I can now confirm that the majority of reported issues are completely NVIDIA related.

Santa came a little early this year and this week I received a card for review and testing. This card will not be available until after mid to late January and I can not divulge details about it, however it is NOT made by Nvidia.

The following issues do not exist using that card:

Flashing textures
Black flashing spikes
Flickering taxiways/fences and textures
Loss of lights or boxes appearing instead of lights
Loss of progressive taxi arrows
Crash when accessing the menus
Screen WHITEOUT or Washout
Intermittent poor performance under certain conditions



I suggest everyone who owns a Nvidia card realize your problems are not FSX programming but the result of a company that pushed a poorly designed core on the market too soon, and now can’t get it to work when the programming technology which it was designed for has been released. This was also (one of) the reasons why ATI waited to dive into the next generation market, to make sure their product would in fact meet next generation standards.

And, as Nvidia struggles to upgrade drivers (practically weekly now) in order to try and plug holes in their electronics, they are breaking older cores such as the 7xxxx series causing the menu crashes many are experiencing. (NOTE: Use WINDOW MODE as a workaround for FSX menu crashes with Nvidia cards)

They are also either breaking or introducing new problems with other titles and their drivers updates in order to get the primary target game CRYSIS to work with their poorly desinged core which is why everyone is seeing issues with this manufacture.

I do not know if Nvidia will ever get the 8000 series fixed in software/drivers or if their next release cards will fix their screw ups but I do know that ATi does not display those issues, and therefore you are not dealing with FSX, you are dealing with Nvidia.

The last time I posted detailed information about a test card I got myself into some hot water so there will be no further info about it.


I will tell you it consumes less power, makes significantly less noise and from what I understand will be priced right compared to what you get, which is much less than the extortion Nvidia placed on the market for sub-standard product in the last year because they had no competition or anything to compare it with.

The 8800 ran great frames and delivered performance but when the games coded for the new format start hitting the streets, the defects become obvious.

Now, also keep in mind the flip side of this is that without the hardware being on the market, the games would not have been written or coded for it so although I am not real impressed with Nvidia the lesser of 2 evils required hardware get released from both the Nv and ATi camps (no matter the condition) in order to get the ball rolling. Unfortunately those who bought the technology -may- need to upgrade if they can not fix the issues in driver code.


Nvidia will be releasing some of their new products next month as well and I can not say if they fixed their electronics or not however I can not believe they would release the same garbage twice, especially if ATi is not suffering with the same issues.

::)Yes ,definaly Nvidia is guilty of all the problems Bad Card !! Bad Bad!!,so is useless to have it ,so Instead to put in the garbage RECICLE IT ,DO NOT CONTAMINATE! ,all nvidia cards you may have and send it to Alrot pox box ???? valencia -Venezuela I have the best recicle system 8-)...and Buy this new X card  ::) ;D

hmm interesting reading, and i have had similar suspisions about Nvidia's 8XXX series cards since they came and out with ATI trailing almost a year behind.

however, i have an 8800GT sat in a box for Christmas so I'm sticking Nvidia for a while longer, hopefully Nvidia's 9 series will have the code bugs ironed out as they have already been through 2 bugged chipsets, so lets hope the third is decent.

Nick, is it possible to say whether it's PCI Express x16 or 2.0?

I want to upgrade video cards when these new ones come out, but idk if I'll need a new motherboard as well. Probably a new power supply too (I doubt 500w will cut it).

Look at my signature for my specs.

Yes and yes   2.0 is the standard on the slot but is backwards compatible on the card which is 2.0. The card will work in 2.0 or 1.x standard slots


and you do need an upgraded motherboard to take full advantage of the card... x38 or better in Intel, AMD 790FX or better

I am not sure what Nvidia is up to in that respect because I would not own a Nv chipset boards since NF4.

Spam Post but also goes with this thread...



And that does not mean the 8000 series or other Nvidia cards are bad, it means people are now informed and if they make the decision to purchase the card, or, come into the forum and post FSX or SP2 is causing them trouble and complain about it, they now know why and who to go talk to about it in order to get it fixed, and it isn't Aces or MS.

wrote on Dec 19^th, 2007 at 12:59pm:

Much appreciated info Nick. 2008 is going to be a good year.  :D

the end of 2008 will bring the PCI 3.0 standard, 2x the speed of 2.0 with supporting bandwidth



That is also when the R700 and its high end variants will make their debut and that will be the first 100% true AMD/ATi combined engineering tech release

and of course the processors that will chat with the technology the way it should

NickN wrote on Dec 19^th, 2007 at 8:52am:

I can now confirm that the majority of reported issues are completely NVIDIA related.

Nick, I can confirm that from here as well. What's amazing to me is that even with ATI's earlier DX10 cards (the HD2400 Pro 256MB for example), FSX+SP2 runs in DX10 preview mode with absolutely zero graphic anamolies...

Granted, my new Core 2 Q6600 is now faster than the video card, but it still pumps out an amazing 20-30 fps even in urban areas not known for being frame rate friendly.

Fr. Bill wrote on Dec 19^th, 2007 at 3:50pm:

NickN wrote on Dec 19th, 2007 at 8:52am: I can now confirm that the majority of reported issues are completely NVIDIA related. Nick, I can confirm that from here as well. What's amazing to me is that even with ATI's earlier DX10 cards (the HD2400 Pro 256MB for example), FSX+SP2 runs in DX10 preview mode with absolutely zero graphic anamolies... Granted, my new Core 2 Q6600 is now faster than the video card, but it still pumps out an amazing 20-30 fps even in urban areas not known for being frame rate friendly.

I can't wait to get my Q6700. I'm going up from an AMD X2 4200+. It's lasted me a year and I was proud of and happy with what it was able to pump out for me. Still, I'd rather have an Intel, and now I finally will  ;D

Fr. Bill wrote on Dec 19^th, 2007 at 3:50pm:

NickN wrote on Dec 19th, 2007 at 8:52am: I can now confirm that the majority of reported issues are completely NVIDIA related. Nick, I can confirm that from here as well. What's amazing to me is that even with ATI's earlier DX10 cards (the HD2400 Pro 256MB for example), FSX+SP2 runs in DX10 preview mode with absolutely zero graphic anamolies... Granted, my new Core 2 Q6600 is now faster than the video card, but it still pumps out an amazing 20-30 fps even in urban areas not known for being frame rate friendly.

Bill

If you are observing the same results then there is no question as to the source of the errors. I have confirmed the list of the most common problems do not exist with others running modern ATi adapters and driver testing the same dual GPU card I am. As far as I am concerned, your status and experience as a programmer and MSFS user places all the reports I have received into the status of “confirmed”.


No question about it.

