New vid card ordered

[Gary R.]

Tomorrow afternoon I will be taking delivery on a brand new 6600 GT.  I was waiting on a 9800 Pro which is it seems on indefinate back order.  So, after much searching and number crunching the proprietot at the PC dealer where I buy hardware from came up with a trade for a 6600 GT.  $199 USD plus my old 9200 SE.  I could have gone with a 5900 XT for $190, a 5700 OC for $150, or a 9600 XT for $140.  I think my choice was a no brainer, what do you all think??  

[Gixer]

Think you made the right decision  ;D

[GunnerMan]

Oh yeah and I think the endless backorder was good too cus the 6600GT is the best "bang for the buck" will OC well and get up to 6800 speeds

[4_Series_Scania]

Excellent choice, better than any 9800 which is so "yesterday"  ;D

I've got my eye on either a 6600 GT or, the 6800NU, decisions decisions.....  :)

[Gary R.]

Yes, I know and the best thing about it is I'm getting it for only $10 more than last years chipset which is good.  And, since the shop I deal with does do trade-ups, I will be in the fair trade value range if next year I opt to go for the 6800 256 meg. model.  I'm tellin you the Christmas cash I usually get from my parents is probably going toward 256 meg more of PC3200 DDR.  Till I'm done this 'puter will be a total screamer.  Maybe for '06 I might trade 'puters again and go for a AMD 64.  The price might be a lot lower then especially if Intel does a 64 of their own.

[4_Series_Scania]

Yes, I know and the best thing about it is I'm getting it for only $10 more than last years chipset which is good.  And, since the shop I deal with does do trade-ups, I will be in the fair trade value range if next year I opt to go for the 6800 256 meg. model.  I'm tellin you the Christmas cash I usually get from my parents is probably going toward 256 meg more of PC3200 DDR.  Till I'm done this 'puter will be a total screamer.  Maybe for '06 I might trade 'puters again and go for a AMD 64.  The price might be a lot lower then especially if Intel does a 64 of their own.

Sounds like an all round good deal!


Your certainly going to see big improvements, especially if you combine the card and extra RAM at the same time!

FS9 will certainly be all the nicer for it, just don't expect MAX sliders, even with a 6800Ultra 256, you can reduce FS9 to single figure FPS rates!  

[Gary R.]

I often wonder what sense it makes for software developers to even think about making software that can be beyond the best equipment available.

[4_Series_Scania]

I often wonder what sense it makes for software developers to even think about making software that can be beyond the best equipment available.  Didn't MS see that in developement?  Of is there budget that big and there desire to glitz themselves that much that they don't care about the average users?  I blame their vaunted weather engine in COF.  You know, X-plane does excellent weather effects and 3D clouds to but without sucking the PC dry.  MS needs to commit to keeping their products max runnable on at least 75% of everyone's system.  If they would have put as much effort into optimization as they did in stupid bridges that don't effect aircraft performance then maybe my 9200 would have sufficed. Once in a lifetime a community had MS's ear there and what did everyone grip about?  Eye candy. Stupid scenery fixtures that have nothing to do with performance.  See, I had been operating in 800X600 wih my old card.  I was perfectly pleased with the external appearence and able to average 28 fps.  My main problem with that mode is that certain panels are illegible at 800x600 because designers wanna show how artistic they are.

After 800x600 with an old card, 1280x1024, 2xAA, 2xAF, High to Max sliders, you'll be laughing, fear not .

[Gixer]

You will get higher than that if your system is setup right  ;D

My bro has a Barton XP3000 cpu (not overclocked so yours is faster) 512ddr ram and a 9800pro g/card.

I set his PC up to run at 1280x1024 4xAA and 8xAF with most things maxxed (Cloud visibility a little lower than max and AI down to 75%)   The only thing that slows it down a bit is high detailed payware stuff (mainly aircarft) other than that I am impressed what can be done if your system is setup well.

Runs smooth even at KSEA.  Getting the best from your system has a lot to do with how its all setup, software and hardware wise.

Your gonna love your new card though will be much better than your old one.

[Gary R.]

