Secrets eh? HEHEHE No secrets. I am glad to share with you my settings. First I will say that our rigs are comparable as far as cpu and high end video card. You are Intel\Nvidia and I am AMD\ATI. I am running am AMD 64 939-pin configuration with a 3500, an X800XT PE, 1GB of Corsair PC4400 DDR550, and an Audigy 2 sound card. Now I am unsure if the dual channel capabilities on the nForce3 939-pin mobos make that much of a difference, and I don't know how fast your ram is. But I can tell you that I am not overclocked anywhere on this rig. Now, with these things known, this is where I have the settings in the Catalyst Control Center: 6X AA & 8X AF, MipMap @ High Quality. Trueform @ Application Preference, Vertical Sync off, and I am using Catalyst AI set to Advanced, FastWrites on, and all of this using Perfect Landscape. That's it.
As far as your statement about turning up the AF and your FR's go down. This is why I am using an X800XT PE and not the Nvidia card you are using. I ran an X800Pro and a 6800GT side by side once many months back just for comparison sake. The 6800GT started choking when I turned the AA and AF up to where I usually ran it with my X800Pro. Which actually held true to many article reviews I had read about the Nvidia cards fr's drop when one tries to up the AA and AF. But there were m8's in this forum swearing by them and saying that those reviews were biased and it wasn't true. Well, all I was after was the best video card on the market to run this sim. And I had been using ATI so I thought I would forget what I had read and trust these Nvidia m8's in here. And I stuck with it for several days trying to get it to perform like my X800Pro, and I just couldn't get it to. I really don't think it was lack of knowledge or know how, but then again it may have been. All I know is that I listed it on eBay a week after I recieved it and resold it. At least I didn't loose no $$$ and I was satisfied that I had found out for myself what works for me.
If you aren't running with the eye candy cranked in Perfect Landscape in this sim, you are truly missing the beauty of it all. Incredible to see it like this. At altitudes, you can actually look way ahead and it look like the real deal, really smooth lines. The clouds are incredibly fluffier looking. They look real. And all of this with your fr's in the 40's and better. Most of the time I am running fr's in the 50's and 60's. It's all personal, but it would be hard for me to play this sim with anything less since I have been spoiled to the beauty and speed of it all.
Sorry for the long diatribe. It's late. I can't sleep. And typing passes the time away. I am not knocking Nvidia. Some m8's love them. I have found however that it isn't for me.
Great post m8. The truth is that we are very compatible in hardware and performance. I just figured out that your V Sync is off. But hey, if that works for you then go for it. I keep it on and this seems to keep the fps steady for me. Like you said, I run 50s and 60s most of the time. I like it when the fps gets stuck at 85 for a while he he he. I am sure that the X800 is very compatible with the Nvdia Ultra. As far as the rest of my hardware goes, I run 2Ghz of DDR 433 PC 3500.I have never been able to run AF without killing my fps. The 9800XT was the same. Soon as I run more that Aplication preference it was all downhill. The eyecandy coment is right on. When everything is at perfect the mountains, water, waves and towns are amazing. Well worth the hardware.
Ok Quazi, I had to run home after work and check out my machine. Here is what I recorded.
On BD with Vsync Off 4x AA, AF off I scored 43Avg and 56Max. Now turn up the juice to 4xAA and 4xAF and I only see 28Avg 47Max. But boy was it Gorgeous! I had to fly some missions for, ehem, "testing". THe towns were awesome and the aircraft looked like never before. The frozen river of Stalingrad just amazed me. Chasing a bandit I saw the sun shimmering off his conopy from over 400m away! It was unbeleivable. I imediately stated to play better too. Duh! The better you see the better you shoot.
Hey thanks for your good input and unbiased opinion. I sure got something out of this. I am going to run that AF at 4x from now on.
Thanks
Thanks for doing that m8. I always wondered how much the AF hits the 6800 Ultra in the BD track, compared to how it effected the 6800GT I tested myself. If I remember correctly, the AF hit the 6800GT a little bit harder. But that is the way it should be given the Ultra is the better card between the two.Originally posted by 249th_Maico:
Ok Quazi, I had to run home after work and check out my machine. Here is what I recorded.
