2. Image quality & driver issues - the Catalyst driver doesn't have the high quality combined AA modes that the Nvidia cards do. They do have a full-on supersampling mode, but it is very heavy on performance even on the latest cards. The Nvidia modes can combine fast multisample AA with a lower resolution version of supersampling to produce something that looks almost as good as full supersampling, but without the huge performance hit.

Not sure what you mean by this, the newer ATI drivers do have a AA mode "Multi-sample", it's set at the left of the AA mode section within the "Gaming" option. The very far right is supersampling. From experience when running eyefinity at 5760x1080 the applications AA settings are far more of a performance hit. I can't really say much about the nVidia range, i had an nVidia card but was un-impressed since then i have only bought ATI's, I am very pleased with the FSX results and the performance in other applications. One thing i would say, mine is overclocked and frankly balanced on a knife edge stability wise, but i can run pretty much full settings on everything, exluding the aforementioned application AA which generally i have to switch off.

Nvidia handsdown. Just replaced my ATI4870 with a 560Ti - so glad i did this so much better.

Not sure what you mean by this, the newer ATI drivers do have a AA mode "Multi-sample", it's set at the left of the AA mode section within the "Gaming" option. The very far right is supersampling. From experience when running eyefinity at 5760x1080 the applications AA settings are far more of a performance hit. I can't really say much about the nVidia range, i had an nVidia card but was un-impressed since then i have only bought ATI's, I am very pleased with the FSX results and the performance in other applications. One thing i would say, mine is overclocked and frankly balanced on a knife edge stability wise, but i can run pretty much full settings on everything, exluding the aforementioned application AA which generally i have to switch off.

Multisample AA is the standard AA mode that any card supports. The Nvidia "combined" modes use both multisampling and supersampling AA algorithms at the same time to produce really good image quality without shimmering etc - as far as I know, ATI's drivers do not have an option like this.More full explanation of AA mode stuff in my Nvidia settings thread:http://forum.avsim.n...f-all-settings/

Yeah, I have the AMD 5850 Black Edition and I get a few stutters here and there when flying threw clouds and what not and having some issues with AA. I'm considering the GTX560Ti or the 580.

If youre only going to play FSX then go for nvidia, if you want a real good bang for buck if youre playing other games aswell then go for 6950 in crossfire and unlock them to 6970s.Im never gonna buy the "latest" gfx card anymore, their drivers are crap, always loads of problems and the FPS difference is just lame, nobody really needs 200 fps, as long as its over 40 im fine. and the extra money for the latest can easily be spent on an extra SSD or better cpu.(I went with the 9800GX2 when it was brand new - worst mistake ever, loads of problems - i spent so much time with that computer trying to get it to work, its just insane)Replaced it with a 4870X2 when it was brand new aswell, got tons of problems with them.)This is why you never find the latest gfx cards in for example a dell, because they offer their clients stability over performance.

Ive had no trouble from my GTX460 since I got my new i7 system last year. I get the odd crash due to uiatuomationcore.dll but thats nothing to do with the graphics card. Aside from that the card does everything I ask from it including DCS-A10c and a few other games I play.I will get a newer Gforce card when the price is right =) ATI saying they wont support FSX is just very poor. I mean am I to take it that if I did buy thier cards and sometime in the future If I need support with anygame and they would just not want to know? thats awfull. Andrew Simmons

Yeah, I have the AMD 5850 Black Edition and I get a few stutters here and there when flying threw clouds and what not and having some issues with AA. I'm considering the GTX560Ti or the 580.

Should probably consider the 570 too - I love mine, it's only slightly slower than a 580 - I play all the latest games aside from FSX pretty much maxed at 1920x1200.

Stay Away from ATI, as lots of people already said.Reason? You're going to get some kind of a weird diagonal glitch on all your instrument displays. It's unbelievable their lack of support to the FSX crowd. Ryan said something about it some posts back. It drove me nuts, and now my new PC is going to feature a GTX570, and I don't want to look at another ATI card for a long time.

Should probably consider the 570 too - I love mine, it's only slightly slower than a 580 - I play all the latest games aside from FSX pretty much maxed at 1920x1200.

Thanks. Think I'll buy the EVGA 570 in about two weeks along with the TrackIR.

Thanks. Think I'll buy the EVGA 570 in about two weeks along with the TrackIR.

You will love TIR hehe. Its one of the best upgrades you can make to a Flight Simming PC

I've always been an ATi junkie but am finally considering a change. I've been running a 4870x2 for 3 years now with no meaningful FSX issues at all, i's always been wonderful, until recently. Since, I think, drivers 11.02 I've been suffering occasional vid card crashes which the word on the street suggests is some conflict between a W7-64 update and the drivers. The only way I fixed it was to roll back to 10.11 and havn't been able to use any driver updates post 11.02 (or was it 11.01) which is annoying. I may well be bunging a 570 in soon since my 4870 is now getting on a bit, runs a bit hot plus the above driver issue. (No, the bit hot isn't related to the crashes).

Ive had no trouble from my GTX460 since I got my new i7 system last year. I get the odd crash due to uiatuomationcore.dll but thats nothing to do with the graphics card. Aside from that the card does everything I ask from it including DCS-A10c and a few other games I play. I will get a newer Gforce card when the price is right =) ATI saying they wont support FSX is just very poor. I mean am I to take it that if I did buy thier cards and sometime in the future If I need support with anygame and they would just not want to know? thats awfull. Andrew Simmons

You get CTDs when using in-game menus, right? I know the solution! I had the same issue and it made FSX unplayable. The solution is to get the UIAutomationCore.dll from Windows Vista and insert it into FSX root folder. I've replaced the one in C:\Windows\SysWOW64 with UIAutomationCore.dll too. I've NEVER seen the issue since! :D The Vista one is about 155KB or 156KB in size and the one for Windows 7 is around 550KB. Use the Vista one :D I hope this works for you :D Good luck Btw: I'm using Windows 7 64-Bit

EVGA all the way

I think i'm going to buy this Asus 1GB GeForce GTX 560TI DirectCUIIMy 1-year old Ati 5870 is a pain in the but in heavy clouds (even light clouds!). Do you guys think 1GB is enough?

You get CTDs when using in-game menus, right? I know the solution! I had the same issue and it made FSX unplayable. The solution is to get the UIAutomationCore.dll from Windows Vista and insert it into FSX root folder. I've replaced the one in C:\Windows\SysWOW64 with UIAutomationCore.dll too. I've NEVER seen the issue since! :D The Vista one is about 155KB or 156KB in size and the one for Windows 7 is around 550KB. Use the Vista one :D I hope this works for you :D Good luck Btw: I'm using Windows 7 64-Bit

Thanks hehe. Yea I managed to fix it a few weeks ago, i get the odd crash but so far ive not had a single uiautomationcore.dll crash so thats a good thing =)