SSD vs HD, EVGA GTX970 vs GTX980

My EVGA gtx970 apparently quit on me this weekend, two weeks after getting my system built:mad:, so took it in this morning to the shop that put the rig together, determined it is a defective card. Dealing with newegg now for replacement.

Now this is the heart of my post. While at the shop the tech guy said that I don't need to have my fsx addons in the SSD as they will eat space, that I could have them in the 1tb hard drive.

As far as I know, I am supposed to have fsx installed in my 500gb SSD because it will load faster, right? So how can I then have my addons in a separate drive? Would FSX recognize that?

About the graphics card, I noticed at newegg that there is a GTX980, which is a couple hundred more than the 970, and since I have to replace the card, is it worth it to consider the 980 or would I just be throwing money out the window.

 

By the way, my graphics problem started with the computer shutting down unexpectedly on Saturday, tried restarting it, got an error message about NvBackend.exe bad image, ontology dll not designed to run on windows or contains an error. I tell you guys, quite annoying after spending so much $$$$ to build a good system.

I'd leave the add-ons on the SSD. They don't NEED to be there but why change to a slower HDD if space isn't a problem? As far as the 980 goes it would be a waste of money. You will see absolutely no difference vs. the 970.

 

Doug

Due respect to your builder, non-FS people rarely understand how FS works and the differences between FS and other games/programs.

 

Stick with the advice you get here, most of it is pretty good.

 

RE: the 980, I agree with Doug, you will not see enough of a difference to justify the expense and your new card should not cost you anything. EVGA are pretty good to deal with.

 

peace,

the Bean

Thanks Doug, that saves me some $$. Bean, I thought as much when I heard him say that, but it did made me wonder given my professed computer illiteracy.:)

I am still upset the card quit one week into my using it. At least I didn't have most of my addons installed yet.

Better to have it fail one week after install than one week after the warranty expires.

 

The failed video card will not have any impact on your addons.

 

Your FSX install will be as you left it when the card failed.

 

peace,

the Bean

Hey Annaber,

Long time no see. I was inspired by your 'screenies' you posted (they were awesome) to go from Pentium 4 (3.2 Ghz) to an i7 (3.4 Ghz) so I too could enjoy the scenery. Here are some 'tid-bits' about the GTX 970 (from Amazon reviews, etc). Sorry to hear your GPU got fried.

 

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Does 970 SC work with Alienware X51 R2 having 330W power supply? I heard 330W is not enough for the 970 SC and will have black screen/reboot issue?

 

A: Nvidia recommends 500W or more power supply. May 20, 2015

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Thanks to EVGA's 60 Day step up program, I am updating to the EVGA GeForce GTX 970 FTW ACX 2.0 (04G-P4-2978-KR) for $10 plus $11 shipping.

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I have read in tech-news that Nvidia had misinformed all about the memory perrformance of all GTX 970 cards (does NOT affect GTX 980 cards) and that

Newegg and Amazon have been offering full or partial refunds to folks who ask

(Google "Nvidia 970 memory issue"). From what I gather this will mainly affect

those with large resolutions above 1920x1080 in causing game stutter due to

the remaining 512MB of VRAM being slower than the first 3.5GB.

 

I am in the market for a new video card, so I read a lot. Can't hurt. Hang in there.

Chuck B

Napamule

. From what I gather this will mainly affect

those with large resolutions above 1920x1080 in causing game stutter due to

the remaining 512MB of VRAM being slower than the first 3.5GB.

 

 

Napamule

 

Hi Chuck, good to hear from you. You know, I had observed a very noticeable stuttering specially while the plane banked and you looked out the cockpit. I have also updated my monitor to a 27 inch Samsung HD. I was going to mention that to the tech guy here but forgot. Glad you enjoy the screenies too:)

Annber,

Sorry for delay. Real life comes first (drat). Anywho, with a new rig you should get the latest Chip Set drivers. And also latest (not Beta) drivers for video card. We all assume they are 'up to date'. Word to the wise.

