Hi folks,As you can see from FS9(X)-rig specs below, I currently have an AMD 4000+ single-core OC to about 2.6 with 3GB of XMS RAM and a 7900GT-OC. To date, FS9 is smooth, locked at 20FPS with all the add-ons a very dense AI.With the C2D appearently spanking AMD lately, and the recent news that FSX SP1 will make better use of multiple cores, I am considering an upgrade for various reasons, after the Intel price-cuts on 4/22, to something along the lines of an EVGA 680i with a C2D E6700 OC'd and 2GB of XMS DDR2 8500C5 RAM.My question is, comparing apples to apples, has anyone else made a similar upgrade? From AMD 4000+ to C2D E6700 or E6600? Did you test FS9 (or FSX) both before and after and notice any significant improvements?FWIW, I intend to keep the 7900GT-OC until the FSX-DirectX10 patch arrives.Thanks for replying with any relevent experiences you have had.

Ahhh yeah, I haven't made the upgrade myself but you'll see a nice improvement.I had my SD 3700+ OCed to past 4000 speeds and though FSX was running okay, I saw other people's FSX with FPS and their experiences with the 6700/6600 and it smoked my experience....If I had to guess I'd say at least a 20% improvement especially once sp1 comes out....that's a very conservative estimate. I'd gues in the 30-50 rangeGood luck with your build, tell us how it goes!

My previous system was a 3000+ @ 2.35GHz (~3700+), X800 XT and 1G DDR400. My current system, per my sig, is a C2D E6400 @ 3.2GHz, 7900 GTO and 2G DDR2 800. Addons are also listed below.In FS9, my FPS on the default flight used to be around 23 FPS, and with the upgrade they are around 45 FPS, ie. nearly 100% boost. I now run FS9 locked at 40 FPS and it generally stays there.FSX saw a similar improvement, but it was still not enough for what I thought the new sim with improved graphics should be on a fast CPU. As such, FSX has sat on the shelf for the last month or two while I patiently wait for SP1 to come out and hopefully give it the performance it needs and deserves.Personally, if I were you and are as happy as you suggest you are with FS9 performance and you use FS9 as your main sim, I'd wait for SP1 to come out and see whether it delivers on its supposed performance boost and dual core usage. If it doesn't, you may be better off to wait for the next gen C2D (Penryn?) or whatever AMD has in the works and see if more horsepower is the answer.Gary

Well, don't know if this'll help, but here goes...Previous system was an AMD 4200+ (non-OC'ed), Asus A8n-SLI Premium, BFG7800GT 512MB, 3GB DDR400, WinXP Pro. Ran FSX, frame rates locked at 25, and generally got in the 12-17fps range, depending on where/what, etc. Also, most sliders were no more than halfway right, and autogen was turned off. 3DMark06 scores were usually around 2900.New system: C2D E6600 @ 2.4, EVGA680i, EVGA8800GTS 640MB, 2GB PC6700 DDR2. Dual-boot with Vista 32bit and XP Pro; on XP side, generally get frames in the mid-20's to low 30's. Vista side, mostly in the mid to upper 20's. Locked frames at 30, and generally am right about there on the XP side...When first loaded, I was getting frames in the upper 30's to lower 40's, but then I started moving sliders more to the right. Bottom line, I can run the sim with much more detail and still get better frame rates. 3DMark06 scores have jumped up to around 9800. I'm working up the courage ;) to try some OC'ing, so we'll see what happens then. My plan is to run this for awhile, until the quads start coming down in price, then I'll upgrade to one of them...

I think..there is alreayd a new set of chips that are better than the E6600 and E6700. Or maybe its coming out soon? These have FSB1330 or something and smaller size. I am not exactly sure.. You may want to check.Man..a few months ago.. I built a E6600 PC and I thought I knew what was hot...but now its gone past me.Manny

>>Man..a few months ago.. I built a E6600 PC and I thought I>knew what was hot...but now its gone past me.>>I hear ya. I am a little out-of-the loop right now. I expect toward the end of this year, when I start rebuilding my fs rig, that I will "re-gain" all the knowledge through the careful research I always do.Have you noticed, I have gotten dumber in the hardware forum. hahaFor example, I can't comment on the Al's proposed upgrade, other than to say, "It'll be faster, man". :) In all seriousness, the San Diego cpu's (which Al has) are very good in FSX. But an E6600 or E6700 would be a moderate boost.I think Intel is going to do some price dropping here in the next few weeks, so Al if you are reading this, you might take that into consideration if you make the decision to do it. RhettAMD 3700+ (@2310 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2 GB Corsair XMS 2.5-3-3-8 (1T), WD 250 gig 7200 rpm SATA2, CoolerMaster Praetorian case

OK, you guys are killin' my credit-card here, LOL! Probably get the itchy NewEgg-finger sometime early next month.Yup, fully aware of the 4/22 price-cuts, mabye 25 or 30% or there abouts. I just wanted to make sure that I would actually notice a difference between the old and new rigs. Good thing I work with bunch of developer and integrator geeks who like to buy my "slightly" used stuff, LOL...

I also had a amd [email protected],1gb ram,x850xt,which i replaced with a [email protected],2gb corsair dominator 8500, evga 680i rev-a1 and had to use the same x850xt card.for me i have seen hardly any difference,i still have the same stutters,frames are not steady at all and the sliders are not close to the right,i keep thinking maybe it is the video card.thats just my experience so far.regards,tony.

I'm waiting for Barcelona. From the leaks, it looks like it will fly. Won't know until next month or early June.

hmm wonder if the Barcelona will beat the Penryn?RhettAMD 3700+ (@2310 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2 GB Corsair XMS 2.5-3-3-8 (1T), WD 250 gig 7200 rpm SATA2, CoolerMaster Praetorian case

It doesn't have to. Barcelona will be here in June. Penryn will be here in 1Q 2008 at the earliest. And Penryn is an evolutionary step beyond C2D, not revolutionary. It still uses Intel's front side bus, not the future CSI bus (point to point like AMD has been doing for 4 years).Let's wait and see the benchmarks in May or June. Barcelona is looking phat.