Upgrade from AMD 6970

[happyhour 1]

Hi guys!

 

I am currently running a i7 3770k delidded at 4.5ghz and Asus direct CUII 6970 at stock speeds and was wondering if it would be worth an upgrade to perhaps a GTX770 or 780? Thinking of making the switch from Amd to Nvidia since this will be my main pc for fsx from now on. I have read countless posts but everyone has their own opinion and I would love to hear what your opinions are before I make a decision

 

Thanks in advance guys! Have been reading the forums for a while now but my first post 

 

Aaron

[cvearl 60]

Hi guys!

 

I am currently running a i7 3770k delidded at 4.5ghz and Asus direct CUII 6970 at stock speeds and was wondering if it would be worth an upgrade to perhaps a GTX770 or 780? Thinking of making the switch from Amd to Nvidia since this will be my main pc for fsx from now on. I have read countless posts but everyone has their own opinion and I would love to hear what your opinions are before I make a decision

 

Thanks in advance guys! Have been reading the forums for a while now but my first post 

 

Aaron

 

I have run both GTX660/670 and recently 7950 and 7970.

 

From where you are, a GTX770 or a 7970 GHz edition if you want to feel a difference.

 

Nothing wrong with trying another brand. I go back and fourth. Stuck with 7970 this time. I like the RadeonPro tool a lot.

 

On these higher end cards the sweetspot for AA is a bit higher than the generation you are on.

 

NVidia = 8xS AA with Transparency AA 2xSGSS enabled.

ATI equivalent is 8xSSAA (There is rumor RadeonPro will have combined modes in the future like Inspector does)

 

AA quality levels are in this order as far as I am concerned...

 

ATI 4xSSAA

NVidia 8xS 2xSGSS

ATI 8xSSAA

 

The GTX 770 will have little to no issue with that setting except for heavy AG and heavy plane model like PMDG in heavy weather. Then they all go into the low 20's.

 

C.

[happyhour 1]

Thanks for replying C, good info that I will take into consideration to see if I should bite the bullet and get a nvidia card for a change.

 

I have read some of your other posts and I am going to give radeonpro a shot and see if I can improve things before I decide

 

Thanks for the info mate, much appreciated. I will update this post once I've tested radeonpro out with your settings.

 

Aaron

[cvearl 60]

Thanks for replying C, good info that I will take into consideration to see if I should bite the bullet and get a nvidia card for a change.

 

I have read some of your other posts and I am going to give radeonpro a shot and see if I can improve things before I decide

 

Thanks for the info mate, much appreciated. I will update this post once I've tested radeonpro out with your settings.

 

Aaron

I can promise you this.... Try SM 3.0 if you are DX9. It is harmless and fps in clouds is doubled for ATI users.

 

It is in his signature here... http://forum.avsim.net/topic/283701-bojotes-shader-30-mod-for-fsx/

 

Read the readme in the zip anand you'll see how simple it is.

 

It has an uninstaller. At the end of his thread I have instructions how to revert to SM 2.0 water and keep the SM 3.0 clouds. http://forum.avsim.net/topic/283701-bojotes-shader-30-mod-for-fsx/page-31#entry2684813

 

Both Dario and I coming from GTX580 or better tried this with our ATI cards and it is even better than our nvidia cards in overcast. Even better than DX10 mode if you can believe it.

 

Try it for a while. In any ccase, 6970 = GTX470. Jumping to 7970 or GTX680/770 is a huge leap. Equally huge for either brand.

 

C.

[happyhour 1]

Thanks for the info Charles, I have the SM 3.0 mod and it does work wonders for AMD cards! I downloaded RadeonPro last night and gave it a go today but it seems to be crashing GSX :( I read that someone else had problems with GSX as well and RadeonPro here: http://forum.avsim.net/topic/404430-optimal-settings-for-ati-users-with-fsx-great-results/?p=2668123

 

TrackIR seems to be stuttering ever so slightly too so not sure if it's just me or if it is a known problem. Although it does stutter in the TrackIR application itself it doesn't seem to interfere with panning around in FSX so that's not too bad.

 

Would love to use RadeonPro since it has some really cool features but having to forgo GSX is a bit of a bummer :( Now if someone has a solution Searched google but haven't found anything yet.

 

Aaron

[cvearl 60]

Thanks for the info Charles, I have the SM 3.0 mod and it does work wonders for AMD cards! I downloaded RadeonPro last night and gave it a go today but it seems to be crashing GSX :( I read that someone else had problems with GSX as well and RadeonPro here: http://forum.avsim.net/topic/404430-optimal-settings-for-ati-users-with-fsx-great-results/?p=2668123

 

TrackIR seems to be stuttering ever so slightly too so not sure if it's just me or if it is a known problem. Although it does stutter in the TrackIR application itself it doesn't seem to interfere with panning around in FSX so that's not too bad.

 

Would love to use RadeonPro since it has some really cool features but having to forgo GSX is a bit of a bummer :( Now if someone has a solution Searched google but haven't found anything yet.

 

Aaron

Yup the TrackIR Camera box target recepticle "stutters" with Radeon Pro. No effect whatsoever in FSX though from what I can see or the others I have talked to about the tool. I use EZCA as well.

 

Secondly... GSX? Crap. What a shame. If I owned that add on (and I won't as I don't sit on the apron much) I would troubleshoot if I could. Things that come to mind are...

