FSX and 8xSSGS

[Gregg_Seipp 568]

We all hear that FSX is CPU bound.  Mostly.  But, I got a new computer set up with my sim this last week.  (i7 4770K GTX 770.  Still not overclocking anything.)  My framerates were 40s+ after I got everything installed and moved my sliders but then I had jaggies and shimmering.  Using 8xSGSS and some other tuning in nVidea Inspector, I was able to virtually eliminate jaggies and shimmering...lines are pretty crisp, scenery is clear and, more importantly, distant lights look perfect.  The cost of 8xSGSS, however, is that, in my most taxing test case, my frames had dropped to 20 (at Orbx PNW KSEA with the Flight1 Mustang or RealAir Turbine Duke).  Now, granted, I can fly at nearly all my other airports with frames at 30+ and, even at 20 FPS it's surprisingly smooth.  Still, that's a pretty big hit from 40 down to 20.  But, in order to really see the beauty of Orbx Norcal, it's what I needed to do.  So, I guess my point is this:  if my understanding after all this is right, for people seeing lower frames using SGSS, the limiting factor right now is still, in large part, the video card and, as video cards continue to improve, they may see higher framerates coming.

 

I'm also curious if P3D needs that high of SGSS and at how high a framerate cost since I plan to move to that later in the year.

 

Gregg

 

[Anderscn 0]

Hi Gregg,

 

I fully agree with you, but I think that it has been a while ago, since it was the assumption that FSX is cpu bound only.

Especially after I went DX10, 8xSGSS is needed to minimize blurries and jaggies. I know that my rig today is ancient. But can you believe it, my GTX570 card most often is the bottleneck in my Phenom II based rig.

 

Hence, in my upcoming Haswell/Refresh Haswell rig, I would not even consider anything less than an OC'ed 780 GPU.

 

Best regards

Anders

[Gregg_Seipp 568]

 

 

I would not even consider anything less than an OC'ed 780 GPU.

 

Yeah, I went with the 770 because of the price and the more video ram.  8xSSGS was a wow moment for me...there is so much more that I could see when the shimmering was gone.  Very happy with my video card as it stands but I do need to learn how to overclock it.  Looking forward to P3D when it gets more third party native installers and airplanes.

[Gregg_Seipp 568]

Well, I did overclock my video card today using Precision X.  I got 30 FPS at KSEA with my test case but it wasn't even slightly smoother.  I think I'll stick to normal clock speed unless I find a better reason.

 

Gregg

[dazz 69]

8xSGSS is a massive hit. Even 4xSGSS is too much for anything other than 780, 780Ti or Titan. I'd be extremely surprised if you weren't in the low teens or single digits with 2 or more cloud layers

[Gregg_Seipp 568]

 

 

8xSGSS is a massive hit. Even 4xSGSS is too much for anything other than 780, 780Ti or Titan. I'd be extremely surprised if you weren't in the low teens or single digits with 2 or more cloud layers

 

Actually, I'm in the 30s almost everywhere with no overclocking and clouds (I use ASN).  I have frames locked at 30 in NI.  There's only a few places where it drops to 20 and, even so, it's very smooth which really surprises me.  I never imagined 20 could be this smooth.  I did overclock the video card and got 30 at the demanding places but didn't get any more smoothness so I just turned it back down to normal.  Perhaps there are scenarios where it will drop low but I haven't found them yet.

 

Gregg

[JesC 88]

Recently I have been flying very succesfully with 8xS plus 8xSGSS when making VFR flights in light to moderate clouds combined with LOD=6.5. This has given a great visual experience and good steady frames.

 

However, if I am making intense IFR flights with multiple cloud layers, I normally dial back to 8xS plus 2xSGSS and take LOD back to default 4.5. These settings have little impact on the visuals in these situations and I'm usually too busy flying to notice if they do, anyway.

 

This strategy has worked very succesfully for me and I am getting smooth, stable frames in the high 20's to steady 30 (locked at 30). I don't fly with AI traffic anymore and fly only GA aircraft (mostly RealAir Duke B60 v2) using ASN with REX4 in live weather.

 

Since updating to the new 337.5 Beta driver I have the impression that the higher settings are being handled much more efficiently but don't have any empirical evidence of that.

[dazz 69]

Recently I have been flying very succesfully with 8xS plus 8xSGSS when making VFR flights in light to moderate clouds combined with LOD=6.5. This has given a great visual experience and good steady frames.

 

However, if I am making intense IFR flights with multiple cloud layers, I normally dial back to 8xS plus 2xSGSS and take LOD back to default 4.5. These settings have little impact on the visuals in these situations and I'm usually too busy flying to notice if they do, anyway.

 

This strategy has worked very succesfully for me and I am getting smooth, stable frames in the high 20's to steady 30 (locked at 30). I don't fly with AI traffic anymore and fly only GA aircraft (mostly RealAir Duke B60 v2) using ASN with REX4 in live weather.

 

Since updating to the new 337.5 Beta driver I have the impression that the higher settings are being handled much more efficiently but don't have any empirical evidence of that.

 

I used to do that too. Picking AA settings as part of my flight planning. One thing I like about AMD cards is that you can change your settings on the fly. For some reason NVidia's drivers stopped doing it a while ago.

Anyway, at the current pace of improvement in video cards I believe next gen GPU's will handle at least 4xSGSS without breaking a sweat 

[Gregg_Seipp 568]

 

 

This strategy has worked very succesfully for me and I am getting smooth, stable frames in the high 20's to steady 30 (locked at 30). I don't fly with AI traffic anymore and fly only GA aircraft (mostly RealAir Duke B60 v2) using ASN with REX4 in live weather.

 

That sounds about right.  I'm using drivers from a couple of revisions back and it's working well.  Also, I'm using AA_MODE_METHOD_SUPERVCAA_64X_4v12 instead of 8s and 8x Anisotropic Filtering Setting. Like I mentioned, overclocking the video card is an option to get framerates back up.  

[JesC 88]

 I'm using drivers from a couple of revisions back and it's working well.

 

 

If you ever decide to try the new 337.5 Beta it would be interesting to hear your results. I think it is having a very positive impact but I find it difficult to quantify and haven't seen many comments from other FSX users.