Hey everyone, my current system is about 2 years old and I am looking to do an intermediary upgrade now and probably build a new system about another 2 years down the line. For the most part my system performs well with the NGX (30fps locked) but when I fly into areas of dense scenery and weather, it can drop a lot, especially in new york. What I hope to accomplish is to be able to get a smooth 20+ FPS in all situations. I've read that with the right setup the gtx 580 can do the trick. But if I can get about the same result with the 570 I would love to save some money. My system is as follows: I7 920 running at 4.3 Ghz with noctua nh-d14 cooling it though I could probably push it to 4.4, Gtx 260, 6Gb Kingston DDR3 with 9-9-9-27 timing running at a little above 1700 with the overclock, aside psx58d premium motherboard, and just a couple regular western digital caviar black HDDs with a 750 watt power supply. I could get faster RAM with better times if that would help (would it) but to me a new video card seems like the best way to get what I need. Any input is appreciated. Thanks, Ben

Hi BenI have just replaced my GTX 280 with a GeForce 570HD. My CPU is an I7 2600k o/c to 4.2 and 8gb of DDR3 ram. I had my hard drive reformatted at the time of the upgrade and am now reinstalling my add ons. If you want (once I have installed my KJFK add on in a day or two) I can post the frame rates am getting there with the NGX

Sure Nixon, that would be great if you could report back your observations when you get the chance. Thanks, Ben

Hi BenI have just replaced my GTX 280 with a GeForce 570HD. My CPU is an I7 2600k o/c to 4.2 and 8gb of DDR3 ram. I had my hard drive reformatted at the time of the upgrade and am now reinstalling my add ons. If you want (once I have installed my KJFK add on in a day or two) I can post the frame rates am getting there with the NGX

i think u can easily get more than 4.2 out of that on air cooling.as far as GPU i think the 580's are still too overpriced. But I definitely recommend the superclocked models from EVGA. Extremely stable and runs cool. Down the road you can always get a second one for SLI

Would it be beneficial to also get some RAM with better timings or just get a new video card? Ben

i think u can easily get more than 4.2 out of that on air cooling.as far as GPU i think the 580's are still too overpriced. But I definitely recommend the superclocked models from EVGA. Extremely stable and runs cool. Down the road you can always get a second one for SLI

Are you sure about the EVGA GTX 580? I've read stories on the internet of the EVGA GTX580 1536 MB Superclocked sometimes running at 85C! The EVGA graphics cards look pretty much identical then the ones coming straight from NVIDIA. Only some colors and stickers on the heatsink, that's it.

Hey everyone, my current system is about 2 years old and I am looking to do an intermediary upgrade now and probably build a new system about another 2 years down the line. For the most part my system performs well with the NGX (30fps locked) but when I fly into areas of dense scenery and weather, it can drop a lot, especially in new york. What I hope to accomplish is to be able to get a smooth 20+ FPS in all situations. I've read that with the right setup the gtx 580 can do the trick. But if I can get about the same result with the 570 I would love to save some money. My system is as follows: I7 920 running at 4.3 Ghz with noctua nh-d14 cooling it though I could probably push it to 4.4, Gtx 260, 6Gb Kingston DDR3 with 9-9-9-27 timing running at a little above 1700 with the overclock, aside psx58d premium motherboard, and just a couple regular western digital caviar black HDDs with a 750 watt power supply. I could get faster RAM with better times if that would help (would it) but to me a new video card seems like the best way to get what I need. Any input is appreciated. Thanks, Ben

When you do upgrade, what are your plans for the one you have now, mine is a I7-920 also, but at 2.67 Ghz...

Hi BenI have just replaced my GTX 280 with a GeForce 570HD. My CPU is an I7 2600k o/c to 4.2 and 8gb of DDR3 ram. I had my hard drive reformatted at the time of the upgrade and am now reinstalling my add ons. If you want (once I have installed my KJFK add on in a day or two) I can post the frame rates am getting there with the NGX

I would also appreciate very much your input on this topic.The common belief is that the CPU power matters in FSX, not GPU. I would like to know if this is the truth in your case (powerful i7 CPU + moderate GPU power).I have an old Core 2 Duo E8600 CPU 3300MHz running @4200GHz and quite old Nvidia 9800GTX+ GPU. The strange thing is that I hardly ever see 100% CPU usage in very demanding sceneries like KJFK, EGLL airports (~10fps with 737 NGX). So I would like to know if I see any increase in performance upgrading my GPU to something like you have at the moment (although I suspect that combination of CPU and GPU matters in fact).Gregor Gresiaczynski

It is like a 70/30 ratio for the CPU/GPU.A good CPU will compliment a Good GPU, but you will benefit from not having an old GPU.I would keep them even power and performance wise, that is what I am currently building slowely. Only thing I really have left is choosing a tower, and new memory.

Are you sure about the EVGA GTX 580? I've read stories on the internet of the EVGA GTX580 1536 MB Superclocked sometimes running at 85C! The EVGA graphics cards look pretty much identical then the ones coming straight from NVIDIA. Only some colors and stickers on the heatsink, that's it.

I can't speak for the 580 but I do have the 570 SC and playing games like BF3 which pin the gpu @100% the whole time and it's never gotten above 70C. I wouldn't think the 580 would be much different. And FWIW I spoke to an evga engineer a while back and he said they definitely beef up the heatsink on their super clocked stuff. I thought it was a gimmick as well.

When you do upgrade, what are your plans for the one you have now, mine is a I7-920 also, but at 2.67 Ghz...

. You mean the gtx260? Ben

BenI have not yet load KJFK but my first impression of my GTX 570HD is favourable. I find that the definition of all the screens and labels in the NGX VC is much better. Also the colours seem more lifelike

Good to hear. I might just save a few bucks and go with the 570 over the 580. It really depends on what kind of FPS difference I can expect. Ben

Ben and Gregor it will be a couple of days before I have my frame rate intensive scenery added. Am putting on my UK photographic scenery first (all 80gb of it so it takes a while)

ok, take your time and please report back when ready :-)Gregor Gresiaczynski