does size matter?

[sizzle22]

Is more video card memory more important then a faster card when playing aces high? I replaced my 9800gtx with a gtx560ti superclocked that has 1GB of ram as opposed to the 512 of the 9800, and I'm really not seeing any significant gains..... maybe I'm expecting too much or maybe I should have gotten the slower 560ti with 2GB of ram as far as what I have on for graphics in game, I cant remember right off hand but i do know all the sliders are up to max and every box is checked in advanced except the bottom on... I think that is building shadows? and shadow text is at 2048. I have tried unchecking everything in advanced with really no difference. I don't remember having these issues before I switched to this new card, granted I wasn't running with any of the shadowing turned on with the 9800. The rest of the hardware is: Gigabyte EP45-UD3P with an E8500 CPU 4GB of ddr2 Gskill 1066 ram

[Masherbrum]

Your bottleneck is the FSB and the CPU.   

[guncrasher]

You already had a good picture to begin with, the new card while faster and better doesn't really improve the game in your case.

I had the same setup. Only thing that improved was having 4096 shadows. And less heat.


Semp

[sizzle22]

Ugh.... Should have put the monies towards new mobo/chip before upgrading cards.... Oh well at least I know what I gotta do

[Tigger29]

What kind of frame rates are you getting?  What would you expect to see to conclude that the performance has increased?

What is the specs of the rest of your hardware?

Assuming your hardware is even remotely modern that 560 card should be able to run AH at full settings without ever dropping below 59/60fps!

[Krusty]

It's a common gimick to put cheap and slower VRAM on older video cards to make them seem more current and impressive, but it's no benefit at all. It's just an attempt to get more sales out of a weaker platform.

More memory doesn't help if the card doesn't have the muscle to use it or the speed to access it quickly. Otherwise it's just sitting there unused and could possibly slow you down as well.

In your case, the 560 blows away the 9800, power-wise. It's not an issue of which card has more memory. Memory is just the gas tank. My pickup may have a lot more gas storage onboard, but it can't turn that into miles per hour like my Mustang can (hypothetically speaking). Mustang may have to stop and fill the tank more often, but it covers the distance much faster and more repsonsively.

As mentioned, your bottleneck is your system isn't really able to feed the card fast enough. The card itself isn't to blame. The E8500 isn't the most powerful of CPUs and your RAM is rather slow. Overall those are the parts slowing you down. Your motherboard itself doesn't seem bad. I would say get faster timed RAM (look for 1600, if you can run it?) and then look into a more modern CPU, perhaps. You may be able to overclock the one you have, but I don't do that much so I won't offer specific advice.

[Skuzzy]

Video RAM is a tricky thing.  Most of the time, when you find a video card with a lot of video RAM and a model with less RAM, the model with more RAM uses slower chips, which actually slow the video card down.

However, this is not always true.

Today, Aces High is not that video memory hungry, but the next update (currently in open beta test) can be very video memory hungry.  Easy enough to configure a system where the next release will chew through 1GB of video RAM.

Look at video tests that show fill rates as those will give you an idea of the speed of the video RAM.

[MaSonZ]

Video RAM is a tricky thing.  Most of the time, when you find a video card with a lot of video RAM and a model with less RAM, the model with more RAM uses slower chips, which actually slow the video card down.

However, this is not always true.

Today, Aces High is not that video memory hungry, but the next update (currently in open beta test) can be very video memory hungry.  Easy enough to configure a system where the next release will chew through 1GB of video RAM.

Look at video tests that show fill rates as those will give you an idea of the speed of the video RAM.

are you recomending more then 1GB for when the beta becomes part of the game?

[Skuzzy]

are you recomending more then 1GB for when the beta becomes part of the game?

I am not making any recommendations.  Just judging from the beta reports, it seems many people are simply going for the extreme settings, in every category, which can easily swamp 1GB of video RAM.  Most probably do not understand there is a point of diminishing returns where the gains are so microscopic as to be pointless.

[sizzle22]

Thank you all for your input! I have over clocked my CPU to 3.8 from 3.16 and fsb is at 400mhz from 333. I do see some gains as far as the lag I get when im in a heavily occupied area and low to the ground. I have also oc my video card but see almost no gains in game or when I run furmark. I agree that my bottle neck is the CPU and the memory... Unfortunately my memory only runs at 1066 timings are 5 5 5 15 I think? I'll post a better hardware list and what I've done as far as in game settings and all the other fun stuff when I get home from work,typing this out on a phone is no fun but I really do appreciate all the feed back.

[Tigger29]

Thank you all for your input! I have over clocked my CPU to 3.8 from 3.16 and fsb is at 400mhz from 333. I do see some gains as far as the lag I get when im in a heavily occupied area and low to the ground. I have also oc my video card but see almost no gains in game or when I run furmark. I agree that my bottle neck is the CPU and the memory... Unfortunately my memory only runs at 1066 timings are 5 5 5 15 I think? I'll post a better hardware list and what I've done as far as in game settings and all the other fun stuff when I get home from work,typing this out on a phone is no fun but I really do appreciate all the feed back.

