upgrade GTX750Ti to GTX960 Not!

[wmburns]

I recently upgraded from a ASUS GTX750Ti to a EVGA GeForce GTX 960 02G-P4-2968-RX.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814121855

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814487153

Before the "upgrade" I was getting a very playable 35-45 FPS. I almost never noted any serious slow down or stutters.

On paper the GTX960 should be a reasonable (even if small) upgrade. However after installing GTX960, the average frame rates are almost unchanged. But now the sim "stutters" like never before.

I have tested on X-plane 10.36 and 10.41. Downloaded the latest drivers from Nvidia and yet the stutter continues. The stutter is much worse when there's a heavy cloud layer. Please note that I did NOT change any rendering settings when doing this swap.

Since this is a REFURBISHED card I considered that maybe the card is bad. Attempted to run some bench marks and burn in tests. So far from the limited testing done so far, the card appears to work fine and meet factory specs.

I need a sanity check were to look next. At some level I would understand if the system performance was little improved by the GTX960. However, the frame rate drops below 10 FPS is a total bummer. Especially considering it didn't occur on the GTX750Ti.

Help! Ideas?

My system specs;
ASUS GRYPHON Z87 LGA 1150 Intel Z87
Intel Core i5-4430 Haswell Quad-Core 3.0 GHz LGA 1150
8 GB DDR3 1600 MHz Memory dual channel
EVGA GeForce GTX 960 02G-P4-2968-RX
Win7 64 bit home
X-Plane 10 (10.36 and latest Beta).
No user over clocking!

While my system is two years old now, IMO it's specs are still strong.

[tshuff]

Look for a program called GPU-Z. Use this application to find out your VRAM usage, GPU utilization, Temps, and any clock restrictions in play when your card is under load. This should help to pinpoint the issue.

[wmburns]

Still at a loss to explain what's going on. However since this card only has a 30 day Newegg return warranty decided to send it back. The restocking fee did sting a little (I'm hate spending too much for PC parts!).

However GPU-Z did report more VRAM being used on the 960 than the 750. GPU-Z reported 1.8GB of 2GB used for the 960. So my best theory is the stuttering is related to VRAM house keeping.

I'm not totally sure that is the answer because:

• Both cards have 2GB of VRAM
• For both cards X-Plane reported the VRAM usage as 1.5GB (same). However GPU-Z does report more VRAM being used on the 960.
• The rendering options are unchanged between the two cards. So it would seem to me that the VRAM usage should be the same unless there's a capabilities/features difference. As far as I'm aware the capabilities are the same.

I haven't decided what to do next but the next video card I try will have more VRAM.

One of the changes I have considered making is going to a 3 screen 1080p set up. I would be interested in hearing about what graphic card has been used and the frame rates seen. Years ago I tried some dual screen tests. It was quite obvious at the time that the graphics card was not up to the task (GTX640). The frame rate hit was just too much.

I was hoping to be have enough GPU horsepower to do some multi-monitor testing.

Thanks.

[stevekirks]

I run a system that's older, with a lower-end Nvidia card with good (but slow) processor. It happens to be a good balance between CPU, bus throughput and graphics, so when I make changes in X-Plane, I can see dramatic effects quickly. What I've learned:

If I shrink the X-Plane window to an equivalent of 1024x768, I can increase the amount of objects and still maintain framerate. The GPU works less on overall size of the window, but more on the objects--balance. If I leave the objects higher and increase the size of the window, the GPU can't process as fast because of the swap in/out of VRAM. This is all with X-Plane reporting a constant amount of VRAM usage, about 75% of the card's capacity.

I have put this low end card in a faster machine to test (with the X-Plane demo) and found that framerate performance will increase about 25% but not much else from the above will change. This again demonstrates the long held belief that VRAM is king.

If you're considering going to 3x1080p screens, then you'll need the most VRAM you can afford *and* the bus throughput to make it work. As much as it will pain me when pulling out my wallet, the next card I buy will have the most VRAM that I can afford with speed and features coming second. When I can afford to swap to a custom PC, I'll only get one with SLI/dual card support and a chipset that can support the extra PCI express lanes needed to make it work.

At this point, I'm thinking 2GB isn't nearly enough to pull off a Josh Gibbs/Ty Shuff level of detail and smoothness.

All of this said, I pull 30FPS with the FJS 732 using this setup:

Core2 Quad 2.66GHz
8GB DDR2 RAM
Nvidia GT640 1GB GDDR3 VRAM
Dell Optiplex 960 with 300W (approx) PS
X-Plane 10.41 via Steam
ALpilot's HDMesh v3

[Keith Smith]

X-Plane doesn't take advantage of SLI, don't go there.

[Justin Lerner]

Crazy, I have a 960 and while it's not amazing, it's a new enough card that with the right rendering options I can maintain a healthy framerate. Good luck in troubleshooting!