I hope this is the right place to post this.

 

My current system:

 

Computer: Dell XPS 730X

 

Operating System: Windows 10 Pro

 

System: Intel i7 CPU 920 @ 2.67GHz

              Installed Memory 6.0GB

              64bit Operating System

 

Video: Nivida Geforce GTX 880 TI 2GB Memory

 

FSX

Prepar3D Ver 3.3.5

ORBX Scenery

 

My question is which would improve my performance more? Upgrade System Memory or Video card?

 

Problem I am seeing is with PDMG 777 at KJFK. In FSX when I switch to external spot view the plane disappears.

 

Thanks to all who respond.

 

Bill

 

The first thing to do is overclock your CPU. My old system had an i7-920 running comfortably at 4.0GHz with Corsair liquid cooling. The performance improvement in FSX compared to the CPU at stock speed was significant. I had no problems running FSX with 6Gb RAM so would probably consider upgrading the GPU rather than memory.

What is a GTX 880 ti?

 

Never heard of that card..

The first thing to do is overclock your CPU. My old system had an i7-920 running comfortably at 4.0GHz with Corsair liquid cooling. The performance improvement in FSX compared to the CPU at stock speed was significant. I had no problems running FSX with 6Gb RAM so would probably consider upgrading the GPU rather than memory.

His CPU is certainly locked, I would upgrade the video card to a 1080 from the 980  assuming you meant 980 :smile:  

I'd upgrade your GPU for better autogen performance. If your plane disappears or takes a little bit to appear in spot view, a better GPU will help alleviate this problem. Specifically one with more shader processors and texture mapping units on the card.

If he's got a 980, he should spend his money on a faster CPU.

I agree with Bert. If you have a 980 (or even a 780), I would consider getting the faster CPU - especially if you're sticking with FSX. 

Agree with Bert..

Vortex681 you right he can Overclock the CPU , it was kind of unlocked

 

Offtopic:

No problem to overclock a Non K Skylake , 6700 and 6700k overclock similar only little more difficult with the 6700 Non K

Thanks to all!

 

Sorry! Typo on video card. It's a GTX 660 TI 2GB Memory.

 

I have never Overclocked a CPU. Can someone tell me how it's done. Also, how far to Overclock.

 

With the new video card information. Should the video card be replaced?

 

Thanks.

 

Bill

It's a Dell, and it's a pre-Sandy Bridge processor. The first fact makes overclocking unlikely, and the second makes it of little value. Even if he did manage to overclock it to 4Ghz, it would still be significantly slower than a Skylake running at only 2Ghz.

 

The video card is reasonable but marginal for P3D. I'd definitely look at a new CPU, motherboard and RAM.

 

Cheers!

The Dell XPS 730 Gaming series had unlocked bios, if remember right 3.8 was max

 

But as Luke state , new CPU MoBo and Ram is the way to go

It's a Dell, and it's a pre-Sandy Bridge processor. The first fact makes overclocking unlikely, and the second makes it of little value. Even if he did manage to overclock it to 4Ghz, it would still be significantly slower than a Skylake running at only 2Ghz.

It would seem that it's not difficult to overclock a Dell XPS 730X - see http://en.community.dell.com/dell-blogs/direct2dell/b/direct2dell/archive/2008/12/18/overclocking-the-xps-730x-explained. Also, whilst it obviously won't be as fast as a similarly-clocked Skylake processor, it will still give significantly better performance than he's getting at the moment. I would be very surprised to see a 100% performance improvement from a Skylake system compared to a similarly-clocked i7-920. My new i7-6700k running at stock speeds is certainly much faster than my old i7-920 running at 4 GHz but twice as fast? I'm not sure - it is considerably cooler, though!

Again, thanks to every one for your input. Not being a technical person. I am surprised that a video card would not have been a better choice. My problem seems to be video. So if I increased the computer memory to say 12GB and a new video card to 8GB why wouldn't that address the video? The PMDG 777 is the only aircraft where I have this problem. Both FSX and P3d run fine with other aircraft. I expected the 777 to need more resources. Also, this may be a topic for another forum. But I've had the 777 from the time it came out. Didn't have this problem till I just upgraded to the latest version. I didn't use Active Sky and the PMDG livery. That seemed to fix the original problem. But later in the flight the screen froze. I am also using PROATC.

 

I am retired and a new system is not in the budget. I'm not disagreeing with anyone's advice. Just have to be budget conscious.

 

Thanks.

 

Bill

Increasing the memory size of either the computer or the video card is not going to solve your problem.

 

Using fewer complex addons or dialing back on some complexity options will free up computer resources and that is what you need.  A faster CPU and motherboard is the way forward.

 

The problem seeming to be video is just what you see... the bottleneck inside your system is not "visible"..

Again, thanks to every one for your input. Not being a technical person. I am surprised that a video card would not have been a better choice. My problem seems to be video. So if I increased the computer memory to say 12GB and a new video card to 8GB why wouldn't that address the video? The PMDG 777 is the only aircraft where I have this problem. Both FSX and P3d run fine with other aircraft. I expected the 777 to need more resources. Also, this may be a topic for another forum. But I've had the 777 from the time it came out. Didn't have this problem till I just upgraded to the latest version. I didn't use Active Sky and the PMDG livery. That seemed to fix the original problem. But later in the flight the screen froze. I am also using PROATC.

 

I am retired and a new system is not in the budget. I'm not disagreeing with anyone's advice. Just have to be budget conscious.

 

Thanks.

 

Bill

You can always use parts from your old system in your new system. I did that when I switched from AMD to Intel and the only thing I changed was the motherboard and CPU. That upgrade shouldn't cost more than $400 (I'm not sure of your budget) I'd be happy to talk you through the whole build via phone or Skype call for free. There are also a ton of videos on YouTube that explain a build. You should be able to reuse your harddrive,powersupply,case,disk drive, (maybe ram) once the upgrade is complete you can sell your old mobo and CPU to recover some of the cost.