Any help appreciated - Where do I need improvment? (Hardware?)

[al531246 0]

I was interested to know if anyone could give me some help regarding the laggy gameplay on FSX at the moment on my PC. I have uploaded my Direct X diag if thats any use to anyone. Here are the stats that I know of, anything else just ask;

 

Zoostrom PC (no idea what the model name is!, fairly new, purchased around 2 months back from Argos)

CPU = Intel® Core™ i3-2120 @3.30GHz

Installed Memory / Ram = 8.00GB

System Type = 64-bit Operating System (Windows 7 Home Premium SP1)

Graphics Card = Intel HD Graphics (I'm guessing it's crap! It came with the computer!)

Hard Drive = SAMSUNG HD204UI ATA DEVICE 2TB

 

Windows performance ratings:

BASE SCORE = 5.2

PROCESSOR = 7.1

MEMORY(RAM) = 7.5

GRAPHICS = 5.2

GAMING GRAPHICS = 5.8

PRIMARY HARD DISK = 5.9

(scores current as of 12th/August/2012)

 

Addons on FSX;

PMDG 737-800/900 NGX

PMDG JS4100

Manchester Airport UK scenery UK2000

FlyTampa St.Marteen and the other one airport round that airport

[TechguyMaxC 516]

Turn all shadows and advanced effects down, turn water to lowest, turn traffic and autogen down as far as you're comfortable and try again. If it needs further tweaking you can start going through the FSX tweaking guide in this forum.

[SAAB340 28]

Hi al,

Welcome to Avsim.

You can't say that you did your homework before buying that PC if you were planning to use it for FSX?

 

And yoes you are correct in saying that the on board gfx is rubbish. I assume that your computers powersupply is very marginal and doesn't come with a 6pin PCIe power connector given that the "upgraded" version of your computer that comes with a "graphics card" comes with the GT520. So you are very limited to what card you can add to the system. I believe a nVidia GT640 is the best you could add, but it's still not a powerful card.

 

Your CPU leaves a lot to wish for as well, and you wont be able to overclock it either.

 

You should have done your homework before you spent £400 on a computer if you wanted to have good performance in FSX. As you already bought it your best bet is to spend another £90 on a GT640 and accept that you'll have to keep the sliders fairly low.

[Noel 4,487]

I was interested to know if anyone could give me some help regarding the laggy gameplay on FSX at the moment on my PC. I have uploaded my Direct X diag if thats any use to anyone. Here are the stats that I know of, anything else just ask;

 

Zoostrom PC (no idea what the model name is!, fairly new, purchased around 2 months back from Argos)

CPU = Intel® Core™ i3-2120 @3.30GHz

Installed Memory / Ram = 8.00GB

System Type = 64-bit Operating System (Windows 7 Home Premium SP1)

Graphics Card = Intel HD Graphics (I'm guessing it's crap! It came with the computer!)

Hard Drive = SAMSUNG HD204UI ATA DEVICE 2TB

 

Windows performance ratings:

BASE SCORE = 5.2

PROCESSOR = 7.1

MEMORY(RAM) = 7.5

GRAPHICS = 5.2

GAMING GRAPHICS = 5.8

PRIMARY HARD DISK = 5.9

(scores current as of 12th/August/2012)

 

Addons on FSX;

PMDG 737-800/900 NGX

PMDG JS4100

Manchester Airport UK scenery UK2000

FlyTampa St.Marteen and the other one airport round that airport

 

Try n pick up a decent video card making sure whatever you pick up will be adequately powered by your power supply, or upgrade the powersupply if needed. That seems to be the main area for you to improve. Raw processor power compared to what I'm running is around 75% more on your end, and I experience decent performance, though I have to keep the NGX out of major terminals.

[al531246 0]

Hi al,

Welcome to Avsim.

You can't say that you did your homework before buying that PC if you were planning to use it for FSX?

 

And yoes you are correct in saying that the on board gfx is rubbish. I assume that your computers powersupply is very marginal and doesn't come with a 6pin PCIe power connector given that the "upgraded" version of your computer that comes with a "graphics card" comes with the GT520. So you are very limited to what card you can add to the system. I believe a nVidia GT640 is the best you could add, but it's still not a powerful card.

 

Your CPU leaves a lot to wish for as well, and you wont be able to overclock it either.

 

You should have done your homework before you spent £400 on a computer if you wanted to have good performance in FSX. As you already bought it your best bet is to spend another £90 on a GT640 and accept that you'll have to keep the sliders fairly low.

 

Thanks for advice, could you be slightly more specific as to where I'm going wrong, 8GB of Ram and 3.30GHz processor sounded pretty good to me, I've heard FSX is more CPU dependant than GPU?

[TechguyMaxC 516]

 

Thanks for advice, could you be slightly more specific as to where I'm going wrong, 8GB of Ram and 3.30GHz processor sounded pretty good to me, I've heard FSX is more CPU dependant than GPU?

 

The point is that even though FSX is largely CPU-bound you can't not have a graphics card. There are still times when the GPU is the limiting factor (flying through/near heavy weather) and you need some basic level of graphics performance to get the most out of your CPU to begin with. It's a system, everything has to work together and the weakest link in the chain becomes the limiting factor, in this case the graphics, hence my original post about turning graphics settings down.

