New (1st) build - Not quite perfect yet

[Doc4]

Well after several years of debate I finally broke down and built my own rig....Cool experience!  I am able to run most everything wide open I am still not able to hold the frame rate I was hoping for (not expecting miracles), but could someone take a look at my dxdiag and see if there is anything I can tweek.........

[Chalenge]

It looks like you have a USB headset and onboard audio also? You can gain a little more power by getting an actual sound card, preferably a SoundBlaster Z, or better. Unfortunately, that is going to come with a $100 price tag, or worse.

[guncrasher]

if he gets a sound card then he will also have to get a new headset.

doc do you have enviromental mapping on?  if yes then turn it off.


semp

[Doc4]

Sound card question- if I simply replace my headset to utilize the onboard sound, will I get the same effect?

Environmental mapping in AH3 is turned all the way up, no real problems 45-60fps, but was looking to improve AH2 since there is not a firm release date for 3....

Without having to turn any thing down, can I do anything to tweet?

Thanks for the help.....
I know just enough about computers to be stupid....

[guncrasher]

your problem is the em.  your graphics card cant handle it.


semp

[Greebo]

Environmental mapping is the game painting reflections of the surrounding area onto your ride. This can improve the look of a shiny bare metal aircraft but makes less difference to matt camouflaged rides. With the slider turned down to one notch you will still get the same reflections so your plane will look no different in screenshots. The only drawback compared to having the slider all the way to the right is that when you maneuver the plane it takes longer before the game updates the reflection changes.

The thing is environmental mapping is really demanding on your video card, it takes a lot of processing to work out all the reflection angles. So turning it down to one notch ought to make a big difference to your FPS for a negligible loss to the look of the game.

[Doc4]

Would getting another GTX960 and running SLI help any?

[Chalenge]

SLI helps by using the GPU to render alternate frames. Probably, EM is acting in a sluggish manner because your video card has only 2GB of VRAM, and you have the texture size set above something your system can handle smoothly. SLI will help, but it will not be a magic cure-all.

The subject of audio has been discussed so many times that I really do not feel that I want to write it all again (I'm too busy). You can search through the hardware forum here and find many, many topics where it is discussed. Suffice to say that your form of audio is two examples of the worst form of audio. Many people on the forum swear by it, so if you can live with it then that's your decision.

The best way to use audio on a PC is to have playback and record on separate external devices (my conclusion). Every time the issue comes up the argument ensues and we arrive at the same ultimate conclusion, which is then ignored the next time the question comes up and we have to repeat the entire argument.

(Two examples from recent discussions)

http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,375086.0.html

http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,375532.0.html

[Chalenge]

if he gets a sound card then he will also have to get a new headset.

It is possible that his headset plugs into a USB fob, which in that case the headset will still work.

[Spikes]

If you were to buy a second 960 I'd recommend returning the 960 if possible and getting just a single 970, or even a 980 for a few bucks more.

[Chalenge]

Good point Spikes. A single 980 Ti, or GTX 980 would be my suggestion.

[Bizman]

There has been some issues with AMD multi core processors only using one core for AH2. For what I've read it still may be an issue for some models. Plus there's no exact information about which models suffer from this feature, as far as I know. AH3 may improve the usage of several cores, at least it will take lots of weight off of the processor.
 

[Doc4]

because your video card has only 2GB of VRAM,

Is this right? Thought I bought a 4GB card 


I will send the card back....will the 970 get the results I want, or do I need to drop the cash for the 980 or 980Ti?  Don't mind buying it but don't want to buy something I may never fully utilize...

[Skuzzy]

Is this right? Thought I bought a 4GB card 


I will send the card back....will the 970 get the results I want, or do I need to drop the cash for the 980 or 980Ti?  Don't mind buying it but don't want to buy something I may never fully utilize...

You did.  Your DXDIAG clearly shows the video card has 4GB of dedicated video RAM.

[Chalenge]

Oops, sorry.

EDIT: I was comparing cards on GPUboss.com and was looking at what they reported.

I would like to know if they doubled the number of texture mapping units, and shading units along with the memory, because otherwise it's not much help to have more memory.