Hello people, I am considering to upgrade my PC for FSX and also for other Games like BF3. Now I am running an i5-760 @ 3,70 GHZ with 4 GB Ram and a Powercolor HD 4890.I don't want to upgrade the whole system at once, so I have the choice of either upgrading the CPU or the GPU. Ram isn't that expensive so I will upgrade to 8 GB at all. Of course I know that FSX needs a very good CPU so maybe that would be a better choice but does that upgrade would really be that effective? I would also over clock the i5-2500k. I think all other games would benefit a lot more of the GTX 570, wouldn't they?So what would be your advice.Thank you.

It depends on your priorities, but in your particular case, I would go with the GPU upgrade. A GTX 560Ti, or GTX570 would be quite an upgrade for the rest of the games where you're most likely GPU limited, and in FSX you will probably get better performance too, at least in clouds, and definitely better AA

Thanks for your reply.My priority is of course FSX and i remember when i upgraded to this GPU a few years ago i was very disappointed because I didn't knew that FSX needs a god cpu an so the upgrade didn't bring any noticeable performance, but now the GPU is a very old graphic card an I think even FSX could benefit of a modern ones. BTW can you say that the i5-760 @ 3,7 GHZ is as fast as the i5-2500k @ 3,7GHZ? I don't think so , right?

The 2500K is faster than Nehalem (I5 7xx, I7 8xx, I7 9xx), like a 15% faster clock for clock, but they also overclock much more. A 4.6 - 4.7GHz 2500K would be a nice 40 - 45% performance boost when compared to your current 3.7GHz CPU.Question is you have a solid CPU and if you can wait another couple of months, Ivy Bridge may be a better purchase than a 2500K right now

Normally I would say CPU since as we all know FSX is primarily CPU-bound. Since you have an AMD graphics card (and an older one at that) you'll likely be better getting a new Nvidia card. If you can wait until March though, the GTX 670 should be out, likely to be the best option on the table during the first half of this year, IMHO.

So I think the best choice would be to wait for the GTX 670 and Ivy Bridge ? :)

Probably, yeah

So I think the best choice would be to wait for the GTX 670 and Ivy Bridge ? :)

I think I would have to agree at this point. Too close to the edge of the coming new world not to hold your horses.Kind regards,

Anything above the GTX660 is true overkill for FSX. The GTX660 is slightly more powerful than the GTX580. The GTX580 doesn't even get used to it's full potential within FSX so anything more powerful would be a total waste.The only time that we will need anymore than a GTX580 or GTX660 is when we get CPU's that are a good bit more powerful. (Haswell)

So I think the best choice would be to wait for the GTX 670 and Ivy Bridge ? :)

Yes.Cheers,- jahman.

I think that if you can wait, I would recommend you saving up for both the upcoming GTX 6xx series and an i5 Ivy Bridge and upgrade to both at the same time. Video card upgrade right now won't do much for FSX in your case but would give a big improvement in most games with your i5 760. An i5 760 at stock settings is still not that bad in gaming, at least not bad enough to upgrade to a faster CPU now when Ivy Bridge is rumored to be 1-2 months away.

Also, remember to buy a PCI Gen3 native mobo.