I feel like I’m beating a dead horse by asking this question, but getting feedback from an expert FSX community would definitely make up my mind rather than my non-FSX friends. I have a Radeon 6870 that I was planning to put into my build and after reading various guides and forum postings it looks like I should not have purchased it. The price of Nvidia 580s and 680s are currently out of my reach. I could save up for it in however I don’t know if it will be worth it. That’s why I turn to your help. Basically I want to complete PMDG 737-NGX tutorial 2 landing without having lag with/without REX. Is that possible? I feel like if I can do that my computer will handle just about anything else I would want to try.

 

So far I have these components:

 

i5-3570k

Asus P8Z77- V-pro

Seasonic 750W

Seagate 3TB HDD

Corsair Carbide 500R

 

Should I sell the 6870 and put it towards an Nvidia card? I don't have enough experience to decide on my own and reading forums I haven’t found someone in my position.

the 6870 is good with fsx, try it out b4 selling it.

I had the 6870 in my build and I posted about switching to nvidia. The feedback was unanimous. So I got the geforce 660. If you can manage it the TI version is even better. Both have 2 GB of ram to help with cloud redraw. I noticed a fair amount of improvement although as with fsx if you max your settings it will bring it to its knees fairly quickly.

Over clock the CPU and have an outstanding cooling system. I have i5 2500k oc to 4.5 and my CPU temp doesn't get above 50

 

Mileage varies for each system however.

 

 

 

Should I sell the 6870 and put it towards an Nvidia card? I don't have enough experience to decide on my own and reading forums I haven’t found someone in my position.

 

I am going to honest about this. The 6870 performs very poorly in FSX. I would highly reccomend that you sell that off asap and get an Nvidia Kepler GPU. There are sales at the moment all over the web.

 

Look for deals on the GTX660Ti or above. (ie 670, 670FTW, 680, etc)

 

Basically I want to complete PMDG 737-NGX tutorial 2 landing without having lag with/without REX. Is that possible?

 

If you OC that CPU, and swap your 6870 for a 660Ti or like, you will get very smooth performance in FSX. :smile:

Thank you everyone for your input. I think I will try to use the 6870 until I can afford an Nvidia card.

 

I have looked around at the Nvidia GTX cards and its somewhat confusing with the different versions. For example, after each name it says TI, Superclocked, FTW or its got triple voltage. What I've come up with is that I should aim for is the EVGA GTX 660 Ti overclocked. Does that sound like a good idea? Should I get a different version that isn't pre-overclocked?

Thank you everyone for your input. I think I will try to use the 6870 until I can afford an Nvidia card.

 

I have looked around at the Nvidia GTX cards and its somewhat confusing with the different versions. For example, after each name it says TI, Superclocked, FTW or its got triple voltage. What I've come up with is that I should aim for is the EVGA GTX 660 Ti overclocked. Does that sound like a good idea? Should I get a different version that isn't pre-overclocked?

 

Singature, FTW, Superclocked, etc are all manufacturer upgrades to the standard card. Nvidia designs the GPU and PCB. The manufacturers, ASUS, EVGA, MSI, all take that design and alter it how they want, or they use the default design.

 

Btw, The 660Ti Superclocked would be a fantastic choice! :smile: (I have that card!)