I was testing a single 55nm core earlier this year when ATi canned the release until 08. We returned those dev cards but I was really sad to see that card go. Even the 8800GTX I replaced it with which I modified (hot-rod is more like it) could not touch that dev card for visual quality and overall smooth performance, and that was with 2nd generation beta drivers.

The quad core is a gem, eh?  

Anyone who believes the stories or the 'benchmark' reports that setting affinity to lock out cores from FSX is getting bum info. Those who see better performance by locking cores are overtaxing their system, plain and simple. Its either poor Windows tuning, too many processes, too many startups, bad affinity choice for secondary runtime apps, or driving FSX settings too high.

There is however value in setting affinity (through the task manager) of a add-on application such as ASX weather engine to core3 on a quad or core1 on a dual. By doing so it will offload the primary core where FSX needs as much as it can get.

(note to lurkers... core0 is the first core of a multicore processor, not core1. core1 is the 2nd core, etc)

Fr. Bill wrote on Dec 19^th, 2007 at 3:50pm:

NickN wrote on Dec 19th, 2007 at 8:52am: I can now confirm that the majority of reported issues are completely NVIDIA related. Nick, I can confirm that from here as well. What's amazing to me is that even with ATI's earlier DX10 cards (the HD2400 Pro 256MB for example), FSX+SP2 runs in DX10 preview mode with absolutely zero graphic anamolies... Granted, my new Core 2 Q6600 is now faster than the video card, but it still pumps out an amazing 20-30 fps even in urban areas not known for being frame rate friendly.

Do you have any problem with the vsync being turned off?  Or is this just an nVidia problem only?  I heard that in DX10 you cannot force it on when you need to and that can be a problem for some.  I can do it in DX9 but have no need to this time around, though I am just trying a different driver so things could change once again.....  ;)

Reider

I run drivers with Vsync "always on" in FSX because I do not run a frame rate of over 60. Setting to 'unlimited' simply restricts the frame rate to 60 and the combination does not cause any performance issues. Most will lock at 24 so setting Vsync ON in the drivers will not have any effect other than to sync/smooth the image. I did not notice any tearing and the sim responed perfectly.

I am not home right now so I am unable to look at it again right at the moment.

reider wrote on Dec 20^th, 2007 at 12:59pm:

Do you have any problem with the vsync being turned off?  Or is this just an nVidia problem only?  I heard that in DX10 you cannot force it on when you need to and that can be a problem for some.  I can do it in DX9 but have no need to this time around, though I am just trying a different driver so things could change once again.....  ;) Reider

To be honest, I've never paid any attention whatever to vsync... without going to look, I couldn't tell you whether it's on or off at the moment... :)

NickN wrote on Dec 19^th, 2007 at 8:52am:

I can now confirm that the majority of reported issues are completely NVIDIA related. Santa came a little early this year and this week I received a card for review and testing. This card will not be available until after mid to late January and I can not divulge details about it, however it is NOT made by Nvidia. The following issues do not exist using that card: Flashing textures Black flashing spikes Flickering taxiways/fences and textures Loss of lights or boxes appearing instead of lights Loss of progressive taxi arrows Crash when accessing the menus Screen WHITEOUT or Washout Intermittent poor performance under certain conditions I suggest everyone who owns a Nvidia card realize your problems are not FSX programming but the result of a company that pushed a poorly designed core on the market too soon, and now can’t get it to work when the programming technology which it was designed for has been released. This was also (one of) the reasons why ATI waited to dive into the next generation market, to make sure their product would in fact meet next generation standards. And, as Nvidia struggles to upgrade drivers (practically weekly now) in order to try and plug holes in their electronics, they are breaking older cores such as the 7xxxx series causing the menu crashes many are experiencing. (NOTE: Use WINDOW MODE as a workaround for FSX menu crashes with Nvidia cards) They are also either breaking or introducing new problems with other titles and their drivers updates in order to get the primary target game CRYSIS to work with their poorly desinged core which is why everyone is seeing issues with this manufacture. I do not know if Nvidia will ever get the 8000 series fixed in software/drivers or if their next release cards will fix their screw ups but I do know that ATi does not display those issues, and therefore you are not dealing with FSX, you are dealing with Nvidia.

I just read through your initial post and the 14 posts that followed with 7 of them being yours. I cannot believe what I read so I am quoting some of the statements and providing an appropriate response.

Quote 1

“I suggest everyone who owns a Nvidia card realize your problems are not FSX programming.”

Response

I, and others, own Nvidia cards and many of us don’t have any problems. Aces has done wonders with FSX, SP1 and SP2. But with a first release and considering the complexity of adding SP1, SP2 into the Acceleration package, there is bound to be some glitches, especially with lower-end systems.

Quote 2

“I can now confirm that the majority of reported issues are completely NVIDIA related
And that does not mean the 8000 series or other Nvidia cards are bad, it means people are now informed and if they make the decision to purchase the card, or, come into the forum and post FSX or SP2 is causing them trouble and complain about it, they now know why and who to go talk to about it in order to get it fixed, and it isn't Aces or MS”.

Response

Are you talking for Microsoft? There are many people in and outside this forum that own PCs with Nvidia video cards who haven’t the faintest idea whether their video card or FSX is giving them a problem. If they should need some assistance are you telling them not to get help from Microsoft?

Quote 3

“Flashing textures
Black flashing spikes
Flickering taxiways/fences and textures
Loss of lights or boxes appearing instead of lights
Loss of progressive taxi arrows  
Crash when accessing the menus
Screen WHITEOUT or Washout
Intermittent poor performance under certain conditions”

Response

I have an 8800 GTX and I don’t have any of the above problems. I bet there are others that can make the same statement.

Quote 4

“I do not know if Nvidia will ever get the 8000 series fixed in software/drivers or if their next release cards will fix their screw ups’”

Response

I just downloaded and installed their latest driver and I am still running problem free.

Quote 5

“As far as I am concerned, your status and experience as a programmer and MSFS user places all the reports I have received into the status of “confirmed””.

Response

How many reports have you received from the thousands of users? Please tell us again what you are trying to confirm?

One last comment, Aces has earned our respect on their own merit by virtue of the overwhelming success of FSX. They don’t need individuals constantly defending their product integrity.

This coming from someone who installed Acceleration, then uninstalled it and posted a review which suggested the software was uninstalled because it did not perform right... and then found out after the fact from me, Acceleration was not the problem.

http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1197600092

and who also said and I quote: "Now the best attribute of FSX Acceleration, in my opinion, is the un-install. "

Its a shame your review did not come after a proper assessment based on the correct method of evaluation but seeing how you are not part of the development or hardware/software testing community, I can understand the ignorance.

And since you are running Vista and DX10, I guess you have an intellectual basis for the comments above.

You are running Vista and DX10, aren't you?    


Quote:

I believe this is enough to give an idea of how this package worked for me running XPS Home with the latest Nvidia driver and version of DX9

Of course not!

