I currently have the following memory and video card:

• Video: EVGA GTX 570 1280MB
  
• Memory: DDR3 1600 CL9
  

 

I saw some recommendations and wondered if I switched to the following memory and video cards if it would make much difference:

• ASUS GTX 660TI 2GB
  
• DDR3 2133 CL9
  

 

With my current hardware performance is pretty good but I see significant FPS drops and stutters in complex scenery or heavy clouds and would like to smooth that out as much as possible. I've already OC'ed my CPU, done all the Kostas tweaks and balanced my settings as much as I can. I'm working my way up to more complex simulations, so eventually hope to be able to fly with the PMDG aircraft or one of the fantastic Airbuses or Dash8's that are in the works with good performance (good FSX performance that is, me not so much LOL).

 

Thanks!

ASUS GTX 660TI 2GB

DDR3 2133 CL9

 

If you upgrade to the 660Ti, you will get about a 30% boost in heavy clouds.

 

The RAM will also give you about a 10% performance boost in all scenarios.

Thanks Ben! Sounds like it's worth a shot. :Cowboy:

Nice to know, I was also wondering about this. I do also like fsx with big addons which is smooth with a high level of AA.

I grabbed the EVGA 660TI SC and installed this morning. Don't see any difference in FPS nor smoothness running the GPUMark test with REX 1024 clouds compared to the GTX 570, even overclocking the 660TI (memory clock offset +500 and gpu clock +100). FPS is around 10 on average and drops to zero at times. However if I switch to 512 clouds, FPS jumps to 30 and it runs much more smoothly.

 

So I guess I hit a bottleneck with 1024 REX clouds before they hit the GPU. I'm using Word Not Allowed's tweaks, so Poolsize=0 and FFTF=0.1.

 

If I change the REX water from 1024 to 512, my FPS is cut in half, and the water looks terrible.

 

I might try a clean FSX install and run FSXMark and GPUMark without addons so I can see how my system baselines and go from there.

 

About the memory, I messed up and bought CL11 memory sticks instead of CL9. D'oh! :Doh:

 

I grabbed the EVGA 660TI SC and installed this morning. Don't see any difference in FPS nor smoothness running the GPUMark test with REX 1024 clouds compared to the GTX 570, even overclocking the 660TI (memory clock offset +500 and gpu clock +100). FPS is around 10 on average and drops to zero at times. However if I switch to 512 clouds, FPS jumps to 30 and it runs much more smoothly.

 

Did you do a CLEAN install of your Nvidia driver using Driver Sweeper. Also, did you delete your FSX.CFG?

Did you do a CLEAN install of your Nvidia driver using Driver Sweeper. Also, did you delete your FSX.CFG?

 

I did delete the FSX.CFG and uninstalled the driver but did not use Driver Sweeper. Will give that a go.

 

Gonna be busy for the next few days but will try it next week.

 

Thanks!

I did delete the FSX.CFG and uninstalled the driver but did not use Driver Sweeper. Will give that a go.

 

Gonna be busy for the next few days but will try it next week.

 

Thanks!

 

I just made a GUIDE for clean installing drivers. Let me know how everything works out for you.

Ben, thanks for the help! Really appreciate it.

Ben, you rock!

 

I followed your cleanup guide and re-installed drivers, way better now.

 

Here's a run of GPUMark, with REX 1024x1024 textures and 2xSGSS, and frames locked at 30:

 

 

Frames, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg

8110, 300000, 22, 31, 27.033

 

Seems very smooth in the clouds now. Happy Camper! :biggrin:

 

Thanks again!