alexf Posted January 3, 2013 Share Posted January 3, 2013 I am considering upgrading my nVidia GTX480 to a GTX670 or GTX680 (depending if the price differential between these two newer ones justifies the expense for FSX). What would I expect to see, all things being equal? (I'm keeping the same modern gaming PC with a 600w PSU). More FPX? Less blurries or faster blurry removal and scenery definition in the distance? Better temp control? Any advice appreciated. Alex Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr_Watson Posted January 3, 2013 Share Posted January 3, 2013 Can only say that a 470 to a 580 didn't bring me much, maybe 2 or 3 fps, I wouldn't get your hopes up for much more than that from a 480 to a 6xx. What you should be able to do though is run a higher resolution and a higher aa and af setting for the same fps. Better quality picture . Blurries and distance detail are more to do with the hard rice read speeds where a ssd would help mostly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockliffe Posted January 3, 2013 Share Posted January 3, 2013 Sure, I agree with Iain. FSX, as you probably know, is CPU bound and so any upgrade with the GPU will be limited. I also went from a GTX470 to a 580 and saw no improvement with FPS whatsoever. I have been told that there is an improvement with AA, but to be honest, although it's discernable, it has been very small. I suspect you may discover some small improvements with AA and filtering by upgrading 2 versions of the card to the 6xx series. IMHO, any talk I have read about the great improvements has always been from fellas who, I think are probably convincing themselves that the expense of any upgrade was worth it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capt Pugwash Posted January 3, 2013 Share Posted January 3, 2013 Hi Alex, I have been looking to do exactly the same over Christmas and buy a GTX670 oc, that runs higher clock speeds than standard and is pretty much the same speed as a 680!,I have seen them on offer for £299 over here at overclockers and was all set to grab one. But I studied a little more and chose to safely overclock my 480 to 850 and it has been great with no ill effects... My i7 930 is overclocked to just over 4.0 and I get a good sim experience even in the likes of KORS and Diamond point, I keep seeing people upgrading to 3770 cpu's with GTX 680 or 670 and feel like following the flock, but I get the feeling that I will not see a massive gain from what I have now for spending another £1000+ so I keep holding back and watching those prices coming down and that makes me feel more inclined to "tread water" until the new generation cpu's are released and give us that final squirt of processing power needed to run FSX/Orbx flat out! To summarise I am doughtful if going from an overclocked 480 to a 670/680 in FSX would give a huge/justified increase in performance and visuals, I thing the latest Nvidia cards will shine on more recent games like Battlefield 3 that are coded to use all that new graphics card technology like DX11...FSX is an old girl now and is starting to show tech limitations I'm afraid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexf Posted January 3, 2013 Author Share Posted January 3, 2013 Interesting points. I learned something then. Looks like I better save the money as I am not interested in new games, just FSX. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timmo32 Posted January 3, 2013 Share Posted January 3, 2013 the gtx 480 cards run fairly warm,very warm,a gtx 570,580,gtx 670,680,run at very good temp,arround 57 degrees for me,where a gtx 480,was hitting 85-90 degrees,i currently have a overclocked 580 card,and a gtx 680 card,if i were you i would opp for a gtx 670 card or less,performance differences between a 580,vs 680 is alot of dollars only not frames,as the guys and my self say,fsx need a good cpu speed,so if i was you go for a gtx 670 card,price differnce are amazing crazy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr_Watson Posted January 3, 2013 Share Posted January 3, 2013 I saw a small improvement on the AA and AF, certainly not worth the hassle or cost to do it just for that. My upgrades are usually because I can sell me old card while it´s worth something, and get a new card which helps when I play Race 07. The only games I play outside of FSX and Race 07 will be the next GTA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaboki Posted January 4, 2013 Share Posted January 4, 2013 Blurries and distance detail are more to do with the hard rice read speeds where a ssd would help mostly. A SSD drive would not help with blurries, distance detail or performance in FSX. But it will increase the loading time when you start FSX. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave_YVR Posted January 4, 2013 Share Posted January 4, 2013 You may only get 4-5 fps increase at best going from a 580 to 670, but I bet it would run much smoother and look better as well. If I hadn't spent $500 on my 580 I probably would have jumped already. I've read of users who went from a 580 to 660Ti and are VERY happy with their gains in FSX. