I found this link while doing research for a new system:http://blogs.intel.com/technology/2008/01/...ek_in_the_i.phpThe part of the article that really caught my attention was where they had FSX running. There was a flight pictured with the A380 and the paragraph about it was rather interesting. It said:"For those of you who are tempted to leave comments about how 8 cores are just not necessary for gaming - check out the Skulltrail CPU utilisation while flying an Aribus A380 in the latest version of Microsoft Flight Simulator."So does this mean that FSX will actually use all 8 cores and actually stress them all heavily as well? It did'nt really show or say anything about the FPS they were getting with that setup but I'm very curious about the FPS they got especially with 85% utilization of 8 cores. Any input? Thank you.

Superfortress. I don't want you to get misconceptions about what you saw.FSX will use as many cores as you will have, but NOT directly for raw framerate-tasks. It will use the cores for terrain loading, primarily. Other things, not so much. I say "directly" because there are indirect framerate benefits of having 4 or 8 or whatever cores.Having many cores will help aside from terrain loading, with running multiple apps concurrently (like a weather program. Like a flight tracker. etc.)But also keep in mind, any rig you build--Skulltrail or whatever--can now be built with an eye towards FS11. And FS11 surely will be threaded out more fully than any previous version of FS. This is good for us.RhettAMD 3700+ (@2585 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2gb Corsair XMS 3-3-3-8 (1T), WD 150 gig 10000rpm Raptor, WD 250gig 7200rpm SATA2, Seagate 120gb 5400 rpm external HD, CoolerMaster Praetorian

>But also keep in mind, any rig you build--Skulltrail or>whatever--can now be built with an eye towards FS11. And FS11>surely will be threaded out more fully than any previous>version of FS. This is good for us.>Ok then in your opinion, if one was shopping for a brand new system right now to run FSX really well and money was not a factor, what would you get? Also please keep in mind that I do not wish to build my own system.Lastly, if you were take a stab at when FS11 might expected to show up what would you say?Thank you.

>>Ok then in your opinion, if one was shopping for a brand new>system right now to run FSX really well and money was not a>factor, what would you get? Also please keep in mind that I do>not wish to build my own system.I'm not well-informed on off-the-shelf computer systems to tell you...other than for business app use which is the type of thing I study for work. We tend to get Dells but I wouldn't recommend them for an FS computer.In my opinion, your money would be better-spent on paying someone to build one, with components picked out by people here in the FS Hardware Forum.But if you must buy off-the-shelf, keep in mind that typically those boxes are going to come LOADED UP with unnecessary memory-hogging processes. If that is the case, you'll have a lot of extra work to do to get the computer into the green pasture of good FS performance.>Lastly, if you were take a stab at when FS11 might expected to>show up what would you say?>I would wild-guess and say 2 years from now will put us in the ballpark timeframe. ;)That's a wild wild guess, and don't hold me to it :)RhettAMD 3700+ (@2585 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2gb Corsair XMS 3-3-3-8 (1T), WD 150 gig 10000rpm Raptor, WD 250gig 7200rpm SATA2, Seagate 120gb 5400 rpm external HD, CoolerMaster Praetorian

>if one was shopping for a brand new>system right now to run FSX really well and money was not a>factor, what would you get? A no brainer would be the Asus Maximus Extreme motherboard, Intel QX9650 3 GHz Quad Core2Duo, 4 GBy DDR3 from Corsair, and ATI Radeon 3870X2 or Nvidia GeForce 8800 Ultra video adapters, for starters. Get a good power supply as well. Many other variants also exist.>Also please keep in mind that I do not wish to build my own system.That

>I would wild-guess and say 2 years from now will put us in the ballpark timeframe. ;)http://www.tomshardware.com/2008/02/08/int...rt_3/page3.html"Performance Analysis 2 Years Too Early And No Software Support"Has someone been peeking at Tom's Hardware? :-O and ;-)Rob O.

>>Has someone been peeking at Tom's Hardware? :-O and ;-)>>Rob O.The two years thing is FS11...not Skulltrail...RhettAMD 3700+ (@2585 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2gb Corsair XMS 3-3-3-8 (1T), WD 150 gig 10000rpm Raptor, WD 250gig 7200rpm SATA2, Seagate 120gb 5400 rpm external HD, CoolerMaster Praetorian

I am *EXTREMELY* curious myself Superfortress...I have as yet to see anyone here post who actually has Clovertown or Harpertown (with ANY 5000 series chipset). Am especially curious in light of the Tom's Hardware review on Skulltrail (am so | | | that they tested with everything under the sun but FSX!).*SIGH*... Maybe I can bribe a friend in the Playchess Engine Room (buy them FSX) if they'll run Gary's (RESET MCP ALT) FSXMark07.(Btw Rhett... sorry about that... I'm getting terrible at taking my time reading these posts and am upset about the tom's skulltrail review and and and...)Rob O.