Observation - GPU Load

[davidgate]

I run a nVidia 8800GT which is obviously not up to the task for FTX airports such as Brisbane (I intend to upgrade soon).

Just an observation - you can see from the image below that whilst the 8800GT memory is maxed out the GPU is only working at less than 50% load. Also, only about 40% of the available system RAM (8Gb) is being utilised.

I guess this demonstrates the importance of GPU memory. Also it would be good if the system RAM could be used to better effect.

Dave G

[Guest AS355F]

Yep, you don't need a powerful gpu at all to run FSX.

If I needed a new card now then this would be my choice.

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=193_933&products_id=13985

The 2Gb of very fast GDDR5 will do wonders. ATI have a far superior memory controller to Nvidia so they can run their GDDR5 as fast as what's available. (Currently Samsung 7gbps)

Theoretically you should be able to get it to run at 7GHz.

I run my standard 5870 at 5.2GHz, i need a bios flash to get it any faster as I'm limited by the software. I think the eyefinity editions are the only cards using the 7gbps chips.

[davidgate]

GPU power aside, what do you think is the minimum GPU RAM required to run FSX/FTX well? The latest nVidia cards only go to 1280 and 1536 Mb - is 1280 enough?

Dave G

[Guest AS355F]

I can't really answer that as I know about hardware but nothing about software.

I believe that the more memory you can get on a videocard the better, that is for FSX, 1Gb is more than enough for other games.

A general rule of thumb is the higher the resolution you use the more memory (graphics) you need. 1Gb for 1920x1200 seems to be the cutoff point, so 2Gb will help with 2560x1600.

I would love to see some testing done with 1Gb vs 2Gb, there are plenty on the net that say don't bother but they don't use FSX as a test.

All that being said I don't seem to suffer with my 1Gb 5870 running at 1920x1200.

So yeah 1280 should be enough at "normal" resolution.