Video Card advice

[KellyB]

Starting to build a new machine with an Asus MB, an i5 3750 for openers.

My question about cards is about Nvidia vs ATI, and which one works better with fs9 and fsx.
I'm looking at a 2gb card.

Thanks.

[wombat666]

I guess it makes no difference as far as I can tell when it comes to flight sims.
Before I upgraded to the Gigabyte GTX960s I had a pair of Raedon XFX7970 3GB cards which were pretty good, in retrospect they were very quiet and cool running compared with the GTX960s, but of course, I'd expect a dual core card to run hotter than a single.
I like the AMD support but I'd recommend you avoid the XFX Branded cards, their own specific 'Customer Support' is non existent.

Nvidia seem to have the edge when it comes to mid price range cards, it depends on how much you want to spend.
My A$00.02c worth.

:kilroy:

[KellyB]

Thanks, Wombat. I'm sort of inclined to Nvidia, without any hard evidence to support me.
Midrange for price is attractive.

Next question is whether gddr5 is worth the money over ddr3 for the card.

[wombat666]

Thanks, Wombat. I'm sort of inclined to Nvidia, without any hard evidence to support me.
Midrange for price is attractive.

Next question is whether gddr5 is worth the money over ddr3 for the card.

It is IMHO.
:kilroy:

[KellyB]

It is IMHO.
:kilroy:

OK. Here we go a-hunting.

[jeansy]

OK. Here we go a-hunting.

I just went through that **** fight with cards,

I normally use ATI due to the other programs I use, but recently I bought a HD7970 3gn and had all sorts of problems, AA was shocking in FSX and when I turned up the AA in the card manager i lost a tonne of frames, which was weird my older Ati HD5870 run fine, slow but no AA problems what so ever, after looking around the net, i found a lot of posts with people stating the same things with the 7970

I ended up getting another card this time a GTX 680 and I found no problems what so ever if anything i found my FPS were up 50% from my old 5870 card and nearly 70% from the 7970

for me, with these 2 cards the GTX was a clear winner

[KellyB]

Just for fun, I ran GPU-z to see how my Radeon 4600 series card was doing with its 1gb of gddr3. Present cpu is a duo core 2.13.

Oddly (to me at least) FS9 showed 100% GPU Load whereas FSX showed no higher than 48%. Used the same flight parameters in both sims.

I would have expected exactly the opposite.

It suggests that FS9 is more GPU dependent than is FSX, and that I should be looking for more than the 1gb of video ram for FS9.

[UnknownGuest12]

Years ago changed from ATI to Nvidia, prefer this ones for gaming and FS. Now I own a Nvidia Ge force 670 (ASUS version) and it rocks....iindeed very very good...

[RyanJames170]

i think Nvdia is still the better performer for FSX..

as for the effect on performace FSX wise the GPU dose matter so skimping on it isnt something id advse if i was to go get a new GPU i would do with a GTX660 or GTX660Ti myself

im currently running a GTX280 right now and it is kinda bottom line these days.

[wombat666]

The specifications for the upmarket HD7970 models looked good on paper but I was not very happy with my 'Sierra Hotel' XFX branded cards.
Finding one of the pair was dead (and I mean DEAD) out of the box was not a confidence booster, the replacement taking six weeks to come through added insult to injury.
If you have the budget I say go for a good brand name GTX680 ie, the ZOTAC GeForce GTX680 AMP!, but certainly shop around.
Then again, the ASUS GTX670-DC2T-2GD5 (for example) is almost as fast and is available at around A$100.00 or more less than a 680.
:kilroy:

[KellyB]

I ended up getting an EVGA GTX 650 with 2gb of gdr5 from Tiger Direct.
We'll see how it goes.

It's got to be better than my 2.13 cpu and ati 4600 series.

(by the way, this is a whole new rig with new asus mb and an i5 3750)