I was wondering what a top end machine gets with FSX maxed out on ALL sliders and flying a LD767 or PDMG 747.I have a pretty top of the line Dell720 H2C quad code O/C to 3.76 GHz, dual 8800 GTX, 4 GB ram and I get <10 fps with everything maxed out and flying the LD767. At all sliders about 50% I do get 30-50 fps (less in NYC area) and >100 with default planes. I do get "out of the memory" problem ONLY with the PDMG 747 (especially if I change views too much) as I have Vista 32 and realy don't want to upgrade to 64. (for that hassle, I'll spend $6,000 and start fresh with a new computer and give this 2 year old $6,000 Dell to my kids to destroy). I am not smart enough to build my own -so forget that.I want full scenery and I was wondering if I should upgrade to the Alienware top of the line computer. If someone reports they can get >30 fsp with everything maxed out and flying a high end plane like the LD767/PDMG 747 then it a buy.Any input will be appreciated.

If money is no object, wait for the 6-Core i7-980XE Gulftown CPU, out March 16th.See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_futur....22_.2832_nm.29Cheers,- jahman.

I do get "out of the memory" problem ONLY with the PDMG 747 (especially if I change views too much) as I have Vista 32 and realy don't want to upgrade to 64. (for that hassle, I'll spend $6,000 and start fresh with a new computer and give this 2 year old $6,000 Dell to my kids to destroy). I am not smart enough to build my own -so forget that.Any input will be appreciated.

If you are getting OOM errors on Vista32, have you applied the /3GB switch?Search for /3GB and OOM in this forum.

If money is no object, wait for the 6-Core i7-980XE Gulftown CPU, out March 16th.See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_futur....22_.2832_nm.29Cheers,- jahman.

I wonder why there are still no reviews on the 980XE. I figured Anandtech or Tomshardware would have done an indepth review by now - as far out as two or three months before it is released to the masses.

I wonder why there are still no reviews on the 980XE. I figured Anandtech or Tomshardware would have done an indepth review by now - as far out as two or three months before it is released to the masses.

Could be that mobo manufacturers need to provide BIOS updates before any testing may take place.

Could be that mobo manufacturers need to provide BIOS updates before any testing may take place.

My Mb was ready for it at launch back in December (ASUS P6X58D), its probably not even in their hands yet or it just still under NDA.Paul

Reviews of the 980x don't yet exist because the product hasn't been officially announced, and anyone that's been briefed on the product in private has signed an NDA and can't talk about the product until the NDA expires.

I was wondering what a top end machine gets with FSX maxed out on ALL sliders and flying a LD767 or PDMG 747.I have a pretty top of the line Dell720 H2C quad code O/C to 3.76 GHz, dual 8800 GTX, 4 GB ram and I get <10 fps with everything maxed out and flying the LD767. At all sliders about 50% I do get 30-50 fps (less in NYC area) and >100 with default planes. I do get "out of the memory" problem ONLY with the PDMG 747 (especially if I change views too much) as I have Vista 32 and realy don't want to upgrade to 64. (for that hassle, I'll spend $6,000 and start fresh with a new computer and give this 2 year old $6,000 Dell to my kids to destroy). I am not smart enough to build my own -so forget that.I want full scenery and I was wondering if I should upgrade to the Alienware top of the line computer. If someone reports they can get >30 fsp with everything maxed out and flying a high end plane like the LD767/PDMG 747 then it a buy.Any input will be appreciated.

See my signature for my system and FSX addons. I have my FPS locked at 30 and FSX runs from 29 to 30 all the time with the Aerosoft F16 and the PMDG MD11 and this is over NYC. If you are going to buy check out MaxForcePC at www.maxforcepc.com, I bought mine from Max. Max OC'ed it to 3.6GHz and I upped that to 4.2GHz.I am sure that Max will charge you less than what Alienware would charge for the same system specs.Rod

The new technology will get you there, but wait for the new nvidia card. See if the new card and different drivers will help.A new system will set you back 4K-5K.

