Scott434

sounds like your system is not solely dedicated to FSX so from an overall systems standpoint then put your OS and apps on the SSD. SSDs do not help FSX from a performance (FPS) standpoint but do cut FSX load times down significantly. BTW, your CPU is begging you for an OC. FSX "comes alive" at about 4 ghz and shines even more at higher OCs.

Russert, would it be possible to take an actual picture (not a screen capture) of your setup while you ae "sitting" in the VC? If this works I am interested is doing this.

I had exactly the same symptoms described in your OP during my overclock attempts. I reset the cmos (should do this as a matter of course after bios updating) and started clean. Then chose the XMP overclocking mode which sets up the memory timings and voltages stored in the memory (assuming your memory is XMP aware). Creep up on your overclock goal while running prime95 in between slight increases. Since FSX is not as demanding, you can squeeze more OC. I use the OC profiles on my mobo and load the desired configuration based on what I want to do (see sig).

Turn off "File Indexing" (right click drive letter ->properties) and scheduled defrag with SSDs. My favorite characteristics - super quick program installation times especially when you need to do a fresh install as well as the quick boot/load times. No significant gains in FSX compared to very fast hard drives.

Since memory sits upstream of the LARGE "wind tunnel" NH-D14, there is a large amount of cooling (air movement) taking place and the dedicated memory fan might not be essential depending on airflow in your box. My memory is running at 2005mhz without the dedicated memory fan AND with the top heat spreader/heat sink removed on one stick as Gary's link indicates. Also it is possible to relocate the interfering fan to the rear although I am not sure what effect this would have on overall cooling ability since it is not the "as designed" configuration and have not tried this personally.For my build, I chose the NH rather than the H70 since most reviews favored the NH. In my case, I use SSDs for their soundless (not to mention quickness) nature and the NH allows me to have an almost silent rig which for me is very important. Silent, killer cooling, no maintenance and no leak worries.

Many of have moved on to FSX, VCs, TrackIRs, HD textures, video card hardware that gives us crisp images (AA etc), add-ons that are FSX only and therefore have limited options other than TH2GO to utilize surround monitors. I am hopeful (perhaps dreaming too much) that nvidia/ATI can expand on their current multiscreen offerings and somehow provide us with the ability of recreating what you have achieved only with the above mentioned current FSX environment.

Hi SpritFlyer, I performed the exact sequence which you described and all was fine when I installed my dedicated FSX SSD. However, I found that periodically it is a good thing to "start fresh". What I did the last round was prepare a extremely detailed word doc that describes the entire process of loading win7-64 and FSX plus all addons, tweaks, etc. I did screen captures, specified web sites links, user accounts, passwords, keyboards mappings, EZdok settings, cameras, trackIR settings/profiles, visio drawings to show yoke assignments etc etc. Basically it captures every source, tweak and mod I made to bring my FSX system to life. It takes a long time to do this but it is amazing just how many steps and details there are at the end of the day! Now, a complete fresh install will be much less painful and it will definately be much quicker.I have been following your SB build story. Thanks to you and Dario for sharing the experience. I planned on sitting out the 5xx and SB round since I like "larger" incremental gains but seeing the results you guys are getting is making it a bit more tempting!!! :P

One can disagree, present the reasons, facts and supporting references while still maintaining common politeness and respect. If one cannot do that then one should not be here. And of course this is just my opinion.

Thank you.

I was looking for a kind soul to share their PMDG 747X EZDok cameras with me (and others). What is the best way to do this? Post them somewhere? Send them via PM? Can PMDG make a special download section for predefined PMDG EZDok cameras? I am assuming that the NGX have some key camera locations that will be important to show off model details (flap mechanism internals etc.).

Paul, Negativity is a serious illness. Left untreated, it can manifest itself into patterns of behavior which on the surface seem hostile to others but are really disguised forms of deep rooted insecurity. A common sign is the constant display of “I know more that you” or “you are wrong and I am right” etc. Additionally, even if you are right on the issues, your approach, written demeanor and delivery showcase a lack of respect for others which is of course simply a case of low self esteem.Belittlement of others to bolster the small and little internal “me” are classic and well documented warning signs that someone needs help. Please feel free to PM me and I would be more than happy to provide some immediate short term counseling until you can establish the long term care that you need.Sincerely, Scott

Hers is why. I believe ******* is correct. See his link in my sig it works.

