fsx-ms Upgrade opinions needed

[dsmbell 36]

Hi all,

 

I have considering upgrading my system which is below. It currently runs FSX quite well but I want it to run even smoother - suggestions please. Note - I have not listed my hard drives as I am not too worried about upgrading to an SSD to improve loading times - as far as I understand an SSD will not make it actually run faster.

 

Motherboard - Asus P8P67

Processor - i5-2500K (Sandy Bridge) o/c to 4.5 ghz

Memory - 8GB Corsair @800mhz

Graphics - AMD Radeon 6970 2GB

OS - Win 7 Home Premium 64 bit

 

Thanks.

[Glynn 405]

Some faster RAM

Nvidia GTX970

 

The rest is fine

[dsmbell 36]

Thanks, how much difference do you think this will make given that FSX is more CPU driven? Happy to pay the money but want to be sure it will make a difference.

[Boomer 1,619]

I wouldn't bother wasting a top end gpu on fsx...fsx won't use it properly. Now, if you play other games too, maybe.

 

Good cpu and better monitors maybe, or trackir.

[zmak 331]

Add Steves fixer DX10. My understanding is it transfers load to the GPU and is a huge upgrade in itself.

 

My system components are close to yours (oc to 4.7) except I have a GTX 560TI that hardly ever goes past 60% load so why spend big bucks on a GPU?

 

The only thing you could do to see a real jump is the CPU but then you would need a new MOBO and water cool and then you may as well get a 980TI to compliment it all LOL

 

Stay where you are unless you have big bucks to burn

[neucoas 81]

The only change i'd do is get an GTX 960/970 GPU, but its not necessary. FSX likes Nvidia.

 

Get an SSD if you don't have one, its a total no brainer not only for FSX, but for improve whole speed of the PC. I am using a little 60GB SSD only for MS and Chrome and i can't go back to HD .-

 

Your RAM seems to be 1600MHz (800x2 because of DDR). I think there isn't 800MHz DDR3 sticks, i usually see them starting at 1066/1333.

[Mephic 129]

If you use sparse grid anti aliasing and Rex clouds you will find 970 very appropriate. My 660ti is barely breathing on any resolution of clouds higher than 512 in this configuration. But this is very situational.

[vortex681 806]

 

 

Get an SSD if you don't have one, its a total no brainer not only for FSX, but for improve whole speed of the PC. I am using a little 60GB SSD only for MS and Chrome and i can't go back to HD .-

 

Worth pointing out that an SSD will only speed up the loading of FSX and the subsequent flight but will make no noticeable difference to FPS once you're up and running. It does make Windows appear much faster, though.

 

Although FSX in primarily dependent on the CPU, I recently upgraded to a GTX 970 and have seen a big improvement with the same CPU. I've been able to use much higher graphics settings through NVIDIA Inspector (using DX10) with little hit on FPS.

[ckyliu 1,749]

Your system is nearly identical to mine (specs are on my profile)! It's still pretty hot now it's a few years old. Since building the system I've learnt FSX and P3D prefer nVidia cards, so I'd fit a GTX970 like vortex1 suggested.

 

FSX framerates are all about single core performance and clockspeed, and a CPU upgrade wouldn't improve that much. Especially given that Ivybridge onwards use a smaller manufacturing process so there's less surface area to dissipate overclocking heat.

[Patriot3810 182]

nvidia just runs much better with intel,i had that same amd card a few years back and had terrible perrformance,i would buy the gtx 970,i am using the asus strix version and it stays nice and cool, and overclocked out of the box,as other guys stated above dx10 will run much better for you than dx9.i only run p3d 2.5 now but just telling you my experience.i would recommend having ssd's.i know everyone just says it improves load times,but i moved up to a 256 gb samsung sm951 m.2 with 2200 mbps write and 1506 reads and my whole platform just feels so much smoother and my fps seems so much more stable.ssd's have dropped alot in the past 2 years and why noone wants to run one for at least the boot drive is behond me.i am using 2 gtx 970's in sli for p3d though.good luck on your decision,the 970 is a must for intel hardware.get rid of the amd.

[dsmbell 36]

Hi all thanks for the comments

I decided to go for the. Gtx 970 and 8 gb of 2133 memory and the results are good. Before the upgrade I saved a test flight at orbs redding airport with almost slider maxed, ut2 and active sky next running with a 2560x1440 resolution and I got an fps of 12 after upgrade you am getting 30 GPS and very smooth running. I did a similar test with assetto corsa and went from 12 to 50 GPS. Very impressed.