cvearl

Ultimately the stock coolers on AMD are louder than they should be. My first 7970 reference card went back in 1 week and I exchanged for a Gigabyte Windforce 7970 OC and the difference was day and night. The Board partners are being held back until AMD decides once and for all the position of the R9 290. The reference board matches the GTX 780 and the MSRP is $399 USD. I suspect $429 ASUS, Gigabyte, Sapphire, HIS and MSI joining the party by end of the month. Since they will match the GTX 780 in every way and are a $400 card, what is nVidia going to do next? Drop to $449 or less? The BETA driver for AMD recently was an issue. A bunch of us complained but prepared for silence from AMD. On the contrary. We all received personal emails and consequently the BETA 13.11 v9.2 squashed the bug that would crash FSX with a fatal error. They are really on their toes now it seems and back to caring about the little guy and legacy apps. Wow. Black Friday and all of December should be interesting. This is the bloodiest battle I have seen between these two in many years! Charles.

Friggan Awesome. Now FSX can live happily next to Bioshock Infinate, Batman Arcanum and BF4 (needed the new drivers for best results in those) and all is well. I fly around in heavy autogen with some interresting weather with no issues locked at 30 so far. I love it. I am quite happy. Now... P3D v 2.0. Get out here! I want my 7970 Ghz to slap you around. Charles.

Could this be dependant on plane? Which plane are you using. Charles.

I just flew around for 90 minutes in DX10 at 8xSSAA and not a spike in sight. I am in disbelief. Not sure what they would have changed at all but no spikes. Last 15 minutes I was following the river from Chilliwack BC (ORBX PNW Scenery) to Pitt Meadows BC and had water set at MAX and not a hiccup. Not singe spike. That scenario would have had insta-spikes 1 minutes after take off. Not sure what to think really. I have been combing through my settings. I have not added anything and forgotten. FSX.CFG is default and this is all that was changed or added. [GRAPHICS] HIGHMEMFIX=1 ForceFullScreenVSync=1 D3D10=1 MultiSamplesPerPixel=8 [Display] WideViewAspect=True

Yes I let Steve's fixer drop 4xAA in the cfg. The cfg is virgin otherwise. Wideviewaspect changed to true. No BP=0 or anything else. Highmemfix was added and that's it. Car Traffic was at 10% , GA and Airline are 14% each. Boats 20% Autogen is set to Dense currently. Scenery Complexity Very Dense. I will fly all week as much as I can. Honestly if P3D 2.0 DX11 works well I wont give a flip what DX10.1 in FSX does. LOL As for your CCC.... It's not CCC's fault. It's a Canary in a coal mine. If CCC cannot load, the OS has something pooched somewhere. It's just sensitive enough to not like it. Anything else needing .NET 4.X to be prefect is going to act up as well... Usually. In my experience anyway. Several cards and multiple drivers and 6 builds (2 mine this year and 4 other people) no CCC issues of any kind. At work we have had .NET sooooo broken that we had to reimage the computer. Google .NET 4.0 issues. Put a helmet on. You will need it. Charles.

driver 13.11 beta 9 version 2 released and I flew around last night for 30 minutes and DirectX 10 didn't see a single spike. I was flying around CYVR Airport in one of my Carenado planes medium clouds in the sky. I have my water set to 2x low I'm running 4xSSAA. This does not mean the issue is fixed just making a note the new beta driver came out and I did not get spikes my flight last night. But I do know if I set my water to a high level and try to go to 8xAA I will likely see spikes. This has always been the case for me and DirectX 10 even before Steve's fixer. when someone gets a chance I'd like you to max out most of your settings in FSX on your new GTX 780 and switch to 8xS with 4xSGSS. put your water on 2xhigh and fly for an hour in a dense autogen area with overcast clouds. On a typical 1 hour flight what is that like? Remember to set autogen very dense please. C.