 

1). Try removing disabling one or more cores (starting with just the first core) under CPU affinity on the Tweaks Tab in the FSX profile? Perhaps they are tripping on eachother in a thread somewhere. 1a). If that does not work, enable them all again like they were and then look into the Affinity setting in FSX.CFG? If it's in there, try with out the setting and visa-versa.

 

2). Disable the OSD (On screen display) in the OSD TAB in the profile? Crappy to lose that cool feature IMO.

 

3). Ensure you do not have Tripplebuffering forced on the tweaks tab (it crashes FSX in DX9 mode but fine in DX10).

 

4). Ensure you do not have Dynamic Vsync on as it enables Tripplebuffering by default.

 

5). Can GSX be started after FSX is running?

 

6). Disable API and Auto monitoring? I think you can still launch FSX from a right click on the RadeonPro icon in the task tray.

http://www.radeonpro.info/manual/contents/about-process-monitoring

 

The real mystery is what in GSX could cause FSX to crash?! These 6 steps here are just intuition but I could be out to lunch,

 

I run RadeonPro with REX, ORBX, PMDG, RXP, TrackIR, EZDock, Opus FSX, VATSIM FSInn, Teamspeak, Skyvector and and often with other web pages still open in the background. Never had a problem. GSX is not something I own though.

 

Let me know if you get it beat?

 

Charles.

[happyhour 1]

Hey Charles,

 

Really appreciate all the help from you! Much appreciated mate. I think I have tried everything in terms of settings and also steps 1-6 from your previous post to no avail :( GSX crashes and as far as I know GSX is built in to fsx as an add-on so I'm not sure if that can be disabled. Seems I'm not the only one as mentioned in the previous post so I guess GSX is just not compatible with RadeonPro and vice versa.

 

Guess I will have to do without RadeonPro unless I switch to Nvidia...but even doing that doesn't guarantee that GSX won't crash with Nvidia Inspector. Does anyone out there use GSX with Nvidia Inspector and have no problems?

 

Shame really since RadeonPro is a very nice program to have for AMD users and I'm not sure if it warrants a change to Nvidia since the 770/780 is pretty pricey.

 

Thanks again for all your input Charles, hope other's that have GSX and use RadeonPro can chime in too  ^_^

 

Aaron

[cvearl 60]

Hey Charles,

 

Really appreciate all the help from you! Much appreciated mate. I think I have tried everything in terms of settings and also steps 1-6 from your previous post to no avail :( GSX crashes and as far as I know GSX is built in to fsx as an add-on so I'm not sure if that can be disabled. Seems I'm not the only one as mentioned in the previous post so I guess GSX is just not compatible with RadeonPro and vice versa.

 

Guess I will have to do without RadeonPro unless I switch to Nvidia...but even doing that doesn't guarantee that GSX won't crash with Nvidia Inspector. Does anyone out there use GSX with Nvidia Inspector and have no problems?

 

Shame really since RadeonPro is a very nice program to have for AMD users and I'm not sure if it warrants a change to Nvidia since the 770/780 is pretty pricey.

 

Thanks again for all your input Charles, hope other's that have GSX and use RadeonPro can chime in too ^_^

 

Aaron

Inspector does not remain running like Radeonpro so I'm pretty sure GSX will be fine. From that card you have, at least a GTX680 and you'll be very happy. Higher AA modes with more weather is what all these new cards bring.

 

GSX and Radionpro must be sharing something. A hotkey scripted into GSX that enables a setting in Radionpro that does not work with FSX. Too bad. GSX looks interesting for you heavy iron types.

 

C.

[happyhour 1]

Ah that's good to know that Inspector runs differently from RadeonPro. I think a GTX680 or 770 is on the cards since the 780 is a bit too steep for me.

 

I will have another tinker with RadeonPro over the weekend before I make any decisions since I'm not in a huge rush and will update this thread if I do manage to figure out why GSX and Radeonpro aren't playing nice together

 

Aaron

[cvearl 60]

Ah that's good to know that Inspector runos differently from RadeonPro. I think a GTX680 or 770 is on the cards since the 780 is a bit too steep for me.

 

I will have another tinker with RadeonPro over the weekend before I make any decisions since I'm not in a huge rush and will update this thread if I do manage to figure out why GSX and Radeonpro aren't playing nice together

 

Aaron

there is a demo for GSX. if I wasn't so busy right now I would definitely sit down and play with it. because it kind of sucks that it doesn't work with Radeon Pro. one of the coolest things I find with Radeon Pro is that I can dynamically change the frame rate lock that I have with a keystroke while in flight. one of those scenarios where maybe it isn't 100 percent smooth and all I had to do was increased from 30 to 36 in all of a sudden glass smooth.

 

The keystroke is shift insert to increase and Shift Delete to decrease. I guess its more just for fine-tuning than anything else. oh and shift end is to go to unlimited.

[happyhour 1]

Had another tweaking session over the weekend to see if I could get GSX to play nice with RadeonPro and still no luck :( Big shame really since RadeonPro is a really good tool to have for AMD users. I have tried all the features you mentioned and they certainly work well with fsx, I especially like the vram monitor and gpu core temps as well as SweetFX integration without having to move files into the fsx folder.

 

Now to decide if I should spend some $$ and get a 680 or just stick with my 6970 for now. Argh decisions decisions

[cvearl 60]

Well. In 6 months AMD releases the 8000 series. Nvidia will answer as usual. Might want to wait? Price drops imminent.

 

I bet GTX770 could hit $349 or less depending on what AMD reveals. But even at $400 its a sweet &@($* card.

 

C.