PC upgrade help please

[armchair_pilot 54]

Hello folks, I am considering an upgrade for my machine, mainly to run FSX better. I'm tired of getting CTD's, low fps, tweak this, tweak that... Problem is I'm not sure whether to upgrade the graphics card or cpu + motherboard. I know FSX likes cpu power and I would possibly get better results with a new one, but since my graphics card is dated and a possible bottleneck...

 

My current system:

 

AMD fx8350 overclocked to 4,5GHz

ASUS Sabertooth 990fx R2.0

ATI HD6870 1GB

G.SKILL Ripjaws 8GB DDR3 1600MHz RAM

750W PSU

500GB HDD

Win 7 64bit

 

As for the graphics card, I thought of this one: http://www.amazon.de/Gainward-GTX770-Phantom-Grafikkarte-GDDR5/dp/B00D4DEXEY/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1388075138&sr=8-3&keywords=gtx+770

 

EDIT: + switching over to P3D or

 

a new cpu, I thought of the i5 4670k paired with an ASUS Z87-A mainboard (I'd want to overclock to at least 4,3GHz).

 

My budget is limited to only one of these choices. Any suggestions?

[armchair_pilot 54]

Anyone?

[Kuragiman 227]

I have some good news and bad news for you.     I upgraded to an i7 3930k 6-Core that is OC'd to 4.6 ghz with 32 gigs of G.Skill Ram, 10000 RPM HDDs, GTX 770 OCII and all that jazz... and you will STILL be tweaking even then with FSX because that is the nature of that beast and I still get sub-par performance in some locations around the US with a lot of Autogen turned on.   Prepar3D is suppose to the Holy Grail of simulations if you don't mind the price tag and a few missing key aircraft that should be coming later on down the road.

 

You really can't go wrong from moving over to the Pentium.   My super beast is my first Pentium build.  All the other machines in my house are AMD but I can tell you this Pentium machine crushes my other PCs to dust but FSX crushes it to dust regardless under certain circumstances.   Prepar3D should be a little easier on you regarding tweaking needs and frames.    Exactly what is your budget dollar wise?

[armchair_pilot 54]

I have some good news and bad news for you.     I upgraded to an i7 3930k 6-Core that is OC'd to 4.6 ghz with 32 gigs of G.Skill Ram, 10000 RPM HDDs, GTX 770 OCII and all that jazz... and you will STILL be tweaking even then with FSX because that is the nature of that beast and I still get sub-par performance in some locations around the US with a lot of Autogen turned on.   Prepar3D is suppose to the Holy Grail of simulations if you don't mind the price tag and a few missing key aircraft that should be coming later on down the road.

 

You really can't go wrong from moving over to the Pentium.   My super beast is my first Pentium build.  All the other machines in my house are AMD but I can tell you this Pentium machine crushes my other PCs to dust but FSX crushes it to dust regardless under certain circumstances.   Prepar3D should be a little easier on you regarding tweaking needs and frames.    Exactly what is your budget dollar wise?

 

Hello Kuragiman, thank you for your answer. 

 

My budget would be 400$. I don't mind a few tweaks, I mean, that's the nature of FSX isn't it? The main problem with my current setup is, that one day I'm happy with it, the other day I'm not because performance is poor e.g. when flying through heavy clouds and rain at night. In some cases at payware airports I'm stuck with 15-20fps (worst was 11) with the 737NGX/777, especially at night and it just isn't smooth enough to provide a good flying experience. I am running 2 1080p monitors, don't know if this stresses my gpu too much? Today I got my 2nd CTD after a 5-hour mid-haul flight from OMDB to LOWW (both from FlyTampa), something that shouldn't really happen with medium-high settings.

[jambo50 15]

If you are set on upgrading, then the components you have picked out should suffice. You will definately get an increase in performance. The parts are better than mine and I can get fairly decent performance by using the teaks found in the Avsim SW & HW guide, which can be found in the forum.

 

Just out of curiosity, what are the CTDs you are getting? What is the faulting module/application?

[armchair_pilot 54]

If you are set on upgrading, then the components you have picked out should suffice. You will definately get an increase in performance. The parts are better than mine and I can get fairly decent performance by using the teaks found in the Avsim SW & HW guide, which can be found in the forum.

