GPU variants, performance envelopes, and being an informed consumer

re: GPU variants, performance envelopes, and being an informed consumer

Dojjan_pw — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 01:44:03 GMT

Thanx Phil!! Great explanation and Information!!

re: GPU variants, performance envelopes, and being an informed consumer

SvenGroot — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 12:24:32 GMT

I just ordered a Radeon HD3850, I hope it's going to be worth it. Can't wait to see FSX with the DX10 renderer (as someone who spends most of his time looking at the VC, cockpit shadows sound like a very neat feature to me). I also ordered a CPU upgrade for good measure (an E8500).

Let's hope that improves my performance a bit with he PMDG 747-400X (that thing is a framerate killer, but very much worth it imho).

re: GPU variants, performance envelopes, and being an informed consumer

NickN — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 14:16:37 GMT

Balancing the hardware with the settings is just as important as obtaining the hardware to do the job. DDR3 is all I use now and I would never go back to DDR2. FSX really loves a 3.6gig clock on DDR3 2000 with low latency. Pair that up with a 768Mb card running decent clocks and FSX begins to shine and show its potential for the next several years

Thanks Phil for the detailed information. FSX continues to get better and better with time. Because of the foundation that was designed, the experience will continue to grow as will the MSFS franchise.

Some results of your engine work...

http://www.simforums.com/forums/forum_posts.asp?TID=24817

re: GPU variants, performance envelopes, and being an informed consumer

c152flyboy — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 18:20:24 GMT

Phil, as always, thank you for the insight. Knowing that FSX is heavily reliant on CPU more so then GPU, are you able to offer similar info on the CPU side of things? Also, would having a mid level CPU and a real good GPU give less visual performance then a very good CPU and a mid level GPU?

Thank you.

re: GPU variants, performance envelopes, and being an informed consumer

CanadaKen — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 18:41:34 GMT

Thanks you VERY much for the article, Phil!!!

This will be extremely helpful for all of us looking at a system upgrade.

Once again...Thank you!

Ken

re: GPU variants, performance envelopes, and being an informed consumer

tcable — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 18:48:43 GMT

I'm very interested in some more CPU comparisons- I know that you've said in the past, a slower quad is better than a faster dual.

I'm looking at at Q9450 when available over the E8400- slower quad vs faster dual.

As I understand things today, For sheer frames, faster cpu is better. To reduce stutters and preload issues (blurries etc) more cores due to those tasks being off loaded to other threads.

And Flying into ATL with 100% Delta and Airtran traffic- Fuhgeddaboutit! :)

I can do so on my ancient current system Just at 10 FPS.

I can't wait for a current gen system.

re: GPU variants, performance envelopes, and being an informed consumer

Phil Taylor — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 19:56:34 GMT

NickN:

gorgeous images!

re: GPU variants, performance envelopes, and being an informed consumer

Phil Taylor — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 19:57:21 GMT

All:

Reset MCP Alt's FSX benchmark that I linked to a while back shows that for add-ons, a quad is better than a dual. He did a nice analysis as well.

A quick guide to GPU performance variants and what they mean to you

State Street Gang — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 21:15:08 GMT

A quick guide to GPU performance variants and what they mean to you

re: GPU variants, performance envelopes, and being an informed consumer

NickN — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 16:40:25 GMT

Thanks Phil. You guys made the engine.. I just took advantage of it's abilities when enhancing the GEX textures. The update for GEX that displays what you se in those images will be released next week which will upgrade USA/CAN day and nights. Night time takes on an entire new look and Winter becomes colorful even with snow as it should. I also blended the fall and winter seasons do the leaves that fall off the trees remain and fade over the winter season as they should.

That water is not part of GEX. It is FEX water textures however the -reflections- are courtesy of tweaks to the water shader files, another area we have access to thanks to ACES design!

Nick

Oooooh, I am in hardware heaven......

Nick Whittome - The Naked MVP — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 18:18:01 GMT

How about that for the geekiest title ever. For about 6 months, since my move of home and office and

re: GPU variants, performance envelopes, and being an informed consumer

Scout59 — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 15:27:39 GMT

Hi Phil,

your article helped me to understand how important GPU's are for good performance. My question now is would the new ATI 3870X2 graphics card bring me any advantage in FSX, or would you recommend to stay with the single GPU 3870? Does FSX support SLI and/or Crossfire configurations?

Thanks for your feedback in advance :-)

Cheers,

Stephen

re: GPU variants, performance envelopes, and being an informed consumer

jahman — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 03:16:41 GMT

Phil,

Like Scout59, I am also looking at the ATI Radeon 3870 X2 dual-GPU video adapter. (Also I understand Nvidia will be coming out with an 9800 GX2 dual-GPU.)

So while I understand Cross-Fire and SLI are not really useful to FSX, does this also hold true for the on-board versions of Cross-Fire and SLI found in the Radeon 3870X2 and 9800 GX2 dual-GPU video adapters?

Thanks!

jahman.

re: GPU variants, performance envelopes, and being an informed consumer

steveyb — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 23:51:32 GMT

One can take it by reading all these threads and millions more all over the web generally,that there will not be a FS11 due to the massive amount of public money having to be forked out to actually get average performance with FSX. I can understand having to have a sim with a reasonable long life and customers having to spend money to see the sim "blossom" over time, (I"ve spent close to £3000) up grading trying to get rid of jutters(fps) and blurries and still have unsatisfactory performance.

Can you imagine if there would be an FS11 release this year...... with another huge jump ref. performance requirements... I thinks really FSX should be brought right up to spec and it also gives the add-on community a chance aswell