New video card!

Mooney · 10-05-2001, 10:10 PM

Wednesday I recieved my brand new MSI GeForce2 Pro 64mb DDR video card from www.monarchcomputer.com I ploped it in and started up Train Sim and was delighted with frame rates in the 30s and 40s. But when I started up FS2000 I got the exact same frame rates as I go with my old TNT2 m64. Is this just because how poorly FS2000 is writen and it depends your CPU more than the Video card? From what I under stand FS2K2 is specially optimized for GF2 cards, correct? Any comments?
http://www.mooney.com/images/logo_blk130.jpg

**mith** · 10-06-2001, 01:07 AM

It's safe to say that MS incorporated the new technologies of the new video cards....

P.S. From what I'm reading about the gf3 cards... you might have made a good choice to go with the gf2 chip... that's what I have..

Mith :-jumpy

Doug · 10-06-2001, 07:27 AM

You're correct about the FS2000 framerates. The framerate isn't going to change much, if at all, regardless of the video card - the program is simply too CPU-intensive for the video card to make any difference. As far as FS2002 goes, all I know is that all the public demos have been run on boxes using a GeForce2 (32MB), and I think that's a good sign for those of us who own one :-) .

Doug

Mooney · 10-06-2001, 08:02 AM

In FS2000 with all sliders maxed to the right and every box checked with my TNT2 M64 I got around 17 fps once everything got settled (hard drive light quit flashing). I get exactally the same frame rates with the new card. I don't care too much though because they are still very playable frame rates.
What I am really impressed with is the train sim preformence. On my TNT2 due to its mememory band with (1.2gb/sec I think) it could never break 28fps and that is where it is just flat land and no scenery, I now in the same scenerio I can get over 40 fps.
I am hopeing to see simmilar frame rates in FS2002. I have overclocked the card some and it locked up a couple of times so I set it back a little. I am now running it a 230mhz core and 440mhz memory.
PS Will over clocking shorten the life span of the card? Or will it only hurt it if it gets too hot?
http://www.mooney.com/images/logo_blk130.jpg

**c85airman** · 10-06-2001, 10:18 AM

What is this I hear about the GeForce 2 possibly being a better choice than the GF3 for FS2K2? A few months ago, I bought the GeForce3 thinking it was better than the 2. Comments?

Doug · 10-06-2001, 10:54 AM

Overclocking will, indeed, shorten the life of any chip. The faster it runs, the more the heat that is generated. And the more the heat generated, the faster the internal deterioration. The question is how much is the life shortened. With just a little overclocking the continuous-use life might be reduced from, for example, 7.0 years to 6.9 years. At the other extreme, with too much overclocking the continuous-use life can be reduced to less than 10 minutes. So, there is always some risk involved. With adequate cooling, however, the problem becomes far less of a worry. My two cents says, though, that if you haven't added any additional video-chip-specific cooling I wouldn't overclock the card at all.

Doug

Doug · 10-06-2001, 11:07 AM

The GeForce3 is a better card than the GeForce2. And the 2 is not necessarily the "better" choice than the 3 for FS2002. It's just that it appears that FS2002 will not utilize the full functionality of the 3. And, if that proves to be the case, the 2 may be the better economic choice (meaning cheaper) if the primary use is going to be FS2002. What I'd like to see, though, are some FS2002-specific benchmarks run on the same system with both the 2 and the 3. It looks like the visual graphics rendering is going to be same in either case but it could well be that the 3 yields the faster framerate. Time will tell.....

Doug

**petermcleland** · 10-06-2001, 12:21 PM

The GeForce3 has the old lights reflections in the night sky in FS2000...The GeForce2 does not (both on the same drivers). In daylight, the GeForce3 seems great. Don't know about FS2002 though :-)

Regards,
http://www.flightsim.com/dcforum/Use...e238a74fb8.jpg

**c85airman** · 10-06-2001, 01:12 PM

Thanks for the help, I was getting worried there for a second. Petermcleland, I've also encountered night light reflections in FS2000 with the GeForce 3 - only with taxi lights though. Im am optimistic that that problem won't occur in 2k2.