Is SLI a good way of getting increased frame rates in FSX?

[Paul G]

Hey y'all

I haven't seen much mention of using SLI to tie two identical video cards together to increase graphic performance. Anyone have any experience of this or opinions?

Thank you

Paul G

[Padraig]

Hey y'all

I haven't seen much mention of using SLI to tie two identical video cards together to increase graphic performance. Anyone have any experience of this or opinions?

Thank you

Paul G

When I built my last rig I bought two 8800 GTX OC2`s when they came out, Ran them in SLi, and low and behold it did nothing for FSX, FSX does not support SLi. FSX is CPU dependant more or so. If your thinking about Sli for FSX then I would recommend you spend money on a better CPU.

This has also been mentioned on the FSX developers site too. Also some of the guys here also had their input on the matter when it came up before.

[Trevor Hale]

Biggest problem Paul, is 100% For sure FS9 will not utilize the second processor, so no point really!

[Paul G]

Yeah that's kind of what I was expecting to hear. It's a huge investment if it don't do nothin'.

I hear what you're saying about higher speed processors. But will, for example, a quad core processor have any impact compared with dual core? This is not such a dent to the wallet

Thanks

[Padraig]

Yeah that's kind of what I was expecting to hear. It's a huge investment if it don't do nothin'.

I hear what you're saying about higher speed processors. But will, for example, a quad core processor have any impact compared with dual core? This is not such a dent to the wallet

Thanks

Yes a Quad is good. I first started with a 2 core duo 2.4ghz which was nice, I then overclocked it to 3.8ghz which was good until I could afford the Quad. Bought the quad and now I don't need to OC the Quad for a while. So a quad core worked wonders for me compared to the Overclocked 2 Core Duo. I actually sold one of the cards to help with the price of the Quad core. There are articles about CPU usage and mapping on the FS Developers blog site too which will help guide you, Also Low latency memory would not be a bad idea along with a decent graphics card too + the quad core. You dont want bottle necks!

[Prof Bill]

Hi Padraig,
You attracted my interest on your overclocking figure for your dual core.
I wonder would it be possible to ask what type of processor (model), motherboard and was it an overclocking toolset provided by the motherboard manufacturer such as AZUS.
I have a few dualcores with efficient coolers and motherboards etc. here that might be suitable and would like to challenge some youngsters with an overclocking project that was achievable in terms of demonstrable results.

Any advice or input would be most welcome!

Bill.

[Padraig]

Hi Padraig,
You attracted my interest on your overclocking figure for your dual core.
I wonder would it be possible to ask what type of processor (model), motherboard and was it an overclocking toolset provided by the motherboard manufacturer such as AZUS.
I have a few dualcores with efficient coolers and motherboards etc. here that might be suitable and would like to challenge some youngsters with an overclocking project that was achievable in terms of demonstrable results.

Any advice or input would be most welcome!

Bill.

Hi Bill, yes of course I don't mind giving some more details on my setup on which I achieved. Heres a list of the hardware I used.

CPU = 6600 model (They are going pretty cheap now)
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Motherboard = Abit IN9 32-Max

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...79&source=ciao

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Memory used: OCZ DDR2 PC2-7200 Special Ops Edition 4GB

========================================

All overclocking was done through the BIOS (Using the Guru Software is not recommended) As regarding the cooling, I'm using a pretty serious watercooling system in this machine that I custom built from good parts and using heater cores for the radiators. I can turn up the Vcore of the chip to 1.6 volts plus without having to worry about temps hence why I was able to get the processor to run at such a high cycle rate. If your using the stock cooling you will be able to run that chip at about 3.2ghz on stock volts without any hassles. Just make sure you keep an eye on the temps.

Basically the process I had to do to achieve the clocks is overclock the memory, Northbridge, CPU unlinked, and find the sweet spot. Also increasing the voltage to different areas on the motherboard is essential to keep the clock running stable but increases the temps as your well aware of.

The software I used to help me in the process of monitoring and stress testing the overclocking was,

Cpuz , Prime95, Core Temp. (All are free Applications)

I hope this answers your questions a little, if your unclear on something I have written then please do not hesitate to ask.

[Hardlight]

Paul,

SLI is a function of the graphics driver. It is not the case that FSX 'does not support SLI'. Most peoples performance is however limited by the processor. If your processor can keep the graphics cards busy then you will see increased performance with a SLI configuration. Since SP1 FSX has been able to utilise multiple threads and take advantage of multi cores (mainly texture handling).

Regards,
Will

[AndyT]

SLI is also more of a Driver issue. If you run Vista with DX10 and have the correct SLI drivers, then you will see some gains, but how much is anyones guess.

[Vanoyen]

Hi,
I’m new to the forum so I’ll say a quick hello first. I’ve been a flight sim fan since FS9 and i’m mostly into flying the Boeing 737’s (PMDG’s NGX 737 for FSX has been coming soon for over 12 months now and i’ve given up waiting) and the gliders. Trying to put some money aside to do some real gliding lessons and hopefully get a license.
When FSX was released I was most impressed with the improvements over FS9. I did however get pretty poor frames to start with. I struggled for ages, applying every tweak i could find to FSX and they did help a lil bit but when I disabled SLI, i got a frames boost of about 15 to 20 frames which is massive. I’m now getting good frames (above 30 most times) and it’s because I’m just using one graphics card instead of 2. Strange how software works sometimes.
Anyway, i’m still getting a problem however with the DX10 preview and the AA settings. If I enable AA and run the DX10 preview I get a black screen that only a cold reboot will fix. I read that it’s something to do with the nVidia drivers so hopefully they’ll address the isue with the next release. Untill then, i’m running the sim without DX10 because it looks to crappy without any AA.