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I was at CompUSA today, and I saw some of the AMD video cards... Some of them are truly unresistable... They value of the card and the amount of performance they deliver is simply something that nVidia can't match. The only problem is that EVGA doesn't sell Radeon cards, if they did, it'd buy one right away.

 

What do you guys think? Is nVidia really the best for FSX?

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I find them about equal last few years. Although there is more community write ups for nvidia as it WAS the best choice perhaps at the release of fsx and up to a few years ago. I had a 660ti and it was nice. I now roll with a 7970.

 

Truth is there was a time the clouds killed performance bad on Radeon up until the 5870? Now 6900 and up no prob. Want a turbo boost? Run the SM 3.0 patch from bojote. My 7970 rips through overcast like butter now. Shader model 3.0 clouds rock.

 

DX10 works great too.

 

Regardless of brand, you get what you pay for.

 

C.

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I find them about equal last few years. Although there is more community write ups for nvidia as it WAS the best choice perhaps at the release of fsx and up to a few years ago. I had a 660ti and it was nice. I now roll with a 7970.

 

Truth is there was a time the clouds killed performance bad on Radeon up until the 5870? Now 6900 and up no prob. Want a turbo boost? Run the SM 3.0 patch from bojote. My 7970 rips through overcast like butter now. Shader model 3.0 clouds rock.

 

DX10 works great too.

 

Regardless of brand, you get what you pay for.

 

C.

Thanks. I'm starting to believe this too. I think these nVidia cards are too expensive. :s

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Thanks. I'm starting to believe this too. I think these nVidia cards are too expensive. :s

Been some good price drops for both camps.

 

FYI....

 

7870 = gtx580

7950 = gtx660ti to gtx670 depending on varient

7970 = gtx670 to 770 again depending on varient

 

When I say varient, its because evga has 12 of the same card at 5mhz increments. Lol.

 

C.

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When I say varient, its because evga has 12 of the same card at 5mhz increments. Lol.

 

C.

Exactly. That makes purchasing them kinda confusing. Aren't they the same, except the different variants are just stock clocked higher than others?

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Haloo!

Not wishing to hijack the thread... but I've just bought an HD7950. Can someone point me to the latest settings advice? It's not looking as good as my GTX460 did. (it's only been in a day though;-) )

I'll try the Shader 3.0 Mod momentarily.

 

Thanks

Jim

 

EDIT : SORRY! cancel that.. just found the monster ATI thread. Time to get my tweaking trousers on!

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Haloo!

Not wishing to hijack the thread... but I've just bought an HD7950. Can someone point me to the latest settings advice? It's not looking as good as my GTX460 did. (it's only been in a day though;-) )

I'll try the Shader 3.0 Mod momentarily.

 

Thanks

Jim

 

EDIT : SORRY! cancel that.. just found the monster ATI thread. Time to get my tweaking trousers on!

 

I wrote that guide and I wish I could go back and change a thing or two... In NVidia world, we use NVidia Inspector. In ATI land we use RadeonPro. I updated my stance on using ATI in this post here...

 

http://forum.avsim.net/topic/404430-optimal-settings-for-ati-users-with-fsx-great-results/?p=2656246

 

For the very best ATI+FSX experience, RadeonPro tool used like I described above with Bojote's SM 3.0 is great! I had the 7950 for a bit. Nice card! I found it roughly the same as a 660ti/670 experience in FSX.

 

RadeonPro is fun! Leave FSX framerate set to unlimited. Then while flying, you hit CTRL-O to open the on screen DFC display at the bottom of the screen and then use SHIFT-END to turn DFC (Dynamic Framerate Control) on and off. This way, you can experiment LIVE in flight, comparing Unlimited fps to some locked value with DFC on and off to compare smoothness. Secondly you can also use SHIFT-INS or SHIFT-DEL to increase or decrease the locked value of the framerate in realtime to find the best value. This SHIFT-INS or DEL only works with the DFC OSD on at the bottom of the screen. This video shows the OSD for the DFC panel... http://youtu.be/rj8-PpmJ6pI

 

RadeonPro - http://www.radeonpro.info/

Bojote's SM 3.0 modification (The download is in his signature) - http://forum.avsim.net/topic/283701-bojotes-shader-30-mod-for-fsx/

 

The SM 3.0 mod is safe. Read the readme. you'll see it is a simple "back up and replace a file or two" type install. Genius. NVidia users did not see much performance increase as NVidia architecture was always friendly with the legacy SM 2.0 shaders used in FSX. ATI however was fine except for the SM 2.0 clouds. SM 3.0 clouds are identical. They just use a different rendering path. Which with ATI makes them super light on fps with ATI. If you don't like the water after, go to the end of the SM 3.0 thread. I explain how to put your water back to default leaving just the SM 3.0 clouds in.

