Hardware upgrade advise

[G-YMML1 586]

Unfortuntaly, OC doesn't help (in my case) in major airports such as KORD, KJFK, EDDF or LFPG with 100% traffic, complex planes, UTX, REX and all other goodies such as ASA. I did exactly as Dan Prunier suggested for my I-920/P6T/6GB RAM and yes, I got an increase in FPS, but it's still not enough to run FSX smoothly as we can now in FS2004. After the 2 weeks of massive testing, I concluded for myself that I have no plans nor intention to move into FSX, since it's pure moral torture. The benefits of visuals are minimal, but decrease in performance is significant. Even if PMDG will not release NGX for FS2004, I will not switch to FSX, because it doesn't make any sense to fly into emplty airports with 12-15FPS in VC, if I have stable 30FPS in PMDG MD11 in overcast conditions while approaching KJFK rnwy 13 via VOR. Perhaps, when 4.5 stock frequency will be "average" frequency on the market of CPU's, so I will switch. I undertand why J41 was hot for FSX. Because, technically it's VFR flying and yes, FSX as good for VFR as it's bad for IFR. Think of it, PMDG.Sorry for this long post and touching FS2004 issue againDmitriy

[Tabs 2,790]

Unfortuntaly, OC doesn't help (in my case) in major airports such as KORD, KJFK, EDDF or LFPG with 100% traffic, complex planes, UTX, REX and all other goodies such as ASA. I did exactly as Dan Prunier suggested for my I-920/P6T/6GB RAM and yes, I got an increase in FPS, but it's still not enough to run FSX smoothly as we can now in FS2004. After the 2 weeks of massive testing, I concluded for myself that I have no plans nor intention to move into FSX, since it's pure moral torture. The benefits of visuals are minimal, but decrease in performance is significant. Even if PMDG will not release NGX for FS2004, I will not switch to FSX, because it doesn't make any sense to fly into emplty airports with 12-15FPS in VC, if I have stable 30FPS in PMDG MD11 in overcast conditions while approaching KJFK rnwy 13 via VOR. Perhaps, when 4.5 stock frequency will be "average" frequency on the market of CPU's, so I will switch. I undertand why J41 was hot for FSX. Because, technically it's VFR flying and yes, FSX as good for VFR as it's bad for IFR. Think of it, PMDG.Sorry for this long post and touching FS2004 issue againDmitriy

If you can only be happy running whatever version completely maxed out, then you're going to be waiting a long time. The fact though is that FSX even on medium to low settings is more detailed than FS9 is maxed out - there's no comparison to me once you have REX, GEX etc. I don't know why you say your FPS is so low, I do not see 12-15 flying into an empty airport, I see 30-45. Doesn't running 100% traffic produce all kinds of pileups and go-arounds and not even look realistic?I'm not sure what you mean about the J41 being "VFR flying" - it's a fully IFR-certified aircraft capable of doing almost any type of instrument approach save for the RNAV-based stuff that didn't exist yet when it was in service. (and even then you can still do it, the real plane just wouldn't have been allowed to)

[escu 0]

Well, even with my aging platform (see my initial post), I am getting 25-30 FPS with the MD11, true with lowered settings and no airport addons, only ASX and Radar Contact. My problem is the J41, which -by the way - is superb, I get around 15 FPS.Ryan and all the others: thank you all for your advises! It has been really helpfull.Regards,Cristo

[WickedClown 0]

