Callum McLoughlin Posted November 3, 2013 at 12:37 PM Posted November 3, 2013 at 12:37 PM Hi all. I'm particularly useless when it comes to PCs, whilst I can build them I just don't know about which hardware to select. This year's brief is to upgrade the performance of my PC... particular affinity should be given to improving FSX performance (CPU I am guessing) though a general upgrade for other games is important too (mainly BF4). I currently have: Intel i5 3570k (Socket 1155 LGA) 12GD DDR RAM NVidia Geforce GTX 460 SE ASUS P8Z77-V LX If you need more info let me know. Any suggestions? No budget... I am looking at best performance to cost ratios, not at a fixed value. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darrol Larrok 1140797 Posted November 3, 2013 at 07:06 PM Posted November 3, 2013 at 07:06 PM I'd recommend upgrading the i5 to a current gen i7, and overclocking it to 4 to 4.5Ghz. I've had good results with a GTX670 graphics card Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke Kolin Posted November 3, 2013 at 07:24 PM Posted November 3, 2013 at 07:24 PM I'd recommend upgrading the i5 to a current gen i7, and overclocking it to 4 to 4.5Ghz. If it was your system and your money, would you really go from an Ivy Bridge i5 to a Haswell i7? For flight sim? Cheers! Luke ... I spawn hundreds of children a day. They are daemons because they are easier to kill. The first four remain stubbornly alive despite my (and their) best efforts. ... Normal in my household makes you a member of a visible minority. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sean Harrison Posted November 3, 2013 at 08:44 PM Posted November 3, 2013 at 08:44 PM I'm in the same boat, PC died. Luke do you recommend the I5 ivy bridge vs the I7 for FSX. Is there something about FSX only being able to use a single core? And what would be best video card? Sean C1/O P3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam White 1214219 Posted November 3, 2013 at 09:28 PM Posted November 3, 2013 at 09:28 PM FSX can use more than one core, and the more cores you have the better FSX may run, but there will be a decrease in the reward per extra core. The i7 is very good for FSX and is a bit better than the i5, but not too much. It is more a question your budget and where you want to send your money that will have the most reward performance wise. VATSIM UK S2 Rated (Essex RTS) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Callum McLoughlin Posted November 3, 2013 at 10:23 PM Author Posted November 3, 2013 at 10:23 PM What I don't get is people who run with 30+ FPS with the PMDG 777, Dubai, everything maxed out. I struggle with 10... (and yes, FS is installed as recommended etc). That is what I'd like to achieve, well as close to it as I can. I don't think a new video card would help much, or would it? I appreciate the GTX 460 is getting on a bit, I skimped when I bought my system last time for the i5. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke Kolin Posted November 3, 2013 at 10:55 PM Posted November 3, 2013 at 10:55 PM I don't think a new video card would help much, or would it? I appreciate the GTX 460 is getting on a bit, I skimped when I bought my system last time for the i5. It's an SE - that stands for "sucky/skimpy/slow edition". I'd upgrade the video card before I bothered with anything else. Cheers! Luke ... I spawn hundreds of children a day. They are daemons because they are easier to kill. The first four remain stubbornly alive despite my (and their) best efforts. ... Normal in my household makes you a member of a visible minority. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Callum McLoughlin Posted November 3, 2013 at 11:44 PM Author Posted November 3, 2013 at 11:44 PM Any suggestions for a compatible replacement? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke Kolin Posted November 3, 2013 at 11:54 PM Posted November 3, 2013 at 11:54 PM What's your budget, and what's your screen resolution? Cheers! ... I spawn hundreds of children a day. They are daemons because they are easier to kill. The first four remain stubbornly alive despite my (and their) best efforts. ... Normal in my household makes you a member of a visible minority. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Callum McLoughlin Posted November 4, 2013 at 12:06 AM Author Posted November 4, 2013 at 12:06 AM Hi, 1920 x 1080. No budget, just best cost to performance upgrade ratio. I don't want to pay an extra 100 quid for the sake of 1fps etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke Kolin Posted November 4, 2013 at 01:46 AM Posted November 4, 2013 at 01:46 AM I have a GTX560 with 1GB of RAM that I'm happy with - see if you can get a 660 or 760. Cheers! Luke ... I spawn hundreds of children a day. They are daemons because they are easier to kill. The first four remain stubbornly alive despite my (and their) best efforts. ... Normal in my household makes you a member of a visible minority. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Wiesenfeld Posted November 4, 2013 at 03:59 AM Posted November 4, 2013 at 03:59 AM For what it's worth here's what PMDG recommends to run its 777 model: OS: Windows 7 64-bit Processor: Intel Core i5/i7 Sandy Bridge/IvyBridge/Haswell series RAM: 8GB+ Video Card: 2GB+ latest generation Nvidia. (example: GeForce GTX 760, 770, 780) Monitor: Widescreen with 16:10 aspect ratio I built a system last year with an i7-3770K processor and GTX-670. It runs the PMDG 737NGX well enough (25+- fps). There is lots of headroom with the graphics card; it never runs much above 30%. The normally clocked 4-core CPU runs around 25%, which suggests that one core is saturated and that's the main bottleneck to better performance. I have read (and others may comment on whether this is true or not) that FSX was not built to take full advantage of multicore CPUs, nor of powerful, modern GPUs. What appears to matter is clock speed, hence people's emphasis on overclocking. I haven't tried that much, since it doesn't seem to make much practical difference to me whether I get 2 or 3 extra fps. So I doubt that building a top of the line 2013 gaming machine makes a whole lot of sense, at least not for FSX. XPlane seems to take some advantage of multicore CPUs, but much more so of GPUs of virtually any power. XP10 virtually melts my GPU if I run the graphic quality up above midscale. Of course, it has its own drawbacks including lack of the sort of delightful eye candy that makes flying FSX so satisfying. Best regards, John John Wiesenfeld ZNY - C1 FAA IFR/SEL in a galaxy long ago and far away Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Callum McLoughlin Posted November 4, 2013 at 07:22 AM Author Posted November 4, 2013 at 07:22 AM GTX760 ordered. Even if it doesn't lift FSX by much it should sort out BF4 which has been a bit... laggy! Thanks all. I'll report back as to how it's gone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Callum McLoughlin Posted November 23, 2013 at 12:45 PM Author Posted November 23, 2013 at 12:45 PM Ok thanks for the advice all. I've been running with that GTX760 and I'm getting 30fps locked in the 777 at Dubai. Lovely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts