Hardware Orbiter 2010 and win7 requirements

[Mantis]

Is it all about videocards?

All other things equal, absolutely. Onboard video cards which share RAM with the rest of the system perform at a much lower level than a dedicated graphics card with it's own memory and GPU. The more graphics memory the better.

I specifically went shopping for a laptop with a high end video adapter and dedicated graphics memory for that very reason. My Computer is an ASUS G73 "Ultimate Gaming Laptop" with an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870 with 1GB of dedicated video memory. (Intel Core i7, 8GB RAM, dual 500GB SATA hard drives, CD/DVD-RW/Blue Ray Drive, 17.3" High Def screen with 23" High def external monitor. With that setup, I can view Orbiter at full 1920x1080 resolution with all the graphics "goodies" turned on and get framerates that never drop below around 30fps and which are usually higher than that. For example, with the AMSO Apollo 11 launch scenario (external view) I get an average of around 57 fps on the pad and through the launch sequence.

 

[Yequan]

This is why I have winxp as operating system installed on the second orbit. The only way to have the next Win7, I found a playable frame rate used by the jarmonik D3D9 graphics client, but it has its drawbacks....

 

[Cras]

So is Win XP the way to go?

I am shocked at my framerate thinking I should be getting far better performance than I am. I have tried the Direct X 9 client but as my main fleet comprises of Shuttle Fleet 4.7, the DGIV, and a bunch of spacecraft3 modules, and multistage launch vehicles, it is an absolutely non-starter for me. When I try it I do get good results, but I am limited to to just flying the XR-2 around.

My specs are:
Windows 7 x64
i7 970 @ 4GHz on P6T Deluxe v2
12 GB RAM
GTX 580 (Active video) clocked to 1000 MHz
GTX 480 (video disabled, PhysX active for the moment)

 

[PeterRoss]

So is Win XP the way to go?

You could try [ame="http://orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=3891"]VistaBoost 1.0[/ame], but the only reliable way to run Orbbiter with decent framerate I've found is to run it under WinXP.

 

[Cras]

Thanks, now I just have to figure out a way to add another OS to my machine. Already dual boot with two seperate Win7 installations, and I have no more SATA ports for a new hard disk.

Another question, do you use XP x64? And would there be any issues using Xp x64?

---------- Post added 06-16-11 at 03:19 AM ---------- Previous post was 06-15-11 at 09:15 PM ----------

Well that settles that.

I was getting maybe around 30 FPS launching Shuttle Fleet 4.7, about 45 with some nasty stutters in Orbit, and about 15 FPS when close to the ISS (ISS Fleet with all those Spacecraft 3 addons to complete the station).

I just finished installing XP Pro x64 on one of my larger hard drives that had space for it, and just booted up Orbiter 2010 P1, and I saw about 175 FPS during launch of Shuttle Fleet, and about 150 FPS at the ISS.

So to all who can read these words, dual boot (or in my case triple boot) XP and use that for Orbiter. The performance boost is unreal.

I read somewhere, probably in this thread, that in XP the Direct X 7 stuff is GPU accelerated, while in Vista/7 it is emulated by the CPU, that would explain the boost. If you got a massive GPU, it actually uses it in XP.

 

[dbeachy1]

Try running the D3D9 Orbiter Client. Epic framerates in Vista and Windows 7. :thumbup:

 

[PeterRoss]

Try running the D3D9 Orbiter Client. Epic framerates in Vista and Windows 7. :thumbup:

No spacecraft3/multistage2 support, alas.

 

[Hielor]

I read somewhere, probably in this thread, that in XP the Direct X 7 stuff is GPU accelerated, while in Vista/7 it is emulated by the CPU, that would explain the boost. If you got a massive GPU, it actually uses it in XP.

GDI rendering (what Orbiter uses for text) is hardware accelerated in XP but not Vista--DX7 is still accelerated, just not the GDI interop layer.

 

[Cras]

Try running the D3D9 Orbiter Client. Epic framerates in Vista and Windows 7. :thumbup:

Like it has been said, with D3D Client there is no spacecraft 3 and no multistage2, no DGIV, no Shuttle Fleet, and the frame rate I get in XP x64 is nothing like what I got trying out D3D9 client. The frame rate is certainly better than just using Vista Boost.