I have a 1 Gig HD5870 on my old 32bit 4 gig RAM/AMD dual-core system running at 3.4 Ghz, and as I fly mainly gliding and VFR over photo-real scenery (GenX) with  trees but little other autogen, it does OK at around 30 fps average, but not particularly smoothly.

 

However, I also fly DX10 and I can't seem to get vsync to work, windowed or FS, with the appropriate fsx.cfg entries, and I have tried RadeonPro to no avail - I still see the tearing, and find it more and more tiresome.

 

I can't afford a mobo/cpu/OS/RAM upgrade, but was thinking of going to a HD7850.  Then I remembered that I had sworn to go nVidia for my next card to get the benefit of vSync.

 

Would a GTX 670, which looking at ebay i could afford, be worth my while as a small interim upgrade?  If so, 1 Gig or 2Gig version, given I am limited with my 4 Gb RAM.

 

Probably a silly question really, I am sure I'd see better fps but your views on vSync would be most welcome.

 

Many thanks.

Have you enabled Aero after FSX disables it on startup? That completely solved any tearing issues for me.

Thank you, but isn't that for 'windowed mode' only?

 

Phil

I thought you tried windowed mode as well - and btw, I run in windowed mode always, because I have a second screen which I use for various other things (e.g. browser for skyvector.com, or surfing during longish flights )

 

You get 'fake' fullscreen (i.e. no window borders) using this little tool here (FS-SIMtizer): http://www.friendlyflusi.at/index.php?page=Thread&postID=127639

(does a couple of other useful things as well, e.g. auto-pause on ATC messages or whatnot)

 

And you enable Aero when running FSX - voila (at least on my setup, I run a Radeon HD 5850).

Many thanks agood, and I'll certainly give that utility a try for vsync.

 

Still wondering about upgrading to a GTX 670 though - any thoughts on the value of that idea?

In the end I bought a MSI R7850 2 Gb card for a little over £100 on eBay, so didn't go  NVidia at all.

 

I use DXtory to show frame rates and find the gain over my HD5870 is significant, averaging an extra 10 fps, but importantly the rendering is smooth and now with no micro-pauses in a 360 degree turn.

 

I think the extra memory must be a good thing.

 

I'll probably get £50 for the HD5870 and so the upgrade although modest, won't cost a lot in net terms.

 

I still have tearing, no vsync but I can live with that in the end.

Hm makes me consider an upgrade a well... But probably much more expensive over here in Germany.

 

Have you tried my proposed fix for the vsync issue?

agood

 

Yes, I have tried that utility, thank you, but sadly even with Aero enabled (dwm.exe) when I go into full screen mode which I assume Simtimizer is emulating, I still get tearing.

 

I am happy with the modest improvement in performance given by the 7850, but if I could have got a 7870 for a few pounds more, I think I should have got that.

 

Best wishes,

 

Phil