pabloc720

Hey everyone, My friend is a huge flight sim fan and he has a pretty good setup with a triple monitor. I was over his house to check it out and he wanted me to troubleshoot what is going on with his sims. He is running Windows * and he runs the Trackir software before he runs DCS world. The sim starts just fine and when I am wearing the hat with the IR pickups? The software tracks my head movements just fine but he has no keyboard control and his flight stick, I want to say it is a Thrustmaster, but nothing works. I have never used this tracking software before and I have never used the DCS world software either. I am used to the MS flight sims. Is there a problem with Windows 8.1 when it comes to flight sims? Is there any work arounds or soultions? thanks friends Paul

Just a heads up. This morning I am seeing the reviews of the 7900 and 7600 series of cards. Most impressive even on a budget the 7600 beats the 6800gt/s in most game apps and the 7900 is a monster. At sub $200, I suspect that the price will go down even futher, this makes an excellent upgrade choice for the PCI-E crowd who havent made an upgrade choice yet.Paul

Hey Paul,I cant tell you anything about the ATI cards but I can tell you about the 7800 and its a world of difference from my 6600gt and not just in the flight sims but in every game I had ran at high res, 1280x960, with 4x AA with little to no slow down. The shimmering effect you are talking about I have not come across yet, but that 7800 was just on loan. I would have to guess it comes down to personal preference, ATI or Nvidia. I like Nvidia. Also I would ask about your budget if you got money to burn then you could wait till the newer cards come out, should be unveiled at the end of this month in Germany if memory serves right, to see what they would have to offer.Paul

>Hi folks >>Question: Why do I constantly forget that brilliant little>program called CPU-z? >>Reply: I want Ulf to remind me my brain is like a Swiss>cheese! :-) >>>@ Paul, I'm glad you did a little bit of research. I fully>agree with the concept of not mixing different kind of>modules. However, for different reasons as originally posted>and nevertheless, probably very much in line with what you>were trying to say. I also try my very best to stay out of>certain polemics... So, thanks for looking up the details,>Paul, much appreciated. :-) >>Cheers, good luck and kind regards >>Jaap No thank you Jaap sometimes I get lazy in my knowledge, and yes sometimes a little arrogant:-lol so you made me work and thats always a good thing.thanksPaul

>>@ Paul, although some of your mentions are pointing in the>right direction, it isn't true you won't get dual channel when>using modules with i.e. different latencies or nominal>frequencies. >>Hope this helps, good luck and kind regards >>Jaap I never said that dual channel will work with different latencies I actually said ...."If your memory is different from each other like in speed, ie dr 400 or ddr 500, and timing is different, CAS timming, then you wont get the benefit of the dual channel mode.The motherboard MIGHT reduce the speed of the faster memory to match but that varies from motherboard to motherboard." and my motherboard ASN-SLI will NOT run in dual channel mode if the memory modules are not matched and Dom most motherboards have colored memory slots for example, my Asus board has 4 slots two blue two black and to get dual channel both sticks of ram must be in the same colored slots.edit: i just did some research yes it is possible to run different speed ram in dual channel but it will run as fast as the slowest module...always learning something new everyday

Hey Dom,Usually when you buy memory that is designed for dual channel they are sold in matched pairs, which I assume is not the case if your asking. If your memory is different from each other like in speed, ie dr 400 or ddr 500, and timing is different, CAS timming, then you wont get the benefit of the dual channel mode. The motherboard MIGHT reduce the speed of the faster memory to match but that varies from motherboard to motherboard. There is also a school of thought that says if your going to run memory in dual channel mode the memory should be from the same maker. I havent tried this so I cant be sure if this is true or not.hope it helpsPaul

ah my mistake i thought you went from LCD to CRT and file corruption in my years of pc building and repairing doesnt happen with a monitor switch, however installing new drivers it MIGHT happen especially if they are beta or untested drivers. By the way who or what company makes the video card you are using?edit: never mind about the video card what version of the nvidia drivers are you using?thanksPaul

Yes I would agree with the above post. I have the 6600gt and I turned of the hardware settings like AA etc in FS9 and did it through my Nvidia control panel. I took a huge performance hit if I did not do it this way. Also you may want to look that your background tasks are not interfering with the game. Close the aps like chat programs and in some cases antiviruses would help.Paul

Sure there are more powerful cards than the 9800 that are in the AGP sytle. Are you planning to switch the card or were you just asking? If you want to know the 6800 and 7800 series of the Nvidia series are much more powerful than the 9800 and on the ATI side I would assume the X19xx or X18xx series are more powerful, but I am not that familar with the ATI brand of cards so someone here will correct me if I am wrong about the ATI cards.thanksPaul

Sounds like to me the resoultion was incorrect for the old monitor that you switched. LCD and CRT monitors dont use the same resoultions or frame rates. I would tried going into safe mode, pressing F8 after the ram count screen just when it goes black, and adjust the resoultion from there. A complete reformat just automatically adjusted the resoultion to whatever monitor was hooked up at the time of a new install. I am not sure about the missing icon that could just be a fluke as a result of the monitors being switched and you could also have tried a system restore and that should bring your system back to the state it was, which you can choose, before you installed the CRT.I hope this clears things up for youPaul

