybe with the huge ram the 6950 has I could enable the quality filters and use brute force versus FS9? Anyone with a GTX560 and FS9 or a 6950 with full quality and FS9 to testify?

I'm having a similar problem, though I'm running FSX. I currently have a post open, no solid resolution yet. I'm running an i7 2600k at 4.7Ghz with a ATI 6970 running at stock speeds with an Eyefinity setup, 3840 x 1024. It works great until it's near clouds, then it drops to it's knees. I'm locked at 30, and when in clouds it will drop to single digits or very low teens. The only way to counter this problem is to set AA at 2x and then the cockpit and scenery look like crap. Super Sampling is a must for me, without it everything shimmers.I'm considering a GTX 570 or 580 with Th2go but I haven't received confirmation from anyone that this setup won't also be brought to it's knees in moderate to heavy clouds with a decent AA setting. I have FS9, although not installed at the moment, so I can't comment on performance, but in FSX, with anything above AA 2x, and using ASE for weather with cloudy conditions, the 6970 is .....terrible. I should have listened to that little guy in my head saying "don't be cheap and buy the ATI 6970 when you know very well that Nvidia cards perform better in FSX". It was the $700-$1000 for a high end Nvidia card and Th2go that scared me into buying the 6970, now I wish I hadn't.Sorry I can't be more help, but I do feel your pain, it's frustrating. I suppose you can take from my post that a 6970 with 2gb of ram in FSX is not very happy flying through clouds. Again, it might be different in FS9, I get a feeling ATI cards don't like high AA settings and clouds in general. p.s I've tried the 11.1, 11.2, 11.3 and currently the 11.4 beta drivers, no difference.Glen

The most frustrating of all is that these cards actually kick #ss in all other games and are pretty good value for money, but clouds and super sampling is their weak spot I too can't use multi sampling, it looks totally crap and it will be a step backwards from the GTX280, I am looking to upgrade from that, not pay money to play worse. And it's frustrating because FS9 and FSX (in a little smaller degree) are NOT GPU dependant and they are supposed to be childs play for today's GPU's. Not so it seems for ATi

@Muskoka: Have you tried the Shader 3.0 Mod?<br>

Hi Dazz,Don't want to hijack this thread, have my own thread open a few down from this one. To answer your question, yes, and the cfg tweaks and multiple variations of it. Only happy spot when using real weather (FSX own or ASE) is with AA set to 2x, or none to very little clouds of course.Glen

I would also like someone with a GTX570/580 to comment how it handles dense clouds.I'm using FS9 and 8xSQ at the moment. 8xSQ I think is the sweet spot and my current GTX285 is really on the limit, when the clouds get a little too dense it halves my framerates.I lock the fps to 60 and it mostly stays around there, but when the clouds get too dense i get drops to 30 and severe stuttering follows.

I would also like someone with a GTX570/580 to comment how it handles dense clouds.I'm using FS9 and 8xSQ at the moment. 8xSQ I think is the sweet spot and my current GTX285 is really on the limit, when the clouds get a little too dense it halves my framerates.I lock the fps to 60 and it mostly stays around there, but when the clouds get too dense i get drops to 30 and severe stuttering follows.

The 580 works great. I have no stuttering. I use REX for textures and Active Sky 6.5 for the weather. I currently use the "AA_MODE_METHOD_SUPERVCAA_64X)4v12" AA. The GTX-460 did a good job as well. Never tried this AA on it however. 60+FPS

I got myself a gainward phantom gtx 580 with 3 gb of video ram... In severe overcast weather while using the above mentioned aa mode it will crumble. (~15 fps) So i guess even vast amounts of vram doesn't help here... I`m really ######.

I got myself a gainward phantom gtx 580 with 3 gb of video ram... In severe overcast weather while using the above mentioned aa mode it will crumble. (~15 fps) So i guess even vast amounts of vram doesn't help here... I`m really ######.

The 580 alone can't do all the job, it needs to be coupled with a Quad running above 4.0ghz.I use FSX and FS9 at 4.6ghz and GTX580 with memory at 1866mhz. My FS9 display settings are 16xS (combined: 2x2 SS+4x MS)and clouds are easily handled with this setup.Pierre

Hi thereI was using an nVidia GTX280 for my FS9 setup. Resolution is 1680x1050, and I had a fully customized FS9 with all the AA and AF and quality options at their fullest from the nV control panel working nicely. In some very cloudy situations with many 3d clouds around me (I use REX HD clouds) I noticed the gpu was a bit overwhelmed with my FPS stuttering from the usually locked 30 to 20 or so. I know it is the GPU getting saturated because when I removed some of the AA it was much more stable. I have a core 2 duo 8400 cpu overclocked at 4,1 GHz and 4 GB's of RAM, FS9 with the 4GB tweak in Windows 7 64bit so it is quite ok for FS9.After that, I decided to upgrade, and found a good deal on a used Radeon 5870 PCS+ edition (a slightly o/c model with different cooling from OEMs). As expected, the 5870 literally does circles around my older GTX280 in benchmarks and most modern games. FS9 is a different story altogether though...After happily installing everything (clean drivers with driver sweeper etc) and seeing the performance available, I expected to be able to max out the catalyst control center quality settings and make FS9 look as pretty as ever and get hi fps as well (at least locked in 30). Well, that didn't quite happen... After setting supersampling AA, edge-detect 24x, AF16x hi quality etc. I loaded FS9 and I was amazed at the image quality! All the shimmering the GTX280 had was gone, the textures were so clear and crisp from all angles I almost thought I was using a different sim! All good, until I loaded some weather with ASE around EDDF... The steady locked 30 fps in fair weather with a few puffies around, became an unbearable and tear-inducing 18 or so stutter, with me not believing my eyes. Subsequent tests with AA at 12x, different modes like wide-tent or box, made little difference. Whenever I has supersampling AA and 3d clouds, the 5870 would kneel and surrender putting out a stuttering 16 to 24 fps... Multisampling made it all go away, but then even with everything else maxxed out, the image quality sucked considerably compared to the maximum settings of the GTX280...So, I am at a crossroads now, and I need the help of the FS9 gurus:I am about to sell this back, and pull the trigger on either a 6950 with 2gb's or a GTX560Ti. I would instantly buy a GTX570 but it is way off my budget. So, do I degrade my performance a bit in general use from the 5870 with the GTX560, or upgrade a little bit with the 6950 BUT with the risk of it being sh#t around clouds in FS9 too? Could it be that this "performance bug" is present only in the 5870? Or maybe with the huge ram the 6950 has I could enable the quality filters and use brute force versus FS9? Anyone with a GTX560 and FS9 or a 6950 with full quality and FS9 to testify?

