Well...finally, one good turn deserves another. After almost 5 years of FSX beating up on every processor released by both Intel and AMD, I can confirm that the magical i7 2600k slaps FSX around like a Catholic school boy. But before you read any further, its takes a bigger beast to tame the big FSX beast so in essence the mythical all sliders right is indeed "throwing money at the problem".The specs.i7 2600k @ 4.8Ghz (easy 24x7 Overclock) (Initial testing is stable at 5.1Ghz for a FSX only overclock - havent tested FSX at this speed yet)8 GB Corsair Vengence DDR3-1600 (8-8-8-24-1T @ ~1800Mhz OC)ATI OEM HD6990 (Stock speed)Asrock Fatal1ty P67 Rev.3 MoboCosair H70 Liquid cooling (Temps 29 degrees idle and ~50 degrees at 5.1Ghz under full load)Creative Fatal1ty sound card2x 1TB WD Black in RAID 0 @ 6GB(Operating System)2x WD Raptor 300Gb in RAID 0 @ 6GB(FSX Dedicated Drive)Tagan BZ 1100 Watt PSUThermaltake Level 10 GT Case. (2x 120mm fans sucking air in and top 120mm fan blowing air out. Radiator mounted in case with radiator fans sucking outside air in)The ResultOn a clean install, all sliders right, no FSX.cfg tweaks @ default Friday Island and real world weather in the trike = ~110 - 150 fpsSame scenario @ Seattle ~90 - 110 fpsThese initial tests show at least a 40 - 100 FPS increase over my old Core2 QX9650 running at 4.1Ghz. What this means is that there is HUGE overhead available for addons. As I start adding the heavy stuff even if I lost 50% frame rates with addons (which I doubt that would be the case) FSX would still be no less than 50-60 FPS everywhere in the world with all sliders right. Forget holy grail...Intel has delivered the Nirvana of performance with the 2600k and delivered it at an extremely modest price. For 600 less than the 980X you get the same performance and in some cases even better performance. This translates into a sexy FSX flying machine (emphasis on flying and not tweaking!) So yeah, for the price of a decent suit, you can give FSX its comeuppance. That said, what's it worth to never have to come back to the forums to try to find ways to tweak another 2 fps out of your system...and just fly? Priceless?

So yeah, if you're willing to take out a small mortgage on your home, you can give FSX its comeuppance. That said, what's it worth to never have to come back to the forums to try to find ways to tweak another 2 fps out of your system...and just fly? Priceless?

I don't need to go around on forums and look for tweaks, and I don't even have one of them fancy i7's...Honestly I think people on this forum like to "tweak" more than they like to fly. The types and numbers of threads in the FSX section tend to agree.

Well...finally, one good turn deserves another. After almost 5 years of FSX beating up on every processor released by both Intel and AMD, I can confirm that the magical i7 2600k slaps FSX around like a Catholic school boy. But before you read any further, its takes a bigger beast to tame the big FSX beast so in essence the mythical all sliders right is indeed "throwing money at the problem".The specs.i7 2600k @ 4.8Ghz (easy 24x7 Overclock) (Initial testing is stable at 5.1Ghz for a FSX only overclock - havent tested FSX at this speed yet)8 GB Corsair Vengence DDR3-1600 (8-8-8-24-1T @ ~1800Mhz OC)ATI OEM HD6990 (Stock speed)Asrock Fatal1ty P67 Rev.3 MoboCosair H70 Liquid cooling (Temps 29 degrees idle and ~50 degrees at 5.1Ghz under full load)Creative Fatal1ty sound card2x 1TB WD Black in RAID 0 @ 6GB(Operating System)2x WD Raptor 300Gb in RAID 0 @ 6GB(FSX Dedicated Drive)Tagan BZ 1100 Watt PSUThermaltake Level 10 GT Case. (2x 120mm fans sucking air in and top 120mm fan blowing air out. Radiator mounted in case with radiator fans sucking outside air in)The ResultOn a clean install, all sliders right, no FSX.cfg tweaks @ default Friday Island and real world weather in the trike = ~110 - 150 fpsSame scenario @ Seattle ~90 - 110 fpsThese initial tests show at least a 40 - 100 FPS increase over my old Core2 QX9650 running at 4.1Ghz. What this means is that there is HUGE overhead available for addons. As I start adding the heavy stuff even if I lost 50% frame rates with addons (which I doubt that would be the case) FSX would still be no less than 50-60 FPS everywhere in the world with all sliders right. Forget holy grail...Intel has delivered the Nirvana of performance with the 2600k and delivered it at an extremely modest price. For 600 less than the 980X you get the same performance and in some cases even better performance. This translates into a sexy FSX flying machine (emphasis on flying and not tweaking!) So yeah, if you're willing to take out a small mortgage on your home, you can give FSX its comeuppance. That said, what's it worth to never have to come back to the forums to try to find ways to tweak another 2 fps out of your system...and just fly? Priceless?

