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Which is the better processor & graphics card of these 2 - Printable Version

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Which is the better processor & graphics card of these 2 - Beachy - 18.11.2009

First off, I know there are better and newer out there, but I am working with what I have. Keep in mind that this computer is dedicated to IL2 flight simming.

Currently I have a P4D 3.0 ghz single core socket 775 with 2 gb DDR400 ram and a nVidia 7800 GT . I was lucky enough to be given an AMD Opteron 146 CPU socket 939 and motherboard and a ATI 4670 GPU. It also uses DDR400 ram.

In the past, i.e. this era of cpu technology AMD have outgunned the Intel chips for gaming, but the Opteron is an unknown quantity to me. Many people say it outperforms the Athlon 3800 and is quite overclockable on standard air cooling. (not that I am planning that)

So, question is AMD or Intel out of these two, and 7800GT or ATI 4670 for video card??

- Tooslow - 18.11.2009

It looks to me that the AMD and the ATI Radeon HD 4670 is the best combination ... however, nVidia cards generally work better with IL2 ... so who knows. Below are a few links for you to check out.

AMD's Opteron 146 processor review

http://techreport.com/articles.x/5655/1

dead heat between the Opteron 146 2GHz and a 3,2GHz P4 so it should out perform a 3.0 GHz P4.


nVidia GeForce 7800 GT Review

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/202

ATI Radeon HD 4670 review

http://www.guru3d.com/article/ati-radeo ... 70-review/

- Beachy - 18.11.2009

Hey thanks Tooslow. I can never seem to find sites that give a good review. These were great and are now locked into my bookmarks. I am thinking the AMD Opteron will be my choice of processor and the motherboard is also a full ATX compared to the mATX intel board. Room to add on if need be :wink:

I would really like to know what the major advantage/disadvantage of nVidia over ATI graphics would be. Do many people use ATI for IL2?? Another option I was offered is a nVidia GT220, but it is a relatively new card and any tests I see done are always on latest cutting edge games, where its performance is tolerable. Both the 4670 and GT220 are 512mb cards as opposed to the 7800's 256mb, so it should help a little there.

I am also guessing that the resolution I use on the monitor will have something to do with graphics performance. I an currently running a Dell 17" 4.3 monitor at 1280 x 1024, but I am now thinking I will swap it with the wifes 22" WS LG at 1680 x 1050. She wont mind as she now has a laptop 8) I know cause she told me Big Grin

So if anyone out there uses ATI graphics, I would like to hear the Pro's and Con's for it.

- Fireskull - 19.11.2009

Generally, Intel is faster out the box, though I don't know if it is fastest in overclock.

NVIDIA is best because of the 8 prerendered frames. (Upto 8 frames prerendered by the CPU before they are sent to the GPU for final processing.) This is the tremendous advantage of NVIDIA. The nHancer software will enforce 8 frames and multitthreading. It is dependent on you to make the settings. I have NVIDIA GeForce Go 7150M in my Laptop and my graphics settings are unbelievably high-above factory allowances in some catagories by a factor of 16 times the default.

- Beachy - 20.11.2009

Hey Fireskull, is this nhancer software part of nVidia or some thing you d/l and setup yourself??

Very good question, Beachy - Fireskull - 22.11.2009

Beachy Wrote:Hey Fireskull, is this nhancer software part of nVidia or some thing you d/l and setup yourself??

Well, how can I put this? I have to say that it is the best possible software compliment and partner to NVIDIA. I don't know if it works with other graphics cards. I went from only default settings at some points to 16 times that in those graphics characteristics. Truely-no lie-some scenes look like motion pictures or even real life. All that I have is an ordinary NVIDIA GeForce Go 7150m in my HP Notebook PC!

Did you see how NVIDIA has "point of use" information at each step of settings? The nHancer has even better info. Though NVIDIA does a fairly good job, nHancer is an add-on that is like the after-burners on a jet-it's that good. The download is free, though a donation would be nice. If you can handle NVIDIA, then you can use nHancer. I use NVIDIA for later stage Benchmarking and I use nHancer for all stages of Optimization. If you're a patient guy, then I think that you'll like it and achieve nice improvements in your IL-2 performance and looks. 8)

http://www.nHancer.com I have version 2.4.5.0... Since, your graphics card and mine are in the 7000s series, you'll likely need the 2.4.5 version. Once you get it started, set it to auto-update.

Also, see my Topic in this Forum, "Make Vista Run Well with IL-2". It's only gonna get better! Big Grin

- Beachy - 30.11.2009

Hey Fireskull, I did all the .NET 3.5 and SP1 install on my system. I then tried running 2.4.5.0 and i get this message,

"ERROR reading XML file c:\WINDOWS\System32\nvapps.xml"
"There is an error in XML document (923, 47)"

Any ideas???

Cheers, Jeff

EDITED

I downloaded the latest version of nHancer and it works fine. I just don't understand it cause the manual is for a way earlier version, 2.1 I think and there are some GUI visual differences.
Do you have some info on sttings you are using that I could try and then I can move on from that?

RE: About nHancer - Fireskull - 30.11.2009

Beachy Wrote:EDITED

I downloaded the latest version of nHancer and it works fine. I just don't understand it cause the manual is for a way earlier version, 2.1 I think and there are some GUI visual differences.
Do you have some info on sttings you are using that I could try and then I can move on from that?

