Dear fellow simmers,

I have a configuration which I would like to upgrade, but within limits:

 

- I would like to keep FS9. In understand FSX can do more, but I just have many add-ons for FS9 and prefer to invest in hardware.

 

- Would also like to keep Win XP 32, as I am deeply in love with Flight1's Piper Meridian.

 

- Drives, Case, Power Supply are all very nice & high quality, would like to keep them.

 

What I want to avoid is to spend a lot of money on hardware that is too "strong" or too "modern" for FS9 - in other words, that offers features which are useless looking at FS9s relatively old programming structure.

 

I wonder if I can get some advice here on a processor which in this sense could be a solution. I would be glad to look into the used market.

 

I will have made a similar posting in the video card section (http://forum.avsim.net/topic/408758-trying-to-max-out-fs9-on-win-xp-32/).

 

Kind regards,

Holger

 

 

 

P.S.: These are the details for my configuration:

 

 

 

Windows XP Professional 32-bit

Processor
2.40 gigahertz Intel Core 2 Duo
64 kilobyte primary memory cache
4096 kilobyte secondary memory cache
64-bit ready
Multi-core (2 total)
Not hyper-threaded

Main Circuit Board
ASUSTeK Computer INC. P5B-Deluxe Rev 1.xx
Bus Clock: 266 megahertz
BIOS: American Megatrends Inc. 1238 09/30/2008

4 GB DIMM

4 Drives

1 x Radeon X1950 Series

1 x Radeon X1900 Series

Running three monitors, two of them HP L2105tm (but due to XP limitations, only one working as touch screen).

Drives, Case, Power Supply are all very nice & high quality, would like to keep them.

Looking into upgrading the CPU, but that would probably also require a new MB.

Not sure if the Radeons are already max or if I could do better.

Here is why almost nobody can answer your questions..

You are running FS9 on windows XP 32bit, with Dual Core processor and very old graphics card running 3 monitors!

Without spending good amount of money on new hardware and software, I doubt that you can get any better performance out of your PC..

Sorry that I couldn't help you more!

Hi,

 

I see your are in Bahrain, you may be in luck. I have a bunch of old sim hardware doing nothing in a spare room. Send me a pm

 

Regards

Dear aviator8,

thank you very much for your reply. This was exactly the kind of information I was hoping for. I am absolutely willing to make an investment for more performance.

 

However, what I am afraid of is to chose a hardware architecture that is on on use for the relatively old programming structure of FS9. For example, I guess that lots of more RAM will not help much as FS9 cannot access them anyway.

 

So what should I go for? Higher clock speed? High number of cores? Is there such a thing as "the" processor for FS9?

 

My only "condition" is to keep FS9. I might even part with XP 32.

 

Best regards,

Holger

As another committed FS9 user, I too have the Meridan. I swapped out the supplied 530 for the newer 530 WAAS and a couple of Jetline 2 gauges from RXP (and some Flightline T and N gauges, but they wren't really necessary, just looked more betterer) and now have the Meridan running on a 3570K in Win 7 x64. Bit of mucking about, but it can be done. I think the original HSI was the only thing the new WAAS 530 couldn't drive, hence the Jetline 2 retrofit.

 

Cheers, SLuggy

In my opinion, the main thing your new build should focus on is higher bandwidth and I/O.

 

In other words, even though FS9 is old, it's greatest strength is it is "pure" unlike FSX that is a jumbled mess of old and new, half-finished features (DX 10; Multithreading). So, your main hardware upgrades should focus on speed and improved through put above all else.

 

1) I recommend getting a used (or new) Intel E8500 (3.0 GHZ) / E8600 (3.30 GHZ) Core2Duo CPU.

 

2) DDR2 RAM that runs at 800 MHz vs. your current 266 MHz RAM.

 

3) Nvidia GPU of your choice.

 

Even something like a 9800 GTX is more than enough for FS9. It's no myth Nvidia performs better with both Intel CPUs / mobos and FSX. It's proven fact. If you want to run three monitors off one card I would suggest the most recent Nvidia offerings like the GTX 600, 700 series. You may have a technical bottleneck with a Wolfdale CPU + 600/700 series GPU, but you are running a program that is nearly 10 years old and built on inefficient FS2000-era code. So, any bottleneck will be purely "technical" and probably not noticeable in the sim.

 

For reference, I used to run FS9 on a Core2Duo E5800 (O.C. to 3.7 GHZ) with a GTX 260 at it was nearly maxed outwith this humble setup four years ago.

 

4) Make the switch to at least Windows 7 x64-bit to take advantage of more than 3 GBs of RAM.

 

I know Windows XP is the "gamers" choice, but a lot of so-called gamers don't know how to optimize their systems on a regular basis, either. So, they think any new OS is "bloated" and "slow" when that is just not the case. I can understand skipping Vista and Windows 8 because of the Metro GUI, but choosing not to be on at least Windows 7 in 2013 doesn't make any sense to me from a technological stand point.