NZFF

About to head out with grand...
The target: RAM and a beefier GPU
Will update as soon as I get back home

Edit: Much as I expected... pretty poor selection of hardware. Picked up an 8600GT for $200 (they had no other GPU's in stock) so that will fill the gap until I can be bothered lining up for a new system.
RAM - going back on Saturday to investigate (too many people clogging the place up, and the PA system was ear-bloodyingly loud)
On the plus side, I have more than enough left over to score a set of Saitek pedals and a new office chair - the current one is perched on a beer crate since its feet/wheels were missing when I *cough* obtained it.... I love going to Auckland during inorganic rubbish collection week

Alfashark wrote:

QUOTE (Alfashark @ Jul 24 2008, 05:44 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

... RAM and a beefier GPU...

Crikey sounds like a stud farm in the making.
Can't wait to see what drops out.
I swear I heard the first lamb of the season the other night...

Charl wrote:

QUOTE (Charl @ Jul 24 2008, 08:25 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Crikey sounds like a stud farm in the making.
Can't wait to see what drops out.
I swear I heard the first lamb of the season the other night...

Sigh... yeah, plenty of milk bombs dropping out too! That cold wet snap last week seems to have brought the calving season forward a few weeks this year
So far in the area covered my my store, we have two farms that have effectively finished the actual birthing and now its on with feeding them up and turning them into milkshake makers

Been running the 8600GT myself for about a year now and have been pleased with my frame rates. It probably wouldn't cope with the new high end games but seems pretty adequate for Flight Sims. Good luck with the rest.

Pity you couldn't get everything you wanted.
As for Graphics cards if you're not dead set on staying Nvidia, I'll put in a recommendation for the ATI HD4850 - just a heads up.

Was it you that goes around to garage sales etc and finds old computers etc?
I think I remember you talking about it at the Tauranga.
There is always next time

Daniel wrote:

QUOTE (Daniel @ Jul 25 2008, 05:07 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Was it you that goes around to garage sales etc and finds old computers etc?
I think I remember you talking about it at the Tauranga.
There is always next time

Thats me mate
Amazing what goodies some of them have hidden in the hard drive... Best haul ever was a garage sale as part of a deceased estate - more payware than you could shake a stick at!
All I was after was a spare PSU and fan for the comp in the garage/workshop

haha good one mate - wish there were inorganic collections here in the Bay.

Alfashark wrote:

QUOTE (Alfashark @ Jul 25 2008, 06:20 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thats me mate
Amazing what goodies some of them have hidden in the hard drive... Best haul ever was a garage sale as part of a deceased estate - more payware than you could shake a stick at!
All I was after was a spare PSU and fan for the comp in the garage/workshop

Nice stuff.
TradeMe and garage sales and other second hand sales can be a great source of computer and tech stuff.
A lot of it is in good condition, sometimes even new, but it's cheaper than the retail stores.
I bought some RAM off of TradeMe once - a Kingston 1GB stick and it was great. Only about $10 too so a good buy.

Naki wrote:

QUOTE (Naki @ Jul 25 2008, 06:28 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

haha good one mate - wish there were inorganic collections here in the Bay.

Just take a conveniently timed trip up there mate...
I get my brother in law to swing me a txt when the time comes around, although the office chair was discovered after a few too many hydraulic sandwiches after the Weird Al concert last year

Well, after about 6hrs of tweaking and testing I'm no better off with the 8600GT 512mb than I was with the 7600GT 256mb...
I flushed the old drivers and the older version of nHancer out of the system before I installed the new card, then installed the latest nVidia drivers and the latest nHancer.
Backed up my fs9.cfg and let it rebuild to cater for the new card, then copy and pasted all of my relevant tweaks into the new .cfg and began testing.

After trying pretty much every type and combination of anti-aliasing and filtering available I'm left in one of two situations:
1) Nowhere near the quality of anti-aliasing with the 7600GT
2) great anti-aliasing but averaging about 5-10fps in situations (same a/c, same scenery and weather) where the old card could be spitting out 30-40fps

There seems to be no comfortable middle ground between them

Any ideas? Comp specs are:
Q6600 2.4Ghz
8600GT 512mb
2Gb RAM
750Gb HDD
500w PSU
Vista Ultimate 32bit
FS2004

Alfashark wrote:

QUOTE (Alfashark @ Jul 26 2008, 02:37 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well, after about 6hrs of tweaking and testing I'm no better off with the 8600GT 512mb than I was with the 7600GT 256mb...