Your comments above make sense to me now.  ::)



I am just tickled pink you are happy and satisfied with your hardware

Then my message was not addressed to you, and, I seem to recall the title of the thread was "For Everyone Having DX10 and DX9 SP2 Problems…"

If you have none, your comments are moot and have no bearing on this thread.


Thank you for your feedback

NickN wrote on Dec 21^st, 2007 at 10:06pm:

This coming from someone who installed Acceleration, then uninstalled it and posted a review which suggested the software was uninstalled because it did not perform right... and then found out after the fact from me, Acceleration was not the problem. http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1197600092 and who also said and I quote: "Now the best attribute of FSX Acceleration, in my opinion, is the un-install. " Its a shame your review did not come after a proper assessment based on the correct method of evaluation but seeing how you are not part of the development or hardware/software testing community, I can understand the ignorance. And since you are running Vista and DX10, I guess you have an intellectual basis for the comments above. You are running Vista and DX10, aren't you?     Quote: I believe this is enough to give an idea of how this package worked for me running XPS Home with the latest Nvidia driver and version of DX9 Of course not! Your comments above make sense to me now.  ::) I am just tickled pink you are happy and satisfied with your hardware Then my message was not addressed to you, and, I seem to recall the title of the thread was "For Everyone Having DX10 and DX9 SP2 Problems…" If you have none, your comments are moot and have no bearing on this thread. Thank you for your feedback

My posts were honest ones giving out information as it happened getting SP2 running on my PC. As you may recall I finally off loaded some aircraft and your sun and then I was able to install and run SP2 successfully. I agreed with you that a fresh install was the best way to go. I have added back several aircraft and your sun. Now to address your comments. Years ago I wrote the software that automated the administrative activities of a large municipal office facility. I have managed a laboratory test facility for a large corporation. I have a son that formed, managed and sold several early game companies. So you see maybe I am not an expert in your field but I am not totally ignorant, as you put it, when it comes to development and test activities. As for you saying what I said is moot. If that’s what you and the community wants, so be it. This will be my last post as I am getting too old for this. As for you, you are a bright person but should tone down some of your remarks. Also you have a habit of providing answers with numerous threads, so many, that one forgets what the original problem was. Anyway, its been fun, and a Merry Christmas to all.

Listenup all you experts out there >:( We, the great majority I suspect, who read this forum, depend on your knowledge and willingness to share same with the rest of us.
It upsets us when you fallout. Its like watching your parents argue :'( :'(
Please  continue to share, debate and inform the numpties (thats scottish for lesser informed persons) among us who depend on you to keep our frames above 5fps :)

I, too, am caught in the middle of all this, and feel like a spectator at a tennis match.

Like so many others I have come to rely heavily on the advice that I have received from this forum, and even though we have never met, I have come to consider Nick, Flighterace, the late Miltestpilot, Alrot and others as friends.

I have made the decision to update to one of the new quadcore 1950 series cards, with a new motherboard.  However I have an 8800GTX and I did not plan to update it - until I do my last upgrade at the end of 2008 (when I finish full-time work at age 70 DV).

Now I have two vehemently expressed opinions -

one that says ditch the nV for the ATi due out in North America early 2008, although how early in Australia is a moot point.  Also the US price will undoubtedly translate into a $1000+.

the other which says no way the nV 8800 runs well without the problems listed.

It's made even worse as my 8800 has an electrical fault and is away for repair or replacement and has never been tested with SP2.

What do I do in the face of these strenuosly argued assessments?  I'm with rodericksnr - we need you.

As a public servant I know that indecision is the key to flexibility:  is that my strategy?

Sorry it is a QX9650 CPU.

macca22au, nothing I posted said, hinted or suggested to "ditch the nV for the ATi due out in North America early 2008"


My statements were pointed directly at those seeing the list of issues I posted. If you are not seeing any of those issues then what I said has no bearing on you.

And lets take that a step further.. if you do start to see any of those symptoms, you will know their source and instead of spending mundane hours drudging through threads trying to find the FSX fix for something you will never find a fix for, you can target that time and energy elsewhere.


I have been posting that the 8000 series core issues were manufacture related since the day that card was released in October of last year so nothing I have said here in this thread is of any surprise. My goal was to make sure that those seeing the list of issues I posted realize that the problems they are seeing are not a game programming related but are in fact a video card core/drive design issues.


I also said quite clearly that I could not make any assessment about the newer cards Nvidia will be releasing in February.




What Flight Ace posted above was nothing but a continuation of the argument and obvious frustration with me he presented in this thread http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1197600092


And last, if someone wishes to take their ball and go home, that is up to them. Nothing I said in response to his rhetoric was untrue or an attack.

It was a correct response generated in the same light he wished to communicate with me.

Thanks Nick for that explanation - just occasionally a private dispute becomes less than civil, and for us poor simmers in the middle, we can't pick who is right and who is wrong.

However I am sure in fact, in spite of what I say, tht when the new card turns up in March in Oz as a big winner, I'll turn my back on prudence and buy again.

Sometime, sometime, there surely must be a rig that allows us to get the max out of FSX.  It is the Holy Grail which like the knights of old we blindly and passionately seek forsaking all other.

macca22au wrote on Dec 22^nd, 2007 at 6:17am:

I, too, am caught in the middle of all this, and feel like a spectator at a tennis match. Like so many others I have come to rely heavily on the advice that I have received from this forum, and even though we have never met, I have come to consider Nick, Flighterace, the late Miltestpilot, Alrot and others as friends. I have made the decision to update to one of the new quadcore 1950 series cards, with a new motherboard.  However I have an 8800GTX and I did not plan to update it - until I do my last upgrade at the end of 2008 (when I finish full-time work at age 70 DV). Now I have two vehemently expressed opinions - one that says ditch the nV for the ATi due out in North America early 2008, although how early in Australia is a moot point.  Also the US price will undoubtedly translate into a $1000+. the other which says no way the nV 8800 runs well without the problems listed. It's made even worse as my 8800 has an electrical fault and is away for repair or replacement and has never been tested with SP2. What do I do in the face of these strenuosly argued assessments?  I'm with rodericksnr - we need you. As a public servant I know that indecision is the key to flexibility:  is that my strategy?

macca22au,

My system runs on an E6850 dual core CPU, an 8800 GTX video card, and an nForce 680i motherboard. I have 4 Gigs of RAM, which is not fully utilized now but will when I upgrade to Vista/DX10. My OS is XP Home with DX9. My settings for FSX/ SP2 are all check on or at their highest with the exception of water which I have at High 1x and Light Bloom which is off. This allows me to enjoy the full compliment of air, sea, and land traffic. My frame rate varies between low teens and 30+ depending where I fly. Flights are smooth and graphics are great so I leave the frame counter off. I plan no more upgrades until after FX11 comes out.

