Contemplating a Switch to NVIDIA

[Scratch]

I have using ATI/AMD cards since I began building my own rigs many years ago. Since ATI became AMD I have not been totally satisfied with their video cards. Performance wise they have been red hot with frame rates, but I see many users here that post screenshots that look far better than what I see in my in game experience. In particular is the way my card renders fog around mountains and such. I am sick and tired of seeing a distinct 'ring' or border between atmospheric levels. Am I off base here or is there a really good reason I should make a switch for my flight sims? I have zero experience with NVIDIA products and have always been more comfortable with ATI cards, but I get the nagging feeling that there is something better out there.
What do y'all think?

[stiz]

i think unless your an overclocker/pc tinker/anal about exact performance %s, theres pretty much very little between the brands. Looks in fsx are about WHAT you set your graphics to, what textures you use, weather, time of day etc etc etc :)

[heywooood]

i think unless your an overclocker/pc tinker/anal about exact performance %s, theres pretty much very little between the brands. Looks in fsx are about WHAT you set your graphics to, what textures you use, weather, time of day etc etc etc :)

I have used both and for me - nvidia makes the better card by far
easier to dial in, better results, never had a card failure...

ATI - pain to dial in, meh graphics by comparison and I have had two of them fail (fan burnout on one and an undetermined fault on the other) and I do not overclock anything.

[jmig]

I have run both over the years. I have had good service from both companies. I am currently running (I think) a 7500 series AMD card. I am not as happy with it as other cards. I plan on trying NVIDIA next time around. I know one thing. There is more information on how to tweak the NVIDIA cards for FSX.

[dvj]

I have using ATI/AMD cards since I began building my own rigs many years ago. Since ATI became AMD I have not been totally satisfied with their video cards. Performance wise they have been red hot with frame rates, but I see many users here that post screenshots that look far better than what I see in my in game experience. In particular is the way my card renders fog around mountains and such. I am sick and tired of seeing a distinct 'ring' or border between atmospheric levels. Am I off base here or is there a really good reason I should make a switch for my flight sims? I have zero experience with NVIDIA products and have always been more comfortable with ATI cards, but I get the nagging feeling that there is something better out there.
What do y'all think?

Are you upgrading your entire PC? If so, go for the GTX 780. But I don't think what you are seeing is related to the graphics card. Probably your FSX settings in general.

j

[falcon409]

There are many who profess that there is no other card for FSX except the NVidia cards. Many reasons I suppose. When I was attempting to get my current system set up I tried an ATI card. . .it was terrible. . .would never go back to one. I had used NVidia exclusively before that, and I will continue that trend from now on.

[Bruce Thompson]

I have two old AMD 5770 cards in my machine, not running in Crossfire mode, but each attached to a Samsung 21" monitor.
CPU is an AMD Phenom 945 4core running at 3.4 mhz with 8gig 1066 ram, AMD overclocking tool set up in Amd Vision Engine Control Centre.
FSX is set at 25fps locked, FSX cfg is set up using Biote's programe and works a treat with Instuments on one monitor ans scenery on the other.
I would not change this system it is running without blurries and is very smooth and my FSX setting are with most sliders to the right side.

I will put a shot up later today of the screen quality I am seeing.

[stovall]

Some years back I was an avid ATI user. Made the change to Nvidia and have never looked back. Never had a card go bad but have upgraded several times. Currently I have the Nvidia GeForce GTX 590 with 1.5 GB adaptive RAM. The Nvidia Control Panel is a fantastic feature allowing you to use the card however you wish. Another thing I like is there is a constant upgrading of the BIOS which occurs between 30 and 60 days. Seems there is always better performance with each upgrade. Just my two cents.

[hschuit]

I also did use ATI in the past but I am glad I switched to NVidia. One of the strongpoints of NVidia is the freeware NVidia Inspector tool for setting up profiles for FSX, FS2004 and any other game, very easy to do. Here is a guide to setup the NVidia Inspector profile for FSX:

http://kostasfsworld.wordpress.com/fsx-software-and-hardware-guide/

[Odie]

I've always used nVidia for gaming and simming along with the Inspector and other utilities to augment their performance. If memory serves, about 3-4 years ago, the ATI cards of the day were pretty
good companions for FSX. I never had an issue with either running FS2004 or FSX. I went with nVidia for my new PC due to Diablo 3 including extra effects designed for nVidia cards and I play it
frequently.

