Is it worth getting a new GFX Card?

[Brenchen 51]

I know this has been much talked about out there, but I would still like to throw it out there; I am getting a new machine, which I initially planned to use my old Asus GTX580 on my new machine. But I've done some reading about the GTX680 (particularly the 4GB), that they are great on image quality for the FSX!! And I'm wondering whether I should get one.

 

So the question really is: If I can only get a 2GB version of the Asus GTX 680 (no other options like 4GB or EVGA), is it worthwhile? Or will there be no much different from my current GTX 580?

[flying_w 58]

I came from the GTX470 to a 680. While I can't say I've noticed much in terms of FPS, I'm able to configure much more in terms of image quality processing. Recently I've moved to DX10, and that needs all the help it can get in that department. The only downside (in DX9) is that I can no longer use the bufferpools UsePools=0 nor RejectThreshold settings. They worked great on the 470, but on my 680 there are display artifacts in no time. Others however do not have this problem. Overall, I've no regrets.

 

And as for other games, like Crysis, it's awesome.

 

Simon

[BartEnder 2]

I have switch recently from GTX580 to GTX680 which is described with details in hardware forum.

The improvement:

FSX +23% FPS

Rise of Flight +50% FPS

I have traded the FPS improvement for the Image Quality, and I do not regret the purchase, especially I was able to sold old card for a good price.

[Brenchen 51]

I recall seeing a thread comparing GTX 580 vs 680, and the part of that thread was discussing about how NVidia is slowly evolving into making cards with similar architecture as ATI, thus theoretically speaking is worse than the 580, therefore the 580 is supposedly rock solid still for FSX.

 

However, this was discussed early on in the 680 cycle, drivers were not at its peak, so not sure whether things have changed much now that we are something like 8-9 months into the release of the 680 cards.

[RWFeldman 159]

Personally,I wouldn't even consider spending the money for performance increase. If you wanted to run Nvidia Surround for 3 or 4 monitors it would be different.

[paul123 5]

I bought a 680 FTW+ 4Gb as a replacement for my 560ti, saw no difference in FPS on the ground, the only difference was flying through dense clouds, was able to run 4x SGSS as opposed to 2XSGSS but couldn't see any real difference in visual quality. i could not justify the £450 price so I returned it. But the difference in X-plane 64 bit was around 300% in FPS. Just my twopence worth.

Paul

[Brenchen 51]

I bought a 680 FTW+ 4Gb as a replacement for my 560ti, saw no difference in FPS on the ground, the only difference was flying through dense clouds, was able to run 4x SGSS as opposed to 2XSGSS but couldn't see any real difference in visual quality. i could not justify the £450 price so I returned it. But the difference in X-plane 64 bit was around 300% in FPS. Just my twopence worth.

Paul

 

Every pence is valuable, thanks for your comment. I kinda dropped the idea to go for that upgrade (rather spend that on some nice fans), so we'll see how the next series will go on FSX.

[ArjenVdv 190]

If you run default TF and AA, it won't make a big difference, maybe 5-10%. If you run 4xSGSS + 8xSQ then yes, you will see a difference.

[Brenchen 51]

When I pulled my old GFX Card out of my system just couple days ago, I simply wanted to throw it away cos it was THAT filthy...

 

Still to save myself $500, I TRIED to clean it up, the dust seemed to mainly get stuck around the turbine fan area, while the heatsync chamber looks dusty but not so bad.

 

I took one of those electrical cleanner~ pressure can device to clean it up.

 

Would that be the correct thing to do?

[RWFeldman 159]

took one of those electrical cleanner~ pressure can device to clean it up.

 

If you are referring to the "canned Air" yes that is the correct way to clean it.

[Brenchen 51]

 

If you are referring to the "canned Air" yes that is the correct way to clean it.

 

Yea I think thats the stuff, but it seems like its got liquid inside...

[William J.S.S 173]

Last night my EVGA 670 FTW Sig 2 came in, I upgraded my 560ti and all I can say is do it.

While I always have kept my frames locked at 30, I would notice dips, impact in heavy areas of detail, HD planes and addons in some parts. I was not able to get to the SuperSampling area, and had to run normal settings to get smooth gameplay.

 

Once I updated, I am now running, REX 2048 clouds, 4096 textures, have Very dense Autogen, 8xSQ and I am running so smooth. I will get down to some areas like 25 fps, like around ORBX KSEA, but I think in the NGX, with crisp textures, no blurries or stutters, 25 is as smooth as 30. I don't notice a difference.I also tried out my PMDG JS4100 around Friday Harbor, which with Orbx, is a killer at LOD 5.5 that I run, and it had no problems at all.

 

It is amazing. While true you wont notice a 20 fps jump, you can almost max out settings, and still have such a smooth sim. It is completely different for me now. I am not planning flights in areas I used to never go in with my addon planes like PMDG and QW.

[Crewecut 1]

The 4 gigz 680 if you´re simming with high AA on multiple screens, or play BF3. But what about video editing, could there be a benefit from 4 gigz there...?