ATI HD5970 Holy Grail for FSX

[Mike T 209]

First some background.I recently upgraded from an ATI 4890 to a 5970 and saw very little increase in FSX perforation despite the fact that performance tests show the 5970 at orders of magnitude faster as it is arguably the fastest GPU in the world (arguably). As a matter of fact performance was actually a bit worse in FSX which I attributed to the fact that it is a dual GPU card which FSX does not support.Last night I hoped to squeeze some more performance out of FSX so I tried to overclock the 5970 and it kept crashing. It would only take a very small overclock which changed nothing in FSX. With ultra settings I was averaging around 30 FPS. After doing some searching I found that the voltage needed to be bumped up in the card which I found strange since I've never had to overvolt a video card after having tweaked my systems for years. Anyway I did what I was reading in the forums and found the ATI Overvolt tool (no longer available from ATI). Now on to the tweaking.OLD SETTINGS: ATI HD5970 Stock voltage = 1.05v. Stock clock = 725mhz CORE, 1000mhz MEM.NEW SETTINGS: New voltage = 1.1625v. OC = 890mhz CORE, 1130mhz MEM.Drivers = Catalyst ver 10.12.First: Windows 7 score for the card goes from 7.6 to 7.7.3D Mark 11 (QX9650, 8GB OCX Reaper, ASUS Maximus Extreme MoBo): Pre overclock: 3600. Post overclock: 6600. Note the radical increase in score.FSX Pre Overlock average: ~30 FPS (Unlimited)FSX Post Overclock average: ~60 FPS! let me repeat (yes a 100% increase in frame rates).There is also an interesting bell curve. At clocks higher 890/1130 3D marks get lower and FSX gets slower. The sweet spot seems to be between 875-890/1100-1130. Also, at these speeds there is no issue with stability.So, don't take my word for it...as a matter of fact, assume I'm crazy and don't know what I'm talking about. But humor me and try it yourself. Then turn up the AI traffic and the cars, clouds, autogen and behold that FSX has been transformed into something else. The smoothness and fluidity combined with the ability to turn sliders wayyyy up is jaw dropping. AND may I suggest your a flight be over ORBX NW scenery (make sure you have a drool rag handy).Tools needed:HD 5970 ATI Overclock Tool -or- MSI Afterburner. Catalyst 10.12. *******' Autotweaks (I tested with *******' autotweaks to ensure that my FSX.cfg was a optimal settings.Conclusion:I'm hyper critical of "holy grail" posts but this MUST be seen to be believed. This was a complete accident and I have no explanation as to why the exact settings posted above affects FSX in such a way since FSX is very CPU bound. I also have no idea why higher overclocks makes FSX slower. Also, the card I'm using is a OEM ATI HD5970. I do know that XFX as well as some other cards come with their own overclock tool. What I DO know is that it seems that the card is "crippled" out of the box and I'm pretty peeved at ATI for not documenting this ability to double the performance of the card. I also stress that I can only verify this on the ATI HD5970, if you have another card please don't ask if this will work for you.Now go forth and enjoy your new sim.

[ryanbatc 12,910]

You're saying you can reproduce this while alternating back and forth between stock and OCed values?

[Mike T 209]

You're saying you can reproduce this while alternating back and forth between stock and OCed values?

All day long. This is not a one off, but an easily reproducible each and every time. I'm researching to see if it is safe to keep this overclock as a 24/7 overclock. So far the answer seems to be yes because the card is made to take it. Still doing tests, but no sign of instability even at a max overclock of 940/1400. However, again, FSX is slower at that speed so there is no benefit to keep it that hi.

[DannyR 35]

All day long. This is not a one off, but an easily reproducible each and every time. I'm researching to see if it is safe to keep this overclock as a 24/7 overclock. So far the answer seems to be yes because the card is made to take it. Still doing tests, but no sign of instability even at a max overclock of 940/1400. However, again, FSX is slower at that speed so there is no benefit to keep it that hi.

