I've a limited budget available to upgrade my PC. Currently have AMD FX4100 CPU, Radeon HD5700 GPU and 16GB DDR3 1333 memory.

What would give me the best performance boost in FSX? Better CPU, GPU or memory?

Thanks

FSX performance is mostly dependant from CPU speed. Faster CPU will give you smoother and better looking FSX's graphics enviroment. Look for some suggestions at Word Not Allowed's "Software & Hardware Guide for FSX" pinned at top of this subforum. If you will need more information ask for details.

Thanks for that. I read Word Not Allowed's article - not sure I understand all of it but will certainly try the tweaks when i finalise my system. One question regarding CPUs; can FSX utilise all cores? If i go to FX8120 or 8150 for example.

I would strongly recommend saving up some money for a while and building a completely new system.

 

It is not going to be cost effective to throw any more money at your system. No upgrade will give much more performance.

One question regarding CPUs; can FSX utilise all cores? If i go to FX8120 or 8150 for example.

 

FSX is capable to utilize up to 256 cores for dem, textures, autogen loading and processing. But there is a small problem with AMD FX processor's microarchitecture. It doesn't offer good performance in most of games and in FSX too. It was discussed on this forum ealier. In fact that what is AMD telling about quantity of cores in FX processors is only marketing.

Look at this diagram: http://en.wikipedia....8_core_CPU).PNG

 

For example, FX-4100 has 2 modules, each module with two Integer units, one Floating Point unit, one fetch/decode unit and one L2 Data Cache, so that makes whole CPU equiped with 4 Integer units, but only 2 FP unit, 2 Fetch/decode unit and 2 L2 Data Caches. It is more than two Intel's cores but less than four. Similar way FX-8150 have 4 modules, it is a bit more than 4 Intel's cores but less than eight. In FSX significant part of computational work is done on floating point data [1], so in such case FX-4100 is working as dual core CPU.

 

Regardless matters with FX microarchitecture efficiency, if you move from FX-4100 (two modules, 3.6 GHz) to FX-8150 (four modules, 3.6 GHz) you should notice better performance, but for users expecting high performance in FSX Intel's CPUs are much better choice.

 

[1]: http://www.microsoft...balTerrain.aspx

I wouldn't upgrade the CPU only. I recommend going the CPU upgrade to Intel + Mobo, and if you can, at the same time GPU. If not, wait with GPU and use the old one. Going new GPU is not going to give you much of the gains.

 

My guide explains very well which parts of FSX dependable on which components. It's not only a tweaking guide, just scroll down to the hardware section.