Here we go again… yes… for reasons beyond the scope of this topic, I went down the path of replacing the GTX 560/2MB with GTX 560Ti/1MB.
Here are the basic specs on the two cards. Essentially the distinctions are small between them. Albeit, the 560Ti is an improved and optimized version.
I had been running the 304.91 WHQL driver suite all along since June 2012. No issues. That was not the reason for the replacement anyway.
As mentioned before, its important to describe the setup, because way too much is written in forums and blogs about results without first providing context. The context matters – all results are only relevant within a context.
Mine is a triple projection setup, running on a ultra-high-end Jetline Systems rig.
A i3770 – 3.4Ghz processor, OC’d to 4.4GHz with 8GB of RAM.
There are 3 undocked windows on FSX and a fourth to provide the main, making it 4 windows for FSX to draw. I run 3072×768 @ 60Hz because the native on my XGA projectors.
Here are the results.
The 560Ti uses the same driver that the 560 used. I didn’t expect any major improvements.
For running a pseudo benchmark, I use a standard flight that I have setup when I first started with fsx. It points at a main terminal in a heavy airport with FSDT scenery. I usually run it for 10 mins on the airport, without traffic, then with 50% traffic and 100% traffic.
With everything running the same on the MS FSX setup (I mean in the fsx.cfg file) and in the nvidia inspector, the most improvement I got were in the average fps count – not by a lot, a 2-3 frame improvement.
I did notice though that in flight at 5000 feet (i.e. approx 2500AGL) my textures were a little more sharper than in the 560. The GPU did run a little warmer than my 560. The average GPU use hovered around 45% with occasional spikes to 70%. The memory usage were level around 475-517MB.
Not much to speak about with the 560Ti. On the other hand, I didnt know if the 1GB less memory that the 560Ti had would make any difference to fsx use because I have never seen memory use go beyond 520-550MB in most of my sim use.
I also have a nVidia 660 in my hands now and will be testing that in the coming week.
CPJ
