Old SLI or New HD 4770

davidod1

Hi,
I have been a Flight Sim user since the original release and upgraded on almost every edition. Needless to say most of the time the hardware also needed to be upgraded to keep pace.

With FSX my experience wasn't too bad as I already had a Gigabyte-M57SLI-S4 (rev 1) with an AM2 Athlon 64 X2 - 3800+. The graphics are handled by 2 X GeForce 7600 GT in SLI format originally into a CRT and more recently digitally into a Widescreen Monitor with native resolution of 1680 X 1050.

However I recently installed Ultimate Terrain X Europe and while the detail certainly improved; the hit on the 'frame rate' is too much - so we're into upgrade territory again.

I'm looking for help in making the best decision. I understand that FSX makes significant demands on the CPU but the fastest CPU I can fit (from what I understand) is the Phenom 9850 Black Edition. I was thinking about tying this with a single Radeon HD 4770 512 MB. I know the Phenom would not be running at full potential and also I would replacing an SLI setup with a single card.

My thinking is that If I did this until such time as I could afford to change the Motherboard as well; it would be a reasonable upgrade that would bring FSX to a usable state again.

In your opinion is this sensible or should I pull back the sliders and wait until I can do the lot in one go?

Many thanks for any advice.
Best regards
Dave

PogMoThoin

Flight Sim doesn't support Sli or Crossfire so You've been running it all along on a single card. Its also very cpu dependant. You sure that mobo will take a Phenom?

davidod1

My understanding is that the M57SLI-S4 will take the Phenom 9850 - there is even a BIOS upgrade that covers it; however many of the new features don't come in to play.
The card question seem to cut and dry - I never realised that FSX didn't support SLI or indeed Crossfire.
Dave

PogMoThoin

davidod1 wrote: »

My understanding is that the M57SLI-S4 will take the Phenom 9850 - there is even a BIOS upgrade that covers it; however many of the new features don't come in to play.
The card question seem to cut and dry - I never realised that FSX didn't support SLI or indeed Crossfire.
Dave

If You can get a 4770, they're hard find in stock

Solitaire

Just checked that mobo, and not only is it incompatible with Phenom 2, but its also got bent compatibilty with Phenom too! They'll run with the latest BIOS updates but with the HT crippled they won't run too well! :eek:

davidod1

Thanks for that help. Looks like the best move is to try to track down a HD 4770; that should improve things anyway. Then down the line a bit I could change the mobo and cpu at the same time. Everything else on the system should be compatible.
Dave

Solitaire

If you can't find one cheap there's always the HD4850... they're selling like hotcakes due to the stupidly low prices

davidod1

There's a HD4850 512MB for €101 and 1 MB for €126 in Komplett. Do you reckon it would be a better card than the HD 4770.

TerrorFirmer

4850 is faster, though at 126 you're really loosing out heavily in terms of performance per euro compared to the 4770 - 101 euro is OK for the 512mb model but nothing spectacular.

Here's another bargain for you - 512mb 4830 for 74 euro.

davidod1

A lot to think about there - thanks for the help.
Dave

cherryghost

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

4850 is faster, though at 126 you're really loosing out heavily in terms of performance per euro compared to the 4770 - 101 euro is OK for the 512mb model but nothing spectacular.

Here's another bargain for you - 512mb 4830 for 74 euro.

thats a great deal on the 4830

Blazer

Don't even bother with a 4770 or 4830 with FSX...those cards won't hack it.
A 4830 is the bottom end of the 4800 series.
You need a 4870 or 4890.
And definitely a fast CPU.
I ran FSX originally on a quad-core QX6700 and 8800GTX.
Now I've ran it before on a QX9650 and a 4870X2 and I noticed fcukall difference.


look on adverts for deals..guy below is selling a 4870 512MB for €110 ..great price for this card...

http://www.adverts.ie/showproduct.php?product=121268&cat=8

cherryghost

Mathew Reilly wrote: »

Don't even bother with a 4770 or 4830 with FSX...those cards won't hack it.
A 4830 is the bottom end of the 4800 series.
You need a 4870 or 4890.
And definitely a fast CPU.
I ran FSX originally on a quad-core QX6700 and 8800GTX.
Now I've ran it before on a QX9650 and a 4870X2 and I noticed fcukall difference.


look on adverts for deals..guy below is selling a 4870 512MB for €110 ..great price for this card...

http://www.adverts.ie/showproduct.php?product=121268&cat=8

Thats serious overkill for flight sim games, of which are more dependant on CPU rather than GPU. A 4830 is just fine.

EDIT: 1,000 post. Go me!

Blazer

cherryghost wrote: »

Thats serious overkill for flight sim games, of which are more dependant on CPU rather than GPU. A 4830 is just fine.

EDIT: 1,000 post. Go me!

A 5 year old flight sim maybe.
FSX will spit out that 4830.
Remember ATI's naming convention is the series first such as 48...and the model range last..hence a 4830 is behind the 4850, 4870,4890.
Fact is it's at the bottom of it's current generation video cards.
Telling you right now...you will not enjoy playing FSX on a 4830 especially at 1680x1050 which is the Op's default resolution.

cherryghost

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/gaming-graphics-charts-q3-2008/Microsoft-Flight-Simulator-X-SP2,784.html

I still say go for the 4830. its not there in the charts but as you can see, graphical power isnt the most important thing when playing Flight Simulators of any kind. It will NOT spit out a 4830 and would happily run at 30fps with AA off, as I said before, its all in the CPU, i should know, I'm into flight sims myself and have had a number of graphics cards over the years (had 4 different cards whilst playing FSX, and there is about 6fps difference between an 8600GT and a gtx 260 when AA is turned off.

davidod1

Once again folks; many thanks for all the contributions. I'm certainly a lot the wiser for all that info. I can see that we're talking about a cpu, mobo and a card. Just got to harden the heart and go for it.
Dave

Blazer

AA turned off :eek:
Should be ashamed of yourself

PogMoThoin

Mathew Reilly wrote: »

look on adverts for deals..guy below is selling a 4870 512MB for €110 ..great price for this card...

http://www.adverts.ie/showproduct.php?product=121268&cat=8

Overpriced, he'll not get that, I just sold one for €90 posted (see sig), thats prob all he'll get they're €150 new on komplett with 2yr warranty

@ OP, I'm afraid I've got to agree with Mathew Reilly, I'd not buy a lower in the range ATI 4830. I'd try and opt for at least a 4770 or 4850. Nothing worse then buying a new gpu and still having to lower settings or turn off AA.

BTW cherryghost, IMO Toms Hardware are totally Nvidia biased in every review. I've seen them use older Ati drivers to reduce performance for benchmark comparrisons. Ati is where its at at the moment for value for money, but still Toms promote the more expensive Nvidias

Solitaire

Check out this article. Seems way off the usual mark eh? Now look at some of the tests they use... all nVidia's The Way It Was Meant To Be Paid payola buddies or games that don't even have support for ATI, period *cough*Last Remnant*cough*. And as those all affect the average result in a disproportionate way... we suddenly get GTS250 owning HD4850 (say what?!) and GTX260 handing it to HD4870... the 192-core version I mean.

And looking at those amusing comments down the bottom I see that even the "regulars" are sick of Tom's payola scam...

davidod1

Possibly the last word on the subject - Iv'e just seen a Sapphire HD 4850 1GB on Pixmania for €125.70 + P&P. That surely has to be good value for the buck/Euro and worth taking even if means waiting a a month or so to upgrade some of the rest.

Dave

Solitaire

davidod1 wrote:

Possibly the last word on the subject - Iv'e just seen a Sapphire HD 4850 1GB on Pixmania for €125.70

I've seen 512MB HD4870s far cheaper than that on HWVS. Hell, on there the Sapphire Value HD4850 1GB is under €100 IIRC :P Even Komplett's pretty cheap for the low-end cards right now.