Any Benefit in Replacing Video Card

[ctiger 49]

Since I will not be buying a new computer anytime soon was wondering if it would be worth buying a more up-to-date Video card with more ram etc.  I am limited with a 500W PS.  The ATI HD5770 has served me well.

 

thanks for any replies. 

[Appliance 51]

No ... IMHO. 

 

Carl you really have answered your own question. Save the upgrade for the upgrade.

[fwerff 70]

I have the HD5870 1Gb and swapped it with a friends GTX660TI 3Gb a while ago. If it made any difference at all it seemed to be performing a (tiny) little bit better in some circumstances and the graphics were a little bit nicer (sharper, better color saturation, etc). But all in all not worth the investment in my opinion. Got the HD5870 back in and it will remain there until I completely upgrade my system (hopefully end of this year).

[Robert McDonald 167]

Since I will not be buying a new computer anytime soon was wondering if it would be worth buying a more up-to-date Video card with more ram etc.  I am limited with a 500W PS.  The ATI HD5770 has served me well.

 

thanks for any replies. 

 

If you are only flying FSX or P3D, I would say no need to replace video card.  If you're flying X-Plane 10, then I would suggest getting a card with 4GB of VRAM,  example the Msi 4GB OC GTX770.  You would need a bigger power supply, suggest 750 Watt Corsair Modular PSU (about $80).  It's not terribly hard to put a new PSU in unless you have a truly-small PC case.

 

If you're careful, you can even use wire cutters to snip out the OLD wiring from your OLD power supply, if it's too tightly-bound or buried beneath your motherboard.  Be careful you don't cut the NEW wires though!!

[ctiger 49]

Thanks Frank for your input.  If that card didn't help you I am sure nothing will help me see any improvement.  I would have answered sooner but as you know Avsim was down.

[GHarrall 494]

Errrr, if you are using p3d v2, better get the best card you can.

[ctiger 49]

Thanks all for your replies.  I will stick with what I have until I purchase a new computer sometime in the near future.  Since my card is not DX11 compatible with p3d I will stick with fsx for now.

 

Robert, I used X-Plane 5.0 many years ago. It was very frame friendly back then.  I tried the XP10 demo but was not too happy with it due to my under powered computer.  It will be a whole new ball game when I upgrade.

 

Regards,

[Robert McDonald 167]

Thanks all for your replies.  I will stick with what I have until I purchase a new computer sometime in the near future.  Since my card is not DX11 compatible with p3d I will stick with fsx for now.

 

Robert, I used X-Plane 5.0 many years ago. It was very frame friendly back then.  I tried the XP10 demo but was not too happy with it due to my under powered computer.  It will be a whole new ball game when I upgrade.

 

Regards,

 

Hi Carl,

 

I totally get where you're coming from.  Each person must proceed at their own pace in our hobby, time and budget permitting.  I have to say the XP 10 demo is very pretty, but the timer on it is a buzz killer.  I strongly believe that to be fair, a person needs to make a leap of faith and purchase some level of XP10, I jumped in both feet and bought "Global", but there are lesser levels you can buy.

 

If you have a newer PC with a quad core processor and 5-series video or greater, X-Plane can be quite appealing.  It is designed to be flown on lesser pcs with the settings turned down, or it can really shine on the new-gen stuff.

 

I won't try to convert you away from FSX, I would only suggest your keep XP in mind as a viable long-term alternative. There is a WEALTH of free add ons for XPlane, HD textures being a BIG one.  XPlane is ideally suited to multi-screen viewing and more PCs (scalable).

 

Best of luck.

[ctiger 49]

Thanks Robert, I have often thought about picking up X-plane but assumed it would give me about the same frames I get in FSX with similar settings (middle to a notch above). It was somewhat difficult in trying to get all the settings setup in X-plane with the demo.  That was even a problem back in the XP 5.0 days.  I have a lot invested in FSX but still may just take the plunge in the near future.  I feel I can enjoy both.

 

Regards,

[Robert McDonald 167]

Hi Carl,

 

Like you, I was indeed very torn between FSX (which I started out with) and X-Plane 10, which was visually appealing, but confusing to me to try to set up initially.  Of course, FSX is no can of corn to set up, but you do so much tweaking with it trying to get your frames rates up that you kind of 'get used' to playing with all manner of settings and following online 'step-by-step' setup tutorials from some of our fine Avsim membership.

 

Truth is, X-Plane requires a little hunting around to access things, but at least everything is available to you within the same folder (the 'x-plane folder') on your PC.  Things are not scattered into the programs x86 directory as they are in FSX with add-ons.

 

To my mind, Xplane with just a few add-ons (most of which are free) is a great alternative and points you towards the future by unleashing of all your system RAM memory (assuming you are running 64-bit OS) as well as capitalizing on todays DX10 and DX11 video cards.  DX11 being preferred.

 

More VRAM on your video card enables higher resolution flight, with greater textures in your scenery packs.

 

Watching the videos of both X-plane 10 and FSX can give you a good feel for how they are different, and the benefits available from both platforms.

 

If you begin to drift toward cockpit building, my money says X-Plane 10 will be on your desk sooner rather than later.  Especially if you are wanting great frames across 3 or more monitors.  *Note:  Multi-monitors many require multi-PCs and discrete video cards on each of the supplemental pcs to render the wing views at max frames.  On-mobo "Intel" graphics are NOT recommended for X-Plane 10.  2GB Vram on your video card is less good than 3 or 4.  4 is probably the sweet spot GTX 770 4GB OC recommended.  GTX Titan (6GB Vram) for people with unlimited budget*

[ctiger 49]

Robert,

I appreciate your information on XP10. I am sure I will eventually pick up X10 in the near future.  I am very envious of you and your PC system. I can't  imagine what FSX or XP10 would be like with that system.  I am still in the dark ages with my little "pooter" but it still can bring me enjoyment, although slow in some areas.