card comparison

[Guest]

HiI am very shortly going to buy a new computer.my card at the moment is a "Hercules geforce2 ultra"Will i see a big difference if i have a geforce ti4600?also i have read that it incorporates a nfinate fx engine that enables you to run multiple monitors, does this allow drag and drop to second and third monitors.appreciate any advice, thanks Don

[Guest SD Sim]

Hi Don,This is a somewhat difficult question to answer. While there have been countless threads pointing out that the CPU/memory combination is key to good FS2K2 performance, I am starting to compile comparisons that suggest that it may not be this simple. In the last half year, I have purchased one ready made system (Sony Vaio desktop which I refer to as the "client" in my user comments), and a self-built computer (server). I also have had four video cards (all nVidia) that I have worked my way through as follows: 1) TNT2 M64 (AGP); 2) GF2 MX400 (PCI); 3) GF3 Ti200(AGP); and 4) GF4 Ti4600 (AGP). Using 3D Mark 2001SE, I have benchmarked each of these cards on the P4 system (same drivers/resolution and no AA for all comparisons) and they score as follows:TNT2 = 830MX400 = 2388Ti200 = 5379Ti4600 = 5727I have also benchmarked the Ti4600 on the Athlon (again everything the same), which gives a score of 9,088. Now there is a clear improvement with the Athlon system, which I would think has to be due to the improved CPU/memory. However, there really isn't that big a difference between the Ti200 and the Ti4600 on the P4 system. In this case, it seems to me that the CPU/memory is the bottleneck, and if this was my only computer, then I would have wasted my money on the Ti4600. While I have yet to benchmark the lesser cards on the Athlon (sorry, I do have a life :-lol), I suspect that the Ti200 would score significantly lower in 3D Mark (I base this on comparison with scores from other Ti200 users with the Athlon set-up that I have). So, with the latter computer, I would have benefited from the video card upgrade.Now, here is the critical point (drumrole??). When I run FS2K2 on either computer (Athlon/Ti4600 vs. P4/Ti200), there is absolutely no difference between the two that I can discern. Scenery is rendered at the same rate, and the FPS are locked at (and stay at) 25. The settings on both computers are exactly the same (they need to be to run WidevieW), and if I turn up the settings, I can drive down the FPS, but they are the same for both machines. So what is my conclusion? Well, the computer you use to run FS2K2 can have a big impact on the quality of the sim, and it's not all that easy to predict what will work better. I think that is why you'll sometimes see people post better results with a lesser system. If you play games other than FS2K2, then the faster card will certainly make a difference, but I'm not so sure that there will be a similar improvement for FS2K2 (perhaps for FS2K4?). So as far as video cards are concerned, I would avoid shelling out the big bucks for the Ti4600, and go with either a GF4 Ti4200, or a GF3 Ti200/500.Oh yeah, the answer to your second question regarding multiple monitors. Any card with dual outs can readily support dual monitors, and my Ti4600 does this quite nicely. If the AGP card has only a single video output, then you can use a PCI card to run the second monitor. In this case, however, some users (including myself) have seen the performance of the AGP card drop significantly when the PCI card is added. I recently saw a post that suggests that this problem may be due to using the same driver for both cards. If this is the case, then you can probably save a lot of cash by purchasing a single out AGP video card to run your main FS2K2 view, and then use the PCI for panels, FSNav, etc.I know this was a very, very long answer, but I hope it helps. :-wave

[Guest]

jerrycwo4I've had 4 differant computers in the last four years for flight sims: 333/500/933 and AMD1800+. I've also had 5 differant video cards and can tell you from my experance, the ONLY thing that gave me MORE FPS was to have a FASTER CPU.jerry

[Guest dek]

Hi Don, I want to point out that most people will say that it will not make much difference. They are correct when referring to performance (usually as judged by FPS), but you may see a large difference in other parameters such as sharpness, clarity and smoothness. A lot of people said that going from a GeForce2 GTS 32meg card to a Ti200 64meg would not make a lot of difference, but it did. The newer card will also allow you to utilize certain functions in the various tweaking utilities that you could not use before. Just my 2 cents. dek

[Guest]

ThanksDavid ,Jerry,Dek,your comments and advice are a big helpDon