 

DX10 is almost completely fixed. DX10 preview is super smooth on this last 7000 series (7770 through 7970). The easiest thing to do if you want to try DX10 later but with the option to go back and fourth is to run the SM 3.0 patch first (unrelated to DX10 mode) and down the road apply the DX10 (has no effect on DX9 mode at all) one that is close to release from Steve. He's almost done building a new installer per his Blog.

 

In my link to post 108 in the ATI thread, Dario (a veteran tweaker around here and GTX580 user) gets his 7950 and was initially unimpressed as he came from an overclocked 580. To save you some reading, later on he realizes he had a config issue somewhere regarding Windowed and vsync and CCC versus RadeonPro settings. Once he got that sorted he has been VERY happy with RadeonPro+SM 3.0 in FSX with the 7950. B)

 

Charles.

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Wow... What a fantastic reply. This will keep me going for ages! Thanks for putting in all that effort. I'll report back when I've done some fiddling.

 

Jim

 

@Tom Allensworth.... give this man a beer.

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...

Wow, fantastic post! Very informative!

 

When you mentioned RadeonPro, I thought that by the "Pro" it was a paid addition. But when I got home, it truly is like Inspector. Great similarities.

 

What do you think of games that requite nVidia PhysX? You can get it with an ATI card, right?

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Wow, fantastic post! Very informative!

 

When you mentioned RadeonPro, I thought that by the "Pro" it was a paid addition. But when I got home, it truly is like Inspector. Great similarities.

 

What do you think of games that requite nVidia PhysX? You can get it with an ATI card, right?

Never tried. Only games I played with outside of FSX are the ones included with my 7970. No physx option. I got Far cry 3, Crysis 3 and BioShock Infinity with the card. They all seem to run great. I mostly fly though.

 

As for comparing nvidia and ati in fsx, I prefer the aniso in ATI but a slight nod to nvidia inspectors ability to use 8xS AA for edges and cheap 2xSGSS for guages and paint. Only slightly heavier in fps than 4xSSAA but better AA for small distant objects. With ATI you jump straight from 4 to 8. But 8xSSAA is heavier than the combined 2xSGSS.

 

The Radion pro guy is trying to see if he can enable MSAA and SSAA at the same time.

 

The DX10 guy has some good detail on his blog about AA modes here... Mainly when in DX10 mode.

 

http://stevesfsxanalysis.wordpress.com/?s=aa

 

 

 

C.

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Never tried. Only games I played with outside of FSX are the ones included with my 7970. No physx option. I got Far cry 3, Crysis 3 and BioShock Infinity with the card. They all seem to run great. I mostly fly though.

 

As for comparing nvidia and ati in fsx, I prefer the aniso in ATI but a slight nod to nvidia inspectors ability to use 8xS AA for edges and cheap 2xSGSS for guages and paint. Only slightly heavier in fps than 4xSSAA but better AA for small distant objects. With ATI you jump straight from 4 to 8. But 8xSSAA is heavier than the combined 2xSGSS.

 

The Radion pro guy is trying to see if he can enable MSAA and SSAA at the same time.

 

The DX10 guy has some good detail on his blog about AA modes here... Mainly when in DX10 mode.

 

http://stevesfsxanalysis.wordpress.com/?s=aa

 

 

 

C.

Thanks

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Wow, fantastic post! Very informative!

 

When you mentioned RadeonPro, I thought that by the "Pro" it was a paid addition. But when I got home, it truly is like Inspector. Great similarities.

 

What do you think of games that requite nVidia PhysX? You can get it with an ATI card, right?

 

Some FSX testing comparing ATI HD 7970 to GTX680 and Titan

 

Video Card - Gigabyte HD 7970 3GB OC (Ghz clocked)

 

Ok so I set up exactly as Word Not Allowed did in his GTX680/Titan tests See screenshots after the chart (Google Word Not Allowed's Titan tests). Here are HD 7970 3GB results. LOD Radius 6.5, 1920x1080x32 res.

 

DX9 with SM 3.0 Clouds and DX10 Preview mode tested

 

DX9 FSMark11 4xSSAA = 36 fps

DX9 FSMark11 8xSSAA = 25 fps

DX10 FSMark11 4xSSAA = 45 fps

DX9 Test Clouds AA 4xSSAA = 32 fps

DX9 Test Clouds AA 8xSSAA = 18 fps

DX10 Test Clouds AA 4xSSAA = 25 fps

DX9 Overcast Performance Drain Test 4xSSAA = 36

DX9 Overcast Performance Drain Test 8xSSAA = 22

DX10 Overcast Performance Drain Test 4xSSAA = 38

 

Compare...

 

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