BFG Nivida 285gtx OCFU

[Headwind]

So I built my new system and it was running FSX perfectly with just about everything maxed and very little tweaking. I thought I would install a few other games that my wife and I play together and crash after crash after crash. Within seconds the games would crash no matter what it was or how the settings were. It also made no differnce with the AA or AF settings. Every other program that I install would crash except FSX which I thought was strange.

I went through everything and no problems anywhere. So I started doing some researching and found a single thread on a forums from a motherboard company that wasn't even what I had bought. The problem it seems is a fault of BFG where the video cards were put on the market with the wrong overclocking. In other words all 285gtx cards that were factory overclocked seem to have a stability problem and were set to high. So I toned it down or underclocked it just a tiny bit and pow right back in business.

Just thought someone might like to know any of this in case they were looking at getting one of the cards. Other than that little problem it seems like a fantastic card.

[harleyman]

YUP...


I avoid BFG completely....

Thanks for that tip though ... :ernae:

[idancesafetydance]

huh, I have used BFG for several years (since the 6800) and they work fantastic for me. never had a problem...

[2Low]

BFG was puttting out 285's cloccked at 713 or 712 but switched down to 702 as they were getting low yeilds and stability problems at the 713. See if 702 is stable for you Headwind,

I read the same thing as I'm trying to decide between the 285 1GB, 285 2GB and the 5870 1GB,

[orionll]

Oh great, I just wound up buying the BFG GeForce GTX 285 OC 2GB (BFGEGTX2852048OCE) for my new setup... Hope I won't be getting any problems...

[2Low]

Orionll please post your impressions of that 2GB card. I'm having a real hard time deciding what to buy. You shouldn't have issues yours is the 666mHz version and I read of no issues with that one.

I'm leaning towards the 5870 for it's better performance in other games compared to the GTX 1GB but that 2nd GB of memory has me wondering what affect it has on FSX. I mostly "play" FSX so it is my main concern.

Even NickN endorses the 5870 as the first ATI card he could recomend for FSX. He still recomends the GTX 285 too.

Oi, decissions!?

[Headwind]

2low, yes I had knocked it down to 702 last night and after that it ran like a champ. I haven't had a single problem with it since. It's running everything I can throw at it so far without problem. I have been playing Brothers in Arms - Hells highway at full graphics and the same with crysis warhead and it's as smooth as glass so far. FSX is also running very very well I might add

[orionll]

Haha, maybe I'll end up being able to overclock it :P.

Okay, now for the noobish question: what tool(s) can one use to overclock a video card?

[kilo delta]

I've a single reference Nvidia GTX285 1GB in my main PC ...replacing the 2x 9800GX2 1GB cards that I had previously. It performs flawlessly in FSX at my monitors native resolution of 2560x1600. So good in fact that I've not even considered to overclock the card.:)

[kilo delta]

Use the EVGA Precision tool to overclock your card,should you feel the need to. Remember to increase the fan speed to deal with the increase in temps.

[harleyman]

Haha, maybe I'll end up being able to overclock it :P.

Okay, now for the noobish question: what tool(s) can one use to overclock a video card?


http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/showthread.php?t=7502

[Headwind]

I used Nividia Systems tools which you can find here:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/nvidia_system_tools_6.02.html

It's pretty straight forward and easy to use.

[harleyman]

I have found the ESA software buggy in the past on some systems...

But if its working its a good tool

[Major_Spittle]

Orionll please post your impressions of that 2GB card. I'm having a real hard time deciding what to buy. You shouldn't have issues yours is the 666mHz version and I read of no issues with that one.

I'm leaning towards the 5870 for it's better performance in other games compared to the GTX 1GB but that 2nd GB of memory has me wondering what affect it has on FSX. I mostly "play" FSX so it is my main concern.

Even NickN endorses the 5870 as the first ATI card he could recomend for FSX. He still recomends the GTX 285 too.

Oi, decissions!?

I had the XFX GTX 260 Black Edition 1GB that is factory overclocked to 666mhz and it was crashing in games other than FSX due to heat so I had to underclock it to 630 for stability as I recall. I ended up sending it back and getting an ATI 4890 which has been performing like a champ in everything.

I have read where many people are having problems with some of the more radical factory overclocks on the new Nvidia cards. I recommend just buying one of the reference cards ( especially if you can save money vs OC editions ) and then using an overclock utility to overclock it yourself as desired. Nothing sucks more than being forced to underclock a bios setting if you don't want your card to crash in games. Also if it is crashing then you are most likely in the process of destroying a transistor's gate in the GPU which is a bad bad thing.

[2Low]

Thanks for the info Major_Spittle. The more info I have the better my decission will be.

Right now I have an Asus P5Q-E, E8400 at 3.7 GHz,DDR2 at 1003MHz, and 2 HD 4850's. I puchased my 2nd 4850 and immediately after discovered FSX. My rig is great at what it was built for which was Crysis, Call of Duty, Grid etc. Unfortunately it is only so so with FSX.

I just upped my monitor from a 22" 1680 x 1050 to a 23" 2048 x 1152. My rig went from so so to say it's not so! Too much micro stuttering and blurries. I was going to pop in a new video card to see if it would help but I've decided on a wholesale upgrade.

I'm buying a bundle deal for $509 (Canadian). Gigabyte P55-UD4, i5 750, and 4GBs G Skill DDR3 2000 C9. Once I have all that I'll try selling my P-45, Mushkin Ascents, E8400 and 2 4850s for $300ish towards the cost of the new video card.

With everyone digging the 4890 I'm reallly leaning towards the 5870 but since it will be a month or two I'll get more feedback on the 5870 by then. The 285 is still a possibility though.

I hope the FSX Gawds smile on me this time.