 

Just out of curiosity, what are the CTDs you are getting? What is the faulting module/application?

 

I can only choose one of them, either the i5 or the GTX770. Which one would provide the highest performance boost? Maybe later on I will purchase the other part but it will take some time.

The faulting module name is unknown, path leads to fsx.exe. Couldn't find out more about the error but before it occured I saw black squares on the ground around the destination airport and some windows sound repeatedly came up.

[jambo50 15]

I would suggest the processor/motherboard be the first to be upgraded. The processor does most of the work so is the most critical part for a smooth experience. The GPU can come later for higher anti-aliasing settings to clean up the image. My apologies, I didn't read the last part of you're first post stating you could only choose one!

 

For you're overclock, I'm not sure how high you can clock the Haswell on the stock air cooler (maybe someone else can help with this?) but if there is money to spare after buying the board and chip, you may want to consider an aftermarket cooler.

 

Again for the CTDs, I'm not 100% sure on these. The ones I have had identified the faulting module and I was able to come here and identify the root cause. 

[armchair_pilot 54]

No problem Jaime. I bought an aftermarket cooler some time ago, CM Hyper 212 Evo. It can keep the fx at max. 60°C under 100% load (tested with prime95) should be ok, so I could use that one. Now I'd also rather choose the cpu, still too unsure about the graphics card update and P3D. It's still a young piece of software under development and maybe it's too early to switch. Hmm..

[jambo50 15]

That one will do nicely! The haswell i5 clocked up to around your 4.3GHz target will run pretty well. The graphics card can come a little further down the line.

 

Yeah I'm a bit uneasy about switching at this moment in time. I've my FSX running sweet with the DX10Fixer so I'm happy for the time being! Maybe once PMDG has their products out of P3D I may have a decision to make.

[armchair_pilot 54]

Does the dx10 fix run well with most addons? I tried FSX in dx10 mode once (I don't have the fix) but performance is horrible.

 

Ok I placed my order today. I was able to strech my budget a little and went for the i7 4770k instead (to be future proof) with an ASrock extreme4 mainboard. I hope this upgrade is worth the money.

[Kuragiman 227]

Does the dx10 fix run well with most addons? I tried FSX in dx10 mode once (I don't have the fix) but performance is horrible.

 

Ok I placed my order today. I was able to strech my budget a little and went for the i7 4770k instead (to be future proof) with an ASrock extreme4 mainboard. I hope this upgrade is worth the money.

 

I run in DX10 Mode with Steve's DX10 Fixer and my performance increased dramatically and almost all of my airports and aircraft and all my lighting got fixed.

 

I run on 3 24" monitors in extended surround mode and you will see a performance hit obviously over just a single 1920x1080 single display.   I have gotten my FSX to run on all 3 monitors with 25+ FPS most of the time.   There a few places that still kick my PC in the butt and I am marking them down so when I fly to them I know to scale back my settings a bit.   

 

Definitely go for the CPU/Mobo first as FSX scoffs at your fancy video cards.   Your CPU needs to be able to push the data.    Of course, the video card needs to be able to take all that is pushed on to it so the video is important but the CPU is higher priority as it will be doing the bulk of the work.

[armchair_pilot 54]

Ok thanks guys ^_^

 

One more thing, I guess I will have to do a complete reinstallation of windows once the new parts are installed, right?

[Kuragiman 227]

Ok thanks guys ^_^

 

One more thing, I guess I will have to do a complete reinstallation of windows once the new parts are installed, right?

 

When doing a new processor and mobo install, ALWAYS re-install the OS.    I have seen some copy an image of their old but its easier for me to just reinstall the OS and go.  Less hassle with driver issues.

[armchair_pilot 54]

So now I also got myself the GTX770 Phantom, what a beast of a gpu. This new system blows my old setup out of the water, with higher settings, zero performance tweaks and non-overclocked. FSX has never been so smooth. Thanks again for your input guys!

[martin-w 3,234]

When doing a new processor and mobo install, ALWAYS re-install the OS. I have seen some copy an image of their old but its easier for me to just reinstall the OS and go. Less hassle with driver issues.

I do too.

 

However, there have been times when I have simply uninstalled thd chip set drivers and all motherboard related software, installed the new drive, installed all new motherboard software with no problems what so ever.