Ladies and Gents,

I'm looking to double my processing power with a new build or purchase this summer (perhaps a JetLine System). Problem is, even after doing a fair share of reading I still don't quite speak processor good enough. FSX is my primary poison so I need a very robust processor to run it along with all the add-ons (I have lots). I'm getting SSD drives and solid graphic cards but the bottle neck is the processor.

I'm presently running a slightly modded Alienware with a Core i7 930 2.8 ghz overclocked to 3.78ghz and very stable with a H50 water cooler.

So what do I need to get to serious double my processing power. In congested airports with PMDG or other study sims and a few addons I'm still getting FPS in the single digits sometimes.

Suggestions?

Well I don't think any current or soon to be released CPU's will flat out double your performance...not to mention to upgrade to the latest Sandy Bridge you'd need a whole new motherboard.

Sounds like your mobo can OC fairly well so IMO wait and see the performance gain from SSD+GPU; then look for upgrading to a more OC'able CPU. You would maybe get gains with a newer mobo/cpu, but we're probably talking 20-30% tops

just my 2cent

edit: I would also add maybe running some benchmarks with other games or programs just to get a baseline so you can narrow down where the bottleneck is. After all it could be as simple as how FSX and your graphics drivers get along hehe

I don't think it would be worth it to upgrade the CPU with what you have, like NoUse said. Spend your money on a graphics card or SSD. My money would be on a graphics card.

what GPU do you currently have?,

If you win the next MegaMillions, you can always get this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115079

Still, this may give you 30% increase. As others said, nothing in the market right now will give you 100% increase in performance from your current processor.

Here's a site that shows cost and bench mark of current cpu's.
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_lookup.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i7+930+%40+2.80GHz

Wheel

According to that site numbers, the Core i7-990X does indeed give almost 100% increase over the 930.

However... it still too expensive.

pricewatch.com is a good place to start for prices on chips and if you hover the ebay long enough at times you can snag a good one for around 630 or so NEW.
.


From the rig you got I say GPU for now. Hell man anymore you can get good deals on prebuilt if you hunt. 1299.99 to my door for this one with a 580 card and a 930 chip. I picked up a Corsair 12gig memory kit with fan and all was well in Wags land The chip and the card by themselves when I got it would have cost the same and some are still available.

For what we do GPU and Memory can be compared to the old saying there is no replacement for displacement only for us displacement in chewing up pixels and spitting them out on a beautiful screen.

Good luck for I know all to well it NEVER ends.

Have A Great Day
Mr.Wags

over a stock 930...

Outstanding stuff guys. Seriously apprediate it. Let me keep the conversation going since you all clearly know what you are talking about.

I'm presently running two (1gb) ATI 5970's in Xfire mode. FSX doesnt utilize SLI or Xfire and from what I've read a 1gb graphics card like a single 5970 is more than enough for FSX because the FSX engine is so much more dependent upon processor speed. Plus, I do play DSC 10 and Black Shark as well as ARMA all of which make good use of Xfire.

With 12gigs of Corsair DDR3 RAM as well, I think it keeps coming back to that damn processor bottle neck. My C drive is two 1 TB is RAID 1 and the Jet Line Systems page says FSX hates RAID configuration but I'm afraid to "de-RAID" those two drives.

Maybe the SSD will help?

i'd say the bottleneck is the 1GB of VRAM and ATi Architechure TBH,

the i7s are still some of the better processors, and yours is overclocked almost an entire GHz, which puts it around the performance spec of the i7-extreme.

So:
FSX is a VRAM monster with Addons, especially Scenery.

PLUS it HATES ATI/AMD Cards
(The Clouds are rendered using a method that heavily favors nVidia GPUs).

Sell off those 2x 5870s to make up some cash and buy a 3GB 580 GTX or 680 GTX.
Problem Solved.

even in XFire your still only using 1 GB, the cards take turns rendering frames in a scene, but the same textures are loaded into both cards VRAM as they are all rendering the same scene. so the 2GB per 5970 card is divided amongst the 2 GPUs,

So when your not running 2x or 4x Crossfire, your using only 1GB of VRAM and a GPU that has been downclocked to manage Heat.

Double My Speed . com ?


Hi, CAVCPT!

WC

SkateZilla,

I love your advice. Okay, but if I drop the two ATI cards in Xfire for a single NVIDIA 3GB 680 GTX will my other games performance take a hit? Ex. Skrim, ARMA, DCS series?


With FSX and SSDs, do I need to have both on the same SSD, just the OS on an SSD, just FSX on SSD? Do I need to have one big enough for all the addons and FSX such as ORBX,GEX,REX, Active Weather, etc.


Whats up WC!!

i think One GTX680 beats a 5970, and at the same time your tripling your available VRAM.

I doubt a single GTX 680 beats a Quad Xfire setup.

But it would beat the 2x XFire 5970s I have now right?

Would losing the whole "dual GPUs" you gain from Xfire be noticable with such a powerful single 3GB card?

Or wait on the pending GTX 685?

For FSX, your already gonna see a performance increase,
as FSX simply hates running on the 5000/6000/7000 Ati/Amd GPUs.

One 5970 Card is two GPUs in Xfire 1GB VRAM per GPU,
So Two 5970 cards is 4-Way SLI, 5000 Series Scale Badly in 4 Way Crossfire,
So simply saying you have 400% the Performance of a 5870 would be wrong, you prolly really only have 325% to 350% Max. As the Scaling isnt perfect, plus all 4 of those cores are downclocked a good amount to manage heat and power.

One GTX 680 will match and beat a single 5970, as it comes close to the 6990.

One GTX 680 would use less power than a 5970, and maybe put out less heat.

One GTX 680 woudl Increase your Frame Buffer/VRAM from 1 GB to 2GB, while having a faster GPU and Memory Bus.

Two GTX 680s in SLI will definately wave good by to the 4-Way XFire Setup you have now, while consuming less power and able to do PhysX.

I gotta say you got some good advice here. Bottom line is Nvidia is a better card for what WE PLAY and has always been that way. I remember last year when the new Batman game came out. I have an Alienware ALX system and could only get 30fps in DX 11 and low and behold don't we find out down the road that it was the publishers fault for bad programming.

Good luck on your adventure and if you want a 680 just wait a few eeks and like always they will drop down in price.


www.pricewatch.com


Good Luck
Mr Wags