FSX Hardware.. (not again!)

[rsrandazzo 6,353]

Craig-I'm going to toe the party line on not giving specific FPS data on my rig because we aren't finished yet.That being said- I'm running the following:PIV3.8 Single Core, 4Gig of ram (yes- i know...) and a 7800 GTX card.Running FSX RTM- I was "okay" with default airplanes if I left the sliders slightly left of center... but with the 400X, my frames were in the toilet.With FSX SP1, I have FPS that I consider to be acceptable- although they are obviously lower than my FS9 performance on the same machine. Our experience working with the SP1 updates has been that multi-core machines will perform FAR better than single core machines. As a general example, Ryan is generally seeing twice my FPS with a dual core- and Lefteris is generally seeing 4-6 times my FPS performance on a quad core....When we get a bit closer to release- I'm going to catalogue some hardware specs from our beta team and development teams- and we'll give you a good matrix of hardware and performance against which to judge...That being said- I'm personally salivating for some DX10 hardware. :-)

[Guest D17S]

Now that we have multiple cores enabled (two-hundred and sixty-four, did I read!) Intel's gonna send us a present,http://www.hkepc.com/bbs/itnews.php?tid=789466The quad core, Q6600 is price dropping to $266 on July 22. Intel's P35 chipset Mobo is available now. The NDA comes off on Monday, so Anandtech should have a good review available then. The mainstream boards are going to be $150. The P35 is the latest and greatest, designed to handle the 1333 fsb CPUs and overclocks like a banchee. It's one cool customer. All that heat pipe plumbing will be just for show. The O/C'r forums are running it hard and delighted with it so far. That wild 680i at $300+ will not be necessary. The O/C'rs are getting Q6600s on the P35 from their default 2.4 ghz up to 3.6 with $40 air coolers. Consider the magnitude of what's happening here for 250 bucks: Clock for clock, Intel's new C2D can do about 2X the work of our old P4s . . . and there's 4 cores. Clock for clock, compared to an old P4 @ 3.6 ghz, that's an 8X increase in CPU processing power. Let's see, 8 X 3.6 = the same as a 28 ghz P4? Remember we thought the move from a P4 2.8 to 3.8 ghz was a HUGE deal? It was . . . and a $1000 pop. Add this to the biggest, baddest 8800 a human being can afford, this rig should be enough to last for a some time. $250 for a CPU, $150 for a mobo and $60 for 2 gigs of decent ram. It can certainly get cheaper, but at some point, one might say, "OK. that's fine!"

[craig_read 43]

I think I'm gonna wait.. there is no point in going for FSX now.. nothing runs it well.. so wait till later in the year when the hardware catches up.. 2nd gen video cards and the new quad cores with 1600 FSB is the way to go I think.. Stick in 2GB of fast ram and bobs your uncle..CheersCraig

[michal 44]

>2nd gen video cards and the new>quad cores with 1600 FSB is the way to go I thinkWhen is this stuff coming? Both AMD and Intel?I have really been out of the loop as far as hardware is concerned.Michael J.

[Guest D17S]

Time-line wise, AMD will match the Intel mid/high Q series for the Christmas season with their "Barcelona" quad core. It will (finally!) provide some good competition for Intel's currently exiting technology, but no more . . . and Intel has already responded to the threat.Intel's current price drop announcement occurred within hours of AMD's announcement that they will be "unleashing" their quadie later this year. Intel said "Oh yea? Can you sell it for $266?" This is a brutal war . . . and great fun to watch!Intel's next big move will be to an AMD style point-to-point hypertransport architecture. Intel's Front Side Buss (FSB)is going away. Intel copied AMD's processor technology with their C2D design and they are working toward doing it again with their new system designs. When's this new design going to be released? Consider the timing sequence we might expect: The current chip (the P35 Bearlake) releases today. This is a traditional FSB design. We can expect at least a year until Intel's new "Hyperbuss." design is available. At best, it will be part of the next chipset. It may even be the one after that. Info is real scarce here, but Intel's FSB IS going away, eventually. However even with Intel's current FSB scheme, clock for clock, C2Ds work 20% faster that an identically clocked FX-anything. Old fashioned as it is, Intel's FSB works pretty well. Even right now, a C2D/FSB system is faster than a FX/Hypertransport system. The P35's new North bridge memory controller improves on even this. It will cost at least anther year to get an Intel Hyperbuss system . . . and it will be just another evolutionary step. IMO, this will be worth buying at the time, but it is not worth waiting for.Waiting for FSB speed? The 965/975/680i mnobos are all topping out at 500 mhz FSB (QDR 2000 FSB). A 2000 mhz FSB is availiable right now.The P35 bios' FSB "speedometer" goes to 700mhz (QDR 2800) Geeze, that ought to do it! Actually a Q6600 overclocked to 3.4 will be running on a FSB of about (377X4)= 1500 mhz. If they release a Q6600 on a 1333 FSB, the O/C to 3.4 ghz will take the FSB to (485x 4)= 1950 mhz FSB. Waiting for FSB increases from Intel: 1) Probably will not happen at all. The FSB is going away and, 2) Those FSB speeds are available now. If you want to go fast, zoom-on right now.Intel stole all their basic current technology from from AMD, but them tromped then with execution, both in price and performance. At the high end, there is no competition. Below $250, AMD competes perfectly. Above $250, AMD has nothing that can touch Intel. For the next 6 months, this won't change. 'Round Xmas, Barcelona will probably become another a upper-mid level competitor . . . like the X2900. It seems the playing field is pretty much set for the next year. I don't see any reason to wait beyond July 22nd.GPUs:GPUs have been re-defined buy the Stream Processor Unit (SPU) The 8800GTX has 96 of these things and the X2900 had 320. If these guys can ever get their drivers to work right, these are already monsters. The next generation of GPUs will be like AMD's Fusion (AMD is STILL leading the way!). It will be a CPU/GPU combo chip. The days of seperate CPU GPU systems will be over on 2-3 years. THIS will be the Next-gen GPU. My systems last me about that long. A "next" system will be based on a dual, Octi-core, hyperbuss / GPGPU (General Purpose GPU system. This GPGPU will cost me $250 and the Mobo $150. If you are going to wait from here, 3 years is the next big thing. It will always get cheaper, but the best that will be available for the next 3 years is here, right now. Go for it!

[michal 44]

Sam, thanks for this thorough briefing.Michael J.http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/9320/apollo17vf7.jpg