January 27, 201313 yr I had both the 570GTX and HD6970. After several weeks of testing/benchmarking (switching cards and making numerous flights in every possible weather situations) I eventually sold my 570GTX. Bare in mind though, I am speaking solely about the performance gotten out of the HD6970 vs that of the 570GTX not ATI vs Nvidia in general... But in my very own experience (something not every AMD or nvidia hater can say really) without any hear-say influences, for me the HD6970 came out on top. +1 Honestly, no matter what brand. At same IQ settings (4xSSAA (not cheapo hybrids), 16xAF, Antishimmer filter settings and high res like 1920x1080 and beyond) EVERYONE gets crappy framerates doing the pattern at KSEA in ORBX scenery with the sliders maxed out in FSX in a PMDG planes in heavy cloud (not fog) scenerio. Period. I know GTX owners that complain about the exact same "heavy cloud" issues. If I use standard MSAA in FSX with my 6950 instead of SSAA, clouds do very little to my performance in general. Even around KSEA or CYVR for that matter. Dollar for dollar and pound for pound, ATI and nVidia are pretty similar in FSX ever since the 6000 series. The 5000 series was iffy and the 4000 series and previous were FSX haters for sure though and HALF of what people say about ATI derives fromold, outdated information and test results or simply misconfigured setups with issues not directly related to thier card. Damn I wish I had the $$$ for a 7950 to go with my overclocked i7 2600K and 8GB RAM. For now I love my 6950 2GB. Does great. But in crappy heavily cloudy REX-E weather approaching the new KSFF (Felts Spokane from ORBX) in my PMDG JS4100 drags my (normally locked at 30 fps) framerates into the high teens and low twenties. And suprise suprise. It does the same to my buddy's GTX card too. Myth busted. C.
January 27, 201313 yr Author Hi Cvearl, Funny how I started this discussion back when and ended up with a Gigabit 7950....and I love it! Temps stay way cool (running at 28C currently) after computing and simming all afternoon, compared to my old 5850 which I could have cooked dinner on by now...LOL. I also use the RadeonPro util for finer settings changes. I use FS9, FSX, MSTS and TrainSimulator2013 in addition to video and graphics editing. I went and tested a GTX670, 680 and an AMD 7970, but best bang for the buck was the 7950. Why, because I was able to pick it up for $269 on sale and the image quality IMO is far better than that of Nvidia especially in video and graphics applications. I run a stock 2500K (see my components) but fly stutter free with reliability. Resolution stays at 1680x1050 but for other reasons than simming. My graphic profiles for the simulators are the norm discussed over and over here based on other expertise. I'm very happy with resolution, display, smoothness and the whole sim experience with my 7950. Regards......Chris Hoping For CAVU --- Chris
January 27, 201313 yr Just out of interest, which version of the catalyst drivers are the HD79xx flightsim gang running at the moment? I have been having panel / instrument flickering like crazy with many of the recent drivers except the 12.11.beta6... I wonder if this is normal or whether it's my system / resolution? Geoff
January 28, 201313 yr I installed the latest Catalyst 13.1 version yesterday for my HD6970. No problems after a 3 hours flight from LTBA to EBLG as smooth as always... As mentionned by cvearl the anti-ATI culture is a legacy of the past 2-3-4000 series which indeed had issues (especially driverwise) compared to nVidia cards at that time. So in a way this is perfectly understandable... Since the 6000 series I can tell out of personal hands-on experience that the difference (if any) in performance is marginal. General mentallity is very difficult to change and I honestly don't really care as long as everybody feels happy about the performance they get with whatever card they use... HonestIy I can't be arsed with having b.i.t.c.hy fights about what's good and what's not and I, for one, am totally satisfied with the performance gotten out of my HD6970. The only thing that sometimes angers me is that I read an awfull lot of ATI bashing coming from people who clearly never tested themself the things they say or otherwise are talking about issues happening with ATI series from another era... my 2 cents Thibault Dosunmu
January 28, 201313 yr Author +1 on the 12.11 beta 6 ....................no problems to speak of but I did download the 13.1 drivers and will update as I have time. Hoping For CAVU --- Chris
January 28, 201313 yr +1 on the 12.11 beta 6 ....................no problems to speak of but I did download the 13.1 drivers and will update as I have time. Actually now have tried the 13.1 and still got the strange panel flickering and tearing. However, I have got it mostly eliminated by re-arranging the order of the gauges in the panel / re-coding the xml gauges (since they are my own anyway). Geoff
February 11, 201313 yr Actually now have tried the 13.1 and still got the strange panel flickering and tearing. However, I have got it mostly eliminated by re-arranging the order of the gauges in the panel / re-coding the xml gauges (since they are my own anyway). Geoff Update to that - 13.2.beta5 does not flicker if the FPS lock is 24 or less. Above that it flickers like hell! Very odd - seems to be something to do with the 2D gauge refresh rate fouling up with VSync... Geoff
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