Daiwilletti
Charter Member
This might be slightly OT, but my GTX770 card died recently. It was a big impressive looking thing, with three fans, double width, copper cooling tubes and all kinda fancy looking things. It had 2Gb DDR5 RAM. I was mildly surprised to see that that type was first manufactured in 2013. Wow, time flies.
So I looked out for something in a reasonable price range. I ended up with something that looks a lot less imposing. No copper cooling tubes, only one (admittedly large) fan, and much shorter. It used less power attacher thingys. A GTX1650 OC with 4Gb DDR6 RAM. How, I mused, could something with faster speed, larger RAM use less power and cost less (I bought the cheapest advertised price in NZ). Also, it turns out to be fundamentally not that much younger then the GTX770. 1650s were made since 2016. (all dates on the internet searches).
Anyway it was very easy to install and I wasn't expecting much improvement in visuals. After all, the GTX provided performance unheard of when CFS3 came out in December 2002. However, I've been pleasantly surprised. The rate at which trees render in the scenery, the terrain colours are distinctly better. The gunsight in my Pat's Bob Hurricane now has a truly luminous lighting to the reticule, and the bevel of the clear gunsight has a green which I've never seen before, and the reflections along the beveled surface of the gunsight move fluidly as I bank the aircraft. It is startling and immersive. All praise to Ankors Shaders! Wonder why my huge GTX770 couldn't render those subtle effects?
And the aircraft damage effects - debris seems to last longer and whizz past my cockpit causing me to duck reflexively. There are richer and more diverse colours in the flames coming out of the damaged aircraft. Maybe I'll try to increase the particles in the configoverrides, I understand this is related to effects.
One of the explosions coming from a Do-17 had an orange tinge to the fireball I had not seen before. Mostly flames had had a yellowy tinge.
So thus far I am impressed in my little GTX1650. Smaller, cheaper but offers something new for a jaded CFS3 afficionado.
So I looked out for something in a reasonable price range. I ended up with something that looks a lot less imposing. No copper cooling tubes, only one (admittedly large) fan, and much shorter. It used less power attacher thingys. A GTX1650 OC with 4Gb DDR6 RAM. How, I mused, could something with faster speed, larger RAM use less power and cost less (I bought the cheapest advertised price in NZ). Also, it turns out to be fundamentally not that much younger then the GTX770. 1650s were made since 2016. (all dates on the internet searches).
Anyway it was very easy to install and I wasn't expecting much improvement in visuals. After all, the GTX provided performance unheard of when CFS3 came out in December 2002. However, I've been pleasantly surprised. The rate at which trees render in the scenery, the terrain colours are distinctly better. The gunsight in my Pat's Bob Hurricane now has a truly luminous lighting to the reticule, and the bevel of the clear gunsight has a green which I've never seen before, and the reflections along the beveled surface of the gunsight move fluidly as I bank the aircraft. It is startling and immersive. All praise to Ankors Shaders! Wonder why my huge GTX770 couldn't render those subtle effects?
And the aircraft damage effects - debris seems to last longer and whizz past my cockpit causing me to duck reflexively. There are richer and more diverse colours in the flames coming out of the damaged aircraft. Maybe I'll try to increase the particles in the configoverrides, I understand this is related to effects.
One of the explosions coming from a Do-17 had an orange tinge to the fireball I had not seen before. Mostly flames had had a yellowy tinge.
So thus far I am impressed in my little GTX1650. Smaller, cheaper but offers something new for a jaded CFS3 afficionado.