I did the same mistake by setting up my card way to high.Although, your problem is not the ATI card it is the settings you are using. "After setting supersampling AA, edge-detect 24x, AF16x hi quality etc"<------ this is over kill for fs9 set 8x and or better yet check what the lowest setting do for your sytem then increase as required.Ati cards are great for fs9 when it comes down to clear smooth image. I have bought the best nvidia cards and never again.Ati is the way to go if you don't want to see those shimmers and jagged lines.Also turn off atilasing in fs9 under the display settings.You do not have to take my word for it just try it out and see. :Big Grin:

Thank you guys for your contributions, and yes, I agree that ATI has the far more superior image quality without jaggies and shimmering. That's why I... (don't throw tomatoes just yet) sold the 5870 and bought a 6970 which should be arriving today. My logic is that if even with overkill settings the 5870 was managing something around 20 fps, the 6970 with so much more raw horsepower should keep it at 30. And even if it doesn't manage the 24x AA with supersampling, I believe it will manage the 12x medium setting which I tested and actually has no impact in image quality whatsoever.So all I can do is wait and see what my 350 euros went forAnd even if it get crippled by clouds as the 5870 with all the quality presets, at least I won't have the jaggies and shimmering I would have with all nVidia cards. What I understood was that it's not that nVidia is better suited for FS or whatever, it's just that their maximum quality settings in their control panel are like the medium-to-low in ATi control panel. So I wouldn't gain anything over my old GTX280 if I upgraded to a GTX570 with the same money as the 6970.

Well, want I meant by over kill is, even though you set it too 24x the sim will only look so good .I set my card the highest and saw no difference at 8x.Nvidia on the other hand is different and to be honest is faster in frames but looks very jagged and takes so many tweaks, no thanks . So why make your card work harder for no reason at all ? The same results can be displayed just the same at a lower settings with less strain on your card in that one area.In return the card will be more stable and faster with the need to not focus on a certain setting which fs9 is limited to anyway.Remember, Fs9 and fsx were not made for all the great features these new cards can even produce. :Big Grin:

I initially had a 5770 for FS9 / FSX and I've always got better IQ with nVidia. If you think that ATI cards have better visuals, it must be that you've never tried the combined (supersample + multisample) AA modes available for nVidia cards and not for ATI cards, via nHancer/Inspector@acmech, AA runs entirely in the GPU and has nothing to do with how FS9 or FSX where programed. It's true that drivers can be optimized for a particular game if it's GPU limited for better performance, but that has nothing to do with what's being discussed here.

I would also like someone with a GTX570/580 to comment how it handles dense clouds.I'm using FS9 and 8xSQ at the moment. 8xSQ I think is the sweet spot and my current GTX285 is really on the limit, when the clouds get a little too dense it halves my framerates.I lock the fps to 60 and it mostly stays around there, but when the clouds get too dense i get drops to 30 and severe stuttering follows.

I was using till last month only FS9 on my old rig (old, ahum...) I5/750 with GTX 275 because FSX was to tricky for me. I used REX Extreme for FS9 and never had any problems with clouds. Recently I collected myself a GTX480 and finaly Pandora's box was open to make the renewed steps in FSX now. Now I have a SB 2600K running at stockspeed together with a GTX480 and tonight I made my weekly Austria VATSIM wednesday flight with the Level-D to Innsbruck and had a large cloud cover over Austria with the tops of the alps coming thru the clouds and it was awesome... By the way, I'm using Nvidia 3D Vision so my GPU has to work very hard. Long story short, I have made Bojotes tips and tricks and have the external FPS limiter running at 30 FPS and a flight as smooth as silk, even with the HD REX clouds and again, a hugh cover over the alps so do yourself a favor and get yourself a GTX480 or even better, a GTX580 and you are welcome in FSSim Nirvana. Happy landings...

If you could comment on how the GTX 570 handles extreme AA supersampling modes and 3d clouds in FS9 and not FSX, I would be obliged... I know FSX works great with Fermi GPU's, but FS9 has different shaders and graphics, and it seems is even less optimized for AA in new GPU's. So, back to the topic I started, the 6950 2gb version I got, works well, but in some cloud situations with 3d clouds overcast and many cloud levels it still drops below 20 fps with supersamplingBUT, I am keeping it because the image in comparison with my GTX280 is so much better even though I had the settings maxed out in the V control panel.