NZFF

by **Olderndirt** » Mon Jan 10, 2011 6:59 am

Just installed a new graphics card - ASUSENGTS450 - and, so far, things aren't going so well. The computer end looks good - extra PCIe power connected, seated OK and connected DVI to DVI on an ASUS LW266H monitor. After launching a flight on FSX, the screen starts flashing bits and pieces of distorted graphics; gradually increasing to full screen continuously. What I'm seeing looks like aircraft textures - after an explosion. The install disk wouldn't autoplay nor would it go manually - finally coaxed enough info to make the computer happy though it wouldn't load PHYSX. Still bad, so I downloaded the drivers from the ASUS and NVIDIA sites - both the 260.99. Both gave me "Install Failed" because it didn't/couldn't install the PHYSX - tried loading an earlier driver, 258., which worked with my 8800GTS but it wouldn't do it. Unless it's an obvious oversight on my part, I'm sending it back to Newegg. I think I've notified ASUS support but it's been pretty one-sided so far. For what it's worth, operation other than FSX, seems fine. Any thoughts?

by **mfraser** » Mon Jan 10, 2011 8:34 am

Hi - I've had 3 instances of similar problems recently.

The first was because my supposedly top-of-the-line (Albeit 3 year old) motherboard was not designed to accept PCIE 2.0 graphics cards. So I downloaded a beta motherboard driver from the manufacturer which fixed it, but I now experience random graphics driver crashes!

The second instance (On a different card) was an unstable factory overclock. After about half an hours simming I would get the artifacts you mention above. I used Riva Tuner to 'downclock' the card to reference settings which solved the problem!

The third instance may be related to heat. I only use air cooling, with a 120mm rear and 140mm top fan and am pretty conscious about the heat that my systems produce. Having said that, my two SLI'd GTX460s never get as hot as my old 7900GTX so I think its still a compatibility/driver issue causing my problems. I'll be upgrading to a new Intel iX system sometime this year!!!

I hope you get it sorted. Regards,
Mat

by **Olderndirt** » Mon Jan 10, 2011 12:29 pm

Thanks for the reply. My board, an ASUSP5QL, claims it's good with PCIe 2.0 and, other than the non-install of the PHYSX software, all appears good. The other monitoring software loads and starts then faints after a while. My FSX.cfg has the new card and resolution but as I said, shortly after takeoff it starts to go - first on full screen then eventually on windows screen too. The artifacts and distortions seem to be an exploded version of the plane I'm flying. Tried disconnecting the EZCA camera software but no difference. Highest temp I've seen on GPU-Z is 39 - of course I have four case fans and three hardware fans.

by **AndrewJamez** » Mon Jan 10, 2011 2:20 pm

How many watts is your PSU and does it have 2 PCI xpress power conectors standard?

by **mfraser** » Mon Jan 10, 2011 2:21 pm

Okay...... then I'd hazard a guess to check your clock settings on the card. You could try underclocking it to see if that improves the artifacts....... It could also be a driver conflict - did you remove your old graphics card drivers before installing the new one??

Otherwise the only other option might be an RMA......

by **Olderndirt** » Tue Jan 11, 2011 6:56 am

An RMA request is already in the works - no sense messing with it. The specs call for a 400W PSU - mine is 650W and there's one 6 pin PCIe power connection.

by **Adamski** » Thu Jan 13, 2011 1:37 am

Olderndirt wrote:
QUOTE (Olderndirt @ Jan 11 2011, 07:56 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
An RMA request is already in the works - no sense messing with it. The specs call for a 400W PSU - mine is 650W and there's one 6 pin PCIe power connection.

Did you use the nVidia driver cleaner after your (failed) driver changes? Maybe there's some old driver crud screwing things up. On my last nVidia driver update (260.99) I chose to *not* install PhysX, as I don;'t have any software that uses it. You could try it without that.

by **Olderndirt** » Thu Jan 13, 2011 3:55 am

Since my last post, I've been messing with this and that - driver 260.99 is the one, even Physx is happy so got around to fsx.cfg. Been using Jesus Altuve's configurator with FPS Limiter and it'd been doing good but something with the new card install got the .cfg messed up - think it was seeing both the old and new cards simultaneously. Pure speculation by me - bottom line is, with the .cfg redone, all of a sudden the skies literally cleared and operation is normal. Keeping my fingers crossed.

by **mfraser** » Thu Jan 13, 2011 8:44 am

That's good to hear!! I had been thinking that it might be worth removing the FSX.CFG and letting it rebuild a clean one....... fingers crossed its fixed now!!

by **Adamski** » Thu Jan 13, 2011 8:53 am

Great to hear you're sorted! I've run my fsx.cfg through the venetubo site a few times and I think it's helped my fps a bit, though I'm a bit dubious about some of the advice it gives. For instance: DX10 preview is often claimed (by others) to actually improve frame rates. It also looks *much* better (take a look at how it renders water).

Also, some scenery - particularly mountainous areas (like a lot of NZ) can look awfully flat and washed out with shadows turned off.

However - I think the external FPS limiter does seem to work. I created a desktop icon to launch FSX via FSX_Limiter, which made things a bit simpler. I'll post instructions on how to create one later.

by **Olderndirt** » Thu Jan 13, 2011 1:59 pm

Adamski wrote:
QUOTE (Adamski @ Jan 12 2011, 12:53 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Great to hear you're sorted! I've run my fsx.cfg through the venetubo site a few times and I think it's helped my fps a bit, though I'm a bit dubious about some of the advice it gives. For instance: DX10 preview is often claimed (by others) to actually improve frame rates. It also looks *much* better (take a look at how it renders water).

Also, some scenery - particularly mountainous areas (like a lot of NZ) can look awfully flat and washed out with shadows turned off.

However - I think the external FPS limiter does seem to work. I created a desktop icon to launch FSX via FSX_Limiter, which made things a bit simpler. I'll post instructions on how to create one later.

Went on another little jaunt today and it was back to square one so into the box it goes for an RMA - we'll see what the next one does. With the FPS limiter set to 20, it only varies a few tenths and is, of course smooth. Using mostly FTX scenery, I get by with lower scenery settings but when I take a screenie, it's everything to the right - then back to normal for the flight. My old card, an 8800GTS is no slouch but, when I got a larger monitor, I felt the need for a larger card - made sense at the time

. Just discovered the GTS450 doesn't do well at 1980x1200 resolution and that may well be my problem.

NZFF

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