Congrats Mike. Wonderful to hear it. While you still have a standard default install would you be willing to take the FSX Mark 11 Benchmark test in the hardware section. You can just follow the link in my signature. Thanks for sharing!Kind regards,

Congrats Mike. Wonderful to hear it. While you still have a standard default install would you be willing to take the FSX Mark 11 Benchmark test in the hardware section. You can just follow the link in my signature. Thanks for sharing!Kind regards,

No problem I just downloaded it...might just get to it tonight while FSX is still naked! By the way, I originally built the system with an Asus Maxius IV B3 and one that wouldn't boot up from Newegg so I RMA'd it. In my impatience I got the Fatal1ty P67 after reading the reviews - its my first non-ASUS system in 10 years so I may just plop it in when it comes back and benchmark it against the Asrock...the winner gets to stay and the loser gets a trip to ebay. I am also thinking about ditching the velociraptors and going with dual SSDs in RAID 0...but I dunno if the price-capacity ratio is there yet.Nice system by the way!

No problem I just downloaded it...might just get to it tonight while FSX is still naked! By the way, I originally built the system with an Asus Maxius IV B3 and one that wouldn't boot up from Newegg so I RMA'd it. In my impatience I got the Fatal1ty P67 after reading the reviews - its my first non-ASUS system in 10 years so I may just plop it in when it comes back and benchmark it against the Asrock...the winner gets to stay and the loser gets a trip to ebay. I am also thinking about ditching the velociraptors and going with dual SSDs in RAID 0...but I dunno if the price-capacity ratio is there yet.Nice system by the way!

I have what must seem punnie, and i7 920. What does a beast like this cost?

I have what must seem punnie, and i7 920. What does a beast like this cost?

You can build a nice 2600k system from scratch for about $3600CDN. includeing taxes and delivery. If you reuse your current monitor, keyboard, HDD, and RAM you are looking at about $600 Newegg.ca has pretty good prices compare to Tiger Direct, however Newegg has better service.

No problem I just downloaded it...might just get to it tonight while FSX is still naked! By the way, I originally built the system with an Asus Maxius IV B3 and one that wouldn't boot up from Newegg so I RMA'd it. In my impatience I got the Fatal1ty P67 after reading the reviews - its my first non-ASUS system in 10 years so I may just plop it in when it comes back and benchmark it against the Asrock...the winner gets to stay and the loser gets a trip to ebay. I am also thinking about ditching the velociraptors and going with dual SSDs in RAID 0...but I dunno if the price-capacity ratio is there yet.Nice system by the way!

Greetings Bro. Mike,While you are still playing around you may want to consider use of a Raid Controller Card on your current system. Software Raid is actually less efficient than hardware Raid because the software must now control the Raid as well as run the program. This is why a controller card is recommended http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816116110 You will need a battery backup or UPS if you go this route.Highly recommend the OS not be on Raid. Too much going on there with page file and stuff and the way Raid works making it very ineffcient, best on a single drive.Congratulations on the new rig and pleased it is working well for you.

Congrats for that build! It looks like a beast and surely it also feels so. :Big Grin:

Geez, that box looks like something out of Star Wars! What a nice rig you bought. I would venture to say that you really love FSX. I hope after all the addons are in place all is well.RegardsBob

Well...finally, one good turn deserves another. After almost 5 years of FSX beating up on every processor released by both Intel and AMD, I can confirm that the magical i7 2600k slaps FSX around like a Catholic school boy. But before you read any further, its takes a bigger beast to tame the big FSX beast so in essence the mythical all sliders right is indeed "throwing money at the problem".The specs.i7 2600k @ 4.8Ghz (easy 24x7 Overclock) (Initial testing is stable at 5.1Ghz for a FSX only overclock - havent tested FSX at this speed yet)8 GB Corsair Vengence DDR3-1600 (8-8-8-24-1T @ ~1800Mhz OC)ATI OEM HD6990 (Stock speed)Asrock Fatal1ty P67 Rev.3 MoboCosair H70 Liquid cooling (Temps 29 degrees idle and ~50 degrees at 5.1Ghz under full load)Creative Fatal1ty sound card2x 1TB WD Black in RAID 0 @ 6GB(Operating System)2x WD Raptor 300Gb in RAID 0 @ 6GB(FSX Dedicated Drive)Tagan BZ 1100 Watt PSUThermaltake Level 10 GT Case. (2x 120mm fans sucking air in and top 120mm fan blowing air out. Radiator mounted in case with radiator fans sucking outside air in)The ResultOn a clean install, all sliders right, no FSX.cfg tweaks @ default Friday Island and real world weather in the trike = ~110 - 150 fpsSame scenario @ Seattle ~90 - 110 fpsThese initial tests show at least a 40 - 100 FPS increase over my old Core2 QX9650 running at 4.1Ghz. What this means is that there is HUGE overhead available for addons. As I start adding the heavy stuff even if I lost 50% frame rates with addons (which I doubt that would be the case) FSX would still be no less than 50-60 FPS everywhere in the world with all sliders right. Forget holy grail...Intel has delivered the Nirvana of performance with the 2600k and delivered it at an extremely modest price. For 600 less than the 980X you get the same performance and in some cases even better performance. This translates into a sexy FSX flying machine (emphasis on flying and not tweaking!) So yeah, for the price of a decent suit, you can give FSX its comeuppance. That said, what's it worth to never have to come back to the forums to try to find ways to tweak another 2 fps out of your system...and just fly? Priceless?