Are you running with AA active? If so, is AA controlled in the game or by the V-card?ThanksDanny

[Mike T 209]

Are you running with AA active? If so, is AA controlled in the game or by the V-card?ThanksDanny

Danny:I always use AA, AF and Mipmapping on the hardware. I also use Ansiotropic in FSX. If I go with "application controlled" in the CCC then I get even higher frame rates in FSX than those I specified in the post above. But since I don't use those settings in FSX, I didn't mention it.CCC 11.1a settings are:4x AA (no morphological Filtering)(Box)16x AFCatalyst AI: High Quality (Enable Surface Format Oprimization)verfical refreh: Always offMipMap Detail: High QualityAA Mode: Adaptive Multi-sample AA

[Kosta 122]

I just checked for prices on this card... #####. 600€+? This is by far the most expensive card ever...But: could you post some screenshots? Especially interested to see how the card is doing AA - external model, scenery and VC!

[Hirgab 9]

Mike,I too have the HD5970.I am going to try to replicate your results sometime tonight. I will let everyone know if this is indeed a 'holy grail' for everyone. ;-)And thanks for sharing.

[Guest PFL]

Danny:I always use AA, AF and Mipmapping on the hardware. I also use Ansiotropic in FSX. If I go with "application controlled" in the CCC then I get even higher frame rates in FSX than those I specified in the post above. But since I don't use those settings in FSX, I didn't mention it.CCC 11.1a settings are:4x AA (no morphological Filtering)(Box)16x AFCatalyst AI: High Quality (Enable Surface Format Oprimization)verfical refreh: Always offMipMap Detail: High QualityAA Mode: Adaptive Multi-sample AA

Yep, these cards rock, but don´t tell it to the Nvidia guys...How can you fly with AMSAA?AF should be set in FSX for best results..Vertical refresh off - why?I have a 5870 Mobility, clocked to 800 / 1100 and it runs like a dream!

[Hirgab 9]

PFL,What is AMSAA? What's wrong with him using it?Also, doesn't Vsync decrease performance?Also, I can't recall there being a Anisotropic Filtering option in FSX

[Kosta 122]

Also, I can't recall there being a Anisotropic Filtering option in FSX

Of course there is. Under filtering in options...The question though is, if overclocked, how much better, if at all, this performance is above GTX580.

[Hirgab 9]

Okay, I gave this a try. Yes, I did get some significant FPS improvements, but not double. I am flying over London at 25FPS when it used to be 15FPS. THANKS A LOT FOR THIS GREAT THREAD!

[GSalden 4,679]

The HF5970 Black Edition is actually 2x 5970 in one.Will FSX benefit from this as it also does not benefit from SLI ?

[Guest PFL]

HIrgab: "What is AMSAA? What's wrong with him using it?" Adaptive Multi-sample AA There's nothing wrong in using it, I just wonder why he not use SuperSampling with a monstercard like that and a fairly decent CPU... Hirgab:"Also, doesn't Vsync decrease performance?" No, not in my setup, and I get dizzy if I have to look at the screen without it!

[Mike T 209]

HIrgab: "What is AMSAA? What's wrong with him using it?" Adaptive Multi-sample AA There's nothing wrong in using it, I just wonder why he not use SuperSampling with a monstercard like that and a fairly decent CPU... Hirgab:"Also, doesn't Vsync decrease performance?" No, not in my setup, and I get dizzy if I have to look at the screen without it!

The reason is to balance visuals with performance. At my current settings I have extremely crisp textures to the horizon, no jaggies, no blurries and am getting very high frame rates. Turning up the visuals a notch it really not going to get me anything visually and will actually take a few frames away. So, its not that I can't run it, its simply not buying anything else in FSX that warrants robbing 5 FPS.

[Mike T 209]

Okay, I gave this a try. Yes, I did get some significant FPS improvements, but not double. I am flying over London at 25FPS when it used to be 15FPS. THANKS A LOT FOR THIS GREAT THREAD!

A 66% increase in frame rates! This proves that there is "something" about this card that FSX seems to likes when over-volted and over clocked. I wish that Microsoft was still around in these forums to explain this one. It makes no sense but for owners of this card, it seems to be the single biggest tweak for FSX.