H/W or S/W upgrade?

[Charan Kumar]

I am running FSX on the following system:

 

nVidia 750 SLI Board

C2Q 9400 2.6GHz (not OC)

4GB DDR2 (2 x 2GB)

PNY GeForce 8800GTS 512MB DDR3

750w PSU

Windows XP Pro SP3

 

I get 4.8 FPS with an OOM msg when I land in KSFO in a PMDG 747 with all sliders max except Autogen and REX v2.0 and Aerosoft US Cities X - SF . I have done a lot of tweaking, but to no avail. An obvious solutions seems like reduce sliders, but have tried it only get a few FPS more. In the default acft I get around 8FPS and I am spared the OOM.

 

Anyways, armed with $200 budget I'm in a dilemma as to what to upgrade, Win 7 64 Bit or the Video Card. I found some good cards, especially a GTS250 SuperClocked with 1GB DDR3 for $189, but it still only runs 128 stream processors which is the same as my current card. There are some GDDR5 cards, but based on my "Googling" abilities, I didn't see a good reason to go that route.

 

What would you kind folks recommend (and why, if you can)? I do want to stick to nVidia cards.

[Brad Littlejohn]

Hmm...

 

I would honestly say to upgrade the OS. an 8800GTS still isn't a bad card (I'm still running the 8800GT), but what I think is getting you is how much you're throwing at the OS. You're already losing nearly 1/4th of the memory to the 4GB limitation in Windows XP (max it can see is 3.25GB), so that isn't helping.

 

Also, since you're running FSX, you know you're killing the memory by just having all the sliders maxed. Various people have mentioned about finding the sweet spot for your sliders based on the memory you have. Might want to check into that.

 

But if you were to upgrade anything, I'd say the OS. How many slots do you have for memory on the board? 2, or 4?

 

BL.

[Charan Kumar]

Hi Brad, I have 4 slots for memory, only using 2 for the memory. I actually tried adjusting the sliders, but it practically doesn't help in and around KSFO. I am going to try uninstalling the Aerosoft SF which I know hogs FPS.

 

The 64 Bit OS seemed a pretty good argument too as I do need better use of the memory and I agree with you, 8800GTS isn't a bad card after all. I am running it with the /3G switch and the Affinitymask at 15 which gives all 4 CPUs to FSX, I wonder if that's got anything to do with it.

[Brad Littlejohn]

4 slots? Here's what I'd do. If you know anyone (or yourself) who attends a 4-year college or university, see if you can get the Windows 7 (64bit) upgrade at the student price ($30USD). If you can, that leaves you $170.

 

If your card is still adequate for you, I'd grab another 2 x 2GB of memory. That should run anywhere between $70 - $90 for DDR2, depending on the make/speed. that would drop you down to $80 - $100 left. If you have another 3.5" bay open, throw in a 1TB or 1.5TB drive (to back up your files from XP), as the 64bit upgrade install will perform clean install (providing a legit copy of XP is installed prior), but will not save your files. Even if it did, I'd still feel comfortable having my own copy instead of letting Windows do it for me. A 1TB drive should run you around $80 - $90, covering your entire $200 budget.

 

So:

 

• $30 for the Windows 7 upgrade from Digital River (offer expires 1 Jan. 2010).
  
• $70 - $90 for 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 memory.
  
• $80 - $90 for a 1TB internal SATA II drive.

 

On the low end, that leaves you $10 to spare for a 3 x 3 Animal Style with the fries and drink at In-n-Out.

 

BL.

[Charan Kumar]

LOL, that's a nice bargain, I am actually looking into the student deal, made my request, they still haven't bought it for me. The drive part is covered, I got an external 1TB that has backup and FS is anyways running on an isolated SATA drive locally too.

 

But I do like the idea of additional memory, maybe that's what I need to do since 64 Bit does use more memory.

 

And if I do save, u bet IN-n-OUT or McD comes into the picture . Tks for your replies BL. I will go with the OS.

[Brad Littlejohn]

While my mother would praise me for the English/grammar, my aunt (math teacher) would kill me.

 

On the low end, you'd have $20 to spare, not 10!

 

So, to make up for the butt whoopin' I'm going to get, I did a bit of shopping for you.

 

I'm going to [Mod - Happy Thoughts]ume you're using PC6400 memory for your first 2 sticks. So:

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145241

http://www.frys.com/product/6011558

 

Take your pick on either of these. They are the same brand/model, so you could make your way to the closest Fry's (I don't know if the Concord, Sunnyvale, Fremont, or Palo Alto store would be closer), or get them shipped. Only $2 difference.

 

On average, you'd have $130 left.

 

http://windows7.digitalriver.com

 

Your choice between 32bit and 64bit (keep in mind that while they fixed the 3.25GB limit issue from XP, you might run into the 4GB limitation from the 32bit OS, though they may have fixed that for Win7), and Home Premium vs. Home Professional (only difference is Professional allows you to join domains).

 

Should leave you with around $100. Bank the rest, and put it towards the next best video card, or the next iPhone.

 

BL.

 

P.S. Please don't tell my aunt about the math screwup. I really don't want the butt whoopin', as she does it in front of the entire family.

[Charan Kumar]

I will chk it out at Fremont much better than the others and the closest. I will chk the RAM limitations b4 I commit, thx for the hds up.

 

Unless the nxt one allows me to fly online during my commute on the train, I am quiet content with the 3GS I am replying from. Hopefully Wade is reading this, it can be after the ATC client for Mac

 

And no I wont tell any 1 coz I am a math grad who didnt catch it either