I've been like everyone else looking for ways to improve my performance in fsx ever since I purchased it and today I decided I would overclock my now low end athlon 64 3000+. Turns out I was able to get it up to 2.4 Ghz from the stock 1.8ghz, 2.4ghz is 3800+ and 4000+ territory. Wow let me tell you this was the "magic bullet" for me, I got a tremendous boost in performance in almost all situations. I was able to bring up my sliders and enable my pixel and vertex shaders again and remain in the 17-25 fps range almost everywhere.Andrew

How's your temps? Keep an eye out there when FSX is putting it under extreme load. Drop a Zalman in there to make sure.

Andrew,It is a good idea but be aware that it will reduce the life of your processor which is more expensive than FSX. It's not worth unless you are going to retire your present Hardware.regards,Isagani

Just more proof that nothing helps any version of MSFS more than additional CPU cycles :-) .Doug

>I've been like everyone else looking for ways to improve my>performance in fsx ever since I purchased it and today I>decided I would overclock my now low end athlon 64 3000+.>Turns out I was able to get it up to 2.4 Ghz from the stock>1.8ghz, 2.4ghz is 3800+ and 4000+ territory. Wow let me tell>you this was the "magic bullet" for me, I got a tremendous>boost in performance in almost all situations. I was able to>bring up my sliders and enable my pixel and vertex shaders>again and remain in the 17-25 fps range almost everywhere.>AndrewI saw some "Einstein"

I agree. I overclocked an E6700 to a modest 3.2Ghz. I am seeing 20-30FPS with high settings, normal autogen, and water 2.x High. I have not even applied the texture reduction fixes. I am a very happy camper.

I would have bought a 3.5GHz C2D if they were on the market, but 2.93GHz is the max speed Intel sells at the moment. It would also have to be about $215 bucks for it to be of good enough value for me to buy, which means I'd have to wait a year or two after it debuts to get to that price level.Or I can just overclock the XXXX out of what I paid $215 for now and get the same performance benefit much earlier in my life. As for killing my CPU, I've tried to kill many, many CPUs over the last 10 years and they just won't die :-lolGary

>I've been like everyone else looking for ways to improve my>performance in fsx ever since I purchased it and today I>decided I would overclock my now low end athlon 64 3000+.>Turns out I was able to get it up to 2.4 Ghz from the stock>1.8ghz, 2.4ghz is 3800+ and 4000+ territory. Wow let me tell>you this was the "magic bullet" for me, I got a tremendous>boost in performance in almost all situations. I was able to>bring up my sliders and enable my pixel and vertex shaders>again and remain in the 17-25 fps range almost everywhere.>AndrewSome basic rules about overclocking: 1) Its not magic. Nowhere near at. performance will linearly scale with the amount you overclock the hardware. 2) Overclock it too much, and the boost will turn into a 100% loss of performance. That can happen *suddenly* without any warning prior to. Ever heard of hot spots?3) A blowing up power supply smells badly and may hurt your pets nearby.4) Water cooling stuff which deals with electricity can be fun, but better make sure you get the things right. It may, again, hurt :)5) Get a nice tranparent case for your PC - the sparks flying around inside can look great.

"5) Get a nice tranparent case for your PC - the sparks flying around inside can look great."I got that covered I'm sure they do haha. I'm not too worried about the reduction in cpu life. It will be retired as soon as vista and dx10 come out.Andrew

The AMD single core cpu's are doing better in FSX for some reason.

Yes AMD CPUs especially fx-57 overclocked does the best of all CPUs I've seen. The point is when one is obese even a Levis can't to a good job on him!!*corrected typos

Amusing thread. Overclocking always brings out folks that predict gloom and doom.I've never understood that, unless they work for processor companies and don't want folks to experiement. Even that theory makes no sense, the processor companies are providing overclocking tools now. Who knows?My new intel "bad axe" mobo comes with a tool that provides overclocking controls AND a stability test utility.My E6600 is completely stable at 3ghz (admittedly a mild overclock from 2.4...25%). Stress tests are 100% successful, both from independant testing tools and the intel tools.Cpu temps show 49C at idle, and 55C max under load, with temp actuating fan systems kicking in at 55. Freezer 7 cpu fan and simple 80mm exhaust fan is my entire cooling investment.Memory rated at 666 is underclocked to 532 in basic settings, so the overclock of 25% returns them to rated speed.Perhaps the warnings are meant for the untrained overclocker, and that I agree with, you need to understand what impact you have on your box, as you don't want unintended consequences, such as unknowingly overclocking the PCIe bus, or PCI bus or memory.Also I recommend a burnin period, prior to starting an overclock, I ran this new build at rated condition for a week prior to the overclock. Just good practice imho.Best,Bob

I have the case off mine so the cats can see the sparks as they fly across the room.Doug

Shhh Bob. If you tell them that the world won't end when if they try overclocking, they may stop buying those expensive processors that keep the price down on the gems that guys like you and I buy to unlock their real potential :-lolGary

I too have a Athlon 64 3000+ and have often thought of overclocking. The problem is I don't know how to do it. Is it an easy process? If you could give me some guidance I would appreciate it.Jim