Vid card upgrade yet ?

[Rifleman]

As we see more and more, quality shots from some of the heavyweights around here, I start to wonder whether or not I should jump on the bandwagon and see about an upgrade....Vid card first.....I keep hearing that the MX440 GeForce 4 isn't worth its salt......?

[lemoncat]

is that what your using if so i can't see a lot wrong with your shot...very nice

[Gixer]

Well what you gotta remeber is for takin screenies on my ole GF4 ti4600, sure I would max everything to get pretty pics.  But could I fly with it looking like that? No LMAO.   Any card should be able to take half decent screenshots its whether you can actually fly the sim with it looking like it does in your screeny!

With my current card I fly with what you see in my screenies now.  Its a lot easier takin screenies at 25FPS than 2 - 5 FPS  ;D

On one note a lot of newer game I have seen now require 128 g/cards, though I'm sure 64 ones will run then just with a loss of detail/textures.

[ozzy72]

Ken if its giving you the results you want then why change? If it ain't broke don't fix it has always been my motto.

Mark

[Fly2e]

Ken, you remember what i pulled out of my old GForce MX/400  :o
Like Mark said, if it ain't broken.............

Hey, what and where on that aircraft in your pic. Love it!!

Dave

[Rifleman]

I should have included a shots which I got in transit from Emma to Forks, with a friend online last night....I ususally hold between 15 and 20 for framerates....I can accept that for now, but I do have to give up a bit of weather to get it.........

This is Bill Lyons' Globe Swift, with amphibious floats....nice to do some short hops but not really an effective cross country machine....still a bit slow...

[codered]

Looks pretty good to me.  I image these images we are seeing are compressed a bit.  What you see is better right?  Not saying these are bad...  They look really good.

Bigger is always better in my opinion, but there comes a point when you have to split the difference if the upgrade is worth it.  Plus keeping in mind compatiability, etc.  I have been using the same card now for almost 2 years.  You can't go wrong with an ATI... But that is another debate for another forum...

[Gixer]

Well your screenies look good to me.  If your happy with it stick with it  ;D  I aim for 25fps though but this is just my personal preference.

On the G/card front yes ATI do seem very good.  I only just swapped from a GF4 ti4600 to a new gen Nvidia card but if you were to upgrade to one of the last gen cards stick with ATI, 9800pro is a good card.

[Foxtrot Sport]

I run my GeForce MX 440 w/ a good 15-20 FPS,  nothing special , but w/ sliders about halfway, it'll give good results.  Anyway, I wish I could have that USA Roads, heck the water would be cool.

-HF

[Foxtrot Sport]

Sry, my bad, mixing w/ a diff. shot, anyway gr8 shot.  :-[

-HF

[GeForce]

Ken,

Also, try locking your fps at 30 rather than 50. The eye can't see above 30 so there's no point, and it will let your card devote it's power to other things if you ever get up to 30fps.

Jon

[Nexus]

Geforce, the human eye can indeed detect the difference between 30fps and 100fps.

Don't confuse computer gaming to TV and movies. They are 2 different systems.

[Gixer]

I have been trying to fin out what the human eye can detect and no-one has actually been able to totally work it out.  Everyone will see slightly differently.

For me locking at 25 is perfect.  My game plays silky smooth and I see no judders.  Usually when you see juddering its coz the fps have suddenly drop really low then back almost instantly but causes the judder.  Its purely down to the individual though.

[SilverFox441]

50 Hertz (cycles-per-second) is about the upper limit of recognition due to a phenomena known as "visual persistence". Of course, that is an average only...some stop seeing flickers before that, some can still see a flicker above it. Visual persistence is the reason that the electric company transmits power at a certain frequency...people don't see flickering in their lights.

You can experiment with where your own limit is by changing your desktop refresh rate until you see a flicker or the image seems to be somehow "awkward"...it may seem slightly out-of-focus or it may seem to be slightly less than solid, the effect is different for everybody. If you actually see flickers you've gone too low. Remember the refresh rate just before the effect occurs and then set your desktop back to it's original value. The value you found that is just above your point of recognition you can now use as your maximum frame rate...any increase in framerates above that can't be seen by you...so why have the hardware work to acheive them?

[the_Fonz]

I have been trying to fin out what the human eye can detect and no-one has actually been able to totally work it out.  Everyone will see slightly differently.

Here's one answer. Warning: lengthy post. http://www.daniele.ch/school/30vs60/30vs60_1.html

Rifleman, if you're happy with the quality of your pics, stick with your videocard. Otherwise, the 9800PRO 128mb has the best value out there.

Fonz