[al531246 0]

The point is that even though FSX is largely CPU-bound you can't not have a graphics card. There are still times when the GPU is the limiting factor (flying through/near heavy weather) and you need some basic level of graphics performance to get the most out of your CPU to begin with. It's a system, everything has to work together and the weakest link in the chain becomes the limiting factor, in this case the graphics, hence my original post about turning graphics settings down.

 

I understand that my graphics card is a load of s**t!, I'll upload a pic of my settings and you tell me where to change, hold on.

 

Here are my FSX settings currently.

[SAAB340 28]

Thanks for advice, could you be slightly more specific as to where I'm going wrong, 8GB of Ram and 3.30GHz processor sounded pretty good to me, I've heard FSX is more CPU dependant than GPU?

 

Even thou FSX is more CPU dependant than GPU dependant it still needs a decent Gfx Card not to be held back. It will make use of somthing like a GTX560 using only in game AA. And it can make full use of an overclocked GTX680 if you use additional AA (to reduce shimmering and jagged lines).

 

You are spot on with 8GB ram and 64bit OS to start with. Your CPU isn't a slouch but it would have been a lot better if you had a quad core, not a dual core with HyperThreading. But to be fair, if you can't use a gfx card that needs an additional power connector, it will most likely be your gfx card holding back your frames, not your CPU. Never the less, given what you have, you should keep HyperThreading on and use affinitymask=9 when you do your tweaking. The pinned tweaking guide by Word Not Allowed is focused on computers with a lot faster hardware than yours so it won't be fully applicable to you.

 

So the first thing you need to do is to open up your computer and look at the PSU and see if it has a spare 6pin PCIe connector comming out of it. It looks like this.

You should also look and see if you can see a lable on your power supply telling how much load it can handle. You are interested in how much load it can take on the 12V lines.

 

Once you know those to things it'll be easier to see what gfx card you can put in. You first off all need a propper gfx card to improve on your performance.

 

Raw processor power compared to what I'm running is around 75% more on your end

Are you trying to say that a i3 Dual Core (with HT) Sandy bridge @ 3.3GHz is 75% faster than a 3.8GHz Yorkfield quad core in FSX? I guess you might be able to tie in the FPS department.

[al531246 0]

Even thou FSX is more CPU dependant than GPU dependant it still needs a decent Gfx Card not to be held back. It will make use of somthing like a GTX560 using only in game AA. And it can make full use of an overclocked GTX680 if you use additional AA (to reduce shimmering and jagged lines).

 

You are spot on with 8GB ram and 64bit OS to start with. Your CPU isn't a slouch but it would have been a lot better if you had a quad core, not a dual core with HyperThreading. But to be fair, if you can't use a gfx card that needs an additional power connector, it will most likely be your gfx card holding back your frames, not your CPU. Never the less, given what you have, you should keep HyperThreading on and use affinitymask=9 when you do your tweaking. The pinned tweaking guide by Word Not Allowed is focused on computers with a lot faster hardware than yours so it won't be fully applicable to you.

 

So the first thing you need to do is to open up your computer and look at the PSU and see if it has a spare 6pin PCIe connector comming out of it. It looks like this.

You should also look and see if you can see a lable on your power supply telling how much load it can handle. You are interested in how much load it can take on the 12V lines.

 

Once you know those to things it'll be easier to see what gfx card you can put in. You first off all need a propper gfx card to improve on your performance.

 

 

Are you trying to say that a i3 Dual Core (with HT) Sandy bridge @ 3.3GHz is 75% faster than a 3.8GHz Yorkfield quad core in FSX? I guess you might be able to tie in the FPS department.

 

Can I just ask you as well; does a motherboard make any difference to the performace of FSX? My Motherboard is an Asus P8H61-MX according to the booklet in front of me! Is that an important piece of kit or just something on the side?

[SAAB340 28]

In your case it that motherboard means that you can't overclock even if you were to slip in a k-series CPU.

[al531246 0]

In your case it that motherboard means that you can't overclock even if you were to slip in a k-series CPU.

 

Is it worth changing the motherboard, is it a hassle to change the motherboard?

[SAAB340 28]

Focus on what you have to start with. How is it with your PSU?

[al531246 0]

Focus on what you have to start with. How is it with your PSU?

PSU?

[Noel 4,487]

Are you trying to say that a i3 Dual Core (with HT) Sandy bridge @ 3.3GHz is 75% faster than a 3.8GHz Yorkfield quad core in FSX? I guess you might be able to tie in the FPS department.

 

When you look at CPU charts at Tom's and compare I come up w/ around 75% improvement, but that is really in the domain of single core performance, and depended on the benchmark. Because of this, I would assume all else being equal, the i3 2120 would outperform my 4y/o Core 2 quad significantly, but I haven't seen the comparison directly in FSX so it's just a guess.

[SAAB340 28]

PSU?

Power Supply Unit. You are in dire need of a gfx card. So let us figure out how powerful card you can put in.