Nvidia 8800GT to GTX470 upgrade review

[Frogfoot1606687865]

Hi,

I have been flying the A10 now since it was released on beta. Origionaly I had a Nvidia 8800GT which was fine with Blackshark, in fact I ran that at 1900x1200 with frame rates in the 40-60 range. However The A10 beta required me to lower resolution down to 1400xsomething to get playable frame rates, In addition I turned off lights in Options.lua and lowered many settings to get smooth frame rates.

 

I have heard many times that 'this sim is cpu limited" well my experience was that it taxed both my CPU and video card.

 

Well Today I took possession of a Nvida GTX470 and WOW what a difference.

 

HDR on, AA up from 4 to 16Q, Aniso filtering up a couple of notches, Lights on full from off, Water on full from low, Shadow on full from low.

In the quick action mission no 2 the fps were pegged at 60, but the visuals, my-oh-my what have I been missing. Simply stunning. I haven't yet played around with draw distances or scenes, its currently set to low and medium respectivly (as jerky gameplay ruins the immersion for me) But I imagine 'draw distance' and 'scenes' will have a big impact on CPU loading.

 

All in all don't believe everything people tell you, If you see fps improvements by lowering resolution then you will see improvements with a new gfx card.

 

Hope this helps someone who is on the fence as to upgrading the GFX card for this sim.

 

Cheers

Tom

[wriley]

Thank you for the review. I have been wondering if it was time to upgrade my 8800GTX and it sounds like it is.

[asparagin]

Hope this helps someone who is on the fence as to upgrading the GFX card for this sim.

 

I wouldn't call this a review but your personal opinion. It would have been a lot more helpful if you posted some before / after fps with reference. (see "performance thread" of the beta part of the forums)

[Frogfoot1606687865]

I wouldn't call this a review but your personal opinion. It would have been a lot more helpful if you posted some before / after fps with reference. (see "performance thread" of the beta part of the forums)

 

Well sorry to disappoint you. I have never been interested in 'benchmarking' my system, only interested in adjusting settings to obtain sufficient FPS for smooth gameplay (40-60 fps). As such I have never tried A10 for any length of time with HDR on Water on full, shadows on full, 16x aniso, 1900x1200 res, AA 16q on the 8800GT. All I know is that It was a slide show and totally unplayable, (<5fps)

 

I just lowered each setting and noted which increased fps, and eventually got to a point where the FPS was acceptable, all be it a a cost to the visuals.

Tom

Edited October 20, 2010 by Frogfoot

[beers]

not surprising, and you are not contradicting conventional wisdom yet.

1) shadows on/off is probably CPU related, but once the shadows are on at whatever level they probably effect the CPU about the same and it's the card's job from there.

2) Water seemed pretty much the same thing, on/off made a big difference but once turned on, regardless of the level, CPU was pretty much unchanged. (I looked for the water setting and it seems to have moved, anyone have a clue how to set water=0?)

3) HDR & AA weren't part of previous DCS, but if you played with nHancer you would have seen the same behavior; those settings won't effect the CPU much and will work better on a higher-end-card.

 

so, i'm saying believe what people tell you, you need a fast CPU to pull off good FPS and also, in this new DCS, you will benefit from a better GPU.

 

unfortunately i cannot pull off HDR and functional FPS at the same time, but i've seen it and it's pretty!

[Greb]

Great Info Frogfoot!

 

Just ordered a similar Video Card. Should have it by the end of the week. Looking forward to flying at higher settings!

[asparagin]

Well sorry to disappoint you. I have never been interested in 'benchmarking' my system, only interested in adjusting settings to obtain sufficient FPS for smooth gameplay (40-60 fps). As such I have never tried A10 for any length of time with HDR on Water on full, shadows on full, 16x aniso, 1900x1200 res, AA 16q on the 8800GT. All I know is that It was a slide show and totally unplayable, (<5fps)

 

I just lowered each setting and noted which increased fps, and eventually got to a point where the FPS was acceptable, all be it a a cost to the visuals.

Tom

 

It's ok, I'm not disappointed. Your post tells that 470 is better then 8800, which is hardly surprising. Quantifying the progress would have been more interesting.

I'm just easier to convince with factual data then with opinions.

Besides I was interested because I still own the 8800 GT.