 

Did you do the 'Jesus' online tweak? It is 99% 'ok'. Maybe buffer pools and job scehduler (ie: affinity) have to be 'tweaked' to your setup, but the rest 'works' to fix those stutters.

 

Be sure to set your monitor to it's 'native' res and then make the FSX res the SAME. Things work smoother that way. I am sure there is a scientific explanation but I just do what I am told (hehe). With a little 'PM' (preventative maintenance) you can have that 4.0 (with liguid cooling I suppose?) 'flying' fast a furious (locked at 40 fps? 60? (get real!) how does 30 fps sound-ha). Cheers.

Chuck B

Napamule

Be sure to set your monitor to it's 'native' res and then make the FSX res the SAME. Things work smoother that way. I am sure there is a scientific explanation but I just do what I am told (hehe).

 

The reason for setting the desktop to the monitor's resolution is really just that it looks better. Unlike CRTs, LCDs have a fixed grid to display the image on. Using a lower resolution means either using fewer pixels in the middle of the screen, such as an 800x600 image centred in the middle of a 1920x1200 monitor, or stretching the image to use the full screen, stretching an 800x600 image to the full 1920x1200. Stretching the image usually just ends up looking blurry as well as possibly distorted if the aspect ratios don't match.

So the V-Sync and the refresh freq are not involved at all? Just 'looks'? And who would 'stretch' a 800x600 image to 1920x1200 (and HOW would you do that)? Not me. At least I know THAT much. I wouldn't 'force it'-I would get a bigger monitor (ha).

Chuck B

Napamule

So the V-Sync and the refresh freq are not involved at all? Just 'looks'? And who would 'stretch' a 800x600 image to 1920x1200 (and HOW would you do that)? Not me. At least I know THAT much. I wouldn't 'force it'-I would get a bigger monitor (ha).

 

Nope, when it comes to running at the native resolution, it's just about looks. Every LCD monitor has a fixed number of pixels to draw an image. If you send an image that matches the native resolution, it can be drawn 1:1 and will be as sharp as the image can be with pixel in the image is mapped directly to a pixel in the LCD grid. If you send an image with a lower resolution, either the monitor has to stretch it to fit, or draw it at 1:1 scaling, with black bars around the edge. If you want to play with this, check the display controls in the Nvidia Control Panel or AMD Catalyst Control Centre. For Nvidia GPUs, look for the "Adjust Desktop Size and Position" section under displays. Not very hard at all to control this.

 

V-Sync and refresh rates are independent of the resolution and control how fast the images are sent to the monitor, and how often the image on the monitor is refreshed.

 

As for the 800x600 part, that was just an extreme example. What's more likely is that someone will lower the resolution a little bit on a high resolution monitor to lighten the load on their GPU a little bit. Say from 2160x1140 to 1920x1080 if their GPU is struggling at the native resolution.

I was just three days into installing FSX & P3D in my new system, but I did some of the tweaks for both already. My new emplacement EVGA GTX970 arrives today, and I am hoping that it is not something I did wrong that caused it to go bad. I had not downloaded Nvidia inspector or done any tweaks to the card settings before it quit, and I am kind of apprehensive about it since I don't want another card to go bad. If someone has the same card and can share their configuration settings it would be great.

Annber,

I think your main concern should be with having a 80+ Power Supply (ie: quality voltages) with enough cap to handle the card - say 600 Watt. Everything else is 'up to Him'. We all roll the dice when it comes to PC's. I leave mine on 24/7. It runs cools so I am not concerned, where if I shut if off every night I would worry of the effect going from hot to cold would have on EVERYTHING (electrical connections). Think about it. Mine has been on without shutting down (just re-starts) for a year and a half. You'll learn these things if you 'read between the lines' at forums.

 

And you don't have to have a 'screen saver', either. Modern monitors don't 'burn' an image if you leave them 'on' 24/7. I have a cam pointing at my van with motion detection at night and I leave it that way after I quit and go to bed.

Chuck B

Napamule

Relax, there is nothing you did that fried the new 970...not to worry. I have a similar system and the only thing I've tweaked with NVI are the antialiasing settings. You can set really obscene levels of AA and the card won't even blink. Were I you, I'd just enjoy it for a while and worry about tweaks later. You'll probably find you don't really need any....

 

Doug

 

Intel 4790K CPU, MSI Z97 Gaming 7 mobo, Noctua NH-U12S cooler, Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB 2133 MHz RAM, nVidia GTX 970 GPU, Cooler Master HAF 932 Tower, Thermaltake 1000W Toughpower PSU, Windows 7 Professional 64-Bit, and other stuff:

 

500GB SSD - Samsung 840

12TB HDD Internal - Western Digital Black

40TB HDD External - Western Digital My Book

2x Asus PA246Q ProArt 24" 1920x1200

4x Plextor PX-891SAW DVD-RW

Relax, there is nothing you did that fried the new 970...not to worry. I have a similar system and the only thing I've tweaked with NVI are the antialiasing settings. You can set really obscene levels of AA and the card won't even blink. Were I you, I'd just enjoy it for a while and worry about tweaks later. You'll probably find you don't really need any....

 

Doug

 

 

Thanks Doug, I wish I didn't have to worry. Yesterday I took the new card to the tech shop, had it installed, they turned on the machine and I loaded FSX, looked great. Came home and right before going to bed decided to turn on the computer to check something in FSX, the computer looked to be on but nothing showed up on the monitor, no start menu, no loading menu, nothing. I am waiting for 10am to go back to the tech shop and see what is going on. Highly frustrating.

May not be the GPU. Have you tried a different cable to the monitor?

May not be the GPU. Have you tried a different cable to the monitor?

 

Honestly, I am getting so upset about this. You are right, I tried a different HDMI input and voila, was able to see the start up menu, although it took a while to boot.

This is what happened next:

-Did a very short FSX flight around Oahu to check on some photoscenery I am creating.

-Exited FSX, turned P3D on, did same short flight, exited P3D.

-Worked on the OLD computer with the photoreal scenery while having the new computer and monitor next to it idle.

 

15 minutes later the new computer shuts off by itself, here we go again. Tried rebooting the computer and it did once, started FSX and the computer shut down, now I am not able to boot it up.

I have spent over $1,500 on this system so far, it is barely two weeks old and it is a total nightmare. If anyone has any ideas please help!!!:mad::mad:

Could be a temperature problem with your CPU or with your PSU. These two things are the most common reason for a PC to shut itself down like that. It will protect your CPU by shutting down automatically if it gets beyond a certain temperature. If when you reboot it up you get no error message that windows didn't shut down properly then its CPU temp problem, on the other hand if you do get a error message its a PCU problem.

 

Darryl

Could be a temperature problem with your CPU or with your PSU. These two things are the most common reason for a PC to shut itself down like that. It will protect your CPU by shutting down automatically if it gets beyond a certain temperature. If when you reboot it up you get no error message that windows didn't shut down properly then its CPU temp problem, on the other hand if you do get a error message its a PCU problem.

 

Darryl

 

Hi Darryl, unfortunately I do get an error message, so it must be a PCU problem, and I have not the slightest idea what that means, it is a truly brand new system, what could be wrong?

The guy at the computer shop said this am that the motherboard Bios needed updating and he did, computer started and loaded fsx, however as I said this afternoon all over again same problem, shut down and now unable to boot.

Perhaps it might be time to look for another computer shop. What was the error message?

Hi Darryl, unfortunately I do get an error message, so it must be a PCU problem, and I have not the slightest idea what that means, it is a truly brand new system, what could be wrong?

The guy at the computer shop said this am that the motherboard Bios needed updating and he did, computer started and loaded fsx, however as I said this afternoon all over again same problem, shut down and now unable to boot.

 

Ok sounds like your power supply is overheating, or is to lower power for your setup. Its a common mistake that is made when buying and putting together your own system, people tend to think they can save costs on cheaper power supplies, however unfortunately it doesn't work like that and you need a power supply that is first recommended by the motherboard and then puts out enough power for the rest of your system, although the chap that put yours together should know better than to put a too smaller power supply in.

 

Do you know the brand and watts of the power supply in your system at the moment?.

