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DaveS

Thinking about taking the plunge to FSX

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Hello, I was just wondering if someone could tell me if my computer specs are adequate to run FSX with all the bells and whistles. After seeing the J41 preview, I am thinking more and more about FSX. I currently run FS9 with many addons and the MD-11 works great, but am worried things won't be as smooth in FSX.Window XP 32-bitIntel Core2 Duo E8400 @ 3.01 Ghz4 Gb RAM800 Gb Hard driveNvidia 9800 GT graphicsThanks Dave S.

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Hello, I was just wondering if someone could tell me if my computer specs are adequate to run FSX with all the bells and whistles.
This is the question I would ask instead - can I run FSX with the settings that would be equivalent to eye candy of the FS9 with all its bells and whistles. The answer to this - absolutely yes. You even should be able to run FSX quite adequately with visual eye candy considerable exceeding what you could have got out of FS9. It is unfair to demand all the "bells and whistles" (assuming sliders to the max) out of FSX while you are clearly satisfied with what FS9 offers.

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Lately I've been doing a lot of GA flying with all my sliders on max, and my specs are just under yours. When ever Im flying something a little more complex, I have settings set in the mid range. Make the switch - as you can see with PMDG's J41, this is the future of this sim.Blake

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Hello, I was just wondering if someone could tell me if my computer specs are adequate to run FSX with all the bells and whistles. After seeing the J41 preview, I am thinking more and more about FSX. I currently run FS9 with many addons and the MD-11 works great, but am worried things won't be as smooth in FSX.Window XP 32-bitIntel Core2 Duo E8400 @ 3.01 Ghz4 Gb RAM800 Gb Hard driveNvidia 9800 GT graphicsThanks Dave S.
Well Dave, my system is very similar to yours - except I only have 2Gb ram. I run fsx on it with Vista and have so far had very, very, few issues with it. I run mine 32bit and hq graphics, the cpu copes very well. Even the 747X runs fine 99.9% of the time (2 memory/graphical oddities in probably 500+ flights so ok for me).You obviously know the limitations of FSX weather (absolute %^&) lol. I run plenty of addon scenery as well, so all joy here. I would limit the water effects, as this helped me a lot: found when I had to alter with an addon.Won't cope with EVERYTHING at 100% but then I doubt is any pc would at this time, but better than when FS9 when it was released as cpu's were around 500Mhz then. I still run fs9 if I want to use weather, but fsx has more varied views, both have good and bad points and can exist together just like me and 'er indoors lol.John Ellison

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My system is kinda equal yours (My CPU is even older)ASUS P5E MoboASUS HD 4870Intel E6870 3 GHZ500 samsung HDDI run FSX perfectly with all sliders maxed out, I get 15 FPS on the ground and 20 in the air. I'd say go for it!- Philip

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Come on board Dave!!! Their are some incredible add-ons, scenery/weather that you'll love +The J41!!!

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Thanks for the responses everyone...I think I'm gonna go for it!Dave S
Some advice to keep performance up.... Low water settings, No freeway traffic, and use the FPS limiter applet....You'll really enjoy FSX :(

Bert

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Some advice to keep performance up.... Low water settings, No freeway traffic, and use the FPS limiter applet....
He should really read Nick_N's FSX performance tuneup manual. It is an eye opener.

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im getting a new system in a few days and i decided to take the second plunge and use XP 64bit, just so i can use more than 4 gbs or memory and eliminate OOMs....i suggest you consider this as well but make sure that 64bit drivers are available for ALL your hardware.

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Hello, I was just wondering if someone could tell me if my computer specs are adequate to run FSX with all the bells and whistles. After seeing the J41 preview, I am thinking more and more about FSX. I currently run FS9 with many addons and the MD-11 works great, but am worried things won't be as smooth in FSX.Window XP 32-bitIntel Core2 Duo E8400 @ 3.01 Ghz4 Gb RAM800 Gb Hard driveNvidia 9800 GT graphicsThanks Dave S.
If I had your hardrive I would consider ADDING FSX to my computer with my FS9. Right now I only have 6GB of space left on my internal hardrive and 20GB left on my external harddrive. This is 5 years of add-ons. Carl Perry

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Guest fyrestrtr

Just some quick thoughts on general performance. The hard disk size doesn't matter as much as the spindle speed. Anything above 7200 RPMs should be sufficient. Anything below and you'll forever be waiting on the blinking HDD light to stop. The hard disk had traditionally been the main bottleneck of the system. All else considered, it is by far the slowest component of any computer setup.For comparison, I have the following:Intel T7800 Core2Duo @ 2.6Ghz - this is a mobile processor4 GB RAM160 GB 7200 RPM Disk256 nVidia Quadro FX 570m (its a "workstation" graphics card, not a gaming card)Intel Turbo RAM 1 GBVisa 64bit SP1FS9 - with all things maxed out, runs like hot knife through butter at my laptop's max resolution of 1680x1050 at 32bit color depth. I don't run a lot of scenery addons, just aircraft addons. Couldn't be happier.FSX - with "moderate" settings (I don't need it fully maxed out), runs at the same "perceived" speed as FS9, with the same level of detail.X-Plane 9.0 - runs very smooth, almost better than FS9.I don't bother with the exact frame rates, etc. because that's just too many numbers, I usually go by how the game actually plays. For me, its FS9 runs great; FSX runs good. I don't mind playing either, but I prefer FS9 because I'm in love with the PMDG 737.You should consider upgrading to Vista 64bit and FSX SP1+SP2 (which will make FSX "large address aware"), what that means is that the artificial 2GB limit on RAM will be removed from FSX and it will be able to use more RAM as desired. You won't see any marked difference in FS9, but I assume that with your specs, FS9 is running as best as it can. Going 64bit on Vista will also ensure that you are fully utilizing the 4GB of RAM. In the future if you want to increase that amount, then you will have to go to a 64bit system. 32bit systems are limited to the amount of RAM that can be used by the system.Don't bother with XP 64bit, as that's full of incompatible drivers and other headaches.

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My only advice for you is 2 investments in scenery Real Environment Xtreme (REX 2.0 to be released very soon) and Ground Environment X, its all you need, and you will be absolutely amazed. Also look into some of the tweaks for the fsx cfg file, I use the autogen tweak where you can define the max number of objects in a terrain cell for trees and buildings independently. I find with Ground environment you can turn the autogen down low and it still looks very busy inside the sim, and REX will just simply blow your mind. Good luck


 

 

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My only advice for you is 2 investments in scenery Real Environment Xtreme (REX 2.0 to be released very soon) and Ground Environment X, its all you need, and you will be absolutely amazed.
Fully agreed.

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I recently took the plunge and moved up to FSX...well I guess added FSX. It will be a while before I can replace my full stable of PMDG birds and such from FS9. I have the same processor as you, but only an 8600GT and 2 GB of RAM on Windows XP 32 bit. I get 20 fps (locked at that) virtually everywhere. I do slow to 16-20 fps in my "test" area which is FSDT KLAS with the LDS 767 in VC with AI (WOAI packages) >70% and all ground traffic >30%. Most of my sliders are pretty far to the right.Of interesting note, I (like others) found that after installing REX and GEX, I got an increase in 5-6 fps (cumulative, not each). I hear this is attributed to more efficient textures. So not only does it look better, but runs better.


Eric Szczesniak

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