Benchmarking my move to the Dark Side

[WWPierre]

I've been a Radeon guy since the 286 days, but this clunky old flight sim we all love to hate has lured me to replace my perfectly good Radeon 5870/1 gig with a Nvidia 680/4gig. This represents a jump of about 4 tiers in graphics technology advancement, and a change to the [supposedly] optimal architecture. I expect an improvement; [to what extent?] is the unanswered question. I decided to contrive a benchmark, so as to get a measurement of the value received from my considerable investment.

I bought Fraps, something which I had always intended to do anyway, and used it to record a flight from Vancouver International to Pitt Meadows airport by way of the Lions Gate, Downtown, Metrotown, and the Fraser River, taking a screen shot every 30 seconds, with the Fraps FPS counter on. I used the Vancouver + scenery from Silver Cloud, and set the time for the middle of summer. All the screenshots, including those of my settings, are here on Photobucket (http://smg.beta.photobucket.com/user/WWPierre/library/Flight%20Simulations%20Fraser%20Columbia/Video%20Upgrade%20Documentation). You need to go down to the bottom and click through backwards because I haven't figured out how to reverse them yet. :) If nothing else, it's a nice tour of Greater Vancouver by way of Jon Patch's and Holger SandMann's artistry.

[WWPierre]

Well, it arrived, and it's installed. Ho Hum. Not enough improvement in FSX to justify finishing the documentation. Perhaps 3 or 4 FPS (at times)and it still stutters down to single digits. Out in the country in the ORBX scenery it's great; mostly up against the 30FPS pin, but then I was getting that mostly from my Radeon 5870. I guess I blew the $575. Could have bought Austrailia, New Zealand, England and Wales for that.

[Ian Warren]

Have you tried all the FSX Tweeks .. http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/forumdisplay.php?51-FSX-Tweaks everyone's PC/Rigs/System are all different and require a kick the the guts , surprising how little it takes , people here may find you better links .
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[Bone]

I've been considering upgrading from a GeForce GTX 480 Superclocked card, to a Geforce GTX 660Ti Superclocked card. Up until now, the only thing holding me back has been thoughts of FSX being CPU dependent and not GPU dependent, and if I would get any benefit out of the upgrade. Hmmm. Your experience here is giving me even more pause.

[PRB]

I've read about how FSX is more CPU than GPU dependent. My computer had two (2) Nvidia 9800GTX+ 512MB Dual DVI (PCI-E) Video Cards. FSX performance was “ok”, which means it was disappointing. When one of those two cards blew up a couple years ago, I replaced them both with one (1) Nvidia GeForce GTX 470. The performance increase was astonishing. Add this to the “for what it's worth” department.

- Paul

EDIT: The rest of the system=

MB: Asus P6T Deluxe (LGA1366)
CPU: Core i7 920 2.66Ghz (LGA1366)
RAM: 8 GB DDR3/1333MHz Non-ECC Non-Registered Memory Module
OS: Microsoft Win7 64-bit

[Bone]

I've read about how FSX is more CPU than GPU dependent. My computer had two (2) Nvidia 9800GTX+ 512MB Dual DVI (PCI-E) Video Cards. FSX performance was “ok”, which means it was disappointing. When one of those two cards blew up a couple years ago, I replaced them both with one (1) Nvidia GeForce GTX 470. The performance increase was astonishing. Add this to the “for what it's worth” department.

- Paul



Hmmm, again. I guess if I did get the newer card, I could put the old GTX480 in my other gaming rig, which has a GTX8800 in it. Thanks for your input, it certainly helps.

[vora]

I've been a Radeon guy since the 286 days, but this clunky old flight sim we all love to hate has lured me to replace my perfectly good Radeon 5870/1 gig with a Nvidia 680/4gig...

Holy smoke, those are bad frame rates. I too have an i7 920 (oc to 3,2 GHz) and a smaller GTX 670, but haven't seen such bad frame rates yet. I don't have Jon Patch's Vancouver+ yet but I cannot believe it's such a frame eater. I guess you badly need to tweek your FSX configurations. The link Ian gave you is a good starting place. Also, since we have quite similar rigs, the "DX10 Preview" mode gives me 10 - 20 fps more than DX9.

[ryanbatc]

Yeah.... you'll only notice the 680 taking up the slack when you throw tons of AA and AF at it. Be sure to run through nvidia inpsector settings recommended here:

http://kostasfsworld.wordpress.com/fsx-software-and-hardware-guide/
Also your settings look a little sparse. You should be running max autogen and pretty much max scenery. You might even end up using BP=0 with water set to 2.x high

AI can stay low if you wish

[WWPierre]

Wow, thanks for the tips, fellows. I'll fiddle a bit and get back to you.

[Dain Arns]

I don't have Jon Patch's Vancouver+ yet but I cannot believe it's such a frame eater....

Vancouver+ does put up a challenge to the frame rates, least on my system, which is similar as well.
It's a pretty stout scenery package, comparable to say like Aerosoft's ManhattanX.
If you go with sliders to the right, like I do. ;)
It's definitely worth the dip in FPS for how wonderful a scenery product it is.:wavey:

[WWPierre]

Vancouver+ does put up a challenge to the frame rates, (snip)
It's definitely worth the dip in FPS for how wonderful a scenery product it is.:wavey:

Hear hear!
My biggest beef is that the CBC building isn't there across from Safti's Public Library. Oh ya, and there is a new Port Mann bridge now. (hint hint)