I keep reading post about guys using another pc to run some flight sim programs  and have some questions:

- Why?

- What type of pc is needed for the second one? Can I just buy a 5 year old gamer or even standard pc off Craig's List to use.

- Does it need the same operating program as your main pc (win 10 or?) or can you use an older one such as win 7 or even xp on the 2nd one ?

- How to you hook this all up?(I am not network literate - or is there a Networking for Dummies book?)

- How many fps will I gain if this happens?

- Is it really worth the expense and trouble?

I cant see it saving much at all in the way of FPS unless your sim is a hung of crap.

I have read where some are using the second pc for weather software and ai software and such and saving fps. I really would like more info on this and can get a small older pc for free to try. 

Well okay.

 

I tried running ASN on a second pc and saw no improvement in FPS at all in FSX:SE.  But then my simming rig is a beast and I didnt really expect any improvement.

 

As to how, the application in question usually says how in the user guide, EG AS16 tells how.

Thanks Boomer that is the input I am looking for. 

What is nice about running a second PC is the ability so have the weather apps interface available as well as a moving map such as FSCommander, It's also nice to be able to pull up your charts and also browse the web during long flights.

If you fly online with Vatsim then having vPilot running and displaying its interface on another machine is also well worth it.

There's no measurable performance benefit to running secondary programs on another machine. It is mainly for convenience. Any processing time you might save (nanoseconds at most) would be given back with the network processing the connection. I find it easier to have a second monitor.

 

Vic

Do any of the sims allow dividing the sim in 2?  1 system for the Sim Host and 1 system for the Image Generator?  I know P3D will talk on CIGI so not sure if it will allow this, maybe only on the Pro software?

40 minutes ago, Glynn said:

What is nice about running a second PC is the ability so have the weather apps interface available as well as a moving map such as FSCommander, It's also nice to be able to pull up your charts and also browse the web during long flights.

Yes but a better method is to run more thna 1 monitor on the simming pc.

I run 3 monitors on my EVGA 960GTX.

Using a second monitor and accessing running apps on the same computer can deteriorate performance. always have used networked computers to run moving maps,weather apps . Never had an OOM. Flight computer ONLY runs the Sim, No network connections!

- Why?

Biggest benefit would be to run programs that you'd like to see while flying(vPilot, moving maps, charts, etc) as stated already.

- What type of pc is needed for the second one? Can I just buy a 5 year old gamer or even standard pc off Craig's List to use.

As long as it can run the programs you want to run, any pc will be fine.  5 year old pc would work I think.

- Does it need the same operating program as your main pc (win 10 or?) or can you use an older one such as win 7 or even xp on the 2nd one ?

No.  Does not need to be the same.  My second pc is Win10.  My flight sim pc is Win7.  Works fine.

- How to you hook this all up?(I am not network literate - or is there a Networking for Dummies book?)

Yeah, Google how to set up a simple home network.  There are a bunch of different ways to do it from just connecting the two pc's with a crossover cable to connecting to the same WiFi network and more.  But this would be a complete topic/tutorial in and of itself.

- How many fps will I gain if this happens?

Probably not much, if any.  But that all would depend I suppose.

- Is it really worth the expense and trouble?

That's up to you.  I wouldn't do it any other way.  I can't imagine having to toggle to my other apps while running flight sim.  Nor do I want to connect another monitor to my main sim and deal with that.  So for me, it is totally worth it.  Plus, I used to be a network engineer, so it was easy for me.  :)

3 minutes ago, Adrian123 said:

Using a second monitor and accessing running apps on the same computer can deteriorate performance. always have used networked computers to run moving maps,weather apps . Never had an OOM. Flight computer ONLY runs the Sim, No network connections!

I use two monitors and one not very powerful PC, and have moving maps, weather, browse the web, and never had an OOM. 

I've been running a networked system since the early FSX days. Just to give you an idea I run the following addon programs under P3D on the Networked PC. 

AS2016

ASCA

vPilot

WideFS

Rex Textures

Rex Soft Clouds

2 VAs ACARS programs.

Not sure if it makes any difference memory wise but I like to have my sim window totally clean and much prefer not having separate windows for those addons popping up on my main P3D PC.  

 

Regards

 

 

8 minutes ago, Adrian123 said:

Never had an OOM.

OOM would not be something to be concerned with in this scenario.  FSX/P3D will have a ~4G limit no matter what other applications are running on your flight sim pc.  "External" apps to the sim do not count towards that limit of the flight sim application itself.

If you have a fast pc and not many addons that are cpu intensive in usage then you can try with 1 pc.

Otherwise an extra pc is the way to go.

eg : no jittering when AS is downloading weather updates while flying

And network processing time is way less taxing on a pc than downloading/calculating a weather program...