Upgrading video card = FSX performance increase?

[Bluescan 0]

Hello!

 

I am, after around 2 years with my computer, planning an upgrade. Before I start, I'll list my specs:

 

Asus Sabertooth P67 MOBO

Intel Core i5 2500K @ 4,8GHz CPU

Corsair Vengeance 8GB 1600MHz CL9 RAM

Corsair HX 850W 80+ Silver PSU

Gigabyte GTX 560Ti 1GB GPU

500GB HDD

150GB HDD

128 GB SSD

Corsair Vengeance C70 Case

Some really noisy but great Scythe fans

 

I have looked around and found this graphics card: MSI GTX670 Power Edition OC

It seems like a really nice card with high speeds, nice amount of memory and really good overclocking opportunities. The question is: Will it do my FSX any good?

 

Right now I am running FSX on high settings with a couple of tweaks in the CFG. My FPS are mostly OK, even though they can easily drop below 20 in the NGX at a high quality airport I don't experience any large amounts of disturbing lag or stuttering. Although, sometimes the lag gets a bit too heavy. Not very often, but for sure it happens

Also, my ground textures often look good (close to awesome) at departure. But after, say a two hour flight, the textures are often extremely blurry and autogen starts to disappear. This makes my FSX look really bad in a way that makes me think I'm running low on something, but what? For info, I'm using GEX for ground textures.

 

I'm not a computer guru, but something makes me think I'm bottlenecking my system with my GPU. I mean, 4,8GHz and 8Gb of RAM should be enough, right? Although, my GPU is getting a bit old. also it's not very fast nor does it have a lot of memory.

 

If any of you have any other thoughts, please share them. Any help is appreciated

 

Merry Christmas and Happy holidays to all of you!

[fppilot 4,371]

Humm! You can read my system specs in the sidebar. To contrast with your profile - I just a bit over a week ago upgraded to the EVGA nVidia GTX560TI with 2GB. I had been using a Radeon HD6750 1GB and can now attest that the nVidia's are immeasurably better with clouds. After one more tweak over this past weekend my FSX is as smooth as I ever dreamed it could be. Have you applied the tweak that keeps your multicore CPU from "parking" cores? This tweak provided a quantum leap for me. That after I spent a good deal of time f*rting around with Bufferpools and Affinity Mask, etc. Might save you $$$ that you could put toward your next system some time later.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=pl3u9eiskM4#!

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I have looked around and found this graphics card: MSI GTX670 Power Edition OC (...) The question is: Will it do my FSX any good?

 

For most flying conditions this card is much too powerfull for FSX (I mean by that it will be only lightly loaded). Only in very hard weather condition (heavy overcast), made by weather engines of REXE+ or AS2012, you may utilize power of this GPU. But even in such cases GTX660 or GTX660Ti are enough efficient. If you don't plan to use Nvidia 2D surround mode with three monitors, you may buy GTX660 or GTX660Ti. In the case of 660Ti you will have huge performance safety margin.

 

Notice:

Don't expect any FPS increase after changing your GTX560Ti even to GTX670. That depends from CPU.

[al531246 0]

Looking at your specs I can't see a reason to upgrade. I just recently upgraded to the OC MSI Nvidia GTX 560 Ti (hawk edition or whatever!) and mine is smoother than ever before, excellent performance. You asked if it's worth upgrading to a 670, that's a total waste of time, just use the MSI Afterburner tool to change your GPU performance, you can get the exact same performance off your card!! On the question of will it do FSX any good, my answer to that is; the difference will be marginal, with an i7 and 8GB of RAM, your safe for now! Until the next generation of super computers comes out you'll be fine!!

[Bluescan 0]

Humm! You can read my system specs in the sidebar. To contrast with your profile - I just a bit over a week ago upgraded to the EVGA nVidia GTX560TI with 2GB. I had been using a Radeon HD6750 1GB and can now attest that the nVidia's are immeasurably better with clouds. After one more tweak over this past weekend my FSX is as smooth as I ever dreamed it could be. Have you applied the tweak that keeps your multicore CPU from "parking" cores? This tweak provided a quantum leap for me. That after I spent a good deal of time f*rting around with Bufferpools and Affinity Mask, etc. Might save you $$$ that you could put toward your next system some time later.

http://www.youtube.c...v=pl3u9eiskM4#!

