As the title of this topic suggests, my Nvidia GeForce® GTX 460 video card is about to go kaput! It's nearly two years old and gets a good workout. So I need a new one if I am to continue enjoying my wonderful PMDG products and the upcoming 777 (yes, I am a kiss-&@($*). Either that, or get my CPL and buy a 777. I think I'll go with a new card. So the card I have fits a PCI Express slot and I am using DirectX9, as I'm told that DirectX10 is too buggy and performs slower. I don't know if this is a problem or not, but I've noticed that a lot of the cards I look at on the Nvidia website mention DirectX11. Does this make the card unsuitable for using FSX, or can DirectX9 be installed on them or is DirectX11 better? I have no idea whatsoever, so some guidance on this would be gratefully appreciated.

 

I'd like to stick with Nvidia, as I've found them to be reliable and easy for me to work with. So, does anyone have any recommendations for a decent Nvidia video card up to the $200 mark?

 

I was looking at:

 

Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 - $195

Nvidia GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost - $139

Nvidia GeForce GTX 650 Ti - $126.97

 

All advice will be much appreciated!

Matthew, who told u that DX10 is worse than DX9 or is not working.

There are some patches, and DX10 is working well, in my case FSX on DX10 is working faster and without texture flashing.

Coming back to ur question.

I have also 460 and i think this card is still good enough.

With NGX737 i have solid 25 + fps, and i do not expect that coming 777 will be "heavier", more fps hungry than 737.

( u still can OC ur video card and gain few fps more... ) 

based on your post. The first thing you need to do is stick with DX9 and forget about DX10. No offense but your post indicates that your knowledge in these areas is limited and as such you will only give yourself mammot headaches introducing DX10 into the equation.

 

For FSX performance the CPU is for sure the most important element. However the GPU is also important. You want 2 gb of vRam on the card. I would recommend that you look for a second hand GTX 580 with 2 gig of video ram

I just went up to the local Harvey Norman store and ordered the Nvidia GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost. The specs are in the link below. I have been getting about 15-17fps using the NGX at the FTX Coffs Harbour scenery and 10fps or less when flying to/from the FTX Brisbane scenery, which is atrocious. I am hoping that with the new video card and some tweaking of the settings in FSX and the card itself, I can get a solid 20-25fps in most situations. Whether or not that's a realistic expectation, I am not sure.

 

http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-650ti-boost/specifications

 

Don't want to burst your bubble but I don't see you getting any or at best a couple of FPS better with that card. The graphics card should improve the overall quality of each frame but for better FPS you need better CPU and Faster Memory.

Get 660 if you can afford it, but 650ti is not bad card there are far crapper cards out there than that.  Want max graphics 670 or 680 ideal, but perfer to spend more on add-ons like ga planes.

You really should have asked around a bit more (or waited for some more replies) before ordering that card.

 

I dont think you will gain much with that card either.

 

To get the best out of FSX I have been told (by FSX and hardware experts) to match the CPU and GPU (and memory as well) so one does not bottleneck the other.

 

So I think with your CPU a 460 or 560 is a good match.

And I think both will result in similar performance.

 

But if you wanted too get better performance (more frame rates) then you would have to go for i7 2600k (and overclock that) and combine it with GTX580/GTX680 or

i7 3770k (and overclock that) and combine it with GTX680

 

 

As to DX10, There is a long long long thread about how to get that working. In the end it does seem to work really well (I am not using it at the moment), but just as with buying new hardware, you need to invest some time and reading in it to get it working right.

I've read a lot about FSX and how it needs high CPU freq, but I found out that it isn't that true in the end! I have i5 4,3Ghz, 16GB Ram and Ati 6870 1Gb, I get around 25FPS with NGX in a heavy situation. Last week a friend of mine bought a 680GTX card and I ask him to come with it so I can test to see if it worth the investment for my next GPU upgrade, guess what.... The GPU makes a huge difference in FSX performance, so huge that my frames got as high as 50 in the same scenery that my current GPU only get's 25. 

 

For your question get the most expensive GPU that you can afford it will make a huge difference in your FPS!!!!!!

To those of you suggesting I upgrade my CPU on the motherboard, that's out of the question. I cannot afford it. I'll give this video card a go and if I get better performance, great. But I doubt very much I'll get any worse performance, so I'm happy.

Get a faster CPU and RAM..............

Get a faster CPU and RAM..............

 

Sounds good, except I just said I can't afford that...

What sort of symptoms were you getting that led to an impending graphics card failure? I ask as I have the same card.

Sounds good, except I just said I can't afford that...

your graphic card is more than enough for FSX, so if you cant afford a new CPU dont waste yr cash on new GPU! you will not notice a change or increase in FPS!

 

 

I've read a lot about FSX and how it needs high CPU freq, but I found out that it isn't that true in the end! I have i5 4,3Ghz,

 

Well in my opinion 4.3ghz is already quite high compared to what most CPU's have by default. Like my i7 2600k which without overclocking runs at 3.4ghz, now it's overlocked at 4.4ghz and performance increase has been great. When I switched from GTX 550 or something similar to Radeon 6990 I didn't really notice that much of performance increase, though I got the Radeon 6990 for other games anyway.

 

 

 

your graphic card is more than enough for FSX, so if you cant afford a new CPU dont waste yr cash on new GPU! you will not notice a change or increase in FPS!

 

I agree, it doesn't really matter if you are using medium or high end graphics card, performance will be about the same. 

Sounds good, except I just said I can't afford that...

 

If your budget is limited I strongly encourage you go with used hardware that is a generation or 2 old. There is lots of it available on craigs lists. Sure there is a chance someone might try to pass off something on you that has a problem but for the most part it is just enthuisiasts upgrading to the latest and greatest selling of perfectly good parts they are replacing.

 

I see from your specs you list 8 cores for your CPU. Turn of Hyperthreading for a start if it is niot already turned off. You probably don't want to reinstall everything but if I where you I would consider doing away with that RAID0 and split up those 2 HDDs Put OS on one and FSX on the other.

 

Thats just for starters. There is no easy way to get the best bang for your buck out of FSX. You will get much more performance improvements spending time on research into installation and Overclocking than you will spending money on it.

 

Having said that you do need a hardware strategy. Make sure that graphics card has had it for sure before you replace it. If you already bought the replacement don't take it out of the package return it and if the card you have really is toast You should be able to find a GTX 580 for no more than $200 used. After that save and look at upgrading your CPU and motherboard. Again go for used. There will be plenty of used Ivy bridge and sandy bridge processors arround very soon after Haswell appears.