Go for the newest xeon processor. :) In real life iam a soilder, and that means i earn money and money but cant get it away :( so i started to build up my Computer to a maximum level. I started with the newest XeonCore (Intel Xeon W3520) Why i use a processor which is mainly made for any high end server? Easy answer! Because its made for massive data transfer and very quick processing!... Normaly such cores run 24/7 at arround 70-80% load on a normal frequenz. And my core got 8 threads... I use a great custom build watercooling system and now my xeon is running @ 4.2GHz and i still can do like 100-200MHz more. For graphic i use SLI 280GTX which are doing their job pretty well! and 8GB of DDR3 ram is garantuee me enough free RAM for FSX + ADDons (very cheap prices for RAM at the moment) I use 2 Velociraptor HDDs from WD which are pretty good for FSX because of the better and quicker data transfer especially on photo real scenery and DX10 optimised scenery such like FlyTampa. Overall the costs of my system were like 1800-2000$. I know its alot but for years i worked with AMD3200+ processor. And i prefer to invest in something good than something medium/low which requieres one more update after like 6 months.

[escu 0]

Bumping up this thread as I am now (financially) closer to the computer upgrade. This is what I was thinking about:CPU: Core i7 930MOBO: Asus P6T-SERAM: 3 x 2Gb DDR3 1600Mhz (Kingston)OS: Win7 Home Premium x64I would like to receive some advise on this setup. Will this be enough?Also I have a question: I don't want to spend to much on the video card, FSX performance being limited mainly by CPU. So I thought about an ATI HD 5770... What do you think? Many thanks!Cristi

[jeffarmy771 2]

Hi Karl, Funny you ask. I was going to go into detail about that because many times people have adequate cooling but have little ventilation in their case so their fans just recirulate hot air. The only case I have use in ALL my builds (and I build systems for side work) is this one. If I had the money I would stock a wharehouse full of them. I have used every Thermaltake case there is and this case is far better than them and anything else I have ever used "for ventilation". Key points are that the PSU is mounted on the bottom and there is a massive 200mm top fan, and 2 front mounted 120mm's. Toss another on the side door blowing in and one on the back blowing out, keep it at least 8" off the back wall, preferably without hiding it in a corner and your golden. One additional benefit of the fan I got was the fact that I was able to mount it facing the rear of my chasis, so it blows the heat directly to the rear fan and out. Any other heat simply rises and is blown out by the super quiet 200mm. My 2 western digital Velociraptors are mounted in the lower section opposite one of the fron 120mm fans and since I keep my comp out of the desk corner the airflow is superb.Another thing is that my lower section of the case is quite cluttered with my cables, Corsair 1000w PSU, two velociraptors, and GTX295 and GTX 260, so to help a tad more with even more flow is I use EVGA's Precision tool to run both GPU fans at 80% (That is loud) to help when simming and heavy gaming. They defauly around 40% I believe but may turn them down now since the new cooler on the CPU is what it is and facing the way it does. My system is still pretty quiet with the exception of the video card fans. This doesn't matter to me at all since I have my headphones on all the time when at the comp anyway (plus it's still quieter than my

. Before anyone asks, the case is that one is the Thermaltake Shark and the reason it is so loud is because even with liquid cooling and no fans in the chasis, you still normally have to deal with the Radiator fans. That and the maintenance and aggravation involved in liquid cooling will keep me from ever doing a liquid cooled system again. My next venture into new technology will most likely be gas :(Also, my blood has thinned over the years so my room is quite toasty at all times 70+ F. And I still am getting (knock on wood) great temps. One thing some people do is remove the rear slots for expansion cards thinking they are increasing the circulation when in fact they're killing it, and even a liquid system should have some type of fan to keep air moving out. In my liquid system, I water cooled both video cards, the CPU and north & south bridge chipset and without any internal fans it only makes my raditor fans work that much harder.Edit: Whoops, almost forgot another important mention... Arctic 5 or better for thermal grease! And the correct amount.

Dan,What are your thoughts on ventilation for HP's Blackbird 002 case? Here is a link:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883107698

[Turbine777 13]

Looks allot like my tower, at least the fact that it has the upper fans which is a great thing to have. Surprised it took so long for more manufacturers to do it. I mean it's kind of obvious with the whole "heat rises" thing, hehe. Looks "cool" :(

[jeffarmy771 2]

Its actually an older tower, I have had that computer going on 2 yrs now. When I get home, I am upgrading everything in it but the video cards, because they were purchased right before I came over here.