Thanks again for the info.

[harleyman]

2Low..

If you are running CrossfireX for FSX it has problems with that..

One 4870 is plenty..Why not pull one and see...


FSX does not always like dual cards..

I have a 4870 X2 and it sucks for FSX...But loves all other games...

[2Low]

I'm running 2 4850's not 4870's unfortunately and I do disable crossfire for FSX.

I built my rig for gaming going on the rule at the time that a faster Duo Core was better than a slower Quad Core. I went Crossfire because it was more affordable buying the cards a couple months apart. This thing is great for most games on a 22' monitor. But I went ahead and got the 23" with the weird 2048 x 1152 resolution (looks great though!).

Right after I built it, I discovered FSX, which of course reverses all those rules. My new monitor is too much to "play" FSX with at least a minimum of detail and smoothness, I must upgrade. For FSX and my other games I need a new video card and for FSX specifically I need a Quad.

I can go i5 750, DDR3 w/ 5870 for $950 or get a Q9550 and 5870 for $750. I think the i5 system makes more sense. Certainly when you consider that it would allow me to sell my E8400, P45, DDR2 and 2 x 4850's to help recoup the cost. I'd only need $200 for all that to make both paths cost the same (and I'd want a bit more).

Wish I could go i7 but I have to be carefull with the costs, I'm lucky that for a month I've been working 7 days a week now but the overtime is ending in a week and a half.

I'm crossing my fingers that I'll see a big improvement in texture loading.

[harleyman]

Hey...If you go i5 please let us all know how it does..

There are many questions about it...

The only answers so far are from txnetcop who thinks it falls short for FSX too...


Also, you probably know this, but just turning off crossfireX does not really resolve the dual card problems as it still addresses both...


You may try to lower your resolution for that monitor for FSX and see if it helps...


I hope the next flight sim will use all out technoligy...LOL

[txnetcop]

2Low the Gigabyte P55 UD4 is a great motherboard for the i5 and 1156 socket i7s. The only issue I had with i5 is dual channel memory as opposed to triple channel memory of the i7 boards. The performance was not as good on price/performance basis, but combined with 2 5850s in Crossfire it sure made a difference in gaming. Don't know about FSX because it was unavailble on the test rig I was using. Crysis and FarCry2 were very fast. Testing some more 5850s and 5870s next week some of these are ver 2. I hope you are using Win7 on that. You will be pleased
Ted

[2Low]

I just placed my order. I had to go with the Gigabyte P55-UD3R as it saved me enough to by a heat sink and I bought Vista64 yet again (3rd time) because it came with a free Windows7 upgrade. If I go crossfire down the road I'll need a new mobo. I got the i5 750 with G Skill DDR3 1600 7-7-7-24 in a package with the mobo for $449 Canadian. It will be two weeks to a month before I can get a 5870 as I need another paycheck or two and I (might) have to sell my current gear too.

I spent $25 on a Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus CPU cooler to tide me over untill the mounting adapter for my TRUE 120 is in stock. Hated to waste the money but I know I'll be itching to overclock immediately!

@harleyman, I had no idea that the 2nd card was still addressed with Crossfire disabled. I'll have to pull one and see what happens, I'll let you know. I'll also let you know how the i5 performs with FSX.

@txnetcop, I would love to have gone i7, but as this was not a planned upgrade I can't justify the extra cost. Circumstances just fell into place to give me some extra cash now and the fact that my mother wanted a bigger monitor therefore causing me to go bigger I needed to do this quick. Money absolutely burns in my pockets, LoL, it was buy now or way down the road.

They are already on version 2 of the 5800 series? Do you mean non-reference or have they changed the ref specs?

[txnetcop]

BIOS changes only and how they relate to Win7 and now Apple Snow Leopard
Ted

[2Low]

So I should look for version 2 to go with Win7?

[harleyman]

We need Ted to answer that..

I don't know....

looking forward to your findings on your new gear....:ernae:

[txnetcop]

Sorry 2Low I went to lunch. Just because we test a version 2 of anything it doesn't necessarily mean the the mfg will actually produce a version if a BIOS update will do the job. Sometimes version 2 hardware will contain a change that causes too much grief and that is where testing houses like TechCorp come into play. We test thoroughly and give them a report of our findings no judgment calls on our part. As far as I know no v2 exists from any mfg yet
Ted

[2Low]

Thanks for the info txnecop, it's nice hearing from people that truely know what they are talking about.

And thank you too harleyman! I'm hoping it runs FSX great. I'm not expecting perfection but a real nice improvement would make me very happy. I woke up too late tonight to pull a card and test that out but when I get home in the morning (work midnights) I'll check that out.

[harleyman]

You have a good board and CPU with a great OC...


Not knowing your Ram speed or its CAS Latency you should see some nice improvement with just one card..

You should only then maybe need to do one tweak in the FSX config.

TBM from default (40) to 10...20 60...70...80...90...maybe 110.

Start with 10 though

[2Low]

Well I pulled one card and dropped my TBM from 70 to 10 and my stutters have dropped off (I already used 6.5 for LOD). I set my options up as txnetcop has them in FSX and for out in the wilderness it was great (24-25 fps and smooth) but around CYYZ (Toronto) frames dropped to 14-15. By lowering the heavy traffic to 6% , GA to 15%, and water to 2x mid I was able to get 17 - 20 fps with almost no stuttering.

I usually fly with no traffic so this is OK. I'll experiment with traffic and the TBM a bit more yet.

My memory is 4GB Mushkin 1000MHz Ascents running at 498.3MHz 5-5-5-12 2T.

Thanks for your advice guys, I'm going to tweak a bit more and see where it gets me.

[harleyman]

Its getting better then.......:ernae: