NVidia 5900Ultra Specs for FS9

[Steve_Butka]

Hey all,

My power supply turned out to be only 250V which in turn completely burned out my ATi radeon 9800 over the course of the year I've had it so I purchased a 9500Ultra used for $175 bucks.

I'm running into the same problem i had with the ATi when I first bought it in that I can't get FS9 to work right.  In fact, FS9 barely runs at all with the NVidia.

So, if anyone has the same card (or one similar) and can tell me how they've tweaked their system to accomodate it I'd really appreciate the help.

Thanks!

[the_autopilot]

Hey all,

My power supply turned out to be only 250V which in turn completely burned out my ATi radeon 9800 over the course of the year I've had it so I purchased a 9500Ultra used for $175 bucks.

Holy cow. A 9500 Ultra for 175. My card cost me 500 and its only a 7800. So, what does that thing socre in 3dmark05? Like 300000 or something?

All joking aside, you should seriously upgrade your PSU. It can be one of the leading causes in system unstability and/or lead to problems (like you saw).

BTW, I'm assuming 9500 is a typo and you really mean 5900 Ultra. I recommend getting a new PSU. Since you are swtichng over from ATI to Nvdia, I seriously suggest you wipe all the video drivers (ATI and Nvidia) you have with driver cleaner pro (google it, its free) and reinstall the newest drivers from nvidia's website.

[Steve_Butka]

Holy cow. A 9500 Ultra for 175. My card cost me 500 and its only a 7800. So, what does that thing socre in 3dmark05? Like 300000 or something?

All joking aside, you should seriously upgrade your PSU. It can be one of the leading causes in system unstability and/or lead to problems (like you saw).

BTW, I'm assuming 9500 is a typo and you really mean 5900 Ultra. I recommend getting a new PSU. Since you are swtichng over from ATI to Nvdia, I seriously suggest you wipe all the video drivers (ATI and Nvidia) you have with driver cleaner pro (google it, its free) and reinstall the newest drivers from nvidia's website.

Yes, I meant a 5900Ultra-- typo.  I upgraded my power supply to 400V along with the new card.  FS runs as smooth as silk no, however, the opening game menus lag like hell.  The best way for me to start flights now is from the select a flight menu with the preset adventures, otherwise, FS just plain lags and sometimes freezes up before I can even load up a flight.  Any idea where that's coming from"?

[Steve_Butka]

i still really need help guys.

i can barely even run FS9, I can only do the adventures from the select a flight menu. everything else just stuters and eventually freezes up FS9!!!

[the_autopilot]

Thats an interesting problem. Never had that problem before.

Try reinstall your fs9 and then immediately patching it.

[congo]

Prolly the wrong forum, however.....

Logical analysis would dictate that you isolate FS9 as the cause, in other words, how is performance in other apps or benchmarks, and is that performance consistent outside of FS9. Maybe it's just FS9 that's screwed up.

If you find that you have poor performance across all apps and benchmarks, then your video engine isn't working and you need to do some basic system analysis.

First disable all non-essential apps running in the background and re-test, (virus checkers, everything running in the startup etc.). That may isolate a software conflict.

If still no go, then check device manager for conflicts, re-install mainboard drivers, sound drivers and video drivers after using driver cleaner.

You will of course need some kind of software to test your frame rates, FS9 or a common benchmark utililty such as 3Dmark 2003, where known average values for your setup are obtainable. If you get under 5000 marks in 3Dmark 03 for example, you have some tweaking to do, up towards 6000, and your system is working fine. 1800 marks means that you have a basic configuration problem, possibly a wrong bios setting or even failed hardware.

The FX5900 series uses 2 seperate modes, 2D and 3D modes, and it switches mode to 3D when a game runs.

You need the ability to check if the card is actually switching modes. The mode switch is video bios and driver controlled, usually with no user control over it.

Overclocking software can "force" the mode switch when it is run on your PC, but only the memory speed is forced, not the GPU speed. A 3D app needs to be running in a window so that that software such as everest will detect the speed increase / mode switch of the GPU while the application is running in real time.

Some FX5900's are known to get "stuck" in 2D mode, and I believe a BIOS flash may cure that, but use that as a last resort after you have positively diagnosed that as a problem, it may be a job for a pro.

Still no go? Format and re-install, don't add anything except mainboard drivers and SP2 and benchmark software until the video engine is benchmarking correctly.

Stay OFF the internet and use this file to install SP2:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/deta ... laylang=en

Once the video is working correctly, continue installation of your apps. If, after installing software, updates etc; you have a problem, then the software you installed is the culprit.

Best not to install anything not absolutely needed and disable all non-essential autorun functions.

Change homepage to blank, (use favorites to load your most used pages). Manually start MSN Messenger, antivirus, and the plethora of other apps that auto run. I only let my firewall autorun because I consider it essential and I forget to turn it on sometimes before I connect to the net.

Recommended software before internet connection:

Zonealarm or other suitable firewall software, I disable the Windows firewall because I don't fully understand how to control it and I heard it sucks anyway.

The default windows firewall is linked to the SP2 Security Center which I also disable, (it's merely an ineffectual alarm). These default apps still run in the background as services along with many non-essential services which can safely be disabled using Black Viper's guide to XP services or other suitable guides.

xp-AntiSpy is a good program to disable some basic sus features in WinXP.

Spywareblaster blocks lots of bad sites, dialers etc.

Shore up your PC with the rest of your favorite security software, then connect to the net.