I have and had no beef with Nick. He is a great asset to this forum. If it were someone else who was responsible for his post, I would have responded in the same manner. The issue I have with the post is that it gives the impression that everyone was having problems with Nvidia cards with DX9 and 10 and people should avoid Nvidia products.  And the only person I ever get frustrated with is myself.

Have a great holiday,

Flight Ace

Thanks from me also Nick. Without you guys we would be lost. The Simviation forum is by far the best of the best.
By the way, I found this on the Alienware site. Should I buy or wait a few months. its quiet expensive. Iv'e waited about two years to upgrade from;-
COMPAQ PRESARIO 061
AMD 64 PROCESSOR 3700 + 2.2Ghz    
150GB HARD DRIVE
3GB DDR2 MEMORY;  
Nvdia 7600GT                  
MOTHERBOARD;  MSI MS-7184 HP/COMPAQ NAME: AMETHYST M-GL6E

Mind you fsx looks & runs reasonably well with the above considering the problems others are having.

Intel® Core 2™ Extreme Processor (45nm Yorkfield) with Quad Core Technology
Overclocked to 4.0GHz - liquid cooled
3.0GHz, 1333MHz FSB, 12MB full speed level 2 Cache.
Intel® X38™ Chipset
PCI-Express™ 2.0
4GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz
Up to 4GB of system memory
Standard Dual ATI® Radeon™ HD 3870 with Crossfire™ Technology
Quad DVI and dual S-Video outputs with
DirectX® 10.1 and OpenGL® 2.0 compatibility

Have a great Christmas & very peaceful & prosperous New year everyone :)

Flight Ace wrote on Dec 23^rd, 2007 at 12:06pm:

I have and had no beef with Nick. He is a great asset to this forum. If it were someone else who was responsible for his post, I would have responded in the same manner. The issue I have with the post is that it gives the impression that everyone was having problems with Nvidia cards with DX9 and 10 and people should avoid Nvidia products.  And the only person I ever get frustrated with is myself.

Although not explicitly stated in the first post, the list of "issues" that Nick posted apply only to those who own any 8800 series nVidia card AND are running in "DX 10 Preview" mode.

I know this by contextual inference via (a) personal experience and (b) having read all the other posts regarding this list of issues.

Since you reportedly aren't running your rig in "DX10 Preview" mode, it's hardly surprising that you've not seen any of the issues contained in that list...  :o

Fr. Bill wrote on Dec 23^rd, 2007 at 12:41pm:

Flight Ace wrote on Dec 23rd, 2007 at 12:06pm: I have and had no beef with Nick. He is a great asset to this forum. If it were someone else who was responsible for his post, I would have responded in the same manner. The issue I have with the post is that it gives the impression that everyone was having problems with Nvidia cards with DX9 and 10 and people should avoid Nvidia products.  And the only person I ever get frustrated with is myself. Although not explicitly stated in the first post, the list of "issues" that Nick posted apply only to those who own any 8800 series nVidia card AND are running in "DX 10 Preview" mode. I know this by contextual inference via (a) personal experience and (b) having read all the other posts regarding this list of issues. Since you reportedly aren't running your rig in "DX10 Preview" mode, it's hardly surprising that you've not seen any of the issues contained in that list...  :o

Actually Bill, this does trickle into DX9 as well. The following are seen in DX9  

Flashing textures  
Black flashing spikes  
Crash when accessing the menus  
Screen WHITEOUT or Washout  
Intermittent poor performance under certain conditions  


In SP2 with new shader code


The menu crash has come around in the last month or so and really hits 7xxxx series cards more than anything else because Nvidia is changing the 8000 drivers to suit Crysis, their primary DX10 target, and in doing so they are making headaches for those on older cores, and with other titles.



There have been a few Class Action lawsuits started. One is still pending and one went away quietly, after which Nvidia addressed the timing issue in Windows Vista, but it took 3 months and the threat of a lawsuit to get them to do anything about it.  

Further, with the last one filed in August Nvidia has all of a sudden started releasing drivers every week, somtimes twice a week which is unheard of in the industry unless they are under serious pressure to correct something.  *clue*



I am in the hardware testing circuit and although I do some software testing as the request may come up, my side-gig is to look over new cards, motherboards, processors, memory, drivers, etc. I am networked into several large corps like that and from my days at Boeing so I get a good portion of the dirt as it is dug up from both the testing groups and my contacts.

I don’t post threads like this just to blow off steam, and yes the 8000 series core was developed with design flaws that can never be fixed with a BIOS or driver. Every time they release new drivers to try and keep the original 8000 core runs floating in Crysis, they have started breaking other games.  

Some people will see it and some people wont. It will depend on the motherboard chipset, the motherboard drivers being used, other devices in the system which set different chipset reg keys as they are installed, the drivers and the application (game) itself, but none the less IT IS a NVIDIA ISSUE and not FSX or the other game programming causing the problems. The issues are seen on the first 2-3 silicone runs of the G80 core more than any other. I am sure the newer slug runs are probably working better and I would assume Nvidia has corrected all this in their next release.

Also, Intel is in a flubber with Nvidia over SLi licensing. Since Nvidia refused, Intel has refused to allow the microcode use in 680i which is why next gen processors will not run on those motherboards, and, is a warning shot for future technology if Nvidia continues to refuse. That one will probably get very interesting as it unfolds because two can play at that game



At any rate, all someone has to do is ask and without the challenging dialogue. I do not like being questioned that way, as no one would.  If I saw someone else being questioned as I was, especially someone I knew was in the business or 'loop', I would have done the same thing I did in this thread and addressed that tone with a equivalent  response.

NickN wrote on Dec 23^rd, 2007 at 1:01pm:

Further, with the last one filed in August Nvidia has all of a sudden started releasing drivers every week, somtimes twice a week which is unheard of in the industry unless they are under serious pressure to correct something.  *clue*

Speaking of which, the 169.28 betas are already out right before xmas:

VISTA

x32 http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=1811

x64 http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=1812
 



XP

x32 http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=1810


x64 http://www.electronicpunk.com/forceware/169.28_forceware_winxp64_english.exe



Direct Nvidia FTP Download: ftp://download.nvidia.com/downloads/nZone/drivers/



I can not vouch for them as of yet because I am tied up with the holidays and testing another card

There is a certified 169.25 now released.

Has anyone tried it?

Does it help, or is it Crysis they are trying to fix, and other games are collateral damage.

I had less trouble with the 169.09 beta than I'm having with the 169.25.  I get more texture flashes in particular and slightly lower frame rates.  I was thinking about going back, but I'm going to try the 169.28 beta first.