[warchild]

I've owned exactly two ATI cards.. the first burned out in a month and the second burned out in three weeks ( they dont like running 24/7 ) My GTX-260 is going on year two now running 24/7 and hasnt given me a lick of trouble. I'll be getting a gtx-650 this friday as it upgrades me to Dx-11. Otherwise, i'm extremely happy with my Nvidia.. is it perfect?/ no, but its a bloody tank that delivers performance day in and day out no matter what i throw at it, be it a high end game, 3ds max, or even FSX..

[rgatkinson]

I've used both brands over the years and now use NVIDIA exclusively. I couldn't give you a definitive reason as to why but my 'gut' feeling is that NVIDIA cards have a slight edge over ATI in terms of compatibility and performance.

Regards,

Taff.

[tommieboy]

Same here.....

I used ATI from the beginning of time, then switched over to Nvidia around the time I started using FSX, and never looked back.

Tommy

[Scratch]

Thanks for the input. I'm not building a whole new box, but upgrading one part at a time. Today I added a Samsung 840 EVO 780GB SSD. A few weeks ago I added the new 10,000 RPM Velociraptor 1TB hard drive, and next is the vid card.
Even with max settings set in FSX and on my ATI card what I see is not as nice as what y'all are seeing on NVIDIA cards so I reckon I'll try one of their newer ones.

[Stefano Zibell]

I've had an Nvidia 9800 GTX+ and it died on me after 2 years or so, just turned itself off after 5min of intense 3d rendering, not a temperature problem. Got an AMD HD 6850 and it's running rock solid, overclocked from 775mhz original core clock to 820mhz and it could go much further. Yes, the application settings on the driver do nothing at all, but this is the nvidia inspector for AMD cards: www.radeonpro.info

Worth trying before wasting money on a new card.

[heywooood]

I've had an Nvidia 9800 GTX+ and it died on me after 2 years or so, just turned itself off after 5min of intense 3d rendering, not a temperature problem. Got an AMD HD 6850 and it's running rock solid, overclocked from 775mhz original core clock to 820mhz and it could go much further. Yes, the application settings on the driver do nothing at all, but this is the nvidia inspector for AMD cards: www.radeonpro.info (http://www.radeonpro.info)

Worth trying before wasting money on a new card.
have you had it for two years?

[Stefano Zibell]

have you had it for two years?

Something like that, yeah. I'm not exactly sitting on a pile of cash, so I squeeze whatever the equipment can give for a long time. Here in Brazil you add the high taxes to the ever-going-up dollar exchange rates and you get the picture. I often use beer as an example for foreigners to understand: a beer bottle costs 5 Reais. A GTX 760 costs about 1100... Still, two years is the least I expect something to last.

[Bjoern]

ATI used to be good back in the day.
Then they sold out to AMD. And stopped supporting old GPUs in their drivers. Which basically leaves you stranded with an ultraslow open source-driver on Linux.

So no, no ATI here. At least voluntarily.

[OleBoy]

Adding to what Bjoern's comments. I was a dedicated ATI Guy myself. ATI cards, like all others had issues with driver compatibility. To my knowledge there was one individual that would re-write the drivers and make them better compatible. He seemed to be someone who enjoyed doing this because every new ATI card that was released, very soon after he would have better drivers for the cards on his website. I think he did this for the operating systems prior to Windows 7. Once the 64bit operating systems stepped in (and ATI changed hands) his development stopped.

[txnetcop]

I build gamer units and networks. Back in the day ATI all the way up to the 3870 were really great cards, since then nothing compares to the graphics look and speed that Nvidia gives FSX. I still fondly recall the ATI 800 series cards that ran FSX flawlessly...with a little overclocking help of course!
Ted

[Bjoern]

Adding to what Bjoern's comments. I was a dedicated ATI Guy myself. ATI cards, like all others had issues with driver compatibility. To my knowledge there was one individual that would re-write the drivers and make them better compatible. He seemed to be someone who enjoyed doing this because every new ATI card that was released, very soon after he would have better drivers for the cards on his website. I think he did this for the operating systems prior to Windows 7. Once the 64bit operating systems stepped in (and ATI changed hands) his development stopped.

Ah, the Omega Drivers. My 2003-ish museum PC as well as my parents' PC still run them in their respective 2006-ish versions.




I build gamer units and networks. Back in the day ATI all the way up to the 3870 were really great cards, since then nothing compares to the graphics look and speed that Nvidia gives FSX. I still fondly recall the ATI 800 series cards that ran FSX flawlessly...with a little overclocking help of course!

From what I've heard, anything from the X1xxx to the 4000 series was quite a dud.

I remember having immense trouble getting FSX to run on a 4850 (note that this was prior to the Shader 3.0 fixes), which I then traded it in for a 9800GTX+. After that, FSX ran as it should.


It's funny that even FlightGear runs better on NVidia cards...