Is it worth upgrading again?

[shally17 1]

Hello Everyone, A couple of years ago I upgraded to an i7 920 2.66 oc'd to 3.2, 6GB of Mushkin redline 1600 RAM and an nVidia GTX 285. At the time it was the ants pants and improved things a lot but still with FTX sceneries, REX and high-end aircraft the sliders still had to be brought back. How much improvement can I expect to see by only changing the CPU to a Sandy Bridge i7 2600K mildly overclocked to maybe 4.0? (I know this also means a new mobo - different socket). Secondly, will changing my GTX 285 to a GTX 580 make any difference? I believe FSX is largely CPU dependant. Thanks,Steve.

[KLM149 1]

Hi Steve,See for yourself what is best HERE and for the cpu below attached

[vgbaron 3,506]

The apparent sweet spot for FSX is 4ghz and a GTX480 or 580. If you can get there with the 920 and add a 480/580 you would be good to go. That would be the most cost effective way to go. you'd get slightly better performance with completely new system clocked to 4ghz but whether it's worth the cost, is up to you. Personally, I'd try getting the 920 to 4ghz if possible. Vic

[Superpilotv2 2]

The apparent sweet spot for FSX is 4ghz and a GTX480 or 580. If you can get there with the 920 and add a 480/580 you would be good to go. That would be the most cost effective way to go. you'd get slightly better performance with completely new system clocked to 4ghz but whether it's worth the cost, is up to you. Personally, I'd try getting the 920 to 4ghz if possible. Vic

Is a GTX 480 or 580 mandatory? - I don´t think so. My good old GTX 260 can easily keep up with the CPU on 4.6 GHz and I get an average of 43 FPS in FSX with FSXMark11. So there´s no you "have" to have this cards. I know that it´ll be better with them but no mandatory at all.

[vgbaron 3,506]

Is a GTX 480 or 580 mandatory? - I don´t think so. My good old GTX 260 can easily keep up with the CPU on 4.6 GHz and I get an average of 43 FPS in FSX with FSXMark11. So there´s no you "have" to have this cards. I know that it´ll be better with them but no mandatory at all.

Steffen - Where do you see the word 'mandatory'? You can run it on a 9800 if you want. My point is that the best results are usually a minimum of 4ghz and a 480/580. There are lots of combinations of CPU GPU that will give excellent results but a good rule of thumb is still 4ghz and 480/580. Vic

[shally17 1]

Thanks to all of you for the replies