List of Graphic Card suggestions

[davek1979]

Is there any other reason than performance to have a better graphics card ?

Does the game have any advanced graphical eyecandy that would REQUIRE a newer card ? I'm playing this on 7900GS and it works perfectly well in roughly 20-40 FPS on average. Water is down, but all textures, scenes and visibility are maxed.

Anything interesting there for DX 10.1 users ? Sunshafts ? I hope not. I mean it would be cool, but we don't want to end up with Crysis, do we ? :-)

[S77th-RYKE]

Hi:

 

I have 2x7800 gtx cards with a e8400. Would I see a jump in fps going to a mid range ati or nvidia solution. Don't care about sli, but I need to out put to 4 monitors (which I do now). my board takes 3 cards can I keep mine and get another and run BS main screen of the fast card with no penalty-sorry new to this as haven't upgraded in 4 years.

 

Update: the highest card available here is the 9800 gt for approx $240-crazy. would i see a justifiable jump going from a 7800 gtx? my main concern is would i be able to run the 9800 and one 7800 and still get the boost from the 9800 for the main screen, with the 7800 running side screens. dont care about sli, and i run at 1024?

 

update: looks like i will have to go with a 4 dvi output solution from ati

Thanks

 

my understanding of nvidia line up is that above the "8" series you will get DX10 , CUDA and physx capabilities .

 

so far I can't enable CUDA myself , but it might be a Vista issue .

[hassata]

Yup-i getting the feeling that its time to upgrade from the 7 series, but its tough because they cost so much at the time. last time i go top of the line like that. how about the ati route? anybody have any experience with the 4750x2. i understand it can output to 4 monitors. i did try a 9500 gt and got approx. the same fps (maybe a few lower) than 2x7800 gtx, although the gtx did handle aa and ansio better.

[S77th-RYKE]

Yup-i getting the feeling that its time to upgrade from the 7 series, but its tough because they cost so much at the time. last time i go top of the line like that. how about the ati route? anybody have any experience with the 4750x2. i understand it can output to 4 monitors. i did try a 9500 gt and got approx. the same fps (maybe a few lower) than 2x7800 gtx, although the gtx did handle aa and ansio better.

 

dual GPU cards are plagued with issues in most games so far from what I read , that's why I chose the 285GTX

 

but when it works of course they are top performers ...

 

maybe this will be fixed someday , but didn't sound worth the expense at this time to me .

[hyperfighter]

1st of all cpu is most likely to be the bottleneck.

id reccommend the HD4870 X 2, or The HD4850 x 2,

i have the standard HD4850 (one) and i get 27-32 fps now with mirrors off, normal water rest on highest (@1600x1050)

65+ fps when not in cockpit view.

[Zorg_DK]

my understanding of nvidia line up is that above the "8" series you will get DX10 , CUDA and physx capabilities .

 

so far I can't enable CUDA myself , but it might be a Vista issue .

 

CoreAVC's newest codec supports CUDA. I use it with Media Player Classic - Its the best combo for playing 1080p AFAIK. Cpu ussage is below 10%.

[Zorg_DK]

I have turned water completely off in one of the .lua files - It gives a nice boost and rivers and lakes are still rendered.

[S77th-RYKE]

CoreAVC's newest codec supports CUDA. I use it with Media Player Classic - Its the best combo for playing 1080p AFAIK. Cpu ussage is below 10%.

 

thanks for the info , I'll look into it

 

I admit I have no idea what CUDA does and how a video codec actually helps render game video data ..

 

that's what's fun about PC gaming , you learn things everyday

 

link ?

[EtherealN]

Depends, the CPU is the bottleneck for most systems, but when we're talking about a 7800 it's a different story.

 

EDIT: And hassata, 240 dollars for a 9800GT is disgusting. I paid just over 200 dollars for my 9800GTX+ a while ago, and that's including our lovely 25% VAT/sales tax...

 

1st of all cpu is most likely to be the bottleneck.

id reccommend the HD4870 X 2, or The HD4850 x 2,

i have the standard HD4850 (one) and i get 27-32 fps now with mirrors off, normal water rest on highest (@1600x1050)

65+ fps when not in cockpit view.

[Zorg_DK]

thanks for the info , I'll look into it

 

I admit I have no idea what CUDA does and how a video codec actually helps render game video data ..

 

that's what's fun about PC gaming , you learn things everyday

 

link ?

 

coreavc (its payware, gpu acc. (and cuda) is not enabled in trial):

http://www.coreavc.com/

 

media player classic home cinema (only 32 bit version is compatible with coreavc):

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=170561

 

cuda is gpu video playback acceleration and it renders the video enhancements in the nvidia driver (i think :) ).

[S77th-RYKE]

coreavc (its payware, gpu acc. (and cuda) is not enabled in trial):

http://www.coreavc.com/

 

media player classic home cinema (only 32 bit version is compatible with coreavc):

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=170561

 

cuda is gpu video playback acceleration and it renders the video enhancements in the nvidia driver (i think :) ).

 

Thanks bud :thumbup:

[ericinexile]

I read elsewhere on this thread that cheap cards such as mine (8800GT) should be avoided. While that might be good advice for graphically intensive FPS type games, it is overkill for DCS. Black Shark runs as smoothly as a springtime stream on my rig, with all settings (but water) high, not because of my inferior GPU but because I have 8 cores doing the math. Now admittedly my setup will bog down if there are 2 dozen MRLS launching in front of me but until the guys with the $1000 liquid cooled GPUs tell me that nothing will pull them out of 60 frames per second, I'm sticking with cheap and recommend that the non-uberrich do the same.

 

Smokin' Hole

[EtherealN]

No, you do not have 8 cores doing the math. :P

 

EDIT: BTW, I don't think anyone in this thread said a card like the 8800GT should be avoided, the only quotation I found was:

 

I certainly wouldn't consider anything lower-end than an 8800GT, but my point is you don't have to go crazy with it.

Edited March 20, 2009 by EtherealN

[Infiniti3d]

I have turned water completely off in one of the .lua files - It gives a nice boost and rivers and lakes are still rendered.

 

Yep same here, i also turned of the dust effects that showup when hovering close to the ground. The water can also be set to low wich gives an FPS boost also and still having some candy. Now i can play this sim flawless, minimum frame rate of 50 even over big city's, except the water low and dust turned of the rest ist maxed out. Cheers

[Washer UK]

I had a single ATI 4850 and upgraded to an ATI 4870 which didnt give me much of a performance boost, lowering all my graphics settings doesnt give me much of a boost either so I would recomend a 4850 for DCS, has plenty of power to run it.