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Harris Posted January 4, 2013 Share Posted January 4, 2013 I went 480 to 670 670 runs a LOT cooler, and gave a smoother experience, did not notice any FPS increase but it seems to 'handle' punishment better...probably due to not operating at close to 100c like the 480 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexf Posted January 4, 2013 Author Share Posted January 4, 2013 I was told about the improved temperatures. The 480 does run hot (100c). I downloaded the EVGA Precision X free utility which controls the fan speed and makes it run cooler, albeit a little noisier with the fan. Temperature improvement alone is not goo enough reason to spend the money. Thanks for the comments. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capt Pugwash Posted January 4, 2013 Share Posted January 4, 2013 I had planned to upgrade in two stages to justify investing yet another chunk of money in my pc... 1st...was an upgrade from GTX480 to GTX670 and hope it gave a slightly smoother experience on my i7 930, like Tim has mentioned it would surely be smoother FPS. 2nd...was to upgrade the i7 930 to a 3770 with H100i water cooler and a 512gb SSD and the already purchased GTX670, I was planning stage 2 to coincide with the release of FTX Global, thus starting from scratch with a fresh build and clean drive for FTX Global and then reload my Orbx regions and airports/airfields. Whilst this time around not cluttering my drive with other developers scenery! I guess you have to maintain a degree of progression in this hobby with your pc tech or you suddenly find yourself falling too far behind "the current trend" and start to feel you are missing out...just like today when I upgrade my iphone 4 to an iphone 5, The gains are small but I want to stay current although in reality the iphone 4 would do me proud for another year! Guess the pressure of "keeping up with Jones" gets to you in the end lol My advise would to be to upgrade in these two stages and look out for a bargain as the prices start to slide in 2013 on the 3770 cpu's, whilst timing the final upgrade with installing a fresh Ordx global world to give you a great new platform to add all those planned new Orbx releases to throughout the coming year and beyond... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockliffe Posted January 4, 2013 Share Posted January 4, 2013 Guess the pressure of "keeping up with Jones" gets to you in the end lol I think there's more than everyone's fair share of that going on in the FSX world Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nyxx Posted January 4, 2013 Share Posted January 4, 2013 I have a GTX480, I will wait till a CPU that's 5-5.3 then get all the latests and greatest with it, until then I'am waiting. Like above no point in more than a GTX480 really ATM. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr_Watson Posted January 4, 2013 Share Posted January 4, 2013 A SSD drive would not help with blurries, distance detail or performance in FSX. But it will increase the loading time when you start FSX. Correct, got my words muddled up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CptMatt Posted January 4, 2013 Share Posted January 4, 2013 Buy the best (as in the most top spec) unit you can afford, even if the improvement is limited now you'll be future proofing. Do you know what the graphics requirements will be for Prepar3d in 18 months time etc... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tobias Posted January 4, 2013 Share Posted January 4, 2013 Well, today I got my GTX680 which replaced my trustworthy 'old' GTX470. Wow, I had a hard time getting this monster into my case. But finally I managed to squeeze it in. And I got a performance increase of an average 7 FPS. That's in places I already tested (KORS, Diamond Point, Anacortes). That might does not sound like much, but 22 FPS instead of 15 in full overcast weather like today, a demanding scenery and everything else maxed out, that's exactly the difference I needed. Now I finally get to fly and turn that FPS counter off. Since I got an overclocked i7 (4.7Ghz) I think the GPU might have been my bottleneck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave_YVR Posted January 4, 2013 Share Posted January 4, 2013 But it will increase the loading time when you start FSX. I just did some tests last night with loading times and an SSD. I have TONS of AI traffic (40+gb) and they are the main issue in loading times. With no AI FSX takes 30seconds or so from launch to main menu, with the AI in it takes 8minutes and 20 seconds. As an experiment I added my AI onto a Corsair F40 SSD and multiple times booted FSX getting a stable 7minutes and 40seconds. Nothing earth shattering, but still a 9% gain in boot time. No change in game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaboki Posted January 4, 2013 Share Posted January 4, 2013 Before i switched to SSD the loading time of FSX with all Orbx addons+other addons(AI etc) whas unbearable(around 13 minutes) and that whas just loading the main menu. Loading the flight took around 13 minutes too. Now it takes about 2 minutes from booting FSX and having a plane loaded ready to fly ingame(compared to 20 minutes ). For me it whas earth shattering and i will never go back too an old wheel drive... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caaront Posted January 5, 2013 Share Posted January 5, 2013 With the freeware EVGA Precision program allowing me to over clock my GTX 480 and ramp up the fan I get up to maybe 68c or so, very acceptable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capt Pugwash Posted January 5, 2013 Share Posted January 5, 2013 With the freeware EVGA Precision program allowing me to over clock my GTX 480 and ramp up the fan I get up to maybe 68c or so, very acceptable. Agreed, I used an Nvidia Inspector profile with a shortcut on my desktop for the clocked speeds when I fly FSX and fan speed is set to 85% for my GTX 480, a bit loud via the fan but soon drowned out by the engines when I crank up the volume... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heiko Glatthorn Posted January 5, 2013 Share Posted January 5, 2013 I went from an overclocked 480 to an overclocked 670 - but unfortunately i can't tell the difference because i also went from i920 @ 4 GHz to a complete new socket 2011 system (3930k, 6 core, quad channel @ 4.8 GHz). The difference is simply said huge... FPS increased more than 50% average compared to the old i7 and it's silk smooth all the way. In modern DX10/DX11 games though the 670 GTX eats the 480 GTX for breakfast, this i can tell. For FSX you might not gain much, but your AA settings won't be a concern anymore. Means your picture quality will improve noticeable without performance loss. Specially at higher resolutions like for example 1920x1200. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaiiden Posted January 5, 2013 Share Posted January 5, 2013 Make sure you check the PCIe multiplier on your motherboard. If you're running an older 480 you may have only a 2xPCIe and the 6xx cards are built to take advantage of a 3xPCIe. I'm not sure if they'll run in a 2xPCIe and just be slightly bottle-necked but I was looking to upgrade to a newer card and decided against it since I'll need a new mobo for the 3xPCIe capability and I'd rather wait until I can upgrade my processor at the same time... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexf Posted January 6, 2013 Author Share Posted January 6, 2013 With the freeware EVGA Precision program allowing me to over clock my GTX 480 and ramp up the fan I get up to maybe 68c or so, very acceptable. I noticed that too. It now runs at 75c instead of 100c while in FSX. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heiko Glatthorn Posted January 6, 2013 Share Posted January 6, 2013 Make sure you check the PCIe multiplier on your motherboard. If you're running an older 480 you may have only a 2xPCIe and the 6xx cards are built to take advantage of a 3xPCIe. I'm not sure if they'll run in a 2xPCIe and just be slightly bottle-necked but I was looking to upgrade to a newer card and decided against it since I'll need a new mobo for the 3xPCIe capability and I'd rather wait until I can upgrade my processor at the same time... PCIe 3 is backward compatible. You can run a PCIe 3 compatible card in a PCIe 2 slot and a PCIe 2 GPU in a PCIe 3 compatible slot. And to be honest there are probably only a very few games (if any) which can take advantage of this bandwidth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SGunard Posted January 6, 2013 Share Posted January 6, 2013 A SSD drive would not help with blurries, distance detail or performance in FSX. But it will increase the loading time when you start FSX. er . . . shouldn't that be "decrease the loading time" . . . or maybe "increase the loading speed"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaboki Posted January 6, 2013 Share Posted January 6, 2013 er . . . shouldn't that be "decrease the loading time" . . . or maybe "increase the loading speed"? Offcourse i ment decrease the loading time Must have been drunk when i wrote that..... I will never go back to an old slow wheel drive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaiiden Posted January 8, 2013 Share Posted January 8, 2013 PCIe 3 is backward compatible. You can run a PCIe 3 compatible card in a PCIe 2 slot and a PCIe 2 GPU in a PCIe 3 compatible slot. And to be honest there are probably only a very few games (if any) which can take advantage of this bandwidth. I was wondering about this. Graphics tech has never been my strong point. But you're saying that the amount of bandwidth FSX would be pulling wouldn't choke a 2x pipe so there's no real reason to have a 3x? I know FSX is more CPU heavy than GPU heavy and I suppose I'm looking at bandwidth simply as the more that's available the faster things flow. I understand though that there are times when having extra means some if it just isn't even used Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Venema Posted January 8, 2013 Share Posted January 8, 2013 You can never spend enough $$ on PC upgrades, everything will always benefit including FSX. But we know that it's mainly about CPU and disk with FSX. SSD's most definitely are the way to go. P3D v2.0 is the big game changer though, with proper DX11 support and all the heavy lifting 3D stuff offloaded to the video card Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timmo32 Posted January 8, 2013 Share Posted January 8, 2013 You can never spend enough $$ on PC upgrades, everything will always benefit including FSX. But we know that it's mainly about CPU and disk with FSX. SSD's most definitely are the way to go. P3D v2.0 is the big game changer though, with proper DX11 support and all the heavy lifting 3D stuff offloaded to the video card awesome,i will be buying this software when v2.0 is released forsure!then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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