Tonyla1 Posted March 11, 2009 Share Posted March 11, 2009 This topic may have been dealth with else where, if so I apologise....but.......I'm thinking of buying a new system for FSX and the specs list the following card, 2X ATI 4870 1GPCI-Express Graphic Card. I've been led to believe that for FSX the nVidia cards are superior to ATI cards. A more expensive system on offer runs 2X Geforce GTX260 896Mb PCI-Express Graphic Cards Ladies and gentlemen, any thoughs on the matter? Tony Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jgutteri Posted March 11, 2009 Share Posted March 11, 2009 I'm running an ATI and it performs beautifully, and JayKae's super system has two 4870 X2s in it. I do believe however, and Mango will reiterate this, that while ATI are the best for most games, nVidia are slightly better for FSX. Also, most people do not report any performance boost, in fact in some instances, a performance drop, when running SLI or Crossfire. In my humble opinion, I'd spend the money of the second card on an SSD hard drive or a good PCI-based RAID configuration. I hope you're looking at an i7. Cheers, James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sniper31 Posted March 11, 2009 Share Posted March 11, 2009 For most users, nVidia video cards do make FSX run better than ATI. I myself have gone back and forth a vew times from ATI to nVidia, but ever since the 8800 line of cards from nVidia, I've stayed with them and never looked back. Currently, the 200 series of nVidia cards is where to go if you're going with them. Traditionally, nVidia has held the edge in speed and ATI has held the edge in looks. When it comes to FSX though, nVidia is the route to go. Regarding the GeForce GTX260, I say great card, as I'm running one myself and it handles FSX very well, especially on I7 system. However, SLI (or Crossfire) will show no benefits in FSX, and many times results in WORSE performance. FSX is much more dependent on CPU power than video card power, and was never designed to take advantage of SLI or Crossfire technology. When it comes to games and other applications outside of FSX, both ATI and nVidia excell. Games that do support SLI or Crossfire make good use of additional video processing power. Hopefully this helps you with your decision. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tonyla1 Posted March 11, 2009 Author Share Posted March 11, 2009 Thanks for your input guys Cheers Tony Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crashmax Posted March 13, 2009 Share Posted March 13, 2009 Be careful with ATI in case of FSX!! I have a 4870x2 and a GTX280. I case of other games then FSX my ATI card is much faster then the GTX. BUT... With my ATI Card flying with clouds and/or near water is awful, just impossible. I have tried every Driver and nearly every Setting, but nothing helps so far. With the Nvidia Card FSX is smooth as butter even I set the texture to 4096. The problem is only water and clouds, but this makes FSX beautiful... My addons are: GEX, UTX and REX Hope this helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heiko Glatthorn Posted March 13, 2009 Share Posted March 13, 2009 Well, i think it's less the hardware itself which makes the difference, more the drivers. Obviously dual core GPUs or SLI setups can't play their strength with FSX. If it is just impossible or if the driver devs just don't care about FSX - i don't know... So i was looking for the strongest single core GPU for less headache... And that was (still is ?) the water cooled EVGA 280 GTX, which i am able to clock to 740/2700. Btw, there is no game out there which i can't play very fluid at 1920x1200 with sufficient AA and AF. I am happy with the 280 GTX as i was with the 880XT, 9800 Pro and 1900 XT . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
solareagle Posted March 18, 2009 Share Posted March 18, 2009 There's a lot of benchmarks showing ATI cards with much lower framerates, even at non GPU bound resolutions. If ATI cards show lower frames when the bottleneck is on the CPU it says a thing or two about ATI's drivers/achritecture. I'd go Nvidia for sure for an FSX system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Venema Posted March 18, 2009 Share Posted March 18, 2009 I am an nVidia biggot, for good reason: ATI's drivers suck, plain and simple. Also, their 48xx cards are too big, too noisy and too hot. nVidia for teh win! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tonyla1 Posted March 18, 2009 Author Share Posted March 18, 2009 Ok, nVIDIA it is. Thanks guys Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Penzoil3 Posted March 20, 2009 Share Posted March 20, 2009 Well, I listened to this, bought an Nvidia Geforce 9800 Gtx 512 mgb. Downloaded the latest drivers, and Nhancer. Loaded up Avalon, full show mode. I got 2.9 fps ! Ripped it out, put my ATI back, 12fps, same settings. As the manb says, I guess it depends on the system... sending the Nvidia back, spending on Q9550 Quad instead. That will speed me up ! (Q6600 now) LOL Sue Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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