Right now, I have i5-750 that is overclocked to 3.2ghz. When I fly to KLAX or KSEA I get 12FPS or less. I should note that my video card is an ATI 5970. I am well aware that FSX is a CPU intensive program, and therefore I've been considering purchasing a new CPU.Will I see a significant difference if I upgrade to i7-950 and overclock it to 4ghz? (can it be overclocked to 5ghz?) This will cost me close to $500 (new motherboard, CPU, and cooling system.) Is it worth it from where I am right now?Thank you!

4.2 is an easy clock for the 950, Hirgab, but the Sandy Bridge processors are out, so that maybe a better way to go.

Why not just oc your 750? Also 4.2ghz is not an "easy oc", infact, a lot of chips will never reach that speed. For example, my 920 will have no chance of reaching that, its not even capable of 4ghz for a 24/7 clock with reasonable voltages. Remember that all chips are different. But im pretty sure that you would be able to reach at least around 3.8 on the 750

Right now, I have i5-750 that is overclocked to 3.2ghz. When I fly to KLAX or KSEA I get 12FPS or less. I should note that my video card is an ATI 5970. I am well aware that FSX is a CPU intensive program, and therefore I've been considering purchasing a new CPU.Will I see a significant difference if I upgrade to i7-950 and overclock it to 4ghz? (can it be overclocked to 5ghz?) This will cost me close to $500 (new motherboard, CPU, and cooling system.) Is it worth it from where I am right now?Thank you!

You have other problems if that is all you are getting for FPS, find and fix those first before spending money on a CPU.

Thanks for the responses all. Sandy Bridges is what I am looking at. My question is though, will the difference be significant enough to warrant shelling $500 bucks for it? Will I really noticed a difference from what I currently have?

You can overclock your i5-750 to ~ 4 GHz, if you have a good processor cooler. On top of that you should optimize your settings of the FSX and the graphic card. Then FSX will run nicely. This is practical advice because I used to have an i5-750 @ 4 GHz. You can quickly check my FSX guide.Recently I changed to an i7-2600k overclocked to 4.6 GHz. FSX runs now even better. The upgrade was worth the expenses. Nevertheless, you still need to set up the OS, the FSX and the graphic card in an optimal manner. I will update my FSX guide soon.

I second overclocking your existing processor further. 3.6 is doable on virtually all i5 7xx chips with low voltage, 3.8-4.0 with some additional volts.

To answer your question - yes you will see a significant difference if you go from 3.2ghz to 4ghz and you set up FSX properly. Is it worth spending $500 on? No way BECAUSE you can do it by overclocking your current CPU.Save your $$Vic

Thanks SO much guys! I'm going to keep my $$ for when MS Flight comes out. Good call.I do have another question though, can I overclock my CPU to 4ghz with a 750watt power supply or would I need to upgrade that? Would I need a cooling system? Because if my power supply is enough and all I need is just a cooling system ($70 bucks at the most) then I will go ahead and try to further overclock my CPU to get it up to 4ghz. Right now, for some reason, I am getting instabilities when going beyond 3.2 ghz. Any decent guides out there on how to get to 4ghz?

Your 750 W power supply is more than enough.There are many good coolers for the socket 1156 on the market. Something like this would be very suitable: Prolimatech Armageddon - http://www.prolimate...p?id=156&page=1You find a lot of overclocking tutorials for Lynnfield processors in the internet.

Spend some money on a good cooler and bump that CPU up. I got a basic cooler for my i7-930 for $55http://altstiff.blogspot.com/2010/09/noctura-nh-u12p-se2.htmlI'm running a steady 24/7 OC at 3.8Ghz/ ram at 1600Mhz with zero issues. After a couple months of testing this was what I came up with as the best O/C for my combo here (listed below). Things got a little too hot at 4.0Ghz (had to up the Vcore). If you want to spend a little more money you could get an 6 or an 8 pipe cooler and it would maybe get you a little higher.