Probably a waste of good money

**garycurran** · 08-31-2003, 03:03 AM

I just bought a Gainward Nvidia Ge Ti4800 128 meg video card.

You want to know something. I can't tell a difference between that and my 64 meg GsForce 2/MX400. At least not in the frame rates. Okay, I finally got all of my resolutions back, thankfully, and I can switch between windowed mode and Full screen mode without a bothersome error message popping up, but I'm not seeing any real frame rate increases. I'm still doing between 5-7 on the ground, with sliders at 75% of the way up. Still crashing the program with T&L enabled.

Oh yeah, I bought a pair of those '3D Glasses.' POS. Don't buy them.

I guess my next move is to save up a couple of hundred extra bucks, and go buy a new mobo and new processor. Anybody play with the new Barton core AMDs yet?

Gary

**keaja** · 08-31-2003, 03:58 AM

What are your other system specs? And you should usually not expect to see an FPS increasement by buying a new video card, Flight simulation games in general, are more processor dependant.

**mgroves** · 08-31-2003, 04:00 AM

Gary, this is something that I and several other people have been banging on about for years - if you want more fps in Flight Simulator the only sure way of getting the increase is to uprate your cpu. Sure, other things like graphics cards, sound cards, RAM, etc., MIGHT give you a very slight increase, but a better processor WILL give you the increase you want.

Mike.

**pc_fs** · 08-31-2003, 06:48 AM

Video Card --> Better Graphics and Improved Image.
CPU --> Better Framerates.
Ram --> Better loading times.

http://www.flightsim.com/dcforum/Use...5a42797309.jpg

**Bigshot** · 08-31-2003, 08:10 AM

Very easy way to test just what your video card is or isn't doing. Move all the eye candy sliders all the way to the left, uncheck all those boxes and run the sim. That's just about all the sliders. See where your framerates are. Leave the mesh and AI where you normally run them. The difference will give you a pretty good idea of what your video card is doing.

**thefringe** · 08-31-2003, 10:38 AM

Keep in mind the 3D glasses will cut frame rate in half on some systems like mine. You will have to be patient with them and do a lot of configuring with the hot keys to get a comfortable stereo view for your eyes. Also make sure terrain is showing in 3D with the glasses. With some earlier drivers (Nvidia Stereo) and FS2004, buildings, clouds, planes, etc are rendered in stereo but terrain is not. This gives a very awkward, uncomfortable appearance, and would discourage a new user of 3D glasses not realizing terrain (mountains, etc) should also be split into stereo.
John M.

Athlon 2200
GeForce 4600 (44.67)(44.03 stereo)
1 Gig ram
XP Home

**Compfreak** · 08-31-2003, 11:06 AM

I had an mx440 and when I bought the ATI 9700 pro I found it was at least 100% faster.
Chris

**garycurran** · 08-31-2003, 11:15 PM

Jason,
I realize that my system is on the weak side for FS9, albeit I was running framerates in the low to mid 20s in 2002.

I have:
Athlon XP 1600+
Tyan 2390B KT133A mobo
768 megs PC-133 RAM
60 gig 7200 WD hard drive
80 gig 7200 WD hard drive
the aforementioned GeForce TI 4800 128 meg video card.

I am going to have to upgrade, but if I'm going to do it, I want to do it right. I'm thinking:

DFI "Lan Party" mobo
Barton Core Athlon XP, maybe 3000+, maybe a 2800+
at least 512 megs of DDR 333 RAM

Any comments? One of the other things I do is Digital Audio recording on this machine, so it's not a straight gamers machine, and I need to take that into account as well.

Gary

**garycurran** · 08-31-2003, 11:18 PM

John,
I'm actually having problems with the whole things. More than half the time, it won't work even in the Demo mode! I've already replaced the batteries in them. When it works, it's awesome, but most often it doesn't work. Even the included '3D' games don't work with them. I'm seriously disappointed.

I'll probably return them and get my money back...hopefully.

Gary

**thefringe** · 09-01-2003, 11:59 AM

Gary,
Are you using the most up to date stereo drivers ? Is the 3D setting 'off' 'toggle on/off' or 'on by default' in the Nvidia control panel? (It should be set to 'toggle' and then activated by Ctrl-T in the game.)

I have to admit that next time I will buy the wired glasses. The on-off mechanism is stuck is the 'on' position even when I fold the glasses, causing me to go through a lot of batteries myself. Now I just remove one of the batteries when I'm done. You may want to check this as well. It could be possible they sent you a bad pair of glasses.

In another current thread it is mentioned that edimensional is apparently working on a FS2004 'fix' to be released soon. I myself returned to a 4600 Ti card after trying both the Ti4800 128 and then a 5900 Ultra. Could not get glasses to work properly with either of those. With the 5900 Ultra, 3D worked smoewhat with older drivers, leaving no 2D panels, or I could use the 45.xx drivers and have panels but no working glasses.

I fully understand your frustration, but would encourage you to either wait for the so-called fix, or exchange the glasses for a wired pair like I should have done. It is a challenge getting these things working properly, but like you say, it is a startling effect once set up right.
John M.