Wrong.

Sorry. But a CPU while very important, a GPU is just as good.

 

The GPU is visuals. AA/AF. rendering textures, and the speed and clarity of them.

 

I noticed a huge difference when switching GPUs. Textures loaded faster, could keep up at lower altitudes easier. Clarity and crispness also were effected.

 

A good GPU is also needed for FSX.

 

 

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It's not so much the GPU, but FSX does benefit significantly from a high video memory bandwidth, which these faster cards have.  This is what's making your textures load faster, not the GPU itself!

So what you are telling me is. It's not the GPU, but the stuff inside the GPU.

 

Ok, so we then agree, a good GPU is needed.

 

 

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So what you are telling me is. It's not the GPU, but the stuff inside the GPU.

 

Ok, so we then agree, a good GPU is needed.

 

 

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William -  I am not saying a good GPU isn't needed - far from it. the key is matching the GPU and the CPU. For example - I have a 980x at 4.43ghz with a gtx480. If I put a 780 in that system, I *might* see a little difference but no where near enough to justify the cost. Ditto if I put it with my 3770 at 4.7ghz. BUT if I put the 780 with a Haswell at 4.7 - BIG difference.

 

If the CPU or GPU are mismatched then one or the other will become a bottleneck. The 980x is not enough to drive the 780 and get max benefits.

 

I just hate to see someone running an I5 at 2.4ghz think that by plugging in a 680x or 780 that they are going to see significant improvement.

 

This is primarily the problem of FSX/P3D - other games that offload the bulk of the video processing to the GPU work much better - but such is NOT the case with FSX/P3D.

 

Vic

On that point. I agree with you.

 

 

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I have a Titan. Even 6gb of video card memory with an oc/ed 4.8ghz 3970x gets bogged down at times. It was a lot of dough but I live in hope that one day there will be a platform that can take advantage of it.

The GPU absolutely matters unless you don't use AA, run higher resolutions, and don't mind slower texture loading.

 

While FSX doesn't always use the full potential of the GPU, there are many situations (especially heavy clouds with high AA levels) where a 480 will go to its knees and the newer cards absolutely perform better.

.. and I've seen huge jumps, both in image quality and quantity, when moving up from the Radeon 5870, to the GTX 580, and more recently - to the GTX 780.

 

A 5.0 gig proc certainly bears 80% of the credit, but DX10 has a part to play here, too, as Vic remarked that

 

This is primarily the problem of FSX/P3D - other games that offload the bulk of the video processing to the GPU work much better - but such is NOT the case with FSX/P3D.

While this is very true of FSX/DX9 - it's not true when using FSX with DX10, as the DX10 graphics load is all offloaded to the GPU, with significant gains in smoothness, looks and general performance.

I have been reading this thread with interest.   I run an i7 CPU and a 1GB card.  From this card I run 5 screens. 3 through a triple head from the Display port and 2 through a Dual head from the DVI port on the card. When everything is running frame rates can be good, but some times, with many windows open it just can't cut it. I end up with blank GPS or other called out gauges on my Dual head screens fairly often, and sometimes the main triple head display gives up. It is not a frame rate issue though, rather a display issue, blank window or crash.

 

What should I do? will buying a better graphics card be of benefit in this case? Is the poor performance due to lack of graphics grunt or graphics memory?