Hey guys I have a new "problem" with the tweak, this only happens on my core i7 with a 2gb GTX 280.Sometimes I will have a dropoff at the edge of the rendered world where the sim does not bother to render any more scenery, and just places a blue square. The solution is quite simple, just restart the computer and it's gone...until it comes back again. This is not a big deal but if you can think of anyway to address this, I would be all ears.I tried reducing the texture burden etc... but I can't seem to crack it, only a restart fixes the problem.

I suppose you already tried this, but whenever I get problems (missing textures or spikes) I switch to windowed mode (alt-enter) and back again. That almost always solves the problem. Only when I get 'snow' a restart of the computer is the only solution.

I suppose you already tried this, but whenever I get problems (missing textures or spikes) I switch to windowed mode (alt-enter) and back again. That almost always solves the problem. Only when I get 'snow' a restart of the computer is the only solution.

Actually I hadn't tried that so I will, thanks. Oddly tho' it seems I am always switching back and forth to set up my EZ-Dok camera.

Actually I hadn't tried that so I will, thanks. Oddly tho' it seems I am always switching back and forth to set up my EZ-Dok camera.

Ha what do you know it worked, thanks J Van E

Ha what do you know it worked, thanks J Van E

Cool! :(

I ordered a Gigabyte HD5870 with dual fans that should be here by the middle of next week. Yes, I am impulsive too.Stephen

Stephen et allUsing my previous GTX285, I had a specific scenario where I would do 360's in a short radius, I did this test with Vsync OFF (so the high number of frames will overload the GPU trying to keep up)The test area was Manhattan, between the FSDT KJFK Scenery and Manhattan X, and frames will go up to 50-60. This test was NOT about high number of FPS, but, a test to 'stress' the GPU making a ridiculus ammount of draw calls. AG batching occurs 'per frame' so the higher the frames, the more work (polygons) the GPU will need to render.So, this was an apples to apples comparison. The above test will run for about 4 seconds and then it will black screen FSX, 100% of the time, if BP=0, with higher BP values, it never black screens, but the plane instead of doing circles appears to be 'warping' from one point to the other. This is why BP=0 black screens, there is no vertex buffer to store the batched calls and the GPU (GTX285) is not fast enough to render/process every call. I monitored GPU usage during this test and it shows 100% and AG spikes.The HD5870, under the exact same scenario won't go over 86% GPU usage with BP=0, I even cranked AG and scenery complexity to Extremely dense, and still GPU won't go over 86%!!! so finally, BP=0 does indeed shift the balance to the GPU and the HD5870 is a perfect match for BP=0I just downloaded the latest ATI Drivers, Image Quality is about the same (if not better) than nVidia without nHancer, since I run using vsync OFF, I really don't have a problem trying to enable it, in fact, the card is so incredibly fast, that it shows almost no tearing even with vsync OFF!So Stephen, I would like to THANK YOU!! I installed the card just 1 hour ago, so, I still have to test all my other scenarios, but GPU wise in terms of what we discussed, the ATI leaves the GTX285 in the dust when using BP=0

Stephen et allUsing my previous GTX285, I had a specific scenario where I would do 360's in a short radius, I did this test with Vsync OFF (so the high number of frames will overload the GPU trying to keep up)The test area was Manhattan, between the FSDT KJFK Scenery and Manhattan X, and frames will go up to 50-60. This test was NOT about high number of FPS, but, a test to 'stress' the GPU making a ridiculus ammount of draw calls. AG batching occurs 'per frame' so the higher the frames, the more work (polygons) the GPU will need to render.So, this was an apples to apples comparison. The above test will run for about 4 seconds and then it will black screen FSX, 100% of the time, if BP=0, with higher BP values, it never black screens, but the plane instead of doing circles appears to be 'warping' from one point to the other. This is why BP=0 black screens, there is no vertex buffer to store the batched calls and the GPU (GTX285) is not fast enough to render/process every call. I monitored GPU usage during this test and it shows 100% and AG spikes.The HD5870, under the exact same scenario won't go over 86% GPU usage with BP=0, I even cranked AG and scenery complexity to Extremely dense, and still GPU won't go over 86%!!! so finally, BP=0 does indeed shift the balance to the GPU and the HD5870 is a perfect match for BP=0I just downloaded the latest ATI Drivers, Image Quality is about the same (if not better) than nVidia without nHancer, since I run using vsync OFF, I really don't have a problem trying to enable it, in fact, the card is so incredibly fast, that it shows almost no tearing even with vsync OFF!So Stephen, I would like to THANK YOU!! I installed the card just 1 hour ago, so, I still have to test all my other scenarios, but GPU wise in terms of what we discussed, the ATI leaves the GTX285 in the dust when using BP=0

Thats great news *******,I hope that holds true for you when using high settings etcs, so far all the feed back I got from that great card was that BP=0 still blackscreened just about as often at High IQ settings with complex aircraft & complex scenery and FSX at High settings...everytime. Not to mention the strugle with those cards to run well thru cloudy weather as well as getting all the filtering working.In discussing this with some of the other Devs it seems that as is known this is a problem with Vista/Win7 WMMD, this is not the case on XP64, so I have gone that rout and created a dual boot Win7-64/XP64-SP2 system. I look foward to running FSX maxed out on both to test side by side.Cheers!

