Will it be worth replacing my E6700 CPU with the E8500? What performance gains can I expect to see with FSX?I have seen the E8500 prices drop to $190 which seems like a good deal!My present system consists of:Intel D975X BX2 MB with Intel duo E6700 CPU (Not Overclocked)4 GB Corsair PC800 memorynVidia 8800GTX VideoFSX on a WD Raptor 10K RPM 150GB DriveVista Home Premium 32bit on Hitachi 500gb 7200rpm Any comments or recommendations will be appreciated.Pete S.

Yeah I spose, as long as you overclock it.

Yes- and I'm one of the early ones who paid $300- worth every penny!Best-Carl F. Avari-Cooper BAW0225http://online.vatsimindicators.net/980091/523.png| XP Pro SP3 - FSGS System Unification | 2 x APC UPS | Coolermaster Stacker 830 SE | Gigabyte P35 DS3R | e8500 @ 4gHz | Tuniq Tower 120 | EVGA 8800GT 512MB | Sony 40" Bravia XBR | Creative X-Fi Fatal1ty | Bose Companion 5 | 2 x 1 GB Corsair XMS2 | 2 x 320GB WD Caviar RAID 0 | Corsair HX620W PS | CH Products Yoke-Pedals-Throttle Quadrant | Aerosoft 747MCP-EFIS-EICAS |

Wow, $190! For that price, I'd say yes, as long as your mb can support it.I am like Carl, I paid about $300 for mine a couple of months ago. It sure chews through FSX though.RhettFS box: E8500 (@ 3.80 ghz), AC Freezer 7 Pro, ASUS P5E3 Premium, BFG 8800GTX 756 (nVidia 169 WHQL), 4gb DDR3 1600 Patriot Cas7 7-7-7-20 (2T), PC Power 750, WD 150gb 10000rpm Raptor, Seagate 500gb, Silverstone TJ09 case, Vista Ultimate 64ASX Client: AMD 3700+ (@ 2.6 ghz), 7800GT

>Wow, $190! The new E8600 (3.3GHz) and the new Q9650 will most likely drive that price down even futher. The E8500 will most likely be down around the price of the E8400 ($175.00) sometime in August. http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetai...ctCode=10008955ASUS RAMPAGE FORMULA (Intel X48 chipset) BIOS 403Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 w/Thermalright Ultra-120 ExtremeOCZ Titanium XTC 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)EVGA GTX 280 FTW (177.66 Drivers)Creative X-Fi Fatal1ty2x Western Digital Raptor 74GB (RAID 0) - Vista Ultimate 64 Bit/SP12x Western Digital Raptor 74GB (RAID 0)

$190 is practically lunch money.I remember spending $550 for a 486DX2/66. RhettFS box: E8500 (@ 3.80 ghz), AC Freezer 7 Pro, ASUS P5E3 Premium, BFG 8800GTX 756 (nVidia 169 WHQL), 4gb DDR3 1600 Patriot Cas7 7-7-7-20 (2T), PC Power 750, WD 150gb 10000rpm Raptor, Seagate 500gb, Silverstone TJ09 case, Vista Ultimate 64ASX Client: AMD 3700+ (@ 2.6 ghz), 7800GT

I know what you mean Rhett,I paid $500+ for this E6700 about 18 months ago!And now the E8500 is $194 with free shipping at Newegg.com and this is a retail "Boxed" CPU not OEM.http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16819115036I think I'll go for it!Pete S.

>$190 is practically lunch money.>>I remember spending $550 for a 486DX2/66. I agree. In Oct.-Nov. 2006 I remember spending $1000.00 for the X6800. ASUS RAMPAGE FORMULA (Intel X48 chipset) BIOS 403Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 w/Thermalright Ultra-120 ExtremeOCZ Titanium XTC 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)EVGA GTX 280 FTW (177.66 Drivers)Creative X-Fi Fatal1ty2x Western Digital Raptor 74GB (RAID 0) - Vista Ultimate 64 Bit/SP12x Western Digital Raptor 74GB (RAID 0)

I am also thinking about to replace my E6750 for a E8400 or E8500, the price different is only Euro 10 here in The Netherlands between these cpu'sI have a Gigabyte P35-DS3 1.0 with 2x2Gb MDF 800 ram at 5-5-5-12I planned to overclock to (?) because my bios setting allowed max a setting of 400Mhz so what is the best choice and what will be the gain in fs2004 I usally fly with fs2004 over Vatsim with the Level-D 767 and only a few times within FSX and mostly smaller VFR planes.Thx...also XFX 8800 GTX and 2x Raptor 150Gb on board under Vista 64PS: I can also get the Q6600 for the same price as the E8500

What are you overclocked to now?Gary

>What are you overclocked to now?>>GaryHi Gary,I'm now using 400x8 with a max of 3,2 Ghz with the memory on 2x=800 Mhz by 5-5-5-12and giving me a gain in FPS of +/- 5 to 7 fps compared to the original 2,66 Ghz.I fly most of the time in FS9 with the Level-D 767 in Germany using the Aerosoft scenery's and in the background Vatsim/FSInn and Flightdeck Companion. No AI, only the Vatsim planes in the neighbourhood. Thru the FSInn setting rendering is dedicated to core 1 and the rest is core 0. I also use Alacrity PC to get maximum performance with minimum tasks.In and around the bigger airports like K

Looking at the rough math of such an upgrade, you should conservatively be looking at a 3.8GHz overclock of an E8500 (9.5x400). That's a 3.8/3.2 = 19% core speed increase. Factor in a 10% core efficieny increase for the new core arcitecture of the E8xx series over E6xx and that boosts it up to a 31% improvement in raw speed. Finally, in my experience raw speed increases return about 70% of that increase in actual FPS, which reduces that 31% improvement to around 21% actual FPS improvement, so lets round that off to 20%. Whether that is worth the upgrade for you is really up to you.In terms of blurry reduction, I don't think you will see any great improvement as I believe the FS9 engine is the limiting factor here. On my rig @ 3.5GHz I still get blurries in FS9 at times whereas in FSX I am relatively blurry free. I don't think any mega processor speed will change this for FS9.Personally, if I were you I'd stick with what you have.Gary

Thanks Gary for your support, if it's not solving the fs9 issue, there is no advantage ideed for me to upgrade now FSX is running blurry free....Cheers.

I say YES! I recently upgraded to an e8500. Got some g.skillz pc-1066 DDR2 and a Rampage Formula MB, along with a EVGA 8800GTS OC. Oh yeah, and a nice Thermaltake air heatsink paired with a great 120mm fan and I have an EASY and STABLE OC of 4.3 Ghz! FSX runs like a dream...with all the addons. so...YES!

That's good to hear, but does your new system resolve blurry issues you may have had with FS9? Also, your upgrade sounds like much more than a mini upgrade from an E6700 only, so perhaps that is why you consider the upgrade to be so revolutionary for you?Gary