Any Radeon HD7970 Owners Yet?

[Clutch Cargo 384]

Ya know, I used to believe that Nvidia was the only way to go with FSX, both from what I read and what I experienced myself using my AMD 6970. Never could get it to look as good besides all the side issues. Well, I am a changed man.I was contemplating Eyefinity, so I thought I would take out my 580 and throw in the 6970 one last time not so much for quality comparisons but just to experience the three display effect to see if it would be worth it. So I did a clean install of the new 12.1 drivers of AMD, I then took the suggestion of another user's CCC settings, and then I used the Bejote's tweaking tool to edit my fsx.cfg. I did nothing else, took less than 5 minutes. No shader mod, no special settings, no nothing to see how this would look.Well, for Eyefinity I was none too impressed, yes immersive but there was no way I could get a good eye position in the VC cockpit despite numerous suggestions. Being a game not designed for ultra-wide screens I could understand this.But what really blew me away was for the first time the AMD version of FSX looked better than my Nvidia 580!?!?! I was (and still am),a little bit in shock. What did I do different than my previous attempts? Besides being incrediably sharp and crisp the difference was in the details. I would allways see a litle bit of "jiggle" in scenery, 3rd party airports, and small straight lines like telephone poles or tree limps of trees in winter. (This is using the suggested Nvidia Inspector settings). Looking off in the distance all these would create a bit of "shimmer" as you moved your viewpoint around. This was ALL gone! Or, I would see just a little bit of moire effect on tall skyscrapers (Las Vegas is a good example), as you moves or even sat at the tarmac. Or on great stretchesd of water. This was all GONE! No issues with tearing, water or clouds. I sync my FSP to 30. I still don't know what I did different other than those new drivers but they would not be modding those for DX9? All I know for the first time after running Nvidia for the past 1 1/2 years is that I am actually thinking of removing my 580 to put back in the 6970. I don't even care about the 7970 now. Strange eh?Clutch

[Tor 0]

Deleted

Edited February 7, 2012 by Tor

[Clutch Cargo 384]

This is the post I was referring to. Maybe I wasn't clear enough. Can someone direct me to those settings?

Here are those settings that were suggested to try in CCC. Set these, then use the Bejote's cfg Tweaking and Tuning Tool program to edit your FSX.cfg file automatically. Found here:http://www.venetubo.com/fsx.htmlThat's all I did... those two things and it was the best I had ever seen my AMD card work. Your mileage may vary, ha!OK, here it is:5770 card12.1 Beta driversUse a driver cleaner between every driver install/re-install.AA 4X Filter Wide-tent (not sure where he saw "wide-tent" as I did not see this opting in CCC?)AF 4XTessellation OffCat. AI High QualityMipmap Detail High QualityWait for Vert. Refresh Always OnAA Mode Super-Sample AA............................... If you get a super bad FPS hit with clouds then back this off one notch to Multi-Sample

[Makinen11 184]

Maybe it's your specific card. I have wide-tent and other modes as well. I am using FS9 with 6950 2gb though, and I was using everything at max and the performance was bearable in heavy clouds, the image quality was superb though. I'll see how this fares performance-wise and how much I notice the poorer image and I'll report back. Thank you.Edit: For some reason I get a black screen with Wide-Tent... Only Box works in FS9...

Edited February 8, 2012 by Makinen11

[Rocky_53 1,579]

Ya know, I used to believe that Nvidia was the only way to go with FSX, both from what I read and what I experienced myself using my AMD 6970. Never could get it to look as good besides all the side issues. Well, I am a changed man.I was contemplating Eyefinity, so I thought I would take out my 580 and throw in the 6970 one last time not so much for quality comparisons but just to experience the three display effect to see if it would be worth it. So I did a clean install of the new 12.1 drivers of AMD, I then took the suggestion of another user's CCC settings, and then I used the Bejote's tweaking tool to edit my fsx.cfg. I did nothing else, took less than 5 minutes. No shader mod, no special settings, no nothing to see how this would look.Well, for Eyefinity I was none too impressed, yes immersive but there was no way I could get a good eye position in the VC cockpit despite numerous suggestions. Being a game not designed for ultra-wide screens I could understand this.But what really blew me away was for the first time the AMD version of FSX looked better than my Nvidia 580!?!?! I was (and still am),a little bit in shock. What did I do different than my previous attempts? Besides being incrediably sharp and crisp the difference was in the details. I would allways see a litle bit of "jiggle" in scenery, 3rd party airports, and small straight lines like telephone poles or tree limps of trees in winter. (This is using the suggested Nvidia Inspector settings). Looking off in the distance all these would create a bit of "shimmer" as you moved your viewpoint around. This was ALL gone! Or, I would see just a little bit of moire effect on tall skyscrapers (Las Vegas is a good example), as you moves or even sat at the tarmac. Or on great stretchesd of water. This was all GONE! No issues with tearing, water or clouds. I sync my FSP to 30. I still don't know what I did different other than those new drivers but they would not be modding those for DX9? All I know for the first time after running Nvidia for the past 1 1/2 years is that I am actually thinking of removing my 580 to put back in the 6970. I don't even care about the 7970 now.Strange eh?Clutch

