Upgrade to i7-3960X from i7 930?

[SkyGent 0]

My rig has served me pretty well, However it struggles on ultra high performance settings (particularly with the add on aiports like Aerosoft's CDG or Tropical Sim's KDCA). I have the budget to upgrade to a new processor, but what i need is better expertise to advise me if what i have in mind makes sense or if there is some other aspect of my rig that I should address in lieu of moving to the better processor. As indicated below, I have the i7 930. I'm not really comfortable overclocking without some sort of step by step guide from some one using my same equipment as I dont trust myself not to fry everything. So, all advice on how to improve my set up is very welcome, thank you in advance.

 

Processor Intel® Core™ i7 930 Processor (4x 2.80GHz/8MB L3 Cache)

Processor Cooling XIGMATEK Dark Knight 120mm CPU Cooling Fan System - H.D.T. (Heat-pipe direct touch) technology

Memory 6 GB [2 GB X3] DDR3-1800 - Corsair or Major Brand

Video Card ATI Radeon HD 5850 - 1GB - Single Card

Motherboard [3-Way SLI] ASUS P6T

[Ben Cap 89]

Best bang for buck would be something like this:

 

Intel Core i5 3570K

Corsair H100

Asus P8Z77-V Motherboard

EVGA Nvidia GeForce GTX680

8GB DDR3 2400

750Watt PSU

Corsair Obsidian 650D

[Illegitimi non carborundum 4]

Sky Gent

Wouldn't you better off with an i7 "K" Ivy bridge variant. The Sandy Bridge "E" series use quad channel ddr3 RAM which I understand cannot be utilised by FSX and may run slower clock for clock against a Sandy Bridge or Ivy Bridge variant. Apparently Intel decided to optimize the quad-channel DDR3 SDRAM memory controller for multi-threaded load, rather than for single-threaded load (FSX uses this), the former being more typical of the servers and high-performance workstations. AFAIK FSX does not address the memory in multiple parallel threads, so quad channel RAM will offer little or no benefit and may indeed affect FSX performance. Ivy Bridge offers a slight advance over SB, having a bettermemory controller which when running high frequency dual channel DDR3 RAM and a good graphics card it should offer advantages over earlier variants.

Just a thought

Regards

PeterH

[ArjenVdv 190]

Best video card for the buck is currently the GTX 670. If you get an overclocked version it's around 100$ cheaper than a vanilla GTX 680 but still performs identical and might even outperform it.

 

Getting LGA2011 is not worth the money, they also have stutter problems in FSX and are simply too expensive. Get an i7 2700K and overclock it.

[Ben Cap 89]

Get an i7 2700K and overclock it.

 

'Atta boy! :Big Grin:

[SkyGent 0]

Thanks everyone, I am much obliged for the assistance. So, If I understand properly, my best bet for improving my system is to obtain the following:

 

- i7 2700K

- GTX 670 (and this must be better than my existing Radeon 5850?)

 

Money is not such a concern for me, so if there are any higher performance options let me know (I plan on ordering within the next 24 hours)

[ramrunner800 10]

I agree to skip LGA2011, but based on the test results we're seeing with the new Ivy Bridge/Fast RAM/PCIe 3.0 setups, I would recommend Ivy Bridge and some fast RAM. G. Skill has some 2400MHz kits that are well priced. Going Ivy will allow you to take advantage of these fast modules, as well as the PCIe 3.0 capability of your GTX 6xx GPU. Ivy Bridge setups are scoring at or near the FSMark11 benches, and I suspect that as the platform matures this will continue to be the case.

 

I also agree with the GTX6xx series GPU recommendation. ATI is pretty much a no-go for FSX (and I did use it for a long while, but now that I've switched I'd never go back). As far as the 670's performance relative to the 680, I have no idea. I haven't seen any comparisons of the two, and definitely not any comparisons related to FSX. You will probably get good performance from the 670, but if money is not an object, I would rather spend the extra 100 bucks and know I have the best card available.

 

I had the same dilemma as you last week, and I opted for Ivy, 2600mhz RAM, and the GTX 680, and I'm absolutely thrilled with the results.