Okay, I double checked and 2.4.5 is the version that you need, though it wouldn't hurt to try a later version. Keep the original 2.4.5 download in case you need it again.

The manual, well, I just browsed it to get a basic idea, anyway. Once you get into Benchmarking and the following Optimization, then you will find that the information in the nHancer interface is probably all that you will need. It has "point of use" help: instructions and information right in the interface.

Tomarrow, Tuesday-12/1/2009, I have in my schedule to release all my technical IL-2 settings, including the nHancer ones that you want to see. You can view them after I complete the copying of information tomarrow evening. The Topic is [Edited because of name change:] "PC Technical Relationship to IL-2: This info helps everyone" in the PC Technical Help Forum. Hopfully, I look forward to reading your post about the fabulous improvements made for your IL-2 in the future. Big Grin

- Sniper85 - 16.01.2010

Sorry to re-open an old topic but being a first time user of nHancer, I wanted to ask you Fireskull...how can I achieve better results with this add-on.I'm trying different settings (anti-aliasing,trilinear optimization,etc) but I still can't figure out which are the best settings for my card.

It's an old nvidia geforce fx5200, I have the latest driver but my pc is still having lots of problems.
After 30 mins or so using Il-2 it restarts automatically.Case is clean, no dust, no software running while playing (except for my antivirus).I'm following your tutorial bit by bit (btw it's great,thanks a lot) and maybe I can improve my pc's performance with nhancer.

I have to buy a better pc this year but I still want to enjoy the game with the old one, which is not that bad with 1.25 GB ram.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated Smile

- P/O W. 'Moggy' Cattermole - 16.01.2010

I don't suppose there's an ATi equivilent for the nhancer, fireskull?

- Guest - 16.01.2010

P/O W. 'Moggy' Cattermole Wrote:I don't suppose there's an ATi equivilent for the nhancer, fireskull?

+1 Wink

RE: Sniper85, P/OW. 'Moggy Catermole', and Everybody... - Fireskull - 16.01.2010

Hi,

Sniper85, here are your very good questions:
Sniper85 Wrote:Sorry to re-open an old topic but being a first time user of nHancer, I wanted to ask you Fireskull...how can I achieve better results with this add-on.I'm trying different settings (anti-aliasing,trilinear optimization,etc) but I still can't figure out which are the best settings for my card.

It's an old nvidia geforce fx5200, I have the latest driver but my pc is still having lots of problems.
After 30 mins or so using Il-2 it restarts automatically.Case is clean, no dust, no software running while playing (except for my antivirus).I'm following your tutorial bit by bit (btw it's great,thanks a lot) and maybe I can improve my pc's performance with nhancer.

I have to buy a better pc this year but I still want to enjoy the game with the old one, which is not that bad with 1.25 GB ram.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated Smile

The nHancer software will, as the name implies, enhance your PC-and specifically your NVIDIA capabilities. In some features, it actually over rides the factory settings to achieve better results. The program was created with IL-2 in mind.

With that being said, nHancer comes with fabulous intructions, many of which are point-of-use helps. The first thing that I think you need to know is that your system will likely render IL-2 graphics best with Trilinear and S3TC in the setup.ini file.

Also, although one can generally get the best image with OpenGL, it is still a matter of fact that some PC systems run IL-2 best in DirectX. Really the only thing you would be sacrificing is the so called " Perfect Water " , which really isn't so perfect. The DirectX " Excellent " water has reefs, shallows, detailed waves, multitextured reflections that are not found in OpenGL " Perfect Water ", and DirectX waves are more to realistic scale. In some IL-2 mission scenerios, the DirectX water fits the weather conditions much better than OpenGL water. I only use OpenGL for movies and screenshots. Okay, enough said about that, I think.

IMPORTANT: Make sure to overturn every stone to streamline your PC for IL-2 before you make final graphics related settings. Otherwise, you will find later that your performance will be less than it could have been. The need to re-do the whole process would be obvious. Streamline your PC system for IL-2-this is your first step before you go further. Yes, this stage of creating better IL-2 performance is not fun, but the results will be a bigger improvement.

I worked very hard to provide the essential information for guys in similar situations as yours. He's the link to my Topic about "PC Technical Relationship to IL-2": Click...

viewtopic.php?t=22314

P/OW. 'Moggy Cattermole", yes there is an ATI program to enhance those card settings. It was also created with IL-2 in mind, but I can not remember the name. I will do a search for it and post the name here if I find it.

ATI Catalyst Software Suite - Fireskull - 16.01.2010

ATI users should try this:

http://www2.ati.com/relnotes/catalyst_8 ... notes.html

About AMD and NVIDIA - Fireskull - 16.01.2010

I must agree with Tooslow. Many guys say that AMD and NVIDIA work best with IL-2, even when considering other faster CPUs and GPUs.

After doing some research by me, it was revealed that the structure of the chips and the algorithms created to optimize 3D rendering make AMD and NVIDIA generally better for IL-2 in processing graphics than many faster chips. (!) There is much more involved in the processing of graphics data than just straight line calculating. Heuristics and other aspects of 3D rendering require the algorithm support that seems to be generally best with AMD and NVIDIA.

- P/O W. 'Moggy' Cattermole - 16.01.2010

many thanks for this, fireskull!