 

Darryl

Sorry Duh, I didn't see you had a Corsair RM850, this is a average power supply but I would of thought that it should do the job, but then again you have a pretty good spec motherboard so maybe swapping it out is the best option. Corsairs are a headache and has had many a budding PC builder tearing there hair out. Of course that is if that's the problem. If you want to stick with Corsairs then Id look at a HX1000i.

Don't sound like they don't know anything. (You didn't go Best Buy did you-hope not). You don't install the OS and install Flt Sim X or P3d one on top of the other without first doing de-frag of Operating System and then rebooting. What chip set drivers did then 'update'? Reboot? Are Video card drivers the latest (not Beta)? Reboot? Did they re-set CMOS? Did they go into Bios to set up video card? Reboot? Reboot. Reboot. Set 'Restore Point'.

 

You just have to be patient and do things 'in order'. Maybe not logical, so DO get a 'guide' or go read up on forums. Don't take shortcuts. The come back to bite you. Make sure you have good air circulation (ie: cooling). Let the PC idle for 4 to 8 hrs to 'burn it

in'. Turn it off and disconnect and let cool completely (2 hrs). Then go check (inside) and make sure that the ram is pushed in all the way. Same for Video card. Check all cables. When units get shipped the cards, ram, and cables, might come loose due to 'handling' (ie: rough handling-which other kind is there? hehe). THEY are not going to do it. You have to get in there and look and check. Good luck.

Chuck B

Napamule

N2056, the error message was the usual windows did not shut down properly. Haven't been able to start it to get more info.

Darryl, I honestly don't think it is a heating problem, there is no unusual fan overworking noise, and it actually shut down while idle.

Chuck, no Best Buy tech involved, it is a computer shop with mostly 4 or 5 star reviews on yelp, but it does seem that their exposure to fsx is minimal. You are in California, anywhere near LA?

I had started noticing some strange things, small things like when going to Paint to edit a screenshot the drop down menu when trying to save to a format would not drop down entirely to give me all the options, then after the first shutdown, my frame rates in fsx went from 30 to 40 at FSDT Honolulu with photoreal scenery to 15 to 25.

I am thoroughly confused at what I thought would be a new and better sim experience. Even my doc encouraged me to get the new rig saying it would help me deal with my illness by reducing my stress, well wait till he hears this now.;)

Well sounds like your PC is ok. It's FSX that needs tweaking. (And YOU need to get to bed and get some rest (ie: 2 am post)). Did you do the 'Jesus' online tweak? It works for those 'crash' etc problems due to FSX -vs- Windows 'problems'. Believe me, it works.

 

No I live in Central CA (Monterey County, Salinas, Ca to be specific) but not in town, but in the boonies. Much more peaceful (no car alarms, no sirens, no gun shots, no fence jumpers (at 3 am), no squaking parrots, or barking dogs, no loud car booming music (thump, thump, thump = stupid!), just the medivac helio flying over every other day to pick up another 'idiot' that got shot/stabbed)). I can take a walk 'around the block' at 11 pm with never a concern.

 

So, 30 to 40 fps in FSX is GOOD. All you need is 24 fps to 'fly'. At 15 of course it is a slide show. But changing to 2D panel view will 'fix' that. So you are almost there. Setting up a PC then throwing FSX at is complex. But never 'the end of the world' if things don't work. These 'issues' are always a challenge but CAN be fixed. It just takes patience. And knowledge. Knowledge is POWER. So enjoy this hobby. Don't let anything 'bring you down'. Although at times it seems like you could take a sledge hammer to the hardware (as the problem is the software) which then don't make any sense at all. Do the Jesus tweak to cure any 'memory leak' and other problems and try it again. So I feel you angst (being there-done that) but now I just 'chill' and take a break when it gets to me. When I return in a few hours I am better able to handle the emotional part of (troublesome) simming. It's alway going to be 'troublesome'. Nothing is perfect. That's life-you can't have everyting, etc. 'My Karma Ran Over My Dogma' comes to mind. When you DO fix things to where FSX works flawlesly the elation, and joy, is overwheming. So hang in there.

Chuck B

Napamule