How is the ATC for IFR? Are all the frequencies true to real world for North America so I can use my real EFB data? Are all the ground based Navigational Aids (VORS' and NDB's) correct and all present and accounted for? The ILS's and Localizers? Are all the airports up to date? If I needed to get the ground as detailed as FTX Global with OpenLC and Vector or UTX USA for the roads and water bodies for VFR waypoints, are they there already? Or can I get them? Let me know. Charles.

I hope it's as accurate. I use the real 430 in a few planes my buddies own and the RXP is identical not just in looks but behaviour. As a result it is the perfect teaching tool. Especially for IFR. Being able to preload multiple flight plans and insert waypoints mid flight and such. Learning the correct key presses. Hard to lose that. Charles.

I already posted in a few other areas but 13.11 Beta v9.2 is out and appears to be working great. Flew around a lot last night switching planes and airports and exiting and coming back in with it no problems. So I guess they listened. Charles.

I have been flying for hours. Changing planes in mid air. Windowed to fullscreen and back. 4xSSAA and 8xSSAA tests. Jumping to airports and changing planes and exiting and coming back into the sim. CTRL+C to fast exit. End Flight and exit. It all works. No fatal errors. So far no problems. And with BP=0 I seem to be locked at 30 at ORBX KSFF in the Duke v 2.0 I am impressed. They said they would fix and they did. Good one AMD. Nice indeed. Now I can get the boost in my other games and enjoy FSX as well. Remember... Full uninstall current driver with Catalyst Install Manager and reboot before installing the new driver. Charles.

Beta version 13.11 BETA v9.2 is released and is working in FSX DX9 without CTD. Also not sure but colors are richer? Or I should not drink beer when I sim. Charles.

Definately a monster. I see them showing up all over the place for $519 now. They will be dropping even more soon I suspect now that the R9 290 hit. Funny. $650 card price crash so fast. I mean 5 months later! I mean months after people plopped down $1000 on a Titan. With GTX770 at $329 now and this at $519 but R9 290 (Direct competitor) coming at $400 (more relavent to all other games and less so FSX for the moment), will we see the 780 drop to $429/$449 in another 3 or 4 weeks? If it does, it's in my "clear concience buy range". Unless of course the R9 290 after market retail cards (ASUS, Gigabyte and Sapphire) are on the shelf and AMD has fixed the BETA driver for DX9 FSX. There will be so many models to choose from below $450 that are a shade slower than the Titan it will make your head spin! Charles.

I own RealAir Duke V 2.0 and the RXP 430 and 530... What happens if you use the Duke configuration tool and select your Garmins? Will it work? Charles.

Wait. What? You have a 5770? That was a 1GB $150 card 4 years ago. Well... You never know. That card could be hatched. Who knows. Maybe even just a crap card out of the gate for AMD. Never had one. I skipped the 5000 series. I was on NVidia at the time. Good luck with whatever you get anyway. I hope your next experience is better regardless of company. But I recommend a full rebuild on your next swap. Charles.

Crap man. If I had all those issues, I would too! LOL But I don't and neither do my friends that run the same hardware. Well... I have 7970 and they have 7950's but whatever. I use it for everything. I can play DIVX no issues, DVD's, AVI's, Netflix and Youtube up the wazzooo. I have several games (most of which I never play more than 30 minutes because FSX calls my name) and glass smooth Ultra settings 1920x1080 goodness. But I too have jumped ship from both companies more than once in my life for the same reason as you state. My luck runs out, I get ###### and I go to the other side for a few years. Been there done that. ATI has been treating me good for over 3 years. But that GTX780 is looking good now that it is $500. But really that's over my budget. $400 is where it's at and the R9 290 is looking like a winner. C. Steve at Techspot tore the IceQ X2 cooler off the HIS Radeon R9 280X and stuck it on their R9 290 sample. Cooling was dramatically improved. The FurMark stress test maxed out at 76 degrees while the card never exceeded 63 degrees in Crysis 3 and Battlefield 4. So it seems as expected the board partners will be able to solve the heat issues of the reference card. GTX780 performance, quiet and 75 degrees! for $400! Wow. Common board partners lets go!!!!! Rumor mill has it AMD is holding the partners at bay until nVidia drops the other shoe. The GTX780Ti very soon that kills their own Titan and the R9 290X at $700. How much faster than 290X? That's what AMD wants to know. My bet is on $649 and 10% faster. Plus now rumored they are prepping a GTX780 Ghz Edition to replace the 780 and trump the 290. The Ghz edition 780 or whatever they call it, will probably be 10% faster than the R9 290 and standard 780 and I'm guessing priced to kill. $449 is still my bet and 10% faster across the board. But I would still opt for a current GTX780 or ASUS and Gigabyte varieties of the R9 290 in the $400 price point. The value is just undeniable. Everything above that is going to seem stupid for all but multi-screen applications. One thing is for sure. There is likely some grumpy people over at the green offices right now. They never saw this coming. Charles.

You want the 270X then. It's a tweaked up 7870 model re-released. About $200. C. Well at least they are trying! C.

I seriously don't understand why that happened to you. I have done that same procedure dozens of times on at least four different machines recently and FSX and windows 7 perfectly fine no issues whatsoever going back to 13.4. C. Might just be the reference cooler but who knows. Board partners might come up with better cooling solutions they often do. Personally I'm waiting for more reviews when those boards partners get that stuff done.

ATI in FSX has been fine since the 6000 series. I have been running AMD on simulators for a few years without issue and currently run a 7970Ghz edition which is now known as the R9 280X. But to qualify it... Driver version 13.4 is fine. Issue 1 - Current BETA's have a problem with DX9 mode FSX that AMD said they would address. Issue 2 - no matter the driver, in DX10 Preview mode with the DX10 Fixer Mod, you have to dial back water to Low 2x and cloud density to High or you get scenery texture spikes sometime during your flight. 8xSSAA while very smooth is a tease because it will also result in scenery spikes some time in your flight. I am waiting on a few things.... P3D v 2.0 DX11 annnddd..... Arrival of partner boards for AMD on the R9 290. $399 for GTX780 performance is out of this world. 8xSSAA here I come. If R9 290 does not work right with P3D v2.0 or AMD does not sort out the current beta 13.11 Beta 8 driver issue for FSX DX9, I will get a GTX 780 for my simulator. I want to vote AMD with my wallet as I appreciate the $$$ per fps ratio they have always given the public. nVidia is a bit too greedy for me so I have that soft spot for AMD. But not soft enough to stop siming should the cards not play well going forward. I fly every night on driver 13.4 in DX9 perfectly and glass smooth. And that is good for now. I really want 8xSSAA now and at a price I can afford. I am not paying $700 for the 780Ti. Forget it. Charles.

So here we go again. GTX 780 will be needing another trim on the pricing. The $399 R9 290 should be hitting the shelves some time this month and is roughly the same performance as the GTX780 which is selling for $519 now (reduced from $649 when the R9 290X arrived last week LOL). I predict $449 for GTX780 by December if not sooner. Depends when AMD Board Partners start announcing SKU's for Christmas Season. AMD is waiting to see what the GTX 780Ti comes out like. Faster than R9 290X is almost guaranteed. But it better not be $700. Not worth that. Should be launched at $649. But that is still way beyond my budget for gaming. $399 for GTX780 performance is bang on. And the GTX780 at $449 is a real treat too! November/December is a good time to be a GPU customer. http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/radeon_r9_290_review_benchmarks,32.html http://www.pcgamer.com/review/amd-radeon-r9-290-review/ http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/R9_290/ http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-r9-290-review-benchmark,3659-20.html

Well now.... Here we just had the release of the NON-X 290 at $400 while matching the GTX780 in performance. If SKU's are on the shelves for it by Black Friday (End of November), We are going to be seeing GTX 780 sku's under $500 from companies like EVGA. I predict $449 for the GTX780. The 780 cannot possibly stay above $500 when the R9 290 is $399. I cannot imagine how I would be feeling right now had I bought the 780 a month ago at $649. Kinda ###### actually. I have never seen this large a drop in pricing this fast in all my years in the GPU world. The GTX780ti will not be able to remain at $699 and stay relevant for long. By end of December, I bet it will be $599. And Titan customers. I am so sorry. I mean. Wow. just wow. Buckle your seatbelts, put your trays in the upright position and observe the no smoking sign. Were going for a ride. Charles.

