There is hope :)

[Guest tcable]

I've just this week done my 5 year hardware cycle-I'm moving from an A64 3200+ 1gb Ram X800PRO toa Q6600, 4gb ram, Radeon 3870 system. Both are running XP SP2 for now. It'll be Vista64 soon enough.After fighting with my new DVD drive and read errors on FSX install, I installed FSX, SP1 and Acceleration/sp2.I fired up FSX in pure stock config. No addons at all. I'm not looking forward to getting all of my addons in!Took all of the graphics sliders full right (All of 'em- even water to 2x max!) Full scenery complexity including dynamic scenery. 100% traffic. In game AA and Anisotropic filtering. I have not bothered with CCC yet- just the latest drivers.Went to KBOS (3 miles from my office...) and loaded the default 737 at the gate. I did this know knowing how it'll tax the system. Plus I did not have the guts to try JFK initially- plaace I would not go on my old pc.Now I understand a large number of the screenshots I've seen. Crisp textures, sharp antialiased edges. More importantly, a framerate that never dropped below 20! (With water at max?, dynamic objects everywhere? More autogen than I could imagine!)Autogen that LOOKS like Boston. Trees everywhere. Vehicles everywhere. clouds, the works.I'm almost in sim heaven. Sure I could get better framerates- couldn't we all? but with that level of detail and number of objects, my old PC would struggle to get 5 fps, and it would be less playable than it sounds. On the new system the 20 feels higher than it is. and no stutters set to unlimited.Granted this was my first and only test flight so far, but at this early point I feel like this upgrade has the most legs I've ever had. I deliberately went with the Q6600 over the E8400 which is a faster chip, but two cores. Both are ~$200. I could have waited for a Q9450, but all that are in channel are OEM so it would have been a $400 chip and cooler right now. I'm not regretting my 'compromise'. I'll overclock in the future, but I'm very pleased.

[ccaughie 0]

This is good to hear. I'm waiting for the Q9450, more because of its reduced power consumption than because I expect it to be any faster than a sufficiently overclocked Q6600. I have to be patient though (and your post made this harder!), as they're trickling into the UK very slowly... still I'm glad to hear that nirvana awaits. :)Incidentally (at the risk of having this post moved to the hardware forum) have you tried overclocking the CPU yet?Colin

[Guest chinga]

Let me say this...just bought a new Asus Maximus Formula motherboard...an E8400 cpu o/c to 4.2...4 gigs of Crucial Ballistix Ram at 4-4-4-12...and two HD3870's in crossfire mode. Guess what? Fsx still chugs along as it did in my old system which is in my sig that i haven't updated yet.Intel E6700 @ 3.6ghz2 gig Corsair Pc2-8500 @ 1066mhzEvga 680i nVidia motherboardEvga 8800GTS 768 mb 163.44 Drivers2 74gig WD 10,000 rpm Raptors Raid 0Thermaltake 750watt Toughpower PsuAcer 22" Widescreen LCD

[PhilTaylor 45]

Does disabling Crossfire do anything positive for perf?You do know that the 3870 isnt really as fast as an 8800 right?http://www.techspot.com/news/27877-ati-rad...inally-out.html

[jwenham 1]

Dont know if you have this store in the UK but....http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_...duct_id=0286543

[Guest tcable]

I made a decision based on the knowledge that nVidia drivers are abysmal. Particularly for FSX. That's not to say that they do not produce great hardware, but some of the comparisons I've seen are suspect at best (Tom's hardware).It's powerful enough for me and I have a better history with Ati than nVidia personally.The 3870 is slower. I'm a big fan of www.hardocp.com and their testing methology.And aren't you the one that's been chanting the fact that FSX is CPU bound? :)I'll say that it is.I've got my 747 installed (still fluid frames!) NOw to try Atlanta- before I install any non default AI...Now if I could just get my LDS 767 installed.BTW Phil, nice to see you around, and active.

[Guest chinga]

Hi Phil,I'm not saying my performance is bad...just thought it would be better than the last system being that everyone says FSX is cpu limited. I know the Ati card is slower.. but the image quality is phenomenal. Way better than my 8800 GTS. Nvidia drivers are horrible of late...especially for Vista. I experience none of the graphic anomilies i did with the Nvidia card..especially in DX10 preview. No flashing runways..no purple water...etc. And for whatever reason..the ATI card kicks the Nvidia card's arse in COD4 :)Oh...and disabling crossfire resulted in a loss of roughly 2 fps.Locked at 30 down to an occasional 28. And it just didn't seem as smooth.Intel E6700 @ 3.6ghz2 gig Corsair Pc2-8500 @ 1066mhzEvga 680i nVidia motherboardEvga 8800GTS 768 mb 163.44 Drivers2 74gig WD 10,000 rpm Raptors Raid 0Thermaltake 750watt Toughpower PsuAcer 22" Widescreen LCD

[PhilTaylor 45]

Good to hear ATI crossfire isnt causing worse performance, I have heard from a bird that it might....hence my question.I agree usually ATI has better image quality, and there has been enough said about the nV driver issues that I dont have to add to the pile-on so I am glad to hear it is working out for you.