I canceled all of my power saving options (see photo). I am now seeing the following Vcore values:- 1.336V in BIOS (photo confirms)- 1.344V in Windows with light load (as reported by CPU-Z)- 1.328V at 100% load My conclusion (with my limited experience) is that the loaded Vcore is thanks to Vdroop. My choices for Vdroop in the BIOS are Auto and Low Vdroop. I seem to get 1.328V at 100% load with either. Maybe 4.6GHz is my limit with this CPU/MOBO combo?

I canceled all of my power saving options (see photo). I am now seeing the following Vcore values:- 1.336V in BIOS (photo confirms)- 1.344V in Windows with light load (as reported by CPU-Z)- 1.328V at 100% load My conclusion (with my limited experience) is that the loaded Vcore is thanks to Vdroop. My choices for Vdroop in the BIOS are Auto and Low Vdroop. I seem to get 1.328V at 100% load with either. Maybe 4.6GHz is my limit with this CPU/MOBO combo?

and what idle Vcore do you get with Vdroop Control set to Low Vdroop?

With Vdroop Control set to Low Vdroop, CPU-Z shows idle Vcore at 1.344V. HWMonitor shows 1.34V, but I assume that's due to rounding.

With Vdroop Control set to Low Vdroop, CPU-Z shows idle Vcore at 1.344V. HWMonitor shows 1.34V, but I assume that's due to rounding.

So it doesn't seem to be doing anything about your Vdroop... weirdI assume "High Vdroop" doesn't do any better, right?Is your BIOS up to date?It's no big deal anyway 1.344V is good and that's not a huge Vdroop at all. You could even try 4.7 or 4.8GHz. Up to 1.375V is perfectly safe, some say that 1.4 is ok but I prefer to be in the safe side, especially when giving advise

The only choices for Vdroop are Auto and Low Vdroop, both of which seem to behave the same. I did flash my BIOS yesterday, with a new version that had improved Vdroop control according to the release notes. I don't see any change. The highest Vcore choice in the BIOS is 1.350V. This is also somewhat mysterious. Maybe they are really trying to keep me far away from harmful Vcore values? I could try again, but the last time I tried to go to 4.7GHz with Vcore drooped to 1.328V (as it is now) I was seeing errors in prime95.

The only choices for Vdroop are Auto and Low Vdroop, both of which seem to behave the same. I did flash my BIOS yesterday, with a new version that had improved Vdroop control according to the release notes. I don't see any change. The highest Vcore choice in the BIOS is 1.350V. This is also somewhat mysterious. Maybe they are really trying to keep me far away from harmful Vcore values? I could try again, but the last time I tried to go to 4.7GHz with Vcore drooped to 1.328V (as it is now) I was seeing errors in prime95.

Oh my, looks like MSI limited the max Vcore in one of the BIOS updates to 1.35V. Well, you could try with Vcore set to auto, but if you do, keep a close eye on CPU-Z when you boot into Windows in case it tries to apply too much voltage.Or you can wait and see if they take it back, apparently there's a lot of people complaining about it and they may release an unlocked BIOS someday. 4.6GHz is still a nice overclock.How does it compare to your Phenom II at 4GHz in FSX?

Oh my, looks like MSI limited the max Vcore in one of the BIOS updates to 1.35V. Well, you could try with Vcore set to auto, but if you do, keep a close eye on CPU-Z when you boot into Windows in case it tries to apply too much voltage.Or you can wait and see if they take it back, apparently there's a lot of people complaining about it and they may release an unlocked BIOS someday. 4.6GHz is still a nice overclock.How does it compare to your Phenom II at 4GHz in FSX?

Definitely satisfied enough with 4.6GHz that I can stay with Vcore set to 1.35V, rather than having to watch CPU-Z. Getting to 4.8GHz would be an increase of less than 4.5%. I am going to talk to MSI tech support and add my voice to those who would rather see higher Vcore values unlocked. How does it compare to my Phenom II at 4GHz? It smokes it like F/A-18E Super Hornet afterburners! And just one more time, thanks for all your help!

A photo of my new CPU's performance under heavy load:

haha, that's great man. Enjoy your new beast

Your initial question was about the frame rate as percieved. Did you check if all the cores are working in FSX Read hereDid you check the HIGHMEMFIX=1 statement in fsx.cfg?