I just recently upgraded from:P5B DeluxeE6600 @ 3,33Ghz OCCorsair XMS2 DDR2-800 4096 KittoP5Q DeluxeE8600 @ 4,53Ghz OCCorsair Dominator DDR2-1066 4096 KitBoth systems have/had 8800GT installed and the rest of the hardware (settings Nhancer: Combined 8xS, AF 16x, Gamma Correction, Supersampling, Vsync Off)...and I have been absolutely blown by results.I created 4 Benchmark situation files in my old FS9 system, and tested them 3 times. Benchmark 1 and 2 were created with cumulus clouds in mind on two different fields, and benchmark 3 and 4 as scenery tests without clouds. And here are comparisions:Old System:Bench 1: 29,9 fpsBench 2: 26,8 fpsBench 3: 29,9 fpsBench 4: 30,2 fpsNew system WITHOUT overclock (3,33Ghz) and memory at DDR2-800 speed (should yield fairly similar results??):Bench 1: 30,1 fpsBench 2: 27,2 fpsBench 3: 39,8 fps (!!!)Bench 4: 51,5 fps (!!!)New system WITH overclock (4,53Ghz, DDR2-1068Mhz):Bench 1: 42 fps (!!!)Bench 2: 32,8 fpsBench 3: 68,9 fps (!!!)Bench 4: 60,3 fps (!!!)Info:Aircraft: Digital Aviation Fokker-100Bench 1: Freeware LOWL with heavy cumulus clouds (2 layers of overcast full resolution (Flight Environment) cumulus clouds)Bench 2: FlyTampa LOWW with heavy cumulus clouds (same clouds here)Bench 3: ImagineSim KATL with clear skiesBench 4: UK2000 Heathrow Extreme with clear skiesExternal view zoom 0.31, distance about 2000ft, view down over the airport.From these benchmarks, its fairly easy to see that the new CPU and possibly the RAM speed, play a huge role. And some also stated in some posts that cache on the CPU doesn't bring any performance, I can't really see what other big thing on the cpu except the cache and the fact that its 45nm and not 65nm tech could bring such performance step-up.It is clearly visibile that also the overclocking of the CPU brings the significant speed increase.Comparing the old OC-sys and the new OC-sys, Bench 3 yields in over 200% performance increase.Also, comparing Bench 1 and 2 over the systems, its clear to see that clouds are NOT a CPU thing, they clearly depend on some other factor, possibly GPU and its settings. Though I do have pretty high settings in Nhancer, I also want the quality. Intereseting would be to see some comparisons of GPUs in heavy clouds with high Nhancer settings.Some detailed sysinfo:http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/194280.jpghttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/194281.jpgI think that about wraps it up.

Try with Supertransparacy AA OFF in cloudy situations. I found it helped a lot with the framerates.I'm also considering upgrading to the e8500 or e8600 so this was interesting.

4.53 GHz! Wow, good job on that.

Where did you find Lavalys EVEREST mem benchmarker? Did you purchase that or is that some freeware version?Also, I assume you are running 4.53 ghz on water?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 think it's a 30day test version, I don't know where I got it, I downloaded it from some googled website (just saw it on xtremesystems as a benchmarking and info tool).Yes, of course it's water cooling - air wouldn't be able to do that (see my sig) :-)

Did you have water cooling on your old system?

use Windows XP oder VISTA?http://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/pmdg_744F.jpgI am deaf. Though i try my very best my linguistic possibilities are limited: i will make mistakes -

>Did you have water cooling on your old system? Yes, everything was kept the same, except those 3 components.>use Windows XP oder VISTA?Vista32, old and new. Didn't even reinstall OS. Just updated chipset drivers, device drivers all just reinstalled automatically, and everything is working just peachy.

>I think it's a 30day test version, I don't know where I got>it, I downloaded it from some googled website (just saw it on>xtremesystems as a benchmarking and info tool).>>Yes, of course it's water cooling - air wouldn't be able to do>that (see my sig) :-)I looked at your sig and must have missed that... ;)If you're running 4.53 on a Penryn then of course it is going to be awesome. The E6600 is a 1st generation Core2...fast, but kind of dated now. Congrats on breaking 4.5 ghz, that's something else.I'll look harder for that version of Everest. I keep seeing people benching mem latency with Everest and the last freeware Everest that I know of, was released in 2005, and it did not do a latency or throughput test. So you all are using something different.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

Thanks for info! But, it (Windows VISTA) work some not FS9 with 4GB? I thing, that FS9 work RAM max 2GB/3GB. Can work with RAM 4GB, too? regardsebastianhttp://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/pmdg_744F.jpgI am deaf. Though i try my very best my linguistic possibilities are limited: i will make mistakes -

>Thanks for info! But, it (Windows VISTA) work some not FS9>with 4GB? I thing, that FS9 work RAM max 2GB/3GB. Can work>with RAM 4GB, too? >Windows Vista CAN work with 4GB, just doesn't see all of 4GB. Mine sees 3,3GB, rest is being used for system or something, I don't really care...I know its working good, FS9 uses less memory under Vista, and thats OK with me.If you are better with German, PM me.

>I looked at your sig and must have missed that... ;)Don't be too hard on yourself ;) I HAD it in my sig, I then noticed I removed it (I don't really know why...), now I put it again hehehe...>If you're running 4.53 on a Penryn then of course it is going>to be awesome. The E6600 is a 1st generation Core2...fast,>but kind of dated now. Congrats on breaking 4.5 ghz, that's>something else.Yeah, the performance boost is just incredible. I know it was one of the first dualcores, but still, much more than I expected it to be...Sorry that I can't help you more with Everest, I already removed it cuz I only wanted to test those settings. I usually don't benchmark my system on daily basis :D