Help, Low frame rates with GeforceFX 5900 ultra!

[Joe D]

The  sysy I have been running is as folows:

Win XP
P4 3.06 gigs on a granite bay Asus p4g8x MOBO
2x 256megs DDR in duel channel mode.
A GeForce 3

With this set up, I have been getting frame rates of about 15-23 fps on the average with all graphic sliders set to max.

So, I installed a new Geforce Fx 5900 ultra (256 megs).
In all my games frame rates have gone sky high to say the least
The only problem is, there hasn`t been any change in FS2002. If anything, things have gotten somewhat worse!

Yes Installed everything correctly removing old hardware/drivers, and registry entries. I even tried the latest beta drivers.
However, FS2002 still remains a problem.

I even tried reinstalling FS200.

I suspect a driver problem but, with the WHQL drivers supplied with the card you wouild think that MS own FS would run properly at least!

Anyone have any suggestion other than reformatting? That  is certainly a last resort option at this point.

[Iroquois]

It must be the drivers. Try driver version 30.82 or 44.03. These are available from Nvidia.

[JBaymore]

Joe D,

You might want to check out my posting of a little while ago with the title "More Frame Rates..... a Puzzling Problem".

It has a pretty extensive series of posts that revolves around the problems that I had in trying to get a 256Meg GeForce FX 5600 card to work with MS Flight Sim 2002 running Win XP and Direct X 9.0a.  

Go to "Run" and type in dxdiag and hit enter.  That will run the DX dioagnostic program.  Look at the amount of RAM that that p[rogram says the card has.  It is possible if you have the same problems that I was having that it will say 16 Meg or 32 Meg of ram....not 256 meg.  THAT may be the real root of the problem.

In the end...... TWO different manufacturers GeForce FX cards went back to the store..... tech support could not solve it for me...... and I am now the owner of an ATI 9600 Pro 128 meg card.  Which improved things dradstically over the 64 meg GeFOrce card I had...and beat the best framerates I got wit hthe 256 Meg card....which would also crash the system in short order.

I have heard from some of the sales folks at Comp USA that they are having a lot of issues with the 256 Meg cards as of right now.

Hope you are able to figure it out..... I couldn't.  Sorry to be the bearer of possibly bad news.

best,

.................john

[Joe D]

Thanks for the input.

Actually, DXdiag was one of the first things I checked and everything is OK. It  reconizes the card as having 256 megs.

As I said, the card is working fantastic  in every app but FS2002 which is one of the main reasons for getting it.

I suspect there is a conflict somwhere with the program and a reformat is the answer.

[JBaymore]

Joe D,

That Dxdiag sees the 256 is likely a good sign.

But in my case, everything else on my system ran beautifully too.  It was only MSFS 2002 that didn't.

best,

..................john

[Iroquois]

What version of DirectX do you have? You may need DirectX 9.
Also I would suggest getting a handy little addon called RIVA Tuner. It's a program that allows you to fine tune Nvidia display drivers and contains several options you cannot get through the display properties control panel.
You can get at www.guru3d.com

[Joe D]

A reformat was the answer!
I did a quick and dirty install of XP and all nessary files on a spare HDD Then installed FS2002

Where I was getting 10- 20 FPS, I now get 100- 225+ FPS. This is with all graphics set to the max, clouds, etc
Even with "quincunx" AA I got  around 75 - 190+ FPS under the same conditions. Looks great!

I should have known a reformat was nessary when  upgrading to a "FX" card.
Now, I have to reformat my main Drive.....a WD SATA raptor. Then reinstall FS2002 from scratch including all the add-ons.  :'(

Thanks for all the input.

Now, bring on FS 2004!

[JBaymore]

Congratulations on getting it solved!!!!  Sounds great.

I am now wondering why the tech support folks from Asylum and PNY couldn't solve my problems with the 256 meg FX card..... and in fact one of the techs said specifically that there was a problem with MSFS + Win XP + Direct X 9.0a + 256 meg FX cards.

Just goes to show you..... that this stuff is a bit complicated to get wired.

best,

......................john

[Smoke2much]

[quote]Where I was getting 10- 20 FPS, I now get 100- 225+ FPS. This is with all graphics set to the max, clouds, etc
Even with "quincunx" AA I got

[Joe_D]

All is not completly well.

When I got those super high framerates, I didn`t realize the terain mesh complexity was set to low.
When I brought it back up, frame rates took a very substantial hit.

In addition, I had to reinstall win XP and FS2002 3 times before I got it to run stable.... very strange