FSX!!!! Graphics Card question

The place for hardware and software issues, FS and non-FS related

Moderators: Guru's, The Ministry

tonymadge
Vintage Pair
Vintage Pair
Posts: 2082
Joined: 28 Jun 2004, 14:49
Location: middle earth next to the public toilet
Contact:

FSX!!!! Graphics Card question

Post by tonymadge »

Ok I am moving out of Dino land and have installed FSX acceleration plus Orbyx textures, its looking pretty good on my modest PC ideal for VFR only I think will hang onto FS9 for the heavies :)
Now I run a GTX260 card works well but having upped my RAM to 8gb I think the next move is the video card, not wanting to spend a lot just yet until I revamp the PC I am looking at a GTX560TI on eBay, what do you knowledgeable guys think, will this give me a boost on the graphics side, will I notice much difference??
Cheers Tony
Image
AMD Phenom II X4 BE 965 @ 3.80GHz
nVidia GTX 560 TI 448 Cores

User avatar
DaveG
The Gurus
Posts: 7818
Joined: 23 Jun 2004, 18:05
Location: in a deep, dark hole somewhere.
Contact:

Re: FSX!!!! Graphics Card question

Post by DaveG »

A 560 should generally be fine for FSX, although it may struggle a bit if you crank up the anti-aliasing, especially with a lot of cloud. I used to run a 460 and was quite happy with that. :)
Dave G.

Scorpius
Concorde
Concorde
Posts: 1130
Joined: 21 Apr 2007, 21:49
Location: Bournemouth

Re: FSX!!!! Graphics Card question

Post by Scorpius »

Hi Tony,

Try this with your existing setup:

With FPS displayed in a window (shift and ZZ), resize it to a very small window size (note that the FPS text will appear to shrink also as you're resizing, but will then revert back to a readable size once you've stopped resizing the window). If the FPS value goes up as you make the window smaller, you're GPU-bound and a better/faster graphics card will be of benefit. If the frame rate does not go up, you're CPU-bound and a higher-performance graphics card won't do you any good.

Nev

tonymadge
Vintage Pair
Vintage Pair
Posts: 2082
Joined: 28 Jun 2004, 14:49
Location: middle earth next to the public toilet
Contact:

Re: FSX!!!! Graphics Card question

Post by tonymadge »

As usual some good advice, thanks guys for your thoughts so far, I will try the screen test :)
Image
AMD Phenom II X4 BE 965 @ 3.80GHz
nVidia GTX 560 TI 448 Cores

tonymadge
Vintage Pair
Vintage Pair
Posts: 2082
Joined: 28 Jun 2004, 14:49
Location: middle earth next to the public toilet
Contact:

Re: FSX!!!! Graphics Card question

Post by tonymadge »

Did the test and I am GPU bound it would seem :)
Image
AMD Phenom II X4 BE 965 @ 3.80GHz
nVidia GTX 560 TI 448 Cores

User avatar
DaveB
The Ministry
Posts: 30457
Joined: 17 Jun 2004, 20:46
Location: Pelsall, West Mids, UK
Contact:

Re: FSX!!!! Graphics Card question

Post by DaveB »

On the strength of that test.. you'll still be GPU-bound with a 560Ti Tony. I've run a pair of 560's in 2 pc's for years (1 in each) and they were good in their day giving good performance for the money. There are still a lot of them being used they're not what you'd call cutting edge these days.
ATB
DaveB B)smk
ImageImage
Old sailors never die.. they just smell that way!

User avatar
Tako_Kichi
Concorde
Concorde
Posts: 1490
Joined: 12 Oct 2007, 19:39
Location: SW Ontario, Canada (ex-pat Brit)

Re: FSX!!!! Graphics Card question

Post by Tako_Kichi »

I ran FSX (Accel and Steam) for years on a GTX 460 with no issues so you should do OK on a GTX 560 TI. I recently upgraded to a GTX960 (OC'd from the factory) and I saw a little improvement in FSX but a big difference in other sims (mostly driving sims and ARMA 2 and 3).
Larry

paulsl
Trident
Trident
Posts: 311
Joined: 22 Sep 2007, 00:56

Re: FSX!!!! Graphics Card question

Post by paulsl »

I've found this helpful in the past when trying to get through all weird and wonderful naming they use....

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/

HTH, Paul
It's not a 'bird', it's an aeroplane or an aircraft :rant:

User avatar
Kevin Farnell
Vintage Pair
Vintage Pair
Posts: 2083
Joined: 26 Jun 2004, 13:29
Location: Willingham, Cambridge UK.
Contact:

Re: FSX!!!! Graphics Card question

Post by Kevin Farnell »

Tako_Kichi wrote:I ran FSX (Accel and Steam) for years on a GTX 460 with no issues so you should do OK on a GTX 560 TI. I recently upgraded to a GTX960 (OC'd from the factory) and I saw a little improvement in FSX but a big difference in other sims (mostly driving sims and ARMA 2 and 3).
FSX is very heavily CPU dependant, so powerful GPU's are not likely to make much difference. Things like anti-aliasing will improve with a better GPU, but frame rates are unlikely to change.
Lockheed Martin have moved a lot of processing for P3D from the CPU to the GPU, so a greater improvement would be seen here.
Very recent games/sims are heavily GPU dependant and therefore this becomes more important than the CPU.

Regards

Kevin
Stratospheric traces, of our transitory flight.
Trails of condensation, held in narrow paths of white...

User avatar
Airspeed
Red Arrows
Red Arrows
Posts: 9338
Joined: 14 Sep 2011, 03:46
Location: Central Victorian Highlands, Dja Dja Wurrung Country, Australia
Contact:

Re: FSX!!!! Graphics Card question

Post by Airspeed »

Kevin Farnell wrote:
Tako_Kichi wrote:I ran FSX (Accel and Steam) for years on a GTX 460 with no issues so you should do OK on a GTX 560 TI. I recently upgraded to a GTX960 (OC'd from the factory) and I saw a little improvement in FSX but a big difference in other sims (mostly driving sims and ARMA 2 and 3).
FSX is very heavily CPU dependant, so powerful GPU's are not likely to make much difference. Things like anti-aliasing will improve with a better GPU, but frame rates are unlikely to change.
Lockheed Martin have moved a lot of processing for P3D from the CPU to the GPU, so a greater improvement would be seen here.
Very recent games/sims are heavily GPU dependant and therefore this becomes more important than the CPU.

Regards

Kevin
Hi Kevin,
I'm very ignorant when it comes to these things, but Nev's tip seems to counter what you feel.
Are you going on what you thought, or on solid evidence?
I'm not arguing with you, simply admitting confusion over what's being put forward.
I would certainly like to know the real answer myself, as I've been known to throw money at "improvements" which don't actually help me.

Post Reply