So ASE tells FSX what the weather is by knowing your current location and FSX displays this weather based on the REX-OD texture themes selected?. I consider REX a must have. Would you say ASE is in the same catagory? How much "admin/tweaking" time is required? Overall comments anyone?

If you can (I know its hard to do), wait the 5xx round out. Skipping a cycle lets you spend more on future hardware. Buying the "value" card every cycle is more costly than waiting out a cycle and getting the "big one". If you can't wait, perhaps you can buy one (even if you RMA it), and do some solid scientific "Cloud performance" benchmarks a la SpiritFlyer's post on the 580. That way no would ever think you are a pest :( .I was about to pull the trigger on a 580 myself. After tweaking and tailering my fsx.cfg file, I discoverd a large jump in my 480's % utilization. In some scenarios, I see it hovering in the 90% range and sometimes pinned at 99% (PMDG 747, photo scenery at KSFO at 3-6000'). No real FPS gains on Final where we all need it but ... larger LOD, more AA, higher texture definitions etc. Makes YBBN (Orbx) very enjoyable. Highly recommend "FSX Go" by Orbx. Allows effortless and seamless lanching of FSX with tailored cfg files for every different class of flight.

Tabs, your timing is impecable. I just went thru a little “day surgery” and replaced my HDDs with SSDs which involved a much needed clean sweep/install on my FSX system. So it came to the point where I needed to do the Inspector thing so I went naturally to your post and what did I find? Your latest installment with all my questions answered!!! IThe SSDs really add to the overall PC enjoyment. No noise, clicking, whirring, heat, defrags… but most of all everything happens almost instantly (almost). Pretty amazing to see how fast things load in FSX. No real FPS gains to write home about however. One of the biggest advantages of the SSDs shows up when you need to reload your installation. I redid my entire system extremely quickly and all the “This may take a few minutes” boxes were reduced to seconds. Can you or anyone else suggest a good weather engine for FSX. This is an area which I have neglected over the years. After upgrading to REX OD with the HD textures with the HD skies and clouds, I thought it might be a constructive avenue to pursue while waiting for a good aircraft to come due. What are most people using?

January, I have been following your multi-monitor posts for a while but I foget, are you using FSX or FS9 with your set up?

RobbieHe, It might be a good idea to rethink your conclusion regarding "leaving in my 275". In fact you will see a large overall improvement in FSX overall (fps, image quality and fluidity). A good thing to do is to read posts where the poster has firsthand experience with the hardware. Dazz, did you ever own a 580 and test it first hand and find out any facts that contradict what SpiritFlyer has presented? Are you saying that FPS is the only measurement that counts and that in CPU limited conditions, increased levels of AA, fluidity etc. are not important and are not worth it? What SpiritFlyer and many others have found/shown, is that there is large overall performance increase in FSX going to the 580. I am concerned that your comments about "[being] deceived big time" might mislead other to think otherwise.

Good eye Ross. Thanks Tabs. Sounds like there will be the option to turn down the FO's displays to conserve frames etc. Smart. But then again... who would expect less from pmdg. :(

