I've been following the Sandybridge story with a lot of interest. In contemplating the upgrade, one thing concerns me about my current situation as to how much benefit I will see from an upgrade. Almost always I see CPU running at less than 100%, and by that I mean individual cores. Shouldn't the main FSX thread that typically runs on core 0 consume everything it can? If it cannot, where's the bottleneck? It does not appear to be GPU, as that's running well below 50% according to GPU-Z.Now let me qualify it a little further. I typically get around 80% core utilisation running either FPS locked or unlimited, on a vanilla fsx.cfg or highly customized. In fact the only thing that can push the utilization beyond 80% is UsePools=0.Do others see this? If I can't use all of my current CPU core capability, will Sandybridge just result in the same FPS and a lower core utilization ceiling? It doesn't sound right, but I can't figure it out.Simon

I've been following the Sandybridge story with a lot of interest. In contemplating the upgrade, one thing concerns me about my current situation as to how much benefit I will see from an upgrade. Almost always I see CPU running at less than 100%, and by that I mean individual cores. Shouldn't the main FSX thread that typically runs on core 0 consume everything it can? If it cannot, where's the bottleneck? It does not appear to be GPU, as that's running well below 50% according to GPU-Z.Now let me qualify it a little further. I typically get around 80% core utilisation running either FPS locked or unlimited, on a vanilla fsx.cfg or highly customized. In fact the only thing that can push the utilization beyond 80% is UsePools=0.Do others see this? If I can't use all of my current CPU core capability, will Sandybridge just result in the same FPS and a lower core utilization ceiling? It doesn't sound right, but I can't figure it out.Simon

If the system only uses arround 80% and you get good frame rates, then why do wou want to upgrade?

Because I want to move the sliders more to the right, use aircraft more complex than the default 737, etc.

Because I want to move the sliders more to the right, use aircraft more complex than the default 737, etc.

That makes sense. Try all sliders to the right and then check the utilisation. Mine is always on 100% or near to it. And this on 3 out of 4 cores, so my system has to work really hard. Maybe this is cause of PNW?BTW: I would be very happy if I had this CPU ;-)

That makes sense. Try all sliders to the right and then check the utilisation. Mine is always on 100% or near to it. And this on 3 out of 4 cores, so my system has to work really hard. Maybe this is cause of PNW?BTW: I would be very happy if I had this CPU ;-)

Yes, the load on the top two cores is because of PNW... Just try flying around Kawaii or some other remote islandand see the difference.

Yes, the load on the top two cores is because of PNW... Just try flying around Kawaii or some other remote islandand see the difference.

Well, I don´t think this makes a great difference. Mine isn´t such a 4+ GHz top gamer system, just an more powerfull media pc. It´s mostly on 100%, but I´ll checkt that out.