512 vs 1 gig cards

**JIMJAM** · May 13th, 2009, 16:54

Yes I used the search feature till my eyes hurt but no real answer other than "possibly smoother" and a higher fps will not be noticable.
I have a I7 920, 6 gigs, Vista 64 and a 4870 512. I run on a 32 inch lcd at 1920x1080.
I just recovered from a total os meltdown when changing from Ati to Nvidia so I want to stick to ATI for right now.
Question- Will moving to a newer 4870 with 1 gig of ram be noticable?
The one I have is one of the earlier ones with 512 ram.
I also see the new 4890 but it does not appear to be much faster.
This is the card I am considering
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102815
This is a FSX only rig. I like this card because its been around and proven and has a great cooling. Any 512 to one gig card experinces welcomed.

BTW-Extra points- Do I need to add a special fsx.exe line to get FSX/accel to utilize the extra ram? I am coming from a xp,2 gig setup so I am clueless. Thanks

harleyman · May 13th, 2009, 17:09

Yes...it will help...Expecially with higher AA......

If you are buying a new card anyway, this is a good choice as the extra mem will certainly help......

My 4870X2 only uses 512 for FSX and I have too considered this card for me....

**JIMJAM** · May 13th, 2009, 17:16

My 4870 runs fine I just feel it will be the cherry on top to have a gig of ram. Just dont know if that cherry is worth $200 or so. I am running the heavy hitters at fairly high settings with good performance. I am not expecting night and day with a extra 512 of ram but if it does help some,this will be my last FSX upgrade.

harleyman · May 13th, 2009, 18:41

It will help...$200.00 plus worth ????? If you got it spend it...It will help with heavies some too...

We all know FSX is CPU intensive..but extra vid mem will always help....

**stansdds** · May 14th, 2009, 01:59

A few years ago, 256MB was all anyone needed, but 512MB cards were available and that's what I bought. Glad I did as it gave my video card a little more head room and a slightly longer life. Today, 512MB is all anyone needs, but if buying a new card, I'd say go with a 1GB card for the purpose of having a little more head room and a little longer life for the card.

Same goes for system memory, these days 4GB is a good recommendation, even for 32 bit operating systems.

**Alexraptor** · May 14th, 2009, 03:24

Actually a 1GB card comes very much in handy for HD resolutions like 409x4096, especially if one in the future wants planes with that high detail as well as clouds and stuff like that hehe.

**JIMJAM** · May 14th, 2009, 06:08

I cannot find any dimensions,epecially thickness on this card. I have the 4870 installed and I have plenty of room for a longer card but the fan side is REALLY close to the case bottom. I run case open to keep it cool inside so Im good there. I am yet to read any real reason to go with their new 4890 other than power consumption which isnt much of a difference.
So as long as the card isnt thicker on the fan side and fits Im good to go. Thanks for the replies.
BTW- My i7 first thoughts. I run unlimited and was getting stutters in turns. Fooled with the tbm and settled on 70. I also noticed ALL the planes and helis felt alot different. They all felt more precise,agile and overall it seemed as though their flight models had gained another dozen or so parameters. Hard to explain but the air felt thinner and overall more fluid. I am running ASA,FEX,UTX,MytrafficX,various sceneries and have dozens of the "must have" payware addons.The picture and view distance is also ALOT cleaner and looks like a different sim. Guess FSX loves all those cores. I just upgraded from 3 gigs of the ddr3 to 6 and see no difference. At rest however with FSX not running,task manager shows I am using 1 to 1-3 gigs just with background progs running! Killing off some and I still am over 1 gig. Load times from ASA for FSX is however less than 10 seconds. I am still getting the occassional micro stutter in turns.

harleyman · May 14th, 2009, 06:32

Running unlimited will give you micro stutters on the i7 ..Its been my experience anyways..Try to lock at 60 and see how it acts...

**JIMJAM** · May 14th, 2009, 07:54

Yeah I am in the tweeking mode right now. I swore to myself with a new system,OS and fresh install I wasnt going to hack up my fsx.cfg and bloat the system again. All Ive done is change the tbm and try some catalyst aa/a/f settings. Other than the microstutters, my trees are really shiney.Are you running with catalyst a.i. on? Any other advice on settings differences coming from 32 bit XP to Vista 64 welcomed.
Also, is FSX automatically using my 6 gigs without adding any special command as with the XP 3 gig switch? Thanks.

harleyman · May 14th, 2009, 08:47

Let me go to my other FSX rig and post my CCC set up for you...

You need to do nothing for your Ram and FSX with Vista...

Look up...Its a Sticky now....

**JIMJAM** · May 14th, 2009, 12:42

I noticed my stutters have more to do with my catalyst aa/af settings than any game settings or fsx.cfg edits. Lowering res,,detal,autogen,traffic ect. Turning them down does little but lowering the adaptive aa seems to reduce those micro stutters in turns the most. Especially helis where you can spin in a hover quickly, I bought that gig 4870 card and it should be here in a day or 2. Thanks for your help. I need to give my cars some attention this weekend but at night will try to do some more testing.

**Bjoern** · May 14th, 2009, 14:25

I'd rather spend the money on a better card altogether. If you can sell the 4870 and spend a bit of extra cash you might get a good used GTX280 which should leave the ATI weeping in the dust.

