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.
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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?