I was impressed with SpiritFlyer's report and impressed with the 580 and once again got caught up in the “new toy” mood. So much so, I fired up newegg and put an EVGA 580SC in my shopping cart when I got distracted by something (can’t remember). No problem I thought, I will come back to it. When I finally returned this morning, NewEgg had updated my cart by removing the 580 because they were out of stock. No problem, it is not like I really needed it, so I did a few flights (PMDG 747, BeaverX etc) and was tweaking my 480 and CPU fan profiles and the 6 different case fans to see if I could improve my Antec 1200 case airflow. Part of my video upgrade was going to be (and likely will be) a move to the Prolimatech SuperMega cooler with a 140mm pwm fan to support a bit more OC. I wanted to get some baseline numbers for temps and fan speeds to compare. Something kept nagging at me. It was the % Utilization of the 480 GPU. Most of the time it was below 50% including in the pmdg747 landing at ksfo. I was now in a subdued mood since the facts were ruining my “can’t wait to get a new toy for Christmas” mood. So a war broke out between the little voices. “You don’t need it”… “I want it though”… “you can’t justify it” … ya but it’s a new toy it will be cool”… “what would a sane person do?... Back and forth it continued…I decided to put the whole topic on hold for a while and try to see what might be coming up if I waited this round out.FSX is stuck in time (“old tech, no path forward, cpu bound” etc). I mean I am very appreciative that we have a FSX (pmdg etc) but it’s tapped out and technologically dead compared to the other applications that can utilize multiple CPUs and GPUs (including things like CUDA etc).I have been frequenting the MS Flight site (http://www.microsoft.com/games/flight/) to see if there was any more info. There is a recent new webisode and a bit of news (Dec 8 I believe, nothing earth shattering like dates or anything). There is a bit of verbiage that hints at utilization of hardware etc. It got me hoping that multiple GPUs and multi CPUs for FS are coming. I kept watching the videos … dreaming.So I made a decision. My next video card will be purchased after I see what the landscape is with MS Flight and it WILL have multiple GPUs. I am targeting Dec 25, 2011!!!. No more “for FSX only” purchases (pmdg exempt of course!!).What are others thinking? PS. Safe happy holidays to everyone.

PMDG "wall" pics can be viewed without having to be registered with FB. I am not on FB (no desire/need currently - yes I am an old guy). I have downloaded the NGX pics and have them part of my W7 screensaver setup.

Well done. One of the best posts yet!!

Might be tricky. PDF security is extremely easy to "crack" and that means that they could easily be printed, copied, modified, and distributed by anyone who is on the other side of the norm. Boeing knows this of course and therefore I would say that the set of manuals "as printed" will not be electronically available. I do not know, I might be wrong, I am not in the know, it just seems reasonable.I received my Chief Pilot manual set this morning. Top notch, extremely satisfying, beyond my expectation regarding the thoroughness and professional look and feel. Love the little "Light and Switches" handbook which gives you kind of a bird's eye view/perspective, its a great place to start.Again, to PMDG, thanks for giving us non-aviation people a rare view into the real world of aviation. Have a safe and wonderful holiday season everyone!!

All key system components need to conspire to yield a fast FSX system. To state the obvious, adding a fast 5xx video card to a slow cpu/memory combination will not yield significant results. Ryan’s experience seems to indicate that his i7-8xx (eight) cpu, 2 channel memory system set at lower OC speeds was the weaker link and did not have the capability to feed the 570. This resulted in a less then desirable increase in FSX fps. Similarly, if Ryan was to try a 580, there would not be a significant rise in fps either because of the limiting cpu bottleneck. Ryan was able to coax more fps by raising his OC level showing once again what most know as the cpu bound nature of FSX . But …. Having said that (the cpu bound nature of FSX) …If you can “feed” the 580 with an OC’d i7-9xx (niner) high end configuration, there is a large 20-30% fps increase as reported by “SpiritFlyer”. (See http://forum.avsim.n...ost__p__1890055 ) in the AvSim Monitors, Video Cards and Drivers forum.Caveat… what I am not sure of is how these results posted by SpiritFlyer scale when using complex aircraft. Complex aircraft necessarily utilize the cpu more thus reducing the “bandwidth” to the gpu. Never the less, is seems FSX is GREATLY enhanced (fps and image quality) by the higher end video 5xx cards IF (i.e. IF) the 5xx cards are balanced with other key system components.I thought I was "done" with my fsx rig but a better cpu cooler, a slight nudge up in my OC and a 580 are on the horizon... But... FedEx is scheduled to deliver my NGX manuals today so these improvemtns will have to wait. :(

I also would be interested in your findings. Not sure about the 25fps though.

You are almost there ... in your case I would ... OC the i7, move to W7/64, get a 5xx not 4xx vid card, and add a dedicated for FSX fast HD with large cache. Read "480 GTX vs. 580 GTX A Preliminary Overview for FSX" on the "Monitors, Video Cards and Drivers" AvSim forum. It seems there is a huge gain in FSX with the 580 if (i.e. IF) it can be fed. Currently to feed it optimally, an OC'd i7-9xx (triple channel low latency etc. memory (min 4G) is the ticket.