Not sure about the 8600, 8-series generally want you to tick AA in the sim, then improve it in the Nhancer dialogues.
Step back down through the options til you hit the sweet spot.
There are some not supported by Nvidia which give a perfect image, unfortunately in a slide show.
If it helps at all these are my settings

Thanks Charl!
Got it working in the end, still a bit down on fps though
A couple of other things have occurred during the day that shouldnt have...
2x CTD with a message saying that FS2004 had run out of memory, and now when I take a screenshot the screen freezes for up to 3 seconds

Googled the memory message and checked the various causes against my settings (in the sim, fs9.cfg and nHancer) but cant find anything amiss - same goes for the screenshot freezing

Anthony wrote:

QUOTE (Anthony @ Jul 25 2008, 04:55 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'll put in a recommendation for the ATI HD4850 - just a heads up.

Ill second that

Well, after an entire weekend of tuning, tweaking and enough frustration to sink a battleship I'm on the verge of ripping this card out and going back to the 7600GT!

Example: Default C172 out of RealNZ NZTG, activesky running, moderate cloud cover at 3000' - result is anywhere from 4 - 15fps (and just to see if it made a difference, that was using AS6.5's lowest cloud texture resolution 64x64)

The 7600GT 256mb would have happily churned out 25+ fps in the same situation, with the same antialiasing results at 256x256 texture res...

There has to be something seriously wrong here

Alfashark wrote:

QUOTE (Alfashark @ Jul 24 2008, 05:44 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

...Picked up an 8600GT for $200 ..

I had a horrible thought: you get what you pay for, maybe there is something wrong with the card!
Then I surfed pricespy.co.nz and found several entries lke this:
Shops » ETC Computers

<LI class=b>"nVidia 8600GT 512MB PCI-Express Video" was listed here at ETC Computers for $99.00 including gst on 28th Jul 15:28, $88.00 excluding gst. GST has been added to the price found.
• "Asustek 8600GT Magic 512MB PCI-E HDTV 2X DVI-I graphics card" for $126.00 including gst on 28th Jul 15:28, $112.00 excluding gst.

You could give it back maybe...

Yeah the card itself seems fine - had a mate swing by late Saturday night and throw the card into his rig...
Ended up with a 3hr demonstration of how great the card is when playing Halo and a bunch of other FPS games: I have to say it looked pretty sharp
Sadly, he wouldnt allow me to install "S#!t Simulator 2004" as he calls FS9 onto his rig to test the settings, but he assured me that the card is doing what it should

*Sigh*

Alfashark wrote:

QUOTE (Alfashark @ Jul 28 2008, 08:10 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yeah the card itself seems fine - had a mate swing by late Saturday night and throw the card into his rig...
Ended up with a 3hr demonstration of how great the card is when playing Halo and a bunch of other FPS games: I have to say it looked pretty sharp
Sadly, he wouldnt allow me to install "S#!t Simulator 2004" as he calls FS9 onto his rig to test the settings, but he assured me that the card is doing what it should

*Sigh*

That's a pity.
I can't think of anything you could do except asking the retailer you purchased it from.
You might have to RMA it and get a different 8600GT or a different card altogether or go back to your 7600GT.
It's obviously not entirely defective, so maybe it's just the way it works with FS on your system or another component on your system or something.

Update: Completely flushed the system of all drivers for the card and any associated programs and started fresh...

In nHancer, I've worked my way up to Combined - 32xS, which seems to be about the only antialiasing that seems to control the jaggies...
On the upside, the fps has improved to no less than 15 in some rough weather (northland, now-ish using AS6.5) once inside the clouds that rises to 50fps+

I'll continue tweaking around with it until friday, then if no improvement I'll head back to the store and see what they have to say.

Alfashark wrote:

QUOTE (Alfashark @ Jul 29 2008, 09:41 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Combined - 32xS...fps has improved to 50fps+...

Yeah I'd certainly junk a card that performs like that