Um really? AMD could care less about a hundred AMD customers trying to get the unfinished 2007 FSX DX10 Preview mode to work. Even with this DX10 fixer "MOD", that is what it still is. Nothing more, nothing less. All other DX10 and DX11 games run awesome. It's not AMD's fault. Even though I have a soft spot for AMD video cards, I would go nVidia if it meant making the sim work. The good news is that it does work. In DX9 where it looks nearly identical and with the BP=0 tweak, basically just as smooth. For me at least. DX10 gave me a tick more tolerance for heavy weather but not so much I would pull my hair out to go back to DX9. I am waiting on P3D v 2.0 DX11 code. It might be where I am headed in the end regardless. Only if I can find a way to use my Garmins in it. If P3D 2.0 is buggy on AMD, I will get a GTX780. They will be under $500 by the end of the month. Charles.

DX10 or 9? DX10 with the fixer... I have to pull water back to 2xLOW and cloud density to High if I want to fly in weather of some kind for periods longer than and hour. Also sticking to 4xAA in the Fixer. SuperSample enabled in the driver. My standard 30 - 90 minute flights and I seem to be fine as long as that is my MO. Bump water past 2xLow and I will get them in minutes if there is water around. AMD users either lower those few settings mentioned here or.... Wait for P3D v 2.0 and see what DX11 shader engine does. My 7970 Ghz is just too awesome to let it go right now (GTX770 level in FSX) over this issue. I will fly DX9 which is glass smooth all the time and looks pretty much identical for the time being. 8xSSAA and Water at 2xHigh is not a problem in VFR weather. Charles.

And apparently you missed... Marc@AMD (Customer Service) has posted ---> On the AMD Driver Support Forum.... The following message was posted on: Friday November 01, 2013 09:27:35 AM One of my colleagues manages the Issue Reporting Forms. He was able to reproduce the issue, and get the issue off to the driver team. He commented on it being the #1 issue by volume from the reports. A fix is being worked on by the driver team. They never provide an ETA on fixes, unfortunately. Marc But to be honest... FSX is not high on the Radar for either company and the fact that it works at all is a fluke. Neither team is spending alot of time Optimizing for all the FSX benchmarks the review sites keep using. LOL It's a simple DX9 game. We all cross our fingers that some important BF4 driver does not come out at the expense of creating issues in FSX. Then the people that do more than just FSX on thier computers will have themselves a real issue. I think I would build a Sim BOX and stick with the last best driver and have another computer for my other entertainment needs I guess regardless of which brand card I was partial to. Charles.

I honestly don't understand. Although I do not fly the NGX. When I fly DX10, my FSX.CFG is virgin with only Wideviewaspect=true and highmemfix statement in these areas... [Display] WideViewAspect=True [GRAPHICS] HIGHMEMFIX=1 Then in FSX try Cloud Density to high instead of Max and water at 2xLow. Scenery Complexity and Autogen Density to Very Dense and Dense. In FSX AA is enabled. In the DX10 fixer I have 4xAA set. Supersample enabled in the driver. FSX fps set to unlimited and RadeonPro set to 30 fps. I would have to fly a long time to get spikes. My usual 1 - 1.5 hour flights I will likely never see them. Charles.

#1. I assume this is Win 8.1 64 bit? #2. What card do you have? #3. Was this an "On the spot" upgrade? Meaning you were on Win7 and ran an 8.1 Upgrade on it? Charles.