Historically BFG cards have not done well on Dell systems. Get the Evga model if possible.

Not to demean you in any way, do you have power going to the card via the 6 pin connector?

this happens with ALL cards, on ALL pcs, with FS X. Even at the lowest settings, the game will encounter a slightly more detailed area, a city for example, and it wil take longer to caclulate a frame. You cant avoid this. Also, the FPS counter is messed up in that game. You can run at 10 FPS, and its looks like 40...

Yes I do have power going to the card, but im wondering something.  The power connector that the card came with has two seperate harnesses on it, I only connected one to the power supply and left the other one hanging.  Is it needed to connect this?  Because I dont have any extra places I can connect it to.  Also, I know about how BFG usually dont work well on Dell systems, but people are telling me that I should keep it if its working.  I am wondering if I should or not, what do you think?  I can easily return this and get the Evga model, any comments or feedback on all this?

You need to remove the power cable and use the 6 pin coming directly from the Power Supply. It should be located down around the hard drive area. I would say at first glance this is probably the issue. It's not getting the power it needs.

Oh and yes, I use Evga products and would return the BFG.

Ahhhhhhhh!!!

 

That's why the card is not running at full spec!!!

 

You do not need to use that cable that came with the card.   You use that Y cable incase your computer dont have PCI-e power connector  which comes from your PSU...   bunddled around your hard drive...   I believe it's LABELED   P12.

 

Plug PCI-e power cable (P12) into your card without using the cable that came with the card.

Kang, I thought that you may have had the solution to this, but after trying this, the performance is still the same as when I was using the power harness that came with the card.  You guys think I will get better performance from the evga model? Also what is overclocking?  I can get the evga card at a core clock of 500 mhz or for $20 more I can get it at 575mhz.  Whats the difference, is it worth the extra 20 bucks? 

OK...     if I was in your situation...     this is what I would do...

 

First of all...  I dont know how demanding (PC performance) flight simulator X is.   You should goto 3dmark.com and download 3dmark06.   Run the test at default setting and resolution.  

 

At your computer spec...   assuming you installed your 8800GTS correctly,     at the end of 3dmark06 test...  you should get around 8000 to 9000 3Dmark score.    If you get something considerable lower than that...(like 3000 to 5000)      then that means your got a faulty card or like others said...  BFG card is no good in dell.   You should RMA(return) the BFG and get eVga.

 

soo...   

 

1)  Download the LATEST driver from nvidia.com   (VERY VERY IMPORTANT if you havent done this already.  If you havent done this...    DO IT and see if everything runs smoothly.)

 

   if not...

 

2)  Download  3dmark06   (it's frame rate benchmark program)

    http://www.3dmark.com/download/3dmark06/

 

3) Run the test on default setting and resolution.

 

4) If you get 8000 to 9000 3dmark score...  your computer is running according to spec.

 

   if not...

 

5) If you get considerably lower score like 3000 and 4000...    return your card and get eVGA card.

 

 

8800GTS is a more powerful than you might think.    Also... the driver.   Did you install the card driver from the CD???   and not from the site???    If so...  then your driver might be couple of months old...   that means the Vista is not using your card to the full potential.   We had couple of cases when the driver was immature...   7600GT was outperforming the 8800GTS.

 

Now overclocking...    I really dont think 8800GTS needs to be overclocked.   You can overclock the GPU and memory faster to get more performance out of the card.   You can do that by downloading rivatune.    I've never overclocked so...  I'm a immature in this subject.

 

Anyway...    there you go...     follow these steps and see how everything turns out.

 

Oh ...    and try to post the score of 3dmark06.   

    

I downloaded the 3dmark program and I got a score of 8523.  So I guess my card is working fine then huh?  Yes I have the latest drivers from the online, I didnt install it from CD but from online I did.  I know this card is powerful but I actually thought it would be better than the performance I am getting.  I am going to get the evga model and try that one out. 

8523...  thats pretty good score.

 

Yeah looks like your card is running fine.   I would still get eVGA card though....   I trust eVGA.  

 

Also...   I think DoomLord right.   I think it's just the game (FSX) and not your card.

 

Right now... I'm using~...   dont laugh

2.52GHz P4.

512MB DDR ram.

120GB HD

 

and....      

 

eVGA e-GeForce FX5200 128MB ram,   LoL... 

 

it's reallly slow but running fine after all these years.    Oh yeah...   my computer is Compaq~

So I returned my BFG Nvidia 8800gts and got the Evga 8800gts and automatically my 3DMark score went from 8500 (the BFG card) to over 8800 with the evga card installed.  Although, I still cant run Flight Simulator X on the settings that I would like to have, they are set fairly high and only getting 10 -30 fps.  But FSX is a highly demanding game on the PC so oh well I guess.