I just have to express my surprise.
So I went and bought a Gainward GTX 970 Phantom card and installed it.
I knew, of course, that changing from my GTX 660 to the GTX 970 would add a few frames per second, but the difference I see is flabbergasting.
This card virtually runs circles around the old GTX660. On my JFAR airfield, which is demanding with over 400 scenery objects, many of them unusually complex with large texture maps and so on, my GTX660 struggled with 20-30 frames /s and frequent stutters (hdd accesses, I guess the 2GB weren't enough and textures had to be swapped in and out). All that at a considerably reduced quality setting on the sliders, expecially shadows.
Now, with the GTX970, ___with all sliders maxed___, even shadows, I get a minimum of 60 fps without any stuttering! Beyond the airfield the fps jumps quickly at over 100 when I don't lock it. All this with a crisp and beautiful depiction on top. That upgrade was worth every dime.
Other nice features of that card are a prettly low energy consumption, and it is very quiet due to it's huge cooler. It is designed to run cool without fans during normal operation, and even as they turn under load they are hardly audible.
Cheers,
Mark
So I went and bought a Gainward GTX 970 Phantom card and installed it.
I knew, of course, that changing from my GTX 660 to the GTX 970 would add a few frames per second, but the difference I see is flabbergasting.
This card virtually runs circles around the old GTX660. On my JFAR airfield, which is demanding with over 400 scenery objects, many of them unusually complex with large texture maps and so on, my GTX660 struggled with 20-30 frames /s and frequent stutters (hdd accesses, I guess the 2GB weren't enough and textures had to be swapped in and out). All that at a considerably reduced quality setting on the sliders, expecially shadows.
Now, with the GTX970, ___with all sliders maxed___, even shadows, I get a minimum of 60 fps without any stuttering! Beyond the airfield the fps jumps quickly at over 100 when I don't lock it. All this with a crisp and beautiful depiction on top. That upgrade was worth every dime.
Other nice features of that card are a prettly low energy consumption, and it is very quiet due to it's huge cooler. It is designed to run cool without fans during normal operation, and even as they turn under load they are hardly audible.
Cheers,
Mark
The GTX 660 with 2 GB wasn't so bad, in my eyes. The only thing that really could bog it down was a heavy scenery with a lot of high poly objects and the shaders massivly turned on. As soon as one relaxed the shading it was quite OK. 