 

Thanks for the tip, I'll try it out!

 

For most flying conditions this card is much too powerfull for FSX (I mean by that it will be only lightly loaded). Only in very hard weather condition (heavy overcast), made by weather engines of REXE+ or AS2012, you may utilize power of this GPU. But even in such cases GTX660 or GTX660Ti are enough efficient. If you don't plan to use Nvidia 2D surround mode with three monitors, you may buy GTX660 or GTX660Ti. In the case of 660Ti you will have huge performance safety margin.

 

Roger that!

 

Looking at your specs I can't see a reason to upgrade. I just recently upgraded to the OC MSI Nvidia GTX 560 Ti (hawk edition or whatever!) and mine is smoother than ever before, excellent performance. You asked if it's worth upgrading to a 670, that's a total waste of time, just use the MSI Afterburner tool to change your GPU performance, you can get the exact same performance off your card!! On the question of will it do FSX any good, my answer to that is; the difference will be marginal, with an i7 and 8GB of RAM, your safe for now! Until the next generation of super computers comes out you'll be fine!!

 

Okay, thanks. I'll try some tweaking in afterburner.

 

It looks like I will be keeping my current setup, for now

[BimmerCop 332]

There are so many variables that go into helping you make this decision.

 

What resolution do you use?

What texture sizes do you use?

Do you like to fly in heavy clouds most of the time or just in CAVOK conditions?

Do you use a ton of AA and SGSS?

 

 

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Have you applied the tweak that keeps your multicore CPU from "parking" cores? This tweak provided a quantum leap for me.

http://www.youtube.c...v=pl3u9eiskM4#!

 

It is easier to use this app: http://www.coderbag.com/Programming-C/Disable-CPU-Core-Parking-Utility

[Bluescan 0]

There are so many variables that go into helping you make this decision.

 

What resolution do you use?

What texture sizes do you use?

Do you like to fly in heavy clouds most of the time or just in CAVOK conditions?

Do you use a ton of AA and SGSS?

 

Max load is set to 4096 in the CFG

Not sure, all sliders are maxed

I fly online with real weather, so it varies from CAVOK to Sandy...

I use the 8SQ settings listed here

 

Hope it helps

[BimmerCop 332]

 

 

Max load is set to 4096 in the CFG

Not sure, all sliders are maxed

I fly online with real weather, so it varies from CAVOK to Sandy...

I use the 8SQ settings listed here

 

Hope it helps

 

What resolution?

[Bluescan 0]

What resolution?

 

 

MESH_RESOLUTION=25

TEXTURE_RESOLUTION=29

[BimmerCop 332]

 

 

 

MESH_RESOLUTION=25

TEXTURE_RESOLUTION=29

 

I'm referring to screen resolution ;-)

[Bluescan 0]

I'm referring to screen resolution ;-)

 

Oh :rolleyes: 1920x1080

[BimmerCop 332]

Ok, your biggest issue based on what you have stated, is your 1GB of vram. With your current settings, you are really pushing that card, which is why after a while, performance and IQ starts going downhill.

 

For your current setup, I think like someone already said, a 670 is a bit of an overkill UNLESS you plan on upgrading your CPU/MOBO/RAM in the near future.

 

With this being said, I recommend the 660Ti 2GB version. You will see a considerable boost in performance especially in cloudy situations. It will give your graphics subsystem some headroom and balance it out a bit better.

[Bluescan 0]

Roger, thanks a lot! Will this do?

 

http://www.asus.com/Graphics_Cards/NVIDIA_Series/GTX660_TIDC2T2GD5/

[BimmerCop 332]

Roger, thanks a lot! Will this do?

 

http://www.asus.com/Graphics_Cards/NVIDIA_Series/GTX660_TIDC2T2GD5/

 

Good choice... :thumbsup:

 

BTW, I highly recommend shopping on Amazon. They have an awesome 30 day return policy, no questions asked. Gives you time to test it out and see how it goes. If you do get it, keep us posted on how it goes!