NickN wrote on Dec 23^rd, 2007 at 1:01pm:

Fr. Bill wrote on Dec 23rd, 2007 at 12:41pm: Flight Ace wrote on Dec 23rd, 2007 at 12:06pm: I have and had no beef with Nick. He is a great asset to this forum. If it were someone else who was responsible for his post, I would have responded in the same manner. The issue I have with the post is that it gives the impression that everyone was having problems with Nvidia cards with DX9 and 10 and people should avoid Nvidia products.  And the only person I ever get frustrated with is myself. Although not explicitly stated in the first post, the list of "issues" that Nick posted apply only to those who own any 8800 series nVidia card AND are running in "DX 10 Preview" mode. I know this by contextual inference via (a) personal experience and (b) having read all the other posts regarding this list of issues. Since you reportedly aren't running your rig in "DX10 Preview" mode, it's hardly surprising that you've not seen any of the issues contained in that list...  :o Actually Bill, this does trickle into DX9 as well. The following are seen in DX9   Flashing textures   Black flashing spikes   Crash when accessing the menus   Screen WHITEOUT or Washout   Intermittent poor performance under certain conditions   In SP2 with new shader code The menu crash has come around in the last month or so and really hits 7xxxx series cards more than anything else because Nvidia is changing the 8000 drivers to suit Crysis, their primary DX10 target, and in doing so they are making headaches for those on older cores, and with other titles. There have been a few Class Action lawsuits started. One is still pending and one went away quietly, after which Nvidia addressed the timing issue in Windows Vista, but it took 3 months and the threat of a lawsuit to get them to do anything about it.   Further, with the last one filed in August Nvidia has all of a sudden started releasing drivers every week, somtimes twice a week which is unheard of in the industry unless they are under serious pressure to correct something.  *clue* I am in the hardware testing circuit and although I do some software testing as the request may come up, my side-gig is to look over new cards, motherboards, processors, memory, drivers, etc. I am networked into several large corps like that and from my days at Boeing so I get a good portion of the dirt as it is dug up from both the testing groups and my contacts. I don’t post threads like this just to blow off steam, and yes the 8000 series core was developed with design flaws that can never be fixed with a BIOS or driver. Every time they release new drivers to try and keep the original 8000 core runs floating in Crysis, they have started breaking other games.   Some people will see it and some people wont. It will depend on the motherboard chipset, the motherboard drivers being used, other devices in the system which set different chipset reg keys as they are installed, the drivers and the application (game) itself, but none the less IT IS a NVIDIA ISSUE and not FSX or the other game programming causing the problems. The issues are seen on the first 2-3 silicone runs of the G80 core more than any other. I am sure the newer slug runs are probably working better and I would assume Nvidia has corrected all this in their next release. Also, Intel is in a flubber with Nvidia over SLi licensing. Since Nvidia refused, Intel has refused to allow the microcode use in 680i which is why next gen processors will not run on those motherboards, and, is a warning shot for future technology if Nvidia continues to refuse. That one will probably get very interesting as it unfolds because two can play at that game At any rate, all someone has to do is ask and without the challenging dialogue. I do not like being questioned that way, as no one would.  If I saw someone else being questioned as I was, especially someone I knew was in the business or 'loop', I would have done the same thing I did in this thread and addressed that tone with a equivalent  response. Nick, Thanks for this information. When I upgraded several months ago I elected to stay with XP until things settled in for Vista and DX10. My choice of an 8800 GTX, although it performs well with XP, may have been the wrong decision for running with Vista/DX10. I do hope Nvidia pulls a miracle out of the bag and get their differences ironed out with Intel. If this doesn’t happen, I may have to invest in another video card when I upgrade for FS11. As for my response to your original post, I do apologize for its tone. There are better ways to express one’s self. Happy Holidays, Flight Ace

Thank you for following up.


And Happy Holidays to you and your family as well.

Flight Ace wrote on Dec 24^th, 2007 at 10:08am:

Nick, Thanks for this information.

Flight Ace,

Here's my Holiday Tip for replying to messages here...

Start your message after the last {/quote} <= square brackets, so your reply isn't buried in the "quote box border." ;)

Merry Christmas, and best wishes for 2008 from my house to your's!  :D

NickN wrote on Dec 23^rd, 2007 at 1:01pm:

Actually Bill, this does trickle into DX9 as well. The following are seen in DX9   Flashing textures   Black flashing spikes   Crash when accessing the menus   Screen WHITEOUT or Washout   Intermittent poor performance under certain conditions   In SP2 with new shader code

Thank you for your gentle correction, Nick. This is the first I've heard of this affecting anyone other than those attempting to run FSX Acceleration or SP2 in DX10 Preview mode...

That does go a long way towards explaining why Ron Hamilton (my employer) hasn't had such problems with his "late generation" BFG 8800GT 512MB card.

Ahh,
Now I don't know what to do.
It seems with every driver release, I have worse FPS issues with FSX. And thats in FS9.
I have a 8800GTX. I don't have my computer with me though to test out new drivers.

So, I guess once the new cards come out, I should offload and go for that one?
Grr.
I have a 2.6ghz Core2Duo. I always forget the model #.

Bill: I sometimes do get those issues as well. DX10 is almost unplayable because its so "ugly".

I went from consistant 30-40 fps, pushing 20 now. Same settings and all.

I have a question for anyone who can answer it.

I recently upgraded for FSX to the system in my signature. It has a ASUS M2N32-SLI motherboard. I am running only one video card at this time. The NVidia 8800 Ultra. I stuck with XP in this new system because of things my friends had told me about Vista and things I had read in PC World Mag. I decided to wait for a while before going to that OS giving MS time to work out any bugs and for hardware manu. to get the drivers out and working. From what I am reading here, I am glad I did that.

I don't seem to be having any trouble with FSX. (with acceleration installed) I was having a problem with it crashing a lot especially when I accessed the menu. I stopped using Fraps and that almost totally went away. It still happens but very seldom now. Shame too because I really like Fraps.

My question is, since I am having so few problems with FSX running XP and DX9, should I update the drivers to the 8800 deluxe? I am afraid after reading this that it will start giving me problems if I do.

theduke wrote on Dec 24^th, 2007 at 5:34pm:

I have a question for anyone who can answer it. I recently upgraded for FSX to the system in my signature. It has a ASUS M2N32-SLI motherboard. I am running only one video card at this time. The NVidia 8800 Ultra. I stuck with XP in this new system because of things my friends had told me about Vista and things I had read in PC World Mag. I decided to wait for a while before going to that OS giving MS time to work out any bugs and for hardware manu. to get the drivers out and working. From what I am reading here, I am glad I did that. I don't seem to be having any trouble with FSX. (with acceleration installed) I was having a problem with it crashing a lot especially when I accessed the menu. I stopped using Fraps and that almost totally went away. It still happens but very seldom now. Shame too because I really like Fraps. My question is, since I am having so few problems with FSX running XP and DX9, should I update the drivers to the 8800 deluxe? I am afraid after reading this that it will start giving me problems if I do.

