Hi,

I am thinking of replacing my 4 year old PC with a new PC. (New video card, motherboard, ram, CPU). I am just wondering for FSX, which one should I get, a 3930 or 3770? 3770 is 22nm and is better for OC'ing, but 3930 has more core which I know that FSX is CPU intensive.

 

Thanks,

Benny

I ordered a 3930K this morning to upgrade the 4yr old PC (Q6600) listed in my sig below.

 

This is what I ordered:

 

Intel Core I7 3930K,

ASUS P9X79 Pro Motherboard,

Corsair Vengeance CML16GX3M4X1600C8 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 (Low profile RAM to fit under the Noctua)

Noctua NH-D14 SE2011 LGA2011 CPU Cooler

Intel 520 Series 240GB SSD

Its a tough choice, I would wait to see some benchmarks or if you really want a good setup for the future a socket 2012 ivy bridge processor. Try the hardware forum you will get tons of answers there.

Ivy B, has some high temps when OC compared to previous cpu's

An Intel Core i7 2700K will be your best choice. In FSX, it is the best OC'er and it performs the same as the 3930K. Also, many people have reported more intense stuttering with the LGA2011 socket.

If is it only (or mainly) for FSX, then an i5 2500k clocked to over 4GHz is still your best bang per buck.

If is it only (or mainly) for FSX, then an i5 2500k clocked to over 4GHz is still your best bang per buck.

 

Agree here - I've decided not to buy an Ivy Bridge machine after reading all the reviews. I'm keeping my i7 860 until the next generation at least. I would tell someone getting a machine soley for FSX to get the 2500K and OC it - it OCs higher and cooler than Ivy Bridge does.

Agree here - I've decided not to buy an Ivy Bridge machine after reading all the reviews. I'm keeping my i7 860 until the next generation at least. I would tell someone getting a machine soley for FSX to get the 2500K and OC it - it OCs higher and cooler than Ivy Bridge does.

 

Eventually, you have to make a decision to purchase a new product or you are going to be waiting for years. LOL

 

If I were you, I'd get a SB and OC it to 4.8-5GHZ on a Corsair watercooler. This will give you around a 50% improvement in FPS. - Trust me, I came from a bloom-field @ 4GHZ.

It's not 50% lol - several of the other guys here have SB systems, they're not that much better than what I have. (Mine's a Lynnfield btw anyway)

more like 30 - 40% depending on the respective OC's

I went from a 4GHz I5 750 to this 4.8GHz SB and my FPS went up by a 37% in my 744 + Heathrow benchmark flight.

That's consistent with the CPU intensive benchmarks that show a 10-15% IPC increase from Nehalem to Sandy Bridge. Add a 20% more overclock and overall the perf boost is about that 30-40%

I still have a Q9550 - and plan to upgrade to Ivy 3770k in the next 3 to 6 months.

But until that, I think if you are happy with SB then there is no need to buy an upgrade after all

I got myself a 2500k recently and overclocked it to 4.8 stable on water, and i couldnt be happier!

I have 3930K and it is pure awesomeness! I need CPU power for other uses, but 3930K works beautifully with FSX. Every physical core is doing something during flight, so 2 extra cores aren't completely useless with FSX. This LGA2011 stuttering is rubbish and that would mean pretty much defect in X79 chipset showing bad performance also with other programs. I've had no problems neither with previous LGA1366 4-core nor today's LGA2011 system. But performance and thus smoothness is so much better with 3930K than it was with i7 920 clocked 3.92GHz. In KSEA airport and area with everything pretty much right, PNW, REX, MyTraffic X and quite demanding payware aircraft (I don't yet have PMDG products though), it is difficult to get FPS drop even momentarily around 20 and locked 30 is pretty much standard everywhere.

 

My 3930K went 4.6Ghz without any problems and I think that it will take another 100-200MHz quite easily. I will test some higher clocks more when I have time, but the performance is more than satisfactory even now.

 

Still, 3930K may not be the best bang for buck processor for FSX, but neither is 2700K as you get same performance with 2600K. Buy 3930K if you need your computer for rendering, virtual machines etc. and one of the unlocked 1155 processors if you are going to use your rig mainly for gaming, incl. FSX. Ivy or Sandy, both are good alternatives and although Ivys won't take as high clocks as many Sandys, performance differences are negligible because Ivys have slightly higher IPC.