Hey Paul,There are tons of cards you can use. First what is your budget like? Second are you particular to Nvidia or ATI or something else. Me personally I have been very happy with the Nvidia series of cards. From my experience you can get a AGP 6600gt or 6800 series and of course if your wallet allows they just made the 7800 for the AGP slot.Paul

yes the 7800gt i played with, XFX brand, was extremely smooth and from what i saw there was no stutters. As far as the overclock was concerned since i am using a 3200 with a venice core its using a much lower cpu voltage, 1.4 to be exact, I didnt have to raise the voltage at all just increased the FSB and my memory handled it with easy also my Asus board had some built in overclock presets, raised to a max of 10%, but it wasnt good enough so i used the manual setting and went to a FSB of 208 mhz where is was stable running my PRIME mem test and SYSANDRA test. I also use Shin Etsu thermal paste which I think its the best stuff out there. Its a little tricky applying but well worth the effort.thanksPaul

lol good luck convincing the "boss"paul

Hey Jason,My rig is almost the same as yours and I was very lucky to test my rig with a 7800gt and all I can say is WOW. There is a huge difference in performance, but I didnt run only FS i did it with FEAR HL2 Need for speed most wanted as well as FS 2004 and I saw a world of difference with higher effects on ans still staying smooth. As far as the CPU the difference between the 3200 and 4000 is small. The 4000 runs at 2.4 and my 3200(venny core),2.0 stock,overclocked hits 2.8 on stock cooling without a problem.Paul

yep thats going to be a good rig. I assume thats a Althon 64 4000? If your up in the air about a board I can suggest the Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe or Premimum cause it will grow with you if you decide to go dual core and it runs like a champ and overclocks very well. It also has SLI if you decided to go that way and loves the dual channel ram.Its going to be night and day difference between your old and new systemPaul

Yep you are correct scott about the 12v rail and I would suggest a new power supply with a dual 12v rail system, better overall stablitity and extra power when you need it.Paul

sure no problem the amps going through each volt rail simply works like this the higher the amps the more devices it will support without loosing voltage on that rail, 12 volts for example. Any good power supply should have this information on the power supply or the box it came in, but since you said its a cheap power supply I would suggest to replace it, if you just brought it, or buy a power supply from Antec, Enermax, and Pc Power and Cooling, Thermaltake make some of the best power supplies and even though they are not cheap they will last you probably longer than you keep your system. Their amperages on there volt lines are very strong and some like Antec and Pc Power and Cooling have dual 12 volt rails, for SLI modes and for extra power for more devices, which is a good thing. Here is my specs of my powet supply, True Blue 480 by Antec, so you know what to look for and ask.....OUTPUT +5v -5v +12v -12v +3.3vMAX LOAD 38a 0.5a 22a 1.0a 30aMIN LOAD 0a 0a 0.8a 0a 0ahope this helpspaul

i am not familar with that card and i am doing some research on that card but I am sure about the 6600 series, as thats what I am running in my pc. But it looks like its based on the 9200 series which the 6600 is way faster than the 9200. Maybe someone who has this card can shed more light but I think this card would be slower than the 6600.Paul

oh i forgot to ask is your video card agp or pci-e or pci?thanksPaul

Diguero,Just for my clarification could you post the specs of the power supply who makes it, most of the specs should be on the box it came in or on the power supply itself. I am looking for things like the amps on each rail, 12 volt 5 volt and 3 volt. Some times even though the power supply is rated 350 watts some of the volt railing dont provide enough punch to get you what you need. Get me this information and I could start to help you with your troubleshooting.thanksPaul

Django,I am in the same boat as you. I am looking for an lcd for my gamming and here is what I have came across so far. Responce time is important and from what I seen through reviews and testing 12ms or better seems to be what everyone is aimming for. However this is mostly to games that have alot of speed, first person shooters, racing games, sports etc. When it comes to Flight sims however we tend to move really slow compared to a racing game so in that sense responce time would not be a big factor. If your gamming is extending outside of the flight sims then get something with a 12ms or lower. I also think you are correct about the contrast ratio. I seen some LCD with a 500:1 ratio and they look very sharp and crisp, but to me nothing compares to the color and contrast you get with a traditional CRT, so there is going to a compromise there. hope this sheds some light for youPaul

Hey Alex,I can't speak to the ATI cards but you can get an nvidia 6600, not the GT version, PCI for about $84 shipped on pricewatch. The company is evga and they do some good stuff however the PCI slot is much slower than that of the AGP or PCI-E counter parts, so dont expect blazing speeds. That being said you should see a HUGE improvement over your intergrated video because the onboard video of the 6600 has 256 megs on board so you can push your textures higher and more detailed without a big hit on performance.hope it helpsPaul

i found the chart, old yes, but its showing fs 2004 as a benchmark with the agp cards...http://www.tomshardware.com/2004/10/04/vga_charts_iv/page11.htmlthe comparison might help you decide on what card is better for you.Paul

Hey speed,Just from a hardware technician point of view, what are the resoultions are you running durring your FS? Do you turn on the special things like Anti-Aliasing? If so you might be reaching the graphical limits of your video card.let me knowPaul

>Rick & Paul, forgive me for piping in here but I am very>interested in upgrading my system and I find your comments>very helpful. My question is do you think the XFX PVT43AUD>Geforce 6600GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 AGP 4X/8X Video Card would>improve my old flight sim system I built in July 2003 ie.? > P4 3.0, Clocked to 3.16>Asus P4C800-E-Deluxe Motherboard>Win XP Home Editions Service Pack II>ATI Radeon 9700 Pro 128 MB>2ea Corsair 512 MB DDR400 PC3200 Double Data>2ea Ultra 512 MB PC3200 DDR400>Antec SL400 W 12V ATX Power Supply>Seagate 40 GB 7200 RPM>Thanks much! Erv/KSDF>No problem yes the card will give you a huge performance increase when compared to the 9700 you have in there now and if I am reading your system specs right you have a total of 2 gigs of ram in your system? Nice system by the way, loving the corsair ram!thanks Paul