You want some advice?

If you are not tech savvy and things work, leave it alone. If it anit broke, dont fix it

Otherwise, start here and read everything in the entire thread, including all the supporting links: http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1197380641#1

As for drivers, thats problematical right now. I remain on 169.13 with my Nvidia tower. You can find all the drivers from the past here:


XP 32bit http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?id=10

xp 64bit http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?id=28

Vista x32 and x64 (check the name to confirm the x-bit) http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?id=32

I really want to try the new drivers.

Do you think NVIDIA will actually fix all the issues? Or should I prepare myself to sell the GTX and go for the 9000' series. hmm

Fr. Bill wrote on Dec 24^th, 2007 at 12:16pm:

NickN wrote on Dec 23rd, 2007 at 1:01pm: Actually Bill, this does trickle into DX9 as well. The following are seen in DX9   Flashing textures   Black flashing spikes   Crash when accessing the menus   Screen WHITEOUT or Washout   Intermittent poor performance under certain conditions   In SP2 with new shader code Thank you for your gentle correction, Nick. This is the first I've heard of this affecting anyone other than those attempting to run FSX Acceleration or SP2 in DX10 Preview mode... That does go a long way towards explaining why Ron Hamilton (my employer) hasn't had such problems with his "late generation" BFG 8800GT 512MB card.

Yes Bill, that is exactly what is happening. The GT core is of a new silicone run and although they do have some issues with that one since it was based on the original 8000 design, those issues are nothing like the 8800GTS, GTX or Ultra in which the silicone came off the line in the first 3 manufacture runs. Pretty much anything past the GTS, GTX and Ultra is safe from the noted problems, and, driver updates to satisfy that core are also giving the older G80 slugs headaches.

Nvidia is trying to keep themselves above hot water until the original cards die off and are replaced by the new silicone.

nabeel wrote on Dec 24^th, 2007 at 7:19pm:

I really want to try the new drivers. Do you think NVIDIA will actually fix all the issues? Or should I prepare myself to sell the GTX and go for the 9000' series. hmm

From what you have described it sounds to me like you need to do the same thing I posted for theduke... start fresh, uninstall it all and read the FAQ thread. Folow the directions given in that thread and supporting links from it

NickN wrote on Dec 24^th, 2007 at 7:24pm:

nabeel wrote on Dec 24th, 2007 at 7:19pm: I really want to try the new drivers. Do you think NVIDIA will actually fix all the issues? Or should I prepare myself to sell the GTX and go for the 9000' series. hmm From what you have described it sounds to me like you need to do the same thing I posted for theduke... start fresh, uninstall it all and read the FAQ thread. Folow the directions given in that thread and supporting links from it

Yeah, although I have Vista, I need to do a full defrag, etc.
I have FSX on a separate drive from my OS. But I'm getting alot of the issues described as well, with texture flickering, etc.

And from what you said above, if I'm reading this right... it's a manufacturing problem? Or a design issue?

Also, you said it's a different procedure for O&O 10?

Thanks, I really appreciate it.

The updated instructions for using O&O 10 are in the FAQ. Use the same list I laid out for O&O use in the other thread which I point to in that FAQ but do not run any SPACE defrag after the first 2 passes.

If you are running Vista you can not use the list I posted for Windows tweaking although some of those items are still valid I have not as of yet produced any Vista tweak list. Since I just recently was required to install FSX into Vista x64 in order to test a new DX 10 card I have not even bothered with Vista. I use XP x64 as the OS for regular flying of FSX.

If you are referring to the list I posted, all those items are driver/card related which is directly related to the design of the original G80 silicone. I do not know if Nvidia will ever get those issues fixed or if they are just burning time till the cards on the market get recycled. If you try to post anything related to those problems being Nvidia based in their forums, the thread will magically disappear, however be assured they are not FSX issues. As for which driver is best for your system, that is something you need to find out. I have remained at 169.13 for now.

NickN wrote on Dec 24^th, 2007 at 8:07pm:

The updated instructions for using O&O 10 are in the FAQ. Use the same list I laid out for O&O use in the other thread which I point to in that FAQ but do not run any SPACE defrag after the first 2 passes. If you are running Vista you can not use the list I posted for Windows tweaking although some of those items are still valid I have not as of yet produced any Vista tweak list. Since I just recently was forced to install FSX into Vista x64 in order to test a new DX 10 card but use XP x64 as the OS for regular flying FSX. If you are referring to the list I posted, all those items are driver/card related. They are not FSX issues. As for which driver is best for your system, that is something you need to find out. I have remained at 169.13 for now.

Oh ok, where can we download the older drivers? Yes those issues I meant are the driver-related ones? What would you recommend, holding on the 8800, or ditching it once the next generation is available?
I wish there was some way of making them liable for the crap cards. I spent close to 500$ on the GTX, it's not right that it's half cooked.

I've managed to do some tweaking with Vista on some background services. It's running great for me personally. Haven't had any problems. I just shut off things like indexing, readyboost, and a couple of others I know aren't needed.

Is the FAQ thread the one with the long list?
This thread: http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1197380641
And this one too: http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1163028653/0#5

I'm scouring through, just seeing if I missed any other ones.

And one last question...
No more space defragmentation after the first two, so
2 space defrags
then the complete/name

For subsequent defragmentations, later on down the line, it's the same procedure? 2+1?

The page file "reset" still works under Vista. I don't trust any registry cleaners as of yet on it.
How's Diskeeper for defragmenting? I can get that at a huge student discount, haven't looked into O&O yet, I'm just using the trial for now. It "feels" more comprehensive though.

Happy holidays!

nabeel wrote on Dec 24^th, 2007 at 8:15pm:

NickN wrote on Dec 24th, 2007 at 8:07pm: The updated instructions for using O&O 10 are in the FAQ. Use the same list I laid out for O&O use in the other thread which I point to in that FAQ but do not run any SPACE defrag after the first 2 passes. If you are running Vista you can not use the list I posted for Windows tweaking although some of those items are still valid I have not as of yet produced any Vista tweak list. Since I just recently was forced to install FSX into Vista x64 in order to test a new DX 10 card but use XP x64 as the OS for regular flying FSX. If you are referring to the list I posted, all those items are driver/card related. They are not FSX issues. As for which driver is best for your system, that is something you need to find out. I have remained at 169.13 for now. Oh ok, where can we download the older drivers? Yes those issues I meant are the driver-related ones? What would you recommend, holding on the 8800, or ditching it once the next generation is available? I wish there was some way of making them liable for the crap cards. I spent close to 500$ on the GTX, it's not right that it's half cooked. I've managed to do some tweaking with Vista on some background services. It's running great for me personally. Haven't had any problems. I just shut off things like indexing, readyboost, and a couple of others I know aren't needed. Is the FAQ thread the one with the long list? This thread: http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1197380641 And this one too: http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1163028653/0#5 I'm scouring through, just seeing if I missed any other ones. And one last question... No more space defragmentation after the first two, so 2 space defrags then the complete/name For subsequent defragmentations, later on down the line, it's the same procedure? 2+1? The page file "reset" still works under Vista. I don't trust any registry cleaners as of yet on it. How's Diskeeper for defragmenting? I can get that at a huge student discount, haven't looked into O&O yet, I'm just using the trial for now. It "feels" more comprehensive though. Happy holidays!

