Hi,

 

I am looking to break back into flight simming and wanted ot get an idea of what sort of performance I could expect in x-plane 10.  My system is as follows:

 

i7-2600K 3.4 GHz

8 GB Ram

EVGA 560 Ti 1GB

 

I realize the system is a bit dated and I am considering purchasing a GTX 970 4 GB  (I have been lead to believe that this 3.0 PCI Express card will not be bottlenecked by the 2.1 PCI Express slot on my MB

 

I just run a single monitor at 1920x1080

 

Any insight is appreciated, just looking to look before I jump :-)

 

Thanks

 

Brett

As I am sure someone else will also say,get the free download and try it.  You will be limited to Seattle and vicinity, but you can get an idea of what it will do.

 

John

If you don't want to go the whole hog, then you should definitely upgrade the graphics card, as you suggest. It's performance will be a little handicapped by the rest of your system, but you could upgrade the rest a bit later. (If you have one, an SSD works wonders for loading times!)

I'm by no means a hardware expert, but you should try and upgrade your RAM to at least 16GB. With the updates coming in 10.40 for increased visibility, it will really help. 

X-Plane 10 should run fine at medium settings on that rig. If you upgrade just your graphics card, I think you'll get a major jump in the rendering settings you'll be able to use. This is based on my recent experience with something similar. Before a recent GPU upgrade, this was my system:

 

i7 920 @ 2.67 GHz

8 gigs RAM

Win 7 64-bit

GeForce GTX 560Ti

 

I was able to use the HD mesh scenery and fly at smooth (30fps+) frame rates by setting rendering options somewhere in the middle zone. 

 

A few months ago, I upgraded to a GTX 970 graphics card, and saw an amazing improvement in what I was able to set for rendering quality. I'm maxed out on most of the render settings and the frame rate is very smooth. It's nice to have more system RAM, and you need at least a decent CPU, but the graphics card does a lot of the heavy lifting in flight simulators like this. 

 

I have a new computer on the way with 16gb RAM and a faster CPU, and I'll transfer this GTX 970 card when it arrives. You can go more hardcore with things like multiple graphics cards and more memory, a SSD drive to increase startup and scenery load times. But a mid-range computer with a fast graphics card is still a good platform for X-Plane.

 

Thanks guys!  I definitely think I will upgrade the GPU.  I am looking at getting the control hardware as well so I dont want to take on the whole computer at this time

 

You can go more hardcore with things like multiple graphics cards and more memory, a SSD drive to increase startup and scenery load times. But a mid-range computer with a fast graphics card is still a good platform for X-Plane.

 

 

I agree with your post, @Paraffin, except that running multiple cards (SLI) doesn't improve graphics with X-Plane.  You need just one, big, fast GPU like the nVidia 970/980 series, or maybe the new Titan X if you can afford it ($1,000).

@mdavis - Thanks for that reminder about SLI (and the AMD equivalent) not helping in X-Plane, I forgot about that. 

 

That new Titan X.... hmmmm, sexy.  ^_^

 

I usually wait and "leapfrog" my GPU upgrades over one or two product versions so the improvement is noticeable enough. That definitely happened with the 560ti to 970 upgrade. Not sure if the Titan series will be enough of a jump over the 970, but I'm keeping an eye on it, for when the prices fall into the $500 "gaming" zone.

 

 

Mmmmm, if only I had a grand to spare, the Titan would be very tempting!

Brett I had a similar system...  except my 2500k is clocked to 4GHz.  I recently bought a GTX 970 (from a GTX 570).  Night and day difference for texture resolution and general rendering settings....  I went from normal to extreme res (I actually run very high because extreme doesn't seem to do much more).  FPS high 20's to mid 30's with payware like LES Saab and v3 mesh, MisterX airports, HDR on, vehicles etc etc...  XP10 is now totally usable for me.