Simviation Forums

This isnt for my computer its for my grandpa's PC. His settings have to be very low for the game to run and still if you turn them up the game will be very skippy and laggy. I was thinking it might be the RAM or a graphics card that could change them. Im looking for a moderate settings like for airplane textures to be good (not great or perfect just about average), a dense airport, downloadable airports to show up good, and the game to be less skippy without problems (game to run SMOOTHLY  :)).

Any help on what I need to buy to make it run like this would be great, also if you want me to attach the specs of the computer I will do so..

Thanks!

In terms of upgrades and not knowing the system specs.

If he is using onboard graphics , that would be a fisrt to a 512 meg 7900