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Avant is THE Flightsimming Machine
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The Thunderstorm of Power. The 767 of Performance.
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A day spent with this machine was simply an awe-inspiring experience. One thing comes out very clear as always, but certainly important. If you can afford a new machine, go buy one! A simple rule that all of us know by heart, but gosh, if it came down to the "luxury" of taking 10 hours of flying lessons let's say, or redoing your deck, or repainting the house, I'd choose to purchase an Avant Mercury. This machine is stoked and ready for at least a year of simming, without upgrading. A whole year, is a mighty long time you know.
The Avant system comes in a large tower case, with a high end Microsoft
keyboard and mouse.
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With all this power at hand, I set fourth to test Microsoft Flight Simulator, and the new Microsoft Train Simulator. Running FS2000 on this new Athlon 1.3 GHz system proved that throwing a lot of hardware at a clunkily-written piece of software can indeed smooth out the bumps and jolts you were used to on a slower machine. Virtually all stutters are gone. The ones that can't be helped (such as scenery loading from the disk) will take place so fast, you won't even know. For instance, with all the display sliders maxed-out (something I can never admit to having done before) at the famous Meigs Field Cessna startup, I was seeing a frame rate now of 27.7 at 1280x1024x32 resolution. The whole world in its glory, details as far as can go and complexity to the max, a big 27.7. For FS2000, completely acceptable. Now, when changing views, the "snap" time for all corners around you is fast. First load takes about one complete second, then 1/8 or 1/4 a second thereafter. There's a big difference! Not just RAM, but in this case processor speed and a top notch video card allows fast views with the cockpit art. So far, so good.
Now, since the machine came with Wilco's 767 already built-in, I decided to give that a try for some serious flying. I was used to this product on my PIII850, so I was anxious to compare here. Climbing out of Boston, I was getting a great 29.3 fps. Boston and coastal areas suffer in FS2000, so this number was certainly pleasing!
The system includes every imaginable interface port. Notice also the extra
cooling fans...the power supply out of view at the top of the case has yet
another fan. This system is not going to overheat.
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Now, in outside view, performance was phenomenal, except when running the Wilco 767. The Wilco 767 visual model is based on a scenery graphic, once thought really cool, but hindering in performance. Because of this, Wilco's 767 external view is slower than other planes. Other "normally textured" aircraft performed with great fluidity. On Wilco's, outside view was 12.0 fps and the image of the aircraft was blurry. Now, since my time was limited, I did not fiddle with many of the GeForce options available for Mip-mapping and Anti-Aliasing. So, I cannot be sure if this was just card-option related. I kind of think it was and with the correct settings there would have been no problems. I know on my GeForce 2 at home, I can certainly select low-quality / high-performance Anti-Aliasing and Mip Mapping.
The rest of my experience flying the 767 was a dream come true, and soon I found myself jealous of this hardware that I would soon have to give back. Most other frame rates at cruise altitude exceeded 100. But of course that's easy, since there's little to see up there. The near ground frame rates are what count, and these were all so smooth, so delightful that I was happy to be flying FS2000 again, even after having seen FS2002.
Take a look under the hood. This is not a place for children. Or flightsimmers that settle for less. Check out the massive cooling fan on the processor.
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Having tried this computer my overall impression of FS2000 was better than
it had been in the past
And the new generation FS2002 will perform far better than anything I have just reported on. For anyone suffering on a PIII500 or something like that, the results would be really fantastic. Worth upgrading in a snap!
Between the 1.3 GHz Athlon processor, the powerful GeForce 2 video card and
plenty of system RAM this machine can outpower the problems we've been used
to seeing in FS2000. You now have the ability to run FS2000 like never before.
See, the sliders are full to the right, a feat I have never seen before!
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27.7 in default start-up mode, with all maxed-out. Remember the FS3 days?
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Beautiful night frame rates of over 25.0. The graphic detail is awesome.
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I wouldn't fly a real 737 from Meigs, but here's 25 fps+ to prove you'll like what you see if you did.
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This shows sliders to about 50% of max. This is the position I normally had used in all my FSing... a big improvement in frame rate too!
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37 fps with the options toned down a bit.
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Even though Avant designed this as a flightsim machine the train lover in me insisted that I also try it with Microsoft's new Train Sumulator. Once again the Avant Mercury proved its worth. Every penny. I thought I was happy with Washington station startups on the Acela train at 27 fps from a spot view on my old 850 (sliders about 80%, 1280x1024). I nearly fell out of my seat when I saw with all sliders maxed-out, 50, count'em 50 fps at the same place using the Avant system! Putting the train in motion in this view was a thrill I cannot describe. Testing the Flying Scottsman steam train from an outside view, yielded 44 big ones! Oh man. The images were sharp and crisp as life itself. In the crushing confines of Tokyo, 41 fps. Godzilla would be happy. Whitefish Montana, where I would like to live someday, 54 fps! Aaaaahhhhhh.
Since Train-Sim was recently released to the public, many of you know that it too has some of the infamous Microsoft stutters in place along the tracks from time to time. And even on this machine, they still are there, though less noticeable. With the overall fluidity of Train-Sim, the crisp high-res graphics and details as fine as life itself, Train-Sim really flew by...a good example of what a machine like this can do, to push realism to the highest levels we can have, no matter what software you run on it.
Here's where I really came out of my chair! Train Sim with 50 fps on all details set to maximum 1280x1024! I could not believe my eyes. This would normally yield only 12 to 25 on my other PIII850 computer. A 100% improvement. Now, get the idea what this implication might have on the new FS... hmmmm...
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A steamy 44 fps in England. No wonder they are a "Merry" bunch over there!
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Tokyo used to be an area of 20 or less fps, now it's at 40+.
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Beautiful Whitefish Montana at over 50 fps! Simply amazing. If you could only see the train in motion at this frame rate. This is the perfect display to show non-simmers what having fun is all about!
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System Specs:
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All the people at Avant were extra helpful, friendly, and dedicated professionals that are there for one purpose. To serve the flightsimmer! When's the last time you got help like that from Dell, Gateway, or Mom 'n Pop Computerland brand?
Based on the time spent with this powerhouse, and the applications I have tried, I would recommend the Avant Systems Athlon computer for all your simming needs. It is clearly the premier flightsim-ready computer of 2001. FS2000, Train-Sim and the upcoming FS2002 will blow you away. This is the computer and simulation power I had fantasized about over 10 years ago, when I asked "what will flightsim be like in the year 2000?" We now have the answer! Anyone struggling with FS2000 now ought to make the investment with Avant. They're there for you, and they ARE real flightsimmers too!
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