Why is a 3GB graphics card not good for FSX?

[MrKen 3]

I believe textures also reside there

[dazz 69]

I believe textures also reside there

Yeah, I think it has to do with vertex buffers and all that stuff. If only Jesús was here to enlighten us...I'll play with it, setting VideoMemoryOverride to very low values and using 64x_4V12 for AA since it's a VRAM hog mode

[MrKen 3]

Which forum does he frequent the most? I really havent seen much of his stuff first-hand

[dazz 69]

The FSX forums. He hasn't been online for 3 weeks

[MrKen 3]

I'll have to start watching over there

[Tabs 2,790]

I have an idea. I'm gonna get the Asus GTX560ti 1GB. That card should be performing great in FSX. When PMDG switches to a new platform in about 6 months I estimate (most likely XPlane 10), I'm gonna buy another GTX560ti 1GB and put them in SLI. Because XPlane 10 is gonna be a 64 bit application. But if I want to put them in SLI, can I buy two seperate GTX560ti's and connect them using an SLI bridge, or do I have to buy a specific SLI set for that card or something? You know, one package with 2 GTX560ti's?Thanks.

We are not switching sims in 6 months...

[Tabs 2,790]

I wonder how does that work. Most of the VRAM usage comes from AA / resolution, which is 100% post processing. I would think FSX has absolutely no control over that....and I don't think there's a problem with running a 3GB GPU in FSX. Most AA modes don't ever use more than 1GB of VRAM. If they use more, your FPS will be in the single digits anyway

Dario, this is straight out of the Microsoft Direct3D SDK:"If an application creates its own in-memory copy of its video resources, or the application uses DirectX 9 or an earlier version, the virtual address space contains the WDDM video memory manager's virtualized range and the application's copy. Applications that use graphics APIs that are earlier than DirectX 10 and that target GPUs that have large amounts of video memory can easily exhaust their virtual address space."Basically 32-bit DX9 apps were never expected to exceed 4GB VAS. (remember how old FSX is here folks - they never expected people to still be using it and pushing it to limits in 2011) If you think about the cards that were out at the time DX9 was the big thing in the wider gaming world, it was stuff like the 512MB 8800GT. All the new games that have come out are DX10 or 11 and don't have this limitation because it all works completely differently under those APIs. On top of that, there's pretty much no DX9 app in existence that creates the high level of VAS usage FSX does - even Crysis in DX9 mode is nowhere near it. Even Crysis 2 or BF3 running in DX11 almost never exceed 1GB peak working set. FSX is just horribly inefficient and sucks down VAS like nothing else out there. Combine that with huge amounts of mapped video RAM and you're asking for trouble. I've seen it a bunch of times at support with people who've got the multi-GPU setups, they take out their other 580 or whatever and the crashing goes away.

[tf51d 284]

I have an idea. I'm gonna get the Asus GTX560ti 1GB. That card should be performing great in FSX. When PMDG switches to a new platform in about 6 months I estimate (most likely XPlane 10), I'm gonna buy another GTX560ti 1GB and put them in SLI. Because XPlane 10 is gonna be a 64 bit application. But if I want to put them in SLI, can I buy two seperate GTX560ti's and connect them using an SLI bridge, or do I have to buy a specific SLI set for that card or something? You know, one package with 2 GTX560ti's?Thanks.

I don't know where you heard it but XP10 is NOT going to be a 64bit application.

[dazz 69]

Dario, this is straight out of the Microsoft Direct3D SDK:"If an application creates its own in-memory copy of its video resources, or the application uses DirectX 9 or an earlier version, the virtual address space contains the WDDM video memory manager's virtualized range and the application's copy. Applications that use graphics APIs that are earlier than DirectX 10 and that target GPUs that have large amounts of video memory can easily exhaust their virtual address space."

Yes Ryan, but the way I understand this is that the "application's copy" is at worst the amount of VRAM in use, not the total amount of VRAM available in the card. So when they say "an application targets" a 3GB VRAM GPU for example, it means that the app is supposed to use it all, but in FSX you can't have that without a massive FPS hit (with uber demanding AA modes or something)With 8xS and no transparency AA your VRAM usage is going to be the same in a 1GB GPU and in a 3GB one

Basically 32-bit DX9 apps were never expected to exceed 4GB VAS. (remember how old FSX is here folks - they never expected people to still be using it and pushing it to limits in 2011) If you think about the cards that were out at the time DX9 was the big thing in the wider gaming world, it was stuff like the 512MB 8800GT. All the new games that have come out are DX10 or 11 and don't have this limitation because it all works completely differently under those APIs. On top of that, there's pretty much no DX9 app in existence that creates the high level of VAS usage FSX does - even Crysis in DX9 mode is nowhere near it. Even Crysis 2 or BF3 running in DX11 almost never exceed 1GB peak working set. FSX is just horribly inefficient and sucks down VAS like nothing else out there. Combine that with huge amounts of mapped video RAM and you're asking for trouble. I've seen it a bunch of times at support with people who've got the multi-GPU setups, they take out their other 580 or whatever and the crashing goes away.

Obviously I'm missing something here. If it's helped others then there must be at least some particular configurations where big VRAM or multi GPU setups can lead to VAS starvation. I didn't really see a bigger VAS usage with SLI myself

[member111333 8]

I don't know where you heard it but XP10 is NOT going to be a 64bit application.

I read somewhere they consider it for a service pack.

[lowlevel 0]

I don't know where you heard it but XP10 is NOT going to be a 64bit application.

ummm, what's XP10?

[MrKen 3]

Xplane10

[lowlevel 0]

ah, silly me :)

[kelvinr 58]

I have Prepar3d and it is down to the fellas over at Lockheed to push this ESP code beyond 2006 and into 2012 and onwards. They are working on DX11 support so regardless of supported addons I will use it with default if it remains stable. Stability, Stability, Stability, that's all we ask for (and of course a decent amount of smoothness). I have it working with all my favourite addons especially TrackIR, EZdok camera, REX, and PMDG. To be honest I could loose FSX and not worry. Even the new fsdreamteam GSX works with P3d and not to forget squawkbox for Vatsim and ORBX NZSI (with SBSL). I'm pretty much converted. And the best thing is.....free Incremental updates right through to Prepar3d 2.0 when it will incur a cost which i will be happy to pay for. Considering that it is likely DX11 will be supported in this build.

Edited March 3, 2012 by kelvinr

[CarlosT 0]

why? test..........