On BD with Vsync Off 4x AA, AF off I scored 43Avg and 56Max. Now turn up the juice to 4xAA and 4xAF and I only see 28Avg 47Max. But boy was it Gorgeous! I had to fly some missions for, ehem, "testing". THe towns were awesome and the aircraft looked like never before. The frozen river of Stalingrad just amazed me. Chasing a bandit I saw the sun shimmering off his conopy from over 400m away! It was unbeleivable. I imediately stated to play better too. Duh! The better you see the better you shoot.
Hey thanks for your good input and unbiased opinion. I sure got something out of this. I am going to run that AF at 4x from now on.
Thanks
I have always wondered why Nvidia allows this to be the case. Looks like to me they could build or process their cards to be able to handle the eye candy settings as well as their competitor, ATI.
Say 4X AA and 4X AF looked good eh? Maybe one day in the future you and other m8's using the Nvidia higher end cards will be able to play using 6X AA and 16X AF and still keep your fr's playable. Talking about looking incredible m8. Geesh!! I can't tell much difference between 8X AF and 16X AF with my X800XT PE. So I run it at 8X AF. Personally, I think the AA does more for the rendering than the AF. The AA makes all the jagged lines around the taxiways, rivers, and land masses at the waters edge, alot smoother. I mean alot. I'm trying not to take anything away from AF. But this is just what I see. I also run my Texture Mipmap Filter in IL2 Setup on Ansiotropic. I'm not sure if this is why I see the difference between the AA and AF like I do or not. All I know is that with 6X AA, those jagged lines and edges are straightened out incredibly so.
Congrats on your settings m8. I am glad you can enjoy the beauty on your way to create some carnage. HEHEHE
Jeez just installed em tonight. They are the best cats to date for me with the 9800 pro.
In BD I run 1024x768, 4AA, and perfect settings, with Vsync off (I do this for consistancy as I have always done it)
5.4's 29avg, 5.5's 33-34, yes 33-34 with exactly the same settings!
That is the best ever driver upgrade fps increase. And I know subjective but I think things look a little better as well,,, thank you ATI!
Sys
XP2800 (slightly o/ced), Gigabyte GA7VAXP mobo, Connect 3d 9800 pro 128, s/blaster live 5.1, 768mb pc2700.
Win XP pro SP2, Direct X 9.0c, latest creative drivers for s/card (whatever they may be)
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Well, there has been one corruption, texture problem...shoot...call it what you will. This started happening the same time everyone started getting those real bad graphic corruptions. And it still happens with these 5.5 drivers. I mean it's not a big deal to me. I am willing to let it alone. Oh..guess you are wondering what it is...HEHEHE. Well, while in online coop missions with my m8's via direct connect, as I scroll thru the friendly views, every now and then one of their ac looks like a fakish looking plastic model, most of the time colored all over the ac in a bright pinkish or greenish color, even the rubber on the wheels. Of course I have skin dl's on because we like to put different dresses on the ac we fly from mission to mission. Maybe it has something to do with that. I don't think it is the drivers causing it. I think it is a communication issue between my server and the m8's computer whose ac shows up like that. It doesn't happen allot, but it does from time to time.
I think you are correct that this is not a driver issue, but it is a game issue.Originally posted by -HH-Quazi:
Well, while in online coop missions with my m8's via direct connect, as I scroll thru the friendly views, every now and then one of their ac looks like a fakish looking plastic model, most of the time colored all over the ac in a bright pinkish or greenish color, even the rubber on the wheels. Of course I have skin dl's on because we like to put different dresses on the ac we fly from mission to mission. Maybe it has something to do with that. I don't think it is the drivers causing it. I think it is a communication issue between my server and the m8's computer whose ac shows up like that. It doesn't happen allot, but it does from time to time.
In my experience, this only happens when someone enters through back door or in your case through direct IP. I have only seen it rarely also.
Sorry to bother you guys with what is no doubt a dumb computer question:
Why can't I download the new Catalyst 5.5? I've never had any problem doing it before, but now a security ("padlock") symbol appears whenever I go into the download area. It says "SSL Secured 128 bit" when I point to it. Looked up SSL in help but didn't enlighten me--also experimented with my security settings with no luck. Do I need to register or something now to download a driver at ATI? Again--sorry for the dumb question but I've never been blocked from downloading these drivers before and don't think I've changed any of my settings...Thanks for any responses.