[dazz 69]

I3 530, if you feel uneasy about it being a dual core (no reason to IMO), pick an I5 750 instead. you don't need tripple channel or HT for FSXAs for the GPU, go with nvidia instead, a 1GB GTX260 is fine

Bumping up this thread as I am now (financially) closer to the computer upgrade. This is what I was thinking about:CPU: Core i7 930MOBO: Asus P6T-SERAM: 3 x 2Gb DDR3 1600Mhz (Kingston)OS: Win7 Home Premium x64I would like to receive some advise on this setup. Will this be enough?Also I have a question: I don't want to spend to much on the video card, FSX performance being limited mainly by CPU. So I thought about an ATI HD 5770... What do you think? Many thanks!Cristi

[escu 0]

Triple channel memory or HT bring no benefit to FSX?What about an i7 870?Also is there a particular reason for going with NVidia instead of ATI (I liked the multi-monitor capabilities, and Dolby TrueHD bitstreaming)?

[Cras 6]

Go with nVidia. It will make your life a whole lot easier.ATIs will work ,but you need to do some tweaking to get them to work right. I do not own an ATI for that reason (and the fact that they never seemed to play nice with Adobe or Avid programs), but I have come across plenty of threads where extra steps are taken to get the shadders optimized and the VSync to work right.

[dazz 69]

an I7 870 is the same thing as a 860, but with an extra multiplier.An I7 860 is an I5 750 with HTTripple channel is overkill in general as almost nothing nowadays needs that much memory band width, and HT is useless for FSX tooThe reason to choose nvidia is that their cards will work out of the box in FSX. Some ATI drivers have the AF bugged (old ones) and you will see a performance hit in thick clouds (use bojote's shader mod 3.0 to solve that)but the most imprtant thing is that mid range cards like the 5770 will struggle at high levels of AA (8x) while a GTX260 will handle that with no problems.

[escu 0]

CPU: Intel I5 750 (or 760)MOBO: Asus P7P55DRAM: 4GB Video: Nvidia GTX460 1GbDoes this sound better?I just want to ask one more time, just to be 100% certain: at the same frequency there is no boost in performance between an i5 and and i7 processor (no benefits from using DDR3 memory and HT).. Is there any point going for more RAM? (6 or 8 GB) Is there any point in using DDR3 RAM? I noticed DDR2 RAM frequencies only go up to 800Mhz...Thanks,Cristi

[iainsmith 9]

Dear Captains,I would like to make a small upgrade to the configuration below. My FSX runs decently with the MD11 in 2d cockpit (25-30 FPS) but not with the J41 (15 FPS).I dont have the money right now to upgrade to a new i7 platforms so I was thinking about upgrading the processor to a Q9650 quad. What do you guys think?Is it worth it? Is there a better upgrade I can make?

Contrary to what others have said I went from a Core2 Duo E7400 to a Core2 Quad Q9650 and found it worthwhile. I got some extra frames in the JS41 but even when the frame rate comes down to the 14 or 15 I was getting before or lower it is noticeably smoother.I didn't expect to see any improvement in FS9 which I use most but I used to get periods during a flight of severe stuttering. That is not noticeable now.Of course, your experience/perception may be different from mine.Iain Smith

[Big_Les 1]

Financially, I don't think an i7 is worth the extra bucks. You can over clock an i5 750 quite easily to 3.8 Ghz..... FSX is heavily dependant on CPU core speeds and FPU calcs so you really need to upgrade that first.A cheep MSI 1156 motherboard with OC genie and i5 750 will come in at under 400 Euros, plus DDR3 (which you need) 4Gb for around 80 Euros, + cooler (30 Euros, you can't use a stock Intel cooler if your over clocking)Total = around 550 Euros and you'll see a dramatic increase in clock speeds over your old amd rig.