My Graphics Card is now a Minimum

[IFR7700 228]

Back when I owned my AMD 965 Black Edition, I purchased a "killer" graphics card, an MSI 560ti Twin Frozer.  That card has served me well for a couple of years.  Even when I upgraded my MB, CPU, and memory to Ivy Bridge, my graphics card could hold its own.  I flew the NGX with no graphics issues, especially using DX10.

 

Enter the 777.  I immediately noticed that the minimum graphics card memory recommended by PMDG is 1GB , exactly what my 560ti had.  I know what PMDG means by minimum.  No additional addons, minimal performance, etc.  I was pleasantly surprised when I loaded up the tutorial flight and didn't have any issues.  30 fps, crisp graphics, smooth operation of EZCA and LINDA, etc.  However, about half way through the flight things started getting buggy.  View changes started getting jumpy, still views stuttered occasionally, and click spots would not work all the time.

 

By the end of the flight, nothing works.  EZCA doesn't move my views, the cursor randomly jumps to mouse yoke mode, the airplane jumps modes and malfunctions; it is a nightmare ... unflyable.

 

So I guess it's time to look at a new graphics card.  I thought FSX was CPU intensive and the graphics cards had little bearing on performance.  Has anyone else had this problem?  September is going to be an expensive month.

 

Is the 777 that graphics intensive?  I'll be happy to upgrade if need be.

[vc10man 732]

Dennis, in another thread, I'd seen a screenshot of your display settings, and I said to myself,'Oh, look, another 560Ti user'. Okay, I may not have EZCA,LINDA, etc, but I'm running the same card except mine's a Gigabyte, and touch wood, so far I've had no issues with either the NGX or this T7 My Q6600 CPU is only running at 3.02GHZ until I build the new Haswell-based water-cooled rig sometime soon, I always believed FSX to be CPU-centric rather than GPU-centric. I was thinking of getting the 760 later, but it then becomes a collection of cannot-be-used graphics cards if I religiously go for the latest 'fastest' GPU, etc.I already have a fine working EVGA 460GTX SE gathering dust.

[Beardyman 604]

Dennis, i am running GTX460 / 1GB, so even less powerful than yours, and have no problems as u described.

Flight is smooth from beginning till end.

Maybe there is something in ur system, maybe it is not graphic board ... ?

[IFR7700 228]

Well this is encouraging.  I'll start doing a little digging.  Maybe my card has some issues I can sort out.

[rtodepart 761]

 

 

am running GTX460 / 1GB

im also using the same Vcard and is doing the job but its almost time for a newer workhorse .......

[ZKOKQ 984]

If it makes you feel any better Dennis, my GTX580 will be minimum before the next PMDG release.

As to your issues, try removing the card and re seating it. Check for any large build up of dust etc.

[SKeller 5]

I'm also running a 560Ti (Gainward) with 1 GB of memory, an i7-2600K @ 3.4 GHz, OpusFSX for views (comparable to Ezdok) as well as for weather (using FEX cloud & sky textures) plus lots of add-on sceneries, and have no issues whatsoever with the T7.

[Tabs 2,790]

Dennis,

We are being conservative with the minimums this time - we had a lot of people with the NGX writing into us with really low end cards or using onboard Intel video and then claiming to us that it was above minimums because it was DX9 compliant and had 512MB of RAM. The 777's texture load is actually lower than the NGX's is and a 560Ti is not a bad card. If you're trying to run extremely high resolutions or AA settings then maybe you'll run into an issue, but I doubt it. We just didn't want people writing in with super old or underpowered GPUs demanding to know why it didn't work or perform well this time, so we set the minimums at a higher level.

[qnh 70]

I'm running a GTX285 with no major issues

[Bionor 44]

I also these kind of issues. EZCA stops responding, but works again after closing and restarting ECZA again. My ECZA camera occasionally moves a few centimeters back so that it is inside the seat and thereby causes unclickable clickspots(need to move the camera forward again). The T7 instajumps 200 feet due to what I think is Opus windshifts. I get he jumpy views each time ECZA stops working, but everything is fine again after restarting ECZA. My biggest problems is the OOM's I'm getting on approach on longhauls((KJFK-EGLL)no addon airports, all scenery not flown from/to disabled, LOD 4,5, cloudtextures set to 512x512, textures is 1024, UT2 at 40%), but I guess thats another issue:-)

 

So all in all, I think this is a problem with ECZA, maybe even Opus, not your GFX card:-)

[gregoryv 9]

I have no issues with my 560 TI. :rolleyes:

[Jazz 1,046]

Nothing wrong with the 560Ti. It is by no means a dead card yet. Certainly not as far as FSX goes.

[IFR7700 228]

Dennis,

 

We are being conservative with the minimums this time - we had a lot of people with the NGX writing into us with really low end cards or using onboard Intel video and then claiming to us that it was above minimums because it was DX9 compliant and had 512MB of RAM. The 777's texture load is actually lower than the NGX's is and a 560Ti is not a bad card. If you're trying to run extremely high resolutions or AA settings then maybe you'll run into an issue, but I doubt it. We just didn't want people writing in with super old or underpowered GPUs demanding to know why it didn't work or perform well this time, so we set the minimums at a higher level.

Ryan, that is great news.  I kept hearing how the 777 was getting better performance than the NGX, and I was perplexed.  I'm going to investigate the actual card seating as Julian suggested.  I was also re-reading the intro. and I noticed I did not have the very latest FSUIPC (4.90 vs 4.92), so I'll check that out today as well.  I'm feeling much better about not shelling out $1000 for a Titan, because that's the way I roll whenever I upgrade. (except for automobiles:)

 

 

I also these kind of issues. EZCA stops responding, but works again after closing and restarting ECZA again. My ECZA camera occasionally moves a few centimeters back so that it is inside the seat and thereby causes unclickable clickspots(need to move the camera forward again). The T7 instajumps 200 feet due to what I think is Opus windshifts. I get he jumpy views each time ECZA stops working, but everything is fine again after restarting ECZA. My biggest problems is the OOM's I'm getting on approach on longhauls((KJFK-EGLL)no addon airports, all scenery not flown from/to disabled, LOD 4,5, cloudtextures set to 512x512, textures is 1024, UT2 at 40%), but I guess thats another issue:-)

 

So all in all, I think this is a problem with ECZA, maybe even Opus, not your GFX card:-)

Tom, I think we may have similar issues.  It might be EZCA.  But everyone has EZCA and I don't see massive complaining.  This FSUIPC issue has hope.  I don't have any problems on three hour flights with the NGX.

 

All you guys with no issues and a 560ti or lower ... thanks for your input.  It gives me great hope.

[vc10man 732]

Dennis

 

Also another trick when checking your card for a re-seat is to rub the gold contacts with an eraser to buff them up from atmospheric oxidisation.

[3-2-1-Now 126]

However, about half way through the flight things started getting buggy.  View changes started getting jumpy, still views stuttered occasionally, and click spots would not work all the time.

 

This sounds like something is overheating. What is happeing to the FPS during this time? Do they drop significantly? Have you overclocked either the CPU and/or GPU? If so, get rid of the overclock for a start.

 

What happens if you quit FSX and immediately restart it? Is it slow? How long in terms of *time* is it before you notice the slowdown, and is it fairly consistent?

 

What happens if you fly in a part of the FSX world that has NO add-on scenery (or even better, you disable all your add-on scenery)?

 

Best regards,

Robin.