Hello fellow simmersI am saving up for a new flightsim pc, and thought about the i7 980x. Do any of you have experience with this processor and FSX? Can FSX take advantage of all 6 cores?Also i remember to have read that FSX doesn´t work well with 2 GPU´s (SLI) is that correct?

Heino, you can get it much cheaper. I recommend a 1156 platform with processor i5-760 over clocked to ~ 4 GHz. You need to replace the stock cooler by a decent after market cooler and adjust a few parameters in the BIOS. FSX supports 6 cores for side activities. However, you won't recognize a practical difference compared to a quad model.2 graphic cards in SLI mode is a waste of money for FSX operation. FSX doesn't support SLI mode.

I have entirely other opinion on this. As I have read many threads on hardware and can say following:1366 CPUs are superior to 1156 ones. They support triple channel and way better overclocking possibilities. That said, 1366 is high performance line of Intel.Take mine for instance: "old" i7-920 which I overclocked to 4.2Ghz with ease. And when I say, with ease, I have been OCing for last 10 years, and it took my bout 2min to overclock this i7...The thing with 980x, unlocked multiplier, you can probably go even higher, provided you have a decent cooling.Many have 980x and are as far as I saw very satisfied - it gives very smooth performance. Depending how you load it, of course. FSX uses very much those 6 cores, and are used as texture loaders.But, as already said, you will still need very good aftermarket cooling, be that air or water.The fact is, 6 cores are better than 4, but another question is, worth the money? Going i5... no. Going cheaper 4 cores i7, possibly. As you stated, you are saving for a really good machine, so go in that direction.FSX still runs the main thread, everything except texture loading, off of one and main core. You can move that core to any one you like, thus having 6 is very big advantage.SLI - doesn't use it directly, BUT it does use the 2nd cards AA/AF capabilities. There is a thread on this somewhere, I know that... Having two cards, you can run ridiculously high AA/AF settings still giving you really high performance with that sharpest picture imaginable.That everything said, good luck!

Thank you RelaxX and KostaI also thought about getting the 980x to secure the system a little for future products. (high end add-ons, and Flight).

The thing with 980x, unlocked multiplier, you can probably go even higher, provided you have a decent cooling.Many have 980x and are as far as I saw very satisfied - it gives very smooth performance.

Yes. I recently got my dream combination: i7-980X + GTX480 + 6Gb triple channel 2000 memory, all overclocked. My 980X is running at 4.6GHz with water-cooling and might well go higher. But, oh, the expense. I'm not considering any upgrades on this for years now! It has to last! Before this I was changing things every year!Pete

The 980X is manufactured on 32 nm and that makes it a great overclocker, but that's about the only extra you get for FSX performance wise (about 10% maybe over the rest of nehalems). It's a massive waste of money for FSXI used to have an AMD X6 and even though FSX used them all, it didn't make a difference when I disabled 2 or 3 cores, and very little, really hard to notice except when benchmarking when running on 2 cores, even at the most demanding scenarios.Same thing with my current I5 so I think it's safe to say that 6 cores are overkill for FSXLynnfields overclock slightly worse than Bloomfields because of the integrated PCIe controller, but really not that much (5% at most)In my opinion (and many others'), it makes no sense to go with 1366 unless you plan on going with a 3+ SLI setupNobody knows how demanding, or CPU bound will Microsoft Flight be, so I would not expend so much money just to be futureproof. If they do get it right this time, you should be able to run it on a 1156 platform just like the rest of the games out there with the right video card(s)Maybe pick a board that will let you SLI/XFire just in case, at mostJust my 2 cents

Heino,Save your money and get the best CPU. The 980x is the best right now. That will change in a year.If you want excellent performance TODAY using FSX consider the following:Intel 980x with a great cooler (Can safely run at 4.4) FSX is an old CPU hog.Asus Rampage III Extreme (IMHO the best motherboard money can buy)6 GIG of Muskin RAM (Lowest Timings)EVGA GTX 580 (SLI NOT REQUIRED)2 Corsair SATA III SSD Drives (One for the OS and one for FSX) Largest one for FSX that you can afford.Win 7 64 & FSX Acceleration, plus all your favorite add-ons.All the components should be properly balanced. You will have a smile in you face for many years to come. Enjoy!