I am not advising you to ditch anything, that is your choice when the time may come

those links are correct. Makes sure you read it all the way through

Forget the reg cleaner and run 2 SPACE defrags with reboot in between, the offline defrag and then 3 back to back COMPLETE\NAME defrags rebooting between each run

All older drivers both official abd beta can be found here for Vista... http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?id=32

Use this to change drivers and set up Nhancer http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1163028653/165#171

Installing FSX with acceleration or SP2 clean as I posted in the FAQ is a good idea.

Diskeeper is not O&O and will not work the same

I think we all owe a very special THANK YOU to Nick and the others who have researched this so diligently. They obviously have worked long and hard to get to this point. I am not computer savvy and would have probably thrown FSX in the trash by now if not for them.

THANK YOU......

I SECOND THAT


IF IT HADN'T BEEN FOR NICK ESPECIALLY, BUT ALSO A NUMBER OF OTHER EXPERTS AND SMART TESTERS I WOULD HAVE GONE BACK TO 9.

BUT MORE THAN THE TWEAKING AND YES, FREQUENT, FREAKING I NOW KNOW MORE ABOUT MY COMPUTER AND THE GAME THAN I EVER DID.

I have shouted this, because it is important to say,

Simv is the most useful site on the web for FSX and it is due to a group of outstanding contributors led by Nick.

You all have the thanks of  a grateful community.

Got to agree, one or two people lately have been trying to have a pop at Nick.  I see a guy who freely spends his own time to advise and help people.  If he doesn`t know the answer, is not sure of the answer or needs to reinforce his knowledge he will spend yet more of this time freely deciphering/exploring/investigating the available information.  The world would be a sorry place without him.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all, but especially to Nick N and thanks.....

Reider
AKA Steve

reider wrote on Dec 25^th, 2007 at 8:49pm:

Got to agree, one or two people lately have been trying to have a pop at Nick.  I see a guy who freely spends his own time to advise and help people.  If he doesn`t know the answer, is not sure of the answer or needs to reinforce his knowledge he will spend yet more of this time freely deciphering/exploring/investigating the available information.  The world would be a sorry place without him. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all, but especially to Nick N and thanks..... Reider AKA Steve

Exactly what I would have said. This guy takes time out of his life trying to fix problems that aren't even his own. A big thank you and happy holidays Nick.

BTW, I've just downloaded and installed the 169.28 drivers and they seem to be doing a good job so far on my system, I'll get back in a bit after I do some more testing.

Nick,

Thanks for this info and thanks for making me a little depressed about spending so much money on NVidia.  One question though...

Do you have any experience with SLI with 8800 cards?  Does running 2 really help performance in FSX?

Thanks
Tony

golfcart22 wrote on Dec 27^th, 2007 at 7:05am:

Nick, Thanks for this info and thanks for making me a little depressed about spending so much money on NVidia.  One question though... Do you have any experience with SLI with 8800 cards?  Does running 2 really help performance in FSX? Thanks Tony

SLI is worthless in FSX unless you are running a screen resolution of over 2000x and AA is running 16-32x, and, you have a processor that can keep up with that

Otherwise you are wasiting your time

What about crossfire?  I've read that it, unlike sli, will allow greater graphics on multiple monitors.  Is that true?  If so, would it make it worthwhile?

Thanks,

Milo

Crossfire is indeed different and I would wait for CrossfireX which requires the new motherboard designs just starting to hit the market. It will require CrossfireX certified cards the new AMD chipset or the newer intel chipsets to use CrossfireX

Original Crossfire was the stepping stone for the next phase of product

Here is a comment located in Phil Taylors blog from someone who has been having FSX issues for quite a while. After SP2 was released he posted this:



Quote:

I thought that too... being DX10 as the culprit but I took a chance and installed Crysis and bang out of the box... it's all as smooth as silk. I also found just before I cross fired my system... I had 1 x Radeon 3870, which left my (now) old 8800 Ultra dead in the water with both Image Quality, performance and FSX ran rather smooth...

As I said.. the people running the orginal 8800 silicone runs are the ones affected by the issues more than anyone else. I still have my hot-rod'd 8800GTX which is running faster than the ultra but the difference in how FSX runs on that overpriced POS compared to the newer ATi card is night and day in many respects.

I replace my hardware sometimes twice a year with what I do in testing. I still have the tower which runs the 8800 but I will probably replace that card as soon as the newer cards hit the streets in Feb.

NickN wrote on Dec 27^th, 2007 at 12:32pm:

As I said.. the people running the orginal 8800 silicone runs are the ones affected by the issues more than anyone else. I still have my hot-rod'd 8800GTX which is running faster than the ultra but the difference in how FSX runs on that overpriced POS compared to the newer ATi card is night and day in many respects.

Nick, have you seen what Phil posted at avsim.com regarding how nVidia speed bins their 8800 chips?
This really explains a lot... ;)

http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=set_threaded_mode&forum=121&page=2&topic_id=429953&prev_page=show_topic#430018

======================================
Yes, graphics cards make a difference.

Performance is as good as the weakest link in the chain.

The IHVs make 4 lines of cards:
1)Ultra for the enthusiast at super high prices
2)High-end at high prices
3)Mid-range at mid prices
4)Low-end at low prices.

For nVidia, that translates to:
1)8800 GTX overclocked 768m monstor
2)8800 GTS 512m, 8800 GT 2nd gen
3)8600
4)8400

The manufacturing process is not perfect, and there are defects in almost every wafer burnt by the FAB. The IHVs have come up with a clever way to avoid having to throw as many chips out due to defects.

Typically the chips are manufactured in quadrants, with the shader pipes and stream processors arrayed around a central memory controller. There is a single die design for all variants using this approach.

When the wafers come out of the FAB, the parts are speed bined, by that I mean they are tested at the maximum rated performance to see if the part works. If it doesnt work at that clock, they reduce the clock until they see if it does work. If it does not work at all, the chip is discarded. If it does work, the level at which it speed bins determines what variant the part can be sold as.