For the record I have an E7400 (O/C to 3.15GHZ), 4GB of DDR3 ram very similar to your memory specs, and an ATI 5830 Video card (yours is much better).  Your system has mine beat yet I run 2048 textures, 1920X1200 resolution and almost full settings yet I rarely see a drop below 55fps and only on rare occasions do i see a tiny bit of stuttering (which includes lots of planes and fire/smoke).  The only settings I don't have cranked to full is AA (set to only one notch) and shadows are turned off.  I can run 2048 shadow textures smoothly but choose not to do so simply because I don't like how it looks but that's a personal preference.

Even the Beta seems to run well on my system without even disabling the grass while in flight, but I haven't really been able to test it with a lot of planes around.

And I do this with running Track IR, Logitech profiling software, and Microsoft Security Essentials in the background (Win 7 64bit).

Simply put even with your E8500 you should still be able to run ACES HIGH just fine, just back off on the AA and turn down the shadows some.  If you still have issues I have to wonder if you have some kind of resource hog running in the background.. maybe a Norton protection package or a ton of processes running.  Possibly even a malware infection!

[sizzle22]

For the record I have an E7400 (O/C to 3.15GHZ), 4GB of DDR3 ram very similar to your memory specs, and an ATI 5830 Video card (yours is much better).  Your system has mine beat yet I run 2048 textures, 1920X1200 resolution and almost full settings yet I rarely see a drop below 55fps and only on rare occasions do i see a tiny bit of stuttering (which includes lots of planes and fire/smoke).  The only settings I don't have cranked to full is AA (set to only one notch) and shadows are turned off.  I can run 2048 shadow textures smoothly but choose not to do so simply because I don't like how it looks but that's a personal preference.

Even the Beta seems to run well on my system without even disabling the grass while in flight, but I haven't really been able to test it with a lot of planes around.

And I do this with running Track IR, Logitech profiling software, and Microsoft Security Essentials in the background (Win 7 64bit).

Simply put even with your E8500 you should still be able to run ACES HIGH just fine, just back off on the AA and turn down the shadows some.  If you still have issues I have to wonder if you have some kind of resource hog running in the background.. maybe a Norton protection package or a ton of processes running.  Possibly even a malware infection!

No Norton. And im 99% sure it's not maleware I built this rig pretty much for this game... Granted that was a few years back, but I think what it comes down to is me. Im really just nit-picking my computer and how it handles this game. Don't get me wrong this computer does a awesome job at running aces high. The little bit of lag I have mentioned drops from 60 to 50 then back up to 60.... Not that big of a deal, I guess I should have asked advice on getting rid of that. But like I said earlier in post I'll go into more detail when I get home. Again thank you all for the input

[YamaRaja]

Video RAM is a tricky thing.  Most of the time, when you find a video card with a lot of video RAM and a model with less RAM, the model with more RAM uses slower chips, which actually slow the video card down.

However, this is not always true.

Today, Aces High is not that video memory hungry, but the next update (currently in open beta test) can be very video memory hungry.  Easy enough to configure a system where the next release will chew through 1GB of video RAM.

Look at video tests that show fill rates as those will give you an idea of the speed of the video RAM.

Yea, my 6950's in XFire might not be overkill anymore.
Although since I just went to a 120hz 27in monitor I'm glad I have some horsepower.

Yama

[sizzle22]

OK home at last!!!!  Here's what I'm working with: GA-EP45-UD3P Motherboard over clocked FSB to 400MHz,
CPU is a E8500 over clocked to 3.8MHz, 4GB of Gskill DDR2 RAM running 5-5-5-15 at 1066MHz, EVGA GTX560Ti running at 900MHz with 1GB of DDR5 RAM. All powered by a Corsair HX1050 (over kill I know, but I have big planes....lol). The OS is win7 Ultimate 64bit. Clean install done maybe 6 months ago.

Now as far as in game settings: Video Resolution is 1680x1050 Texture's are set to 2048 and Anti-Aliasing is maxed out. As far as the sliders in game they are all on max and all the boxes are checked with the exception of the building shadows, shadow textures are at 2048 as well.

What I have done to remedy this is unchecked the boxes that have to do with shadows and I still run into the small lag when rendering the ground with others close by.

As far as what my settings were when I had the GTX9800 (nothing at this time was over clocked, and my PSU was a 550watt rosewill) I did have any of the shadow box's checked and was running 1680x1050 with textures at 1024 and Anti-Aliasing was maybe half way up the slider or more, cant quite remember that. but the thing is I rarely had any issues with rendering the ground in heavily occupied areas with this set up..... I'm starting to think I was hoping that my new video card would be the mother of all eyecandy bringers.

Here's what I'm going to do now, right after I post this..... I'm gonna bump my textures down to 1024 and my Anti-Aliasing down one notch and see what happens....        

Again thanks to all who have taken the time to help me beat this dead horse even deader!!! LOL

[sizzle22]

Ok.... So I turned AA down and the lag isn't that noticeable.... Its there but I can hardly notice it. ... meso stupid thanks for the help gents