Upgrade from 4870 512MB to 6870 1GB was a really nice suprise.

[cvearl]

Disclaimer: I got rid of my nVidia card before getting into FSX so I cannot compare anything in particular concearning ATI versus nVidia. Just sharing my recent experience.

To address some NON FSX needs (although secretly hoping for improvements for sure), I needed a cheapish upgrade (under $250) that would represent a significant improvement over my 512MB 4870 in other games I was about to pull b ack off the shelf. I looked around and for $250 or less (at the time of the purchase), the 6870 represented a great value in terms of performance and features. I picked it up and was not expecting much change for FSX. To a degree I was holding out hope that maybe a reduction in blurries at low altitude flights in 135 KT or faster planes would be nice. Much to my suprise, in addition to what I was looking for for non FSX items, I got alot of benefits I was not expecting in FSX.

I run a 3GHz C2D 8400 @ 3.4Ghz (using SETFSB) with 4GB PC2-6400 RAM on Windows 7 64.

I use REX 2.0 and ORBX scenery for 90% of my flying in Carenado and Real Air planes for the most part.

I generally set ORBX to whatever the manual for PNW/PFJ/NRM states and try to use DENSE for Autogen except in the Seattle or Vancouver area where I use Normal sometimes. Otherwise I leave the sliders where ORBX manuals ask.

I run 1920x1080 resolution with AA and AF. I lock frames internally usually at 30fps. I use VSYNC enabled via Jesus' vsync line in the cfg file.

Prior to upgrading to the 6870, I had the following issues. (Could have been video RAM only 512MB the whole time but I cannot prove anything outside of sharing my experience).

- Some stuttering (with fps bouncing anywhere from high teens to high twenties) when agen was at Dense and even sometimes Normal if bad weather in Concrete and Darrington areas.

- Alot of stuttering around Seattle area or when flying around Vashon scenery. (Low teens fps to mid twenties)

- Paint stripes on Carenado paint jobs when viewed from external would get Jaggies in the stripes themselves when viewed from a distance and an angle panning around the plane for screenshots.

- While almost all edges had AA applied as expected, some gauge and radio visual features had jaggies like the radio bezzel edges or fonts on the GPS or course lines and things like that when zoomed out .60 or further and looking to the right. Even some of the fonts on the gauges themselves or the hands in the gauges themselves had a sawblade edge when not horizontal.

- Blurrs at anything over about 140 kts 1500 feet AGL in Normal and Dense Autogen settings flying anything but default planes. System just could not always keep ground textures crisp all the time. Really noticed when VFR navigation trying to follow roads and other ground based features. Very distracting. System always seemed like it was trying to focus the textures but could never quite get the job done by the time I was past them. The faster then plane the worse it was.

Once I upgraded to the 6870 I was happy to find the new SuperSample AA modes available in ATI's CP as well as extra texture options.

Now I fly locked at 30 with Dense Autgen in all but Vancouver/Seattle areas with narry a stutter! 95% of the time the ground textures remain clean and crisp! Sure if I pan my view from right window to left window there can be initial blurr for a second or two in some distant tile but for the most part I have to look for it now. Agen at Dense is beutiful and fluid motion of the sim allows for some very immersive experiences I was not having before. I can even depart Isreals and fly to Concrete in any plane of my choice and have a smooth fluid experience where before, Isreals was killing my framerates and had allot of stuttering until I got away from it.

My biggest and most important suprise was that my pannels in all my planes are crystal clear and no Aliasing to be seen anywhere on any edge. Font or otherwise. I can read little stickers I used to have to zoom up to see. It is great! From outside I see no Aliasing in the paint jobs regardless of which plane.

I have been extremely pleased with all of these benefits and suprised at how much smoother my flying experience is.

Admittedly, approaching Seattle from the North at low altitudes I get some stutter still with both the airports in view. Most other areas are silky smooth.

Blurrs are not 100% gone in all cases. If I rip along the ground in the Lancair in densly populated areas? Ya. System still cannnot keep every tile around me in focus. I know I need even more CPU and card for that luxury.

One thing that has not changed. If I am in chase view behind a float plane and the crazyass mist or splash behind the plane kicks up, my framerates suffer and I really get stutter but I have to be behind the plane looking through that mist/float wash. Which in my opinion is grossly overdone in FSX. My real life flights in Beavers never had Niagra falls like splash behind the plane as far as I could see. 

I have never experienced FSX with a GTX460/470/480 or beyond so I cannot comment on any kind of comparison and don't intend to. I was a hardware freak for years in the past and had to benchmark every little thing and could care less at this point. I just want my stuff to work well and now it does.

Is it perfect? No. Perfect for me would be flight as fluid as I am getting now in the Lanciar at 2000 feet AGL full speed through the most densly populated sceneries with autogen at Extreme at 60 fps locked. Once that can be bought for under $1500, I will be happy.

Charles.

[super-six four]

Charles, thanks for that post. I have a very similar system, and consequently similar problems, notably the blurries in the terrain. Part of the problem may be 2G of RAM on XP 32bit, but suspect that a card like the 6870 would be a good thing.

Cheers,

Todd

[cvearl]

Charles, thanks for that post. I have a very similar system, and consequently similar problems, notably the blurries in the terrain. Part of the problem may be 2G of RAM on XP 32bit, but suspect that a card like the 6870 would be a good thing.

Cheers,

Todd

I was Win7 64bit and have 4GB RAM and was getting the blurries anyway. 6870 did not completely get rid of it in every single case but it is tons better than it was with this card.

I also clocked the CPU 10% or so and that probably helped a little as well. But the biggest change was definately the 6870.

Charles.