you will need every inch of that headroom, fsx all maxed plus heavy addons and without at least bufferpools at zero? i don't think so...nice rig nonetheless! Autobot or Decepticon? j/k ;)Markus

Well...finally, one good turn deserves another. After almost 5 years of FSX beating up on every processor released by both Intel and AMD, I can confirm that the magical i7 2600k slaps FSX around like a Catholic school boy. But before you read any further, its takes a bigger beast to tame the big FSX beast so in essence the mythical all sliders right is indeed "throwing money at the problem".The specs.i7 2600k @ 4.8Ghz (easy 24x7 Overclock) (Initial testing is stable at 5.1Ghz for a FSX only overclock - havent tested FSX at this speed yet)8 GB Corsair Vengence DDR3-1600 (8-8-8-24-1T @ ~1800Mhz OC)ATI OEM HD6990 (Stock speed)Asrock Fatal1ty P67 Rev.3 MoboCosair H70 Liquid cooling (Temps 29 degrees idle and ~50 degrees at 5.1Ghz under full load)Creative Fatal1ty sound card2x 1TB WD Black in RAID 0 @ 6GB(Operating System)2x WD Raptor 300Gb in RAID 0 @ 6GB(FSX Dedicated Drive)Tagan BZ 1100 Watt PSUThermaltake Level 10 GT Case. (2x 120mm fans sucking air in and top 120mm fan blowing air out. Radiator mounted in case with radiator fans sucking outside air in)The ResultOn a clean install, all sliders right, no FSX.cfg tweaks @ default Friday Island and real world weather in the trike = ~110 - 150 fpsSame scenario @ Seattle ~90 - 110 fpsThese initial tests show at least a 40 - 100 FPS increase over my old Core2 QX9650 running at 4.1Ghz. What this means is that there is HUGE overhead available for addons. As I start adding the heavy stuff even if I lost 50% frame rates with addons (which I doubt that would be the case) FSX would still be no less than 50-60 FPS everywhere in the world with all sliders right. Forget holy grail...Intel has delivered the Nirvana of performance with the 2600k and delivered it at an extremely modest price. For 600 less than the 980X you get the same performance and in some cases even better performance. This translates into a sexy FSX flying machine (emphasis on flying and not tweaking!) So yeah, for the price of a decent suit, you can give FSX its comeuppance. That said, what's it worth to never have to come back to the forums to try to find ways to tweak another 2 fps out of your system...and just fly? Priceless?

I just built a 2600k system but I haven't gotten around to doing the reinstall of Windows7 and FS9 and FSX. I know what a daunting task it's going to be, but I also know that it has to be done if I want to get the most out of this new system.

I just built a 2600k system but I haven't gotten around to doing the reinstall of Windows7 and FS9 and FSX. I know what a daunting task it's going to be, but I also know that it has to be done if I want to get the most out of this new system.

Hi Mike,Before you load up FSX why not contribute to the FSX database by downloading and reading through the procedures for running FSXMark11 Benchtest (link in my signature)? We could really use your help! Then when you download FSX, before any addons, you could run the test as specified. The community is really beginning to gain some solid performance information that is objectively based.Kind regards,

Nice rig! I'm also quite happy with my 2500k @ 4.5GHz!!I don't get hundreds of fps like you but I cranked my AA and AF settings in Inspector so that's why I'm not getting uber fps anymore.

Mike -t im highly impressed on your set up , more than you know.i have a 2600k cooled by the new H-60gigabyte ud38 gig of patriot 1600 mem pny 285 GTX 10241 terra hd1 320 hdantec 1200 PSi ran all test cpu runs 29c 60c maxedi loaded w7 on the terra drive.i have a brand new copy of FSX gold addition.what do i do next to get even half of what your getting.so far after loading i did not get even to 40 fps, so im positive i did somthing wrong.so right now im looking at a com ready to load fsx.i need help Mike T.Thanks.....................Robert

What impressed me most is that you went with the AMD 6990 card. That's a beast. With all the Nvidia threads here what made you go that route? And of course I want to ask how is it performing for you by means of looks as I am sure we already know it has the horsepower. Is there scenery shimmering in the background, trees, or how about 3rd part airports for example? Are clouds dropping the FPS horrendously (you said you have no tweaks). What drivers are you using? Clutch