You won't see much of a performance increase from doubling your VRam, I even dare to say that the 1GB version is a wee bit slower than its lower memory brother.

**JIMJAM** · May 14th, 2009, 15:14

I have no loyality to either Nvidia or ATI. I used strickly Nvidia threwout FS9 and FSX. After Acceleration I had nothing but problems and numerous ctds,the dreaded menu lockups and countless other problems. Then I tried the new 4580 and all that stopped. Yes it choked in the clouds but the picture "on my system" was cleaner and all my problems ended. So I moved to the 4870 and on all games but FSX kicked ass. It was last week when I tried to install a gtx 280 that my os became corrupted and I spent 3 days resinstalling my os. I gave up, sent the card back,bought a new system and here I am. This puter is strickly web and FSX use only. All my 1st person shooter,adventure,racing games I run through a PS3 on a BIG hd tv. I agree that from what Ive seen and heard, Nvidia is the best card for FSX. That said, Ive given plenty of money to Nvidia and they got lazy and allowed ATI to catch up. I would like to think by supporting ATI, it has benefited us all. I am still a little paranoid and gunshy to switch back to them after being hosed so bad especially now that I have a brand new system thats running well.

**Alexraptor** · May 14th, 2009, 17:09

How on earth did you manage to corrupt your OS by upgrading the graphics card? O.o
Allthough i assume you did uninstall and clean out the ATI drivers before attempting to install the GTX 280 right?

**JIMJAM** · May 14th, 2009, 17:25

I have changed drivers probably a hundred times over the years. Know the procedure well. With the ati card and all traces gone, I went throught the ritual and installed the Nvidia card. Comp booted but all I got was a black screen. Safe mode,vga, nothing but a black screen. Reset bios. Booted then I started getting ntldr not found. Hard drive went missing. Reloaded XP. Booted into a black screen. I figured my Sharp Aquos 32 inch was getting a signal it didnt like but with a black screen,the card not being regonised,there was nothing to change. Reloaded XP. SOS. Now facing another os reinstall, a total FSX rebuild with a grand in addons, I gave up and decided it was a good as time as ever to get a new system.
Looking back I could have stuck in another card and worked it out. Some devices and software do not get along and I have simply grown tired of it. With all my other games being PS3 titles,FSX is the only PC game I have loaded. But hell, FSX is enough by itself.

harleyman · May 15th, 2009, 04:17

Originally Posted by Bjoern

I'd rather spend the money on a better card altogether. If you can sell the 4870 and spend a bit of extra cash you might get a good used GTX280 which should leave the ATI weeping in the dust.

You won't see much of a performance increase from doubling your VRam, I even dare to say that the 1GB version is a wee bit slower than its lower memory brother.

That is so untrue ! The 280 does not leave ATI weaping....

Doubeling V-Ram will show gains. Reguardless what charts may show !

**JIMJAM** · May 15th, 2009, 06:43

My speed with the i7 is fine. Be it the Dodo heli or Aerosoft F-16. Thats running a ton of addons at a high res and high settings less the usual offenders. Shadows,bloom.... Ive noticed on some planes where before the skins and vr put took a second or so to load are instant. My problem are the micro stutters which I have greatly reduced by tinkering lowering the aa/af. Alot are just FSX problems that have always been there and always be. I am hoping the additional vram will help Seeing my res 1980x1050,32 inch screen and the performance hit using higher levels of aa/af, more vram is a logical upgrade. Some car guys say just by putting stickers on their cars showing what mods they have installed adds another 5 hp each. Having a gig card may or may not help but I will settle for a good dose of placebo effect.

**Bjoern** · May 15th, 2009, 09:04

Originally Posted by harleyman

That is so untrue ! The 280 does not leave ATI weaping....

It certainly does in FSX.

Originally Posted by JIMJAM

Having a gig card may or may not help but I will settle for a good dose of placebo effect.

Heh, it surely will.

**JIMJAM** · May 15th, 2009, 12:02

Why do guys like you always pop up AFTER I place a order?
I will post my findings once I get it.
But seeing that no two setups or users get the same results either real or perceived, its really of no use other than for conversation. FSX is going to behave like FSX wants to. It just a morphing mess of hardware clogging,blood pressure raising code from hell.

**Bjoern** · May 16th, 2009, 07:42

Originally Posted by JIMJAM

It just a morphing mess of hardware clogging,blood pressure raising code from hell.

It's actually just an old, fat guy in a wheelchair polished to the max and botox'ed and facelifted to near death.

:d

**JIMJAM** · May 16th, 2009, 09:11

Not JUST an old fat guy but the ONLY one we have.
The "other" one is is a teenage still wearing old diapers adverstised as something Nasa uses which should have been changed along time ago.
I will stick with the old fat guy and keep giving him facelifts till he looks like Burt Reynolds and Joan Rivers had a child.

**JIMJAM** · May 16th, 2009, 09:43

What am I doing wrong? New to Vista and I am trying to edit a panel.cfg. I make the changes, try to save it and I get a error box about not able to create the c?programfiles/microsoft/fsx.... Check the path and file name bla bla. Never seen this with XP and editing any file. Is there some special way to edit these files? I cannot even just exit and in XP it just ask if you want to save it. Sound,panel ect

Nevermind.