Depends upon where you read it, the i7 990x is due out Q4 2010 or Q1 2011.

Heino,Save your money and get the best CPU. The 980x is the best right now. That will change in a year.If you want excellent performance TODAY using FSX consider the following:Intel 980x with a great cooler (Can safely run at 4.4) FSX is an old CPU hog.Asus Rampage III Extreme (IMHO the best motherboard money can buy)6 GIG of Muskin RAM (Lowest Timings)EVGA GTX 580 (SLI NOT REQUIRED)2 Corsair SATA III SSD Drives (One for the OS and one for FSX) Largest one for FSX that you can afford.Win 7 64 & FSX Acceleration, plus all your favorite add-ons.All the components should be properly balanced. You will have a smile in you face for many years to come. Enjoy!

well, at least you admit now that SLI is not required *sigh*just as the rest of the components you recomended won't perform any better in FSX than a 1156 setup like my current one. check out my sig (I know you love that line)We have a benchmark thread in the hardware section for anyone willing to backup their statements here

I prefer the Lynnfield processor family (e. g. i5-760) with the 1156 platform because:- it consumes less electrical power- dissipates less heat- requires less cooling effort- enables the build of very silent computers with air cooling- can be over clocked to ~ 4 GHz and more - look at mine @ 4.5 GHz: http://www.happy-art...rboOff-4501.jpg- is really low cost

well, at least you admit now that SLI is not required *sigh*just as the rest of the components you recomended won't perform any better in FSX than a 1156 setup like my current one. check out my sig (I know you love that line)We have a benchmark thread in the hardware section for anyone willing to backup their statements here

Excuse me, but I never said or wrote that SLI was required for FSX.What I did say and wrote is that SLI does work with FSX and that there was a slight performance increase.Maybe you're just hallucinating.

whatever, before you advise someone to go waste some 2000$ worth of components, please do some research.Did I hear you'll benchmark or I'm I hallucinating?

Excuse me, but I never said or wrote that SLI was required for FSX.What I did say and wrote is that SLI does work with FSX and that there was a slight performance increase.Maybe you're just hallucinating.

We have a benchmark thread in the hardware section

Unfortunately benchmarks measure only frame rates, not perceived smoothness, which is what matters to me. I never compare frame rates on FSX, they are irrelevant. Providing they are high enough to give correct responsiveness (which for an airliner, which I fly, is not very demanding -- it would need to be more so for a stunt plane or fighter), all that then matters is how smooth the world appears. Stutters, jerks, visible redraws, all those things spoil the experience. My system and settings are designed to eliminate those, not to obtain silly frame rates. ;-)Pete

Don't do it!My advice for now is wait until January. Intel is launching it's Sandy Bridge proccessors very shortly. OK, if you wait you normally end up with a faster machine but this is a jump in performance similar to when the i7 first came out. Expect to see a 10 to 20% jump in performance compared to the similar now at the same clock speed. I believe there will be new versions of i3, 5 and 7 at launch. The i7s and i5s be 4 core as now plus hyper threading. The current 6-core i7 980X family remains for now. I suspect Sandy bridge could out perform the 980x as far as fsx goes.These will all be fabbed on 32nm so should be good for over clocking although sounds like intel may be restricting the ability to overclock as we can today.The other thing to note is a new instruction set - Advanced Vector Extensions(AVX) that can really speed up floating point instructions. This won't help fsx as applications must be compiled to take adavantage of this but will help with any new flight simulator game. Oh yeah, if your waiting till Jan you should also be able to get hold of a GTX 580!

Expect to see a 10 to 20% jump in performance compared to the similar now at the same clock speed

LOL, where do you have this from, especially FSX concerned???