To me an SSD is worth it's money because of the faster load times and no need to defrag. Also, it makes Windows and virtual memory work quicker in the background.

Absolutely

As for a cooler for overclocking, yes you are correct, you will need a replacement cooler for your CPU if you are going to OC, which to be frank is a necessity if you want to exploit the full potential of FSX. There are plenty to choose from. One thing to avoid is spending more than is necessary. Because the new SB processors run cooler than their predcessors it is not necessary to go water cooled, but a simple, well reviewed cooler like the Hyper 212 plus is more than adequate and cheap.

With coolers, can I essentially pick up any one I want or does it need to be compatible with all my hardware?

Sure, it will have to be compatible with the LGA1155 socket. Also to consider are the dimensions inside the case, although this is less likely to be an issue. http://www.google.co.uk/products/catalog?hl=en&q=hyper+212+plus&cid=7747654226722897374&ei=TbIWT4eiBNqz-Qb87I2oAg&ved=0CAoQrhI#

hamoody, before you buy anything, I think you need to do some tweaking there. You should be getting better. The first and most obvious thing I noticed was that you use the FSX frame rate limiter. You want to make that unlimited and use an external limiter instead.It sounds like I'm getting the same performance as you, but look at my specs. There's something weird with your setup...

There's something weird with your setup...

Sure, he's running with 100% autogen!

Guys,Here we go, another Hardware thread that has nothing to do here.I won't close it because I hate locking threads but please comply with our rules....!! :(

Guys,Here we go, another Hardware thread that has nothing to do here.I won't close it because I hate locking threads but please comply with our rules....!! :(

Sorry about that! I will keep it in mind for future problems that I WILL have! :(

With the OP's robust system (even if it isn't OC'd) I would strongly argue AGAINST dropping the autogen slider... see what Nick N has to say about that below. Drop water to Low 2.x, get ride of the auto and boat traffic first. To support this, if I run autogen at anything less than extremely dense my performance actually SUFFERS. Strange, but it seems consistent with what Nick describes below.From- http://www.simforums...topic29041.html

I can relay this advice:

One of the biggest mistakes people make is the thought that lower sliders = better perfomance. FSX is NOT a game, its a simulator and requires thinking a bit outside the box to tickle the hardware by the software settings and get it to run sweet

1. DO NOT use the autogen restriction lines in the configuration file for buildings and trees if you are using SP1/SP2. In most cases those lines will throw off the priority system and make the sim run/stutter worse.

2. Believe it or not, ZERO autogen slider can make frames drop, how? Same reason as above. Try to maintain at least 50+% (DENSE) however very slow systems may need to limit that to NORMAL/SPARCE or even OFF (off = rare must be very slow hardware)

Keeping the autogen slider at DENSE or greater actually tends to raise frames. Going too high for the installed hardware and Scenery Complexity/weather is where perf starts to really drop

Many can run a 3/4 (very Dense) Scenery Complexity with a 3/4 (very dense) autogen silder however your mileage may vary.

The important part about this slider is if your hardware is not very slow, keep it at a minimum of DENSE

This slider can also be changed mid-flight as well. There are times when you may fly out of a scenery friendly hub, into a very large urban area hub which may require this slider to be dropped a notch

Good systems can run 3/4 to 100% depending on the scenery involved and GEX USCAN can go a long way in helping with that performance. Autogen was laid out in a optimal way to reduce CPU overhead.

Edited January 19, 201214 yr by flytn

Contrary to what many believe, everything Nick says isn't pure gold. As a matter of fact, many times I see him shoveling pure BS into the hungry mouths of ignorant "forumers". Lower autogen settings mean higher frame rates.Plus he has a terrible holier than thou attitude. :(

Edited January 19, 201214 yr by ZachLW

use an external limiter instead.

Can you recommend any good programs to do that? Is there any way to limit FPS with FSPS Booster?

Can you recommend any good programs to do that? Is there any way to limit FPS with FSPS Booster?

Latest Nvidia drivers and the latest Nvidia Inspector. Inspector has an FPS Limiter option.That's the limiter you should be using.

Edited January 19, 201214 yr by ZachLW

I just got back from doing the following things that were recommended:1)Bumped down Autogen to Very Dense2) Switched Vsync off3)Got my FSPS booster up and running again4)Limited fps to 29 in Nvidia Inspector, Unlimited in FSX.5)Road traffic is not 10%, no boats or airport vehicle traffic. GA is 60%ish and Airlines are around 85%I ran my test flight, which was the FSS Saab 340 at JFK at dusk, and the improvement was dramatic! I was getting 10-12 FPS beforehand, and now I get in the high twenties, and FSX is running as smooth ask silk. I will run a defrag tonight, dust out my PCs guts tomorrow, and then tell you guys what I find. I will see how this goes, then I will consider OCing, but for now it seems unnecessary. Thanks for all of the excellent help guys! You really made my day!

Hamoody, that is great! Once you get it the way you want, it feels great to turn off the FPS counter and "fly and forget"! Like Zach notes, the FPS limiter in inspector is excellent, and has worked better for me than two other external programs.Zach, totally agree with you on attitude thing. The "more is less" autogen oddity was something that showed up on my system however, which seemed completely counter intuitive and worth mentioning. I think in the end all of this tweaking comes down to personal preference... what works for one might not work for anyone else!

what works for one might not work for anyone else!

So true!Hardware can be very strange. I found it was more the texture loading than number of 3D objects that bogged my system down, possibly due to my old PCIe slot. Bumping down the ground texture res from 7cm to 15cm gave me a bigger boost than turning down the ammount of autogen. And yet all the config suggestions I've seen have that stuck at 7cm no matter what. So it takes lots of reading and then trying the other thing anyway :)

Rename your default.xml file to something else (eg. Bob.xml). It's located in FSXAutogen. Also, if you have either SP2 or Acceleration, move the AutogenDescriptions.spb to your desktop. Rename AutogenDescriptions_Low.spb to AutogenDescriptions.spb. I've been told this uses less complex autogen (as well as renaming the default.xml file) which generates more FPS.http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/5439/kjfkfps.jpgHere's a screenshot of myself in the 737 NGX at KJFK 4R (included coordinates for conformation). My FPS is anywhere between 30-50, and as you can see, I have quite a bit of autogen on. FSX is just a beast that needs to be tweaked a lot.