If the part doesnt speed bin out for Ultra, they try it for High. Typically High has the same number of shader units and stream processors as Ultra and the same memory width but with lower clocks ( less memory bandwidth ) and less memory.

If it doesnt speed bin out for High, they turn 1 quadrant off ( now 3/4 of the top end ) and try to bin it as a Mid-range. With fewer shader units and stream processors. at a lower clock, and with less memory and less memory bus width which means less memory bandwidth.

If that doesnt work, they turn 2 quadrants off ( now 1/2 of the top end ) and try at Low-end. With fewer shader units and stream processors. at a lower clock, and with less memory and sometimes less memory bus width which means less memory bandwidth. Much less.

Low-end is really low-end, this is no joke. There are reviews of the 1st gen DX10 parts that show low-end DX10 performs worse than DX9 parts. Really.

You have an 8300 which is below an 8400. Who knows, that might only be 1/4 of the die active. 25% of an Ultra or High-end.

With that low a graphics card, the CPU is no longer the bottleneck.

You get what you pay for.

http://blogs.msdn.com/ptaylor
PM, Core Platform
Aces Studio, MGS

I was aware of the process in manufacture/QC which is similar to other processor and IC production runs. That is why 2 people can have the same product (cpu, memory, gpu) and one can high clock it stable where the other can not clock very far at all.


I was under the impression from my contact at Nvidia later release cores were not from the same run as the originals as Phils post would suggest.

There were changes made in later runs to fix issues only a core design change would address.

Must pass this on, now you all reminded me.  I have several books on MS and the like upstairs in the Office, books like 'people in the IT industry and who influenced them' (not the title of a book).  In one, thousands of people allegedly complained of Intel chip faults.  Many many checks were performed and they couldn`t pinpoint the source of the faults, all had to be recalled and it was quite a loss in revenue.  It turned out that one employee took his job to the latter on 'goods in'.  Incoming boxes of wafers say were marked contents=1000, and he opened some to doublecheck the amounts.  The same boxes of wafers that were only to be opened under sterile lab conditions.......  ::)  ;)

Reider

NickN wrote on Dec 29^th, 2007 at 9:25am:

I was aware of the process in manufacture/QC which is similar to other processor and IC production runs. That is why 2 people can have the same product (cpu, memory, gpu) and one can high clock it stable where the other can not clock very far at all. I was under the impression from my contact at Nvidia later release cores were not from the same run as the originals as Phils post would suggest. There were changes made in later runs to fix issues only a core design change would address.

Nick, I believe Phil is only referring to the original run of the chips, which still accounts for ~90% of the products available for sale...

You know what's weird about all this? I have an HD2900XT w/ Catalyst 7.12 installed in my Vista x64 OS and I still get flickering textures, mostly on taxiway lines and runways. I've tried different drivers, changing all the settings in the Catalyst CC (AA on and off, AAA on and off, Catalyst AI on, Standard and Advanced, AF on and of, etc) and still the problem doesn't seem to go away.
Well, all this to tell you guys that it ain't just Nvidia users that are having problems. Anyways, if anyone knows anything that can be done to fix this, I would be very thankful ;)

I do not understand all of your jargon on this post, (I'm still learning this whole FS thing!) :)but from what I got out of it, many people who have Nvidia cards are experiencing problems even with the SP's or the Acceleration.
I am one of those people. I have the 8800GTS and the Acceleration. I'm still having problems- like the ones described in Nick's post- flashing textures, crashing, poor performance occasionally. My response to those who have Nvidia cards and do not have problems is, well, there are people who ARE having problems. I hope we can solve these problems!
A local computer building company made our machine, and they seemed to think Nvidia is one of the best, which is what I thought until I saw this post. I understand many others thought this as well.
I also installed the new drivers. I have one waiting now, that came out today, I'll see what happens with this new driver.
If Nvidia is not the company to buy from, (at least not at this moment), what would be a good alternative? I am asking this becaue our machine is still under warrenty, and the company we got it from it very helpful, and would be happy to replace our card.
I also belive that a company like Microsoft would have tried extremely hard to make certain that there were no bugs in FSX before it was released. My point- I doubt the problems come from the program itself.
Just my .02.

I must admit that I am now in very good terms with FSX-Accelerator.....it is running smoothly still on a swing of 18-37 fps, no flickers worth mention, and no hick-ups from it of any real worry, all sliders 98%up  except traffic which is around 35%..........Lucky?...I guess so.....so to all of you still in the "soup".....good luck!!!! eventually, like me, you will get lucky(?)and you will fly tranquile in great VFR skies that only FSX can give you---may it be soon.... ;)......I did have a dislike for the Nvidia 8800GTS until the beta 169.09 then 169.25 driver came along, really good I would say. 8-)

Hi Solid:

This tip on the driver is "gold", thanks for sharing.  I just bought a 8800GTS 640Mb and have been desperate to avoid "driver hell".

Cheers,
Dan

Solid wrote on Jan 21^st, 2008 at 4:58pm:

I must admit that I am now in very good terms with FSX-Accelerator.....it is running smoothly still on a swing of 18-37 fps, no flickers worth mention, and no hick-ups from it of any real worry, all sliders 98%up  except traffic which is around 35%..........Lucky?...I guess so.....so to all of you still in the "soup".....good luck!!!! eventually, like me, you will get lucky(?)and you will fly tranquile in great VFR skies that only FSX can give you---may it be soon.... ;)......I did have a dislike for the Nvidia 8800GTS until the beta 169.09 then 169.25 driver came along, really good I would say. 8-)

Just to add more confusion to the mix, I am running an Abit BE 7g Mobo with P4 2.4 Ghz & 2048 Mb ram and ATI Radeon 9550 graphics, I have had the white out problem, especially when accessing things like IAS setting prior to take off. Also, I have to reduce weather complexity or the FPS really suffers. I am running in extended desktop mode. Its not only Nvidia cards that have this problem...

Quote:

ATI Radeon 9550 graphics

I can see why   that adapter is borderline for FSX use

Do you run FSX SP2 with light bloom on?
Also, do you use other add-on aircrafts?
My FSX Acceleration (DX9) work fine with all aircrafts i have, but with light bloom on there seems to be an issue, white screen.


Solid wrote on Jan 21^st, 2008 at 4:58pm:

I must admit that I am now in very good terms with FSX-Accelerator.....it is running smoothly still on a swing of 18-37 fps, no flickers worth mention, and no hick-ups from it of any real worry, all sliders 98%up  except traffic which is around 35%..........Lucky?...I guess so.....so to all of you still in the "soup".....good luck!!!! eventually, like me, you will get lucky(?)and you will fly tranquile in great VFR skies that only FSX can give you---may it be soon.... ;)......I did have a dislike for the Nvidia 8800GTS until the beta 169.09 then 169.25 driver came along, really good I would say. 8-)