Last October I built the rig shown below in my specs for about $1400US (100% all new parts, including the OS and monitor). I run the FSX and nhancer NickN settings, though I have road traffic at 17%, water at 2xMid and FPS set to 30. Over urbans areas at 2k with cloudly weather I get around 20-25 fps with occasional quick dips into the teens. Over rural areas it's pegged at 30 fps. I've found that weather makes or breaks my FPS. I'm very happy with this performance using UTX-USA, REX 2 and fsgenesis mesh, though occasionally there is that irritating stutter. I've owned FSX since about when it first released and never thought much of it other than 'why bother'. Now with this rig and the full eyecandy settings with the add-ons I can't get enough of it. I don't need anything over 30 fps, and I'll take the so so 20+ for urban fly-overs and landings as long as it's smooth. I've recently banned myself from enabling the FPS display for I find it usually ruins an otherwise enjoyable flight. BTW I'll be getting GEX once I find myself bored with the default textures.

I was wondering what a top end machine gets with FSX maxed out on ALL sliders and flying a LD767 or PDMG 747.I have a pretty top of the line Dell720 H2C quad code O/C to 3.76 GHz, dual 8800 GTX, 4 GB ram and I get <10 fps with everything maxed out and flying the LD767. At all sliders about 50% I do get 30-50 fps (less in NYC area) and >100 with default planes. I do get "out of the memory" problem ONLY with the PDMG 747 (especially if I change views too much) as I have Vista 32 and realy don't want to upgrade to 64. (for that hassle, I'll spend $6,000 and start fresh with a new computer and give this 2 year old $6,000 Dell to my kids to destroy). I am not smart enough to build my own -so forget that.I want full scenery and I was wondering if I should upgrade to the Alienware top of the line computer. If someone reports they can get >30 fsp with everything maxed out and flying a high end plane like the LD767/PDMG 747 then it a buy.Any input will be appreciated.

I have the same system except I have the dualcore 6800 Extreme CPU. There is NO reason to max out your sliders. It's not going to give you any more eye-candy and lowering the sliders will make your flight sim experiences a bit more enjoyable with awesome graphics. You should move up to Windows 7, 64 bit if possible, but any 64 bit operating system will manage your memory better. 32 bit OS's will crash unless you have enabled the /3GB switch for XP systems or the IncreaseUSERVA switch for Vista or Windows 7, 32 bit systems. You won't need these switches with 64 bit systems. Before moving up to Windows 7, 64 bit, I had the Vista 32 bit system with the USERVA switch and I didn't get out of memory crashes but my FPS when down into the teens and sometimes one digit areas when flying the LDS767 or the PMDG 747. It all became a slide show especially if I was flying at night or into a commercial payware airport or into photoscenery areas. With Windows 7, 64 bit, and flying the PMDG 747-8 with the same system except better OS, I get 15 plus FPS and it goes up considerably during flight, sometimes nearing 40 FPS. The top of the line Alienware is the one where the CPU has the i7 975X Extreme. There are several people on the Windows 7 and the FSX Forums who have discussed this CPU (I believe one individual has the Dell 730 with the 975X CPU). At first they were reporting awesome fps but that turned out to be a default installation of FSX. After they started adding commercial addons, the fps started dropping and sliders had to be tweaked once again to keep good fps. As I recall, no one went below 25 fps though and everything seemed to run smoothly even when fps dipped. So it will give you more enjoyment and it will run FSX better. But I would wait a month or two as the new 980X extreme CPU is about to be released and it will cost you about the same as the current top of the line, the 975X.Best regards,Jim

Certainly an overclocked i7 lets you do anything you want in FSX. Heavy jets into big city airports with weather and AI is now easily done and very enjoyable.However nobody needs to run FSX at max setting/sliders right. It actually looks worse at max than at halfway. For instance maximum water looks horrible. The key sliders are Scenery Complexity and Autogen Density. Max these out and you'll know about it, but do you need it ?