Hi matey, you know something, I'm going round in circles re this three monitor setup we keep talking about and AMD Vs Nvidia conundrum. It's interesting what you say about the AMD 6970, two years back I started FSX seriously and upgraded to a 5750 and have to admit that I was very happy with it. However, after having been bitten by the FSX bug and listened to all the hype at the time about the GTX470 I decided, after a few months, to let my 5970 go and replace it with a GTX470. You know something... reading your post here confirms what I have often thought and that is, there is IMHO a lot of bollocks written about Nvidia cards! Sure, great cards, but you know, when I look back, I never remember having a single problem with shimmering textures or AA problems with the 5970. I run the GTX580 and even now, still cannot eradicate this really irritiating issue.I honestly think there is the old 'emperor's clothes scenario' taking place with the whole Nvidia thing. We are all so taken with these expensive cards and believe because of that then surely they have to be the best. Also, we all want to be seen as being in agreement with the gurus around the forums, after all, if they are all in agreement that FSX prefers Nvidia cards and they are without doubt the best, then who are we as mere mortals to disgaree.I am watching this thread with great interest and hope someone very soon can offer an unequivical evaluation of this card so for once and all we can put an end to this ongoing AMD vs Nvidia debate.A vain Emperor who cares for nothing but his appearance and attire hires two tailors who are really swindlers that promise him the finest, best suit of clothes from a fabric invisible to anyone who is unfit for his position or "just hopelessly stupid". The Emperor cannot see the cloth himself, but pretends that he can for fear of appearing unfit for his position; his ministers do the same. When the swindlers report that the suit is finished, they mime dressing him and the Emperor then marches in procession before his subjects, who play along with the pretense. Suddenly, a child in the crowd, too young to understand the desirability of keeping up the pretense, blurts out that the Emperor is wearing nothing at all and the cry is taken up by others. The Emperor cringes, suspecting the assertion is true, but holds himself up proudly and continues the procession, deciding never to be so vain again and to take his position more seriously Edited February 8, 2012 by Rockliffe

[kludger 7]

Yeah interesting thread, I currently run 2x5870s with the listed settings including SuperSampling except "Box" filter instead of "Wide-Tent" and it is jaggies free, however I get occasional texture flickers and other things using BP=0.It seems like most of the sims I play are all DX9 (FSX, CliffsofDover, iRacing, rFactor2) and I was hoping that the 7970 would challenge the GTX 580/680 for those older titles, but it seems like little info out about it so far and Kepler 680 is still a few months away depending on the rumors... so in the meantime to avoid spending a huge chunk on the wrong thing (7970 or 580), I decided instead to pick up one of the newish Nvidia 560Ti/448 cards that I found on sale for $239 after rebate.The 560ti was supposed to be close to my 5870 on most specs so I think it it's newer faster brother will let me compare apples to apples my ATI5870 and the 560ti/448 for the sims I need it for instead of the typical games that the reviewers always seem to use but I don't care as much about (BF3, Crysis2, Batman etc.).I should have the 560ti/448 card later this week and will test it with FSX and the other sims I play and report results here, then either stick with it longer term if somehow it actually manages to meet my needs for FSX when I overclock it to 570 or 580 speeds, or most likely use my 5870-vs-560ti/448 results in FSX/iRacing/COD/rF2 to make my decision on whether to sell it and go with a 7970 or 680 or something else later in the year once there is more competition in the top end of the market and prices are a bit better than they are now.

[Noel 4,498]

From everything I have read, these cards are going to thrash the Nvidia 500 series in gaming applications big time. What it can or can not do with FSX may be another story, but all things being equal, when linked to fast CPU and RAM it should be the champion, at least until Nvidia releases the 680 GTX.Kind regards,

How much of the legendary processing burden of dense clouds can be attributed to GPU subsystem versus CPU subsystem? If these highest end cards make a big difference here then that ups the ante!Noel Edited February 10, 2012 by Noel

[kludger 7]

I went ahead and got my NV 560Ti/448 and tested it against my ATI 5870 and posted results in the FSXMark11 thread:http://forum.avsim.net/topic/329116-fsxmark11/page__view__findpost__p__2254916I had been happy with my 5870s for modern games (BF3, Dirt3) but FSX and a couple of other DX9 and DX10 sims were not it's strong suit and I was anxious to move to a 7970 or 580/680 hoping for better, now seeing how the 560Ti/448 compares for FSX on my same system, I think I am a new convert to the Nvidia camp at least for the next generation or two, I am still hoping to hear the 7970 is great at FSX so we have more options and competition in the marketplace though.

[SpiritFlyer 987]

I think I am a new convert to the Nvidia camp at least for the next generation or two,.

:yahoo:

[Noel 4,498]

Thing is though, I had a GTX480 and a GTX280 before that and they both sucked at image quality compared to AMD's cards... They didn't have the same AA mode supersampling that AMD has.

This has always been my experience. Radeon cards have had a superior IQ overall compared to nV cards. I AM NOT referring in any way to what AA modes contribute--just talking about how monitors display output. There is a certain crispness that is apparent even before the Windows driver is engage, i.e., even at POST IQ text is more crisp! I'm not sure what that has to do with but I know it's been the case. I am referring to Radeon offerings of several years ago and perhaps it endures today from your comment above.Noel

[Novation 534]

This has always been my experience. Radeon cards have had a superior IQ overall compared to nV cards. I AM NOT referring in any way to what AA modes contribute--just talking about how monitors display output. There is a certain crispness that is apparent even before the Windows driver is engage, i.e., even at POST IQ text is more crisp! I'm not sure what that has to do with but I know it's been the case. I am referring to Radeon offerings of several years ago and perhaps it endures today from your comment above.Noel

As an nVidia user of over ten years, until July last year, I was shocked by the vast gap in IQ between nV and AMD... when my PC turned-up with the wrong card I was dismayed, until I launched FSX and saw it with a clarity I had not seen before. Rather than ditching the AMD card I upgraded to a better one (HD6950 2GB) and am not looking to change back any time soon, despite suffering some serious driver issues with some other games [now resolved]I don't suffer any performance issues with complex cloud layers either, and I love my clouds... And I absolutely do not see worse performance than a mates 560ti specced machine, but it does look far better.I run 8xAA with Supersampling, to keep all the edges clean.If money were no object I would jump on an 7970 for FSX and other games... no question. Edited February 10, 2012 by redline

[Noel 4,498]

As an nVidia user of over ten years, until July last year, I was shocked by the vast gap in IQ between nV and AMD... when my PC turned-up with the wrong card I was dismayed, until I launched FSX and saw it with a clarity I had not seen before. Rather than ditching the AMD card I upgraded to a better one (HD6950 2GB) and am not looking to change back any time soon, despite suffering some serious driver issues with some other games [now resolved]I don't suffer any performance issues with complex cloud layers either, and I love my clouds... And I absolutely do not see worse performance than a mates 560ti specced machine, but it does look far better.I run 8xAA with Supersampling, to keep all the edges clean.If money were no object I would jump on an 7970 for FSX and other games... no question.

That is really good to hear for me as I was always a fan because of this and when I changed to nV missed this greatly. But then as you know you pretty much get used to it and eventually forget. Anyway, I am planning on building a new machine sometime after IB comes, but I'm not even sure yet just what will come out of IB. I am STILL able to cope w/ less than sterling performance because I am able to modulate my use of FSX to match the capabilities of my current machine. From what I gather, even highest end users can't always run FULL bore. When I'm in the NGX (setup for maximal IQ in and out), and in ORBX scenery, in dense weather, and flying out of something like CYVR, I know I can only expect 14 (very briefly) up to around 18-21 while taxiing. After TO, she will stay steady at about the same until up maybe FL050, when fps increases to around 22-23, then thru dense clouds and up and it's shortly locked back on 30. If I fly the NGX out of smaller terminals like KSBA or FSDT Hawaii such as PHLI or PHKO, fps is around 22-24 during taxi. So this isn't bad at all from what I read on avsim. Further, I've got all sliders including clouds full density out to 110m, all terrain sliders hard right, autogen dense, air traffic 30%, car traffic 12%, etc. I have excellent smoothness, texture update rate, and freedom from blurries (relatively speaking I'm sure). And, I'm not (yet) using multi monitors, so that lowers demand. So with this in mind, I really don't want to upgrade unless I am going to be virtually amazed at the improvement! Maybe I will need to wait til intel's next Tock cycle, Haswell. By then, whole new video cards to ponder! We'll see, hopefully IB machines will be particularly FSX friendly, combined w/ native PCIe 3 and a hot new 7970 ;o)

[SpiritFlyer 987]

Are there still not any of the new AMD cards tested in FSX? This is quite surprising as I though there would be numerous early adopters even if they are hard to get.Kind regards,

[cgbart 7]

I guess patience is a virtue.... :Thinking:

[Ben Cap 89]

Are there still not any of the new AMD cards tested in FSX? This is quite surprising as I though there would be numerous early adopters even if they are hard to get.Kind regards,

Go out and get one! You can always post your old card in the TeamSpeak hardware uploads! Edited February 14, 2012 by benorg