*******,I had ordered the 5870, then I cancelled it, and now you report how great it works, and now I have to decide whether to order it again! I need to get away from this computer and go for a run or something before I crash and burn at the end of the runway because I can't decide whether I am taking off or landing! :( Stephen

*******,I had ordered the 5870, then I cancelled it, and now you report how great it works, and now I have to decide whether to order it again! I need to get away from this computer and go for a run or something before I crash and burn at the end of the runway because I can't decide whether I am taking off or landing! :( Stephen

Lets do this.. let me run it, use it, stress it for a full week, then if there are any problems I'll let you know, as I said, I just installed it like an hour ago ;)

Hi Stephen,With the imminent release of Nvidia's latest offering it may be a good idea to wait. Get some feedback on both boards before buying. Although I did not like what I read about Nvidia's new 480, I'd still like to see what it can do for FSX.Unless something amazing happens, I think I will still wait until the next round of GB's before replacing my GTX-285. The company that will get my cash (ATI or Nvidia) will depend on who gives me better performance/graphics for FSX.

Unless something amazing happens, I think I will still wait until the next round of GB's before replacing my GTX-285. The company that will get my cash (ATI or Nvidia) will depend on who gives me better performance/graphics for FSX.

Ok, finished ALL tests, and altought the ATI does seem very happy with extremely dense AG and BP=0 there is something you should know....the 'Scenery Complexity' slider has a HUGE impact on FPS with the ATI, where with the nVidia, I did not see such an impact. So I tried running the sim using ALLOW_SHADER_20=0 and ALLOW_SHADER_30=0 (effectively limiting FSX to only SM1.1) and that was the only way to 'match' the nVidia performance.Of course running without SM2.0 or SM3.0 is unnaceptable, it looks terrible! so, the high number of shader processors on the ATI allows it to 'process' more calls in every batch (great parallel processing), but the 'faster' shader processors on the nVidia allows rendering of objects almost instantly (or.. we should also consider the option that FSX was optimized for nVidia and shader processing is 100% GPU based with the nVidia, but CPU based with the ATI) in which case, there is nothing else to do but to buy nVidias for FSX. So, the ATI is very good to draw MANY small polygon objects but bad for more complex geometry. I would go for the Fermi for FSX, to me Scenery complexity is more important than AG. If you value AG more above anything else then, please go for the ATI... its almost imposible to crash FSX with it.As for 'clouds' and impact on performance.. there is NONE, not even a single digit drop. the problem is .mdl objects (AI and Buildings).Also, running high resolution, didn't affect anything either, as for AA, and AF I set that to application controlled, quality is about the same you get with an nVidia but without nHancer. (nHancer AA beats everything hands down) the resolution I'm using is 1920x1080I ran about 20 situation files I have, they all test different scenarios and in all cases 'complex' .mdl objects were the ones slowing down the ATI.

Ok, finished ALL tests, and altought the ATI does seem very happy with extremely dense AG and BP=0 there is something you should know....the 'Scenery Complexity' slider has a HUGE impact on FPS with the ATI, where with the nVidia, I did not see such an impact. So I tried running the sim using ALLOW_SHADER_20=0 and ALLOW_SHADER_30=0 (effectively limiting FSX to only SM1.1) and that was the only way to 'match' the nVidia performance.Of course running without SM2.0 or SM3.0 is unnaceptable, it looks terrible! so, the high number of shader processors on the ATI allows it to 'process' more calls in every batch (great parallel processing), but the 'faster' shader processors on the nVidia allows rendering of objects almost instantly (or.. we should also consider the option that FSX was optimized for nVidia and shader processing is 100% GPU based with the nVidia, but CPU based with the ATI) in which case, there is nothing else to do but to buy nVidias for FSX. So, the ATI is very good to draw MANY small polygon objects but bad for more complex geometry. I would go for the Fermi for FSX, to me Scenery complexity is more important than AG. If you value AG more above anything else then, please go for the ATI... its almost imposible to crash FSX with it.As for 'clouds' and impact on performance.. there is NONE, not even a single digit drop. the problem is .mdl objects (AI and Buildings).Also, running high resolution, didn't affect anything either, as for AA, and AF I set that to application controlled, quality is about the same you get with an nVidia but without nHancer. (nHancer AA beats everything hands down) the resolution I'm using is 1920x1080I ran about 20 situation files I have, they all test different scenarios and in all cases 'complex' .mdl objects were the ones slowing down the ATI.

Sorry to hear, was hoping you had a diffrent outcome than the rest.As per cloud performance It is when you set the 5xxxx series to try to match Nhancer AA modes (High IQ) settings that the clouds become an issue on performance.Thanks for trying.

Sorry to hear, was hoping you had a diffrent outcome than the rest.

I'm extremely demading, so.. I'm sure the card will be fine for most. but comparing apples to apples, and even thought the 285 can't handle the increased autogen when using BP=0 it is a better choice (for me)This time I'll wait before getting the Fermi :) hopefuly someone will get it in the next days...

As per cloud performance It is when you set the 5xxxx series to try to match Nhancer AA modes (High IQ) settings that the clouds become an issue on performance.Thanks for trying.

100% agreeI tested a HD5870 in FS9, to achieve same IQ like my GTX280 via Nhancer I had to activate adaptive supersampling AA. With this adjustment the HD5870 collapsed in heavy weather and big clouds, there was a frame loss of 10-15 fps towards the Nvidia, tested with several drivers.

I am sorry to hear that too *******. I was hoping for the best, with credit card in hand and the link to reorder the Gigabyte. I too like excellent quality and my standards are high. Someone in here somewhere said they will have one next week, I think in a hardware thread in AVSIM somewhere.Stephen

I am sorry to hear that too *******. I was hoping for the best, with credit card in hand and the link to reorder the Gigabyte. I too like excellent quality and my standards are high. Someone in here somewhere said they will have one next week, I think in a hardware thread in AVSIM somewhere.Stephen

Nah.. I'll just return it and get the Fermi. I have a 30-day return policy :)