Hi folks,I posted this in the Hardware forum earlier but it doesn't seem to be getting much of a look. Would any of you hardware gurus be willing to take a quick peek and lend any knowledge and advice you may have to help aid my decision? You can go to the post here:http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=sho..._id=13554&page=Thanks in advance!Gord NoseworthySt. John's, NLCanada

Darn! I think I just realized that maybe I posted my hardware post in the wrong forum? I didn't notice the subforum under MS Flight Simulators for Hardware...Doh!! x( Oh well, I included the link above. Hopefully someone here will take a peek.Cheers,Gord NoseworthySt. John's, NLCanada

I just replied to you Gord,Copied here for ease of reading:Even in single core applications, the E6300 will spank your 2.8Ghz P4 into the middle of next week.Check this out:http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2795andhttp://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2802Regards,Glenn

Wow! That is quite a difference for sure. It's amazing to me how one core on the Core 2 Duo running at 1.86GHZ can outperform...or spank...;-) my wee little P4 2.8GHz processor. Not sure if my P4 is into spanking, but here goes nothing! :-lolThanks for the prompt reply Glenn. Your input is much appreciated. By the way, I like your system specs. That is exactly what I had in mind to get....but then the wife stepped in! Ouch! What's cheaper I wonder? An upgrade or a divorce.... LOLCheers,Gord NoseworthySt. John's, NLCanada**An avid simmer and real world pilot**

In theory, the dual core should knock the socks off the single core. However there is enough evidence in the various threads here and elsewhere that would suggest that there is a real problem with FSX running under dual core architecture. There are some very conflicting polarized opinions on all this though.My situation is much like yours. I am in the process of upgrading from my old P4C800-E AGP-based mobo. I am going with a P5N32-SLI SE Deluxe with an EVGA 7950GT KO videocard. To satisfy my own curiosity about FSX (and FS9) performance I will be testing a dual core (E6600) versus a single core (P4 3.6) in this setup. I have just acquired all the parts and will be doing my build within the next week.I have a Wideview setup with 3 views. My intent is to upgrade for each view. So as I work through this I will be able to perform side-by-side on-the-fly comparison testing to take into account exact setting and precise location comparisons for each cpu.Fred

Thanks Fred. Sounds like you will have a nice system once all is put together. You might very well have everything done and tested by the time I order and receive my parts. I would be interested in hearing from you on your results. Right now I have the bad case of blurries and I have to turn down a lot of things to run smoothly. I attribute this mostly to my 128MB video card and lack of RAM. I guess common sense would tell me that I should get much better performance with going to a Core 2 and my new ATI X1900XT 512MB card.Now...where's my Visa? ;-)Have a great Thanks Giving weekend!Cheers,Gord NoseworthySt. John's, NLCanada**Avid simmer and real world pilot**

dont count on it with fsx, please do a lot of research on these forums before parting with your hard earned cash

Hi there,For the past 4 or 5 months, all I have been doing is perusing these forums and soaking up every bit of information I can. I know an upgrade right now won't be the be all - end all of FSX performance issues, but I'm hoping it will help it perform better than what it is doing now. To get rid of the blurries, I assume I will need a better video card with more memory. Right now all I have is a 128MB card. I also only have 1GB of RAM, so hard drive activity is somewhat high. For $249.99, I probably can't go wrong for now. I have a great video card already, just need the mobo to use it. Hopefully Phil will be presenting us with some much anticipated good news for FSX after the holiday.Cheers, Gord NoseworthySt. John's, NLCanada

I almost bought a e6600 board and chip yesterday..But...I thought about it some more, and decided to wait a bit.It was only on sale for one day, so my chance is over nowat the reduced price.. "$279 for board and chip".I know in theory the e6600 should mangle my P4 at 3.15 ghz,even using a single core. But... I decided being that the only place I'm getting slow rates is at big city airports,and the duo cores seem to not do much better at those places, I'll wait a bit. I guess they do some better at the heavyairports, but I wasn't sure it was worth the money if I'm only gonna gain maybe 5? fps plus or minus.. Course, the newchip might do better than I think.. Hard to say without trying one. Regardless of how they run FSX, the core 2 duo'sseem to be the bad boys on the block at this time, so that'sprobably what I'll eventually get.. But I'm biding my time fer maybe the quad core.. One thing.. The E6???'s overclockvery well in general. Even a lowly 6300-6400 can be clockedup a good bit. Some say the advantage of 4 meg cache vs 2 is overrated.. But I don't know how that applies to FSX..The prescott I'm running has 1 meg..MK

>In theory, the dual core should knock the socks off the single core. >However there is enough evidence in the various threads here and >elsewhere that would suggest that there is a real problem with FSX >running under dual core architecture.It does knock the socks off and then some.The only problem is the second core is being used so little.... but it is being used from what I've seen.If you want to get get the best performance from FSX ,the latest Intel Dual core do the business at much lower clock rates.I Went from a P4 Northwood @ 3.3 to an E6600 overclocked to 3.2and I'm getting nearly 3X the frame rate.Its not about dual core but how well even just running one core It performs in FSX.These chips run cool and gave me the2X+ improvement , not had this jump in performance since the late 90'sJohn