I had a real beech of a time installing the drivers for this 6600.  It seems that the install disk was corrupted.  Finally the guy at the shop cabled in a more up to date driver from nvidia.  He burned it, I went down and got it and viola.  Card seems to be working fine.  I must see if I can install the iverclocking utlity for it though. Came with the software bundle along with a slew of games.  IL2 is one of them :-)  although I think I would prefer FB Ace Expansion Gold Pack which has FB plus all the expansions. I haven't tried either 2002 or COF yet, I'm almost scared to.  I did run Trainz 2004 and got rather dizzy panning around those route areas.  Moves noticebly faster in that app.  Well, guess I'll try 2002 first.

[the_autopilot]

Sounds like an all round good deal!


Your certainly going to see big improvements, especially if you combine the card and extra RAM at the same time!

FS9 will certainly be all the nicer for it, just don't expect MAX sliders, even with a 6800Ultra 256, you can reduce FS9 to single figure FPS rates!  

Hmm, i have a 6800 ulta pci-express and i've never had it go below 30. I have everything on highest possible setting. I'm not using any payware or add-ons though.

[4_Series_Scania]

Hmm, i have a 6800 ulta pci-express and i've never had it go below 30. I have everything on highest possible setting. I'm not using any payware or add-ons though.

Even @ 1600 x 1200 , 8XAA 16XAF everything maxxed, low altitude etc.... I achieved an average 10fps thus on a machine I built. if you indeed get a solid 30FPS at that level I'd be an extremely  happy bunny !!!

Alas, with my FX5600 I'm still in the dark ages by comparison!  ::)

[the_autopilot]

I get average around 45 to50 fps on a 6800 ultra.

My newest comp with an x800 can run it at 60 fps with no drop below 35 at all, but my newest comp also has a better processor.

[Gary R.]

Well, so far I am a little disappointed.  My frame rates are indeed dependant upon whatever aircraft I have loaded.  In 2002, my test plane was 767 PIC situated at a gate at KORD.  50 % air traffic, 1024x768 red. locked for 30.  The only way I could keep my frames up at the lock was to have my sliders set medium and keep ground shadows and water effects turned off. In COF I tried a number of planes.  This time at my local international airport, KMDT.  Well, the Harrisburg region is not specifically a system drain, even the terrain isn't bad, how rought can the appelachians be? Anyway once again aircraft loaded had a lot to do with frame rates.  I loaded the Wings of Power B-17.  1024x768 res, locked at 30.  Steady in the high teens at on the ramp.  I went in properties and clicked "low" on display and I got up to 26.  I dropped aircraft tex rendering to low and got closer to my lock.  I then loaded a Cessna 182RG.  I was able to instantly crank everything back up.  In fact I can peg closer to 40 fps with a simpler plane like that.  It even had the watered down freeware GNS530 in the panel.  I loaded another more demanding plane. The Fanda Dash 8 and rightaway, I'm back in the high teens and low 20's basement.  I had to set everything low to achieve over 24.  Also, views into glare effects drop it.  I have everything on my 6600 set for high performance and I have no clue where to go with anistrophic, anti-aliasing, shader, or anything as it relates to speed.  I'm starting to wonder if another 256 ram whichb would give me a gig would support the card a little better.  Any suggestions from you current nvidia owners???  Thanks.

[Gixer]

1gig ram would be nice but it isnt going to give you the FPS hike you are looking for.  Ideally you would want 1gig ram though.

You now have a respectable setup that you should be able to get good results form FS2004.  You just need to have all your hardware/software setup properly.  You could have the best PC spec in the world but if your system is setup badly it will run very poorly still.

I wanted my system to be running at its best so payed someone to teach me how to setup a system for FS2004/gaming.  I used the FS-GS service.  I learnt a lot about how to setup a system for fs2004/gaming and I think it was well worth the money.

Go here :  www.FS-GS.com    

What ever you are thinking though do not espect major miracles.  Look at my spec below.  At KSEA 100%AI and everything maxxed running 1600x1200  4xAA and 8xAF, sliders maxxed, looking at the airport I get 22FPS and looking elsewhere I get 30-70 depending on what angle I choose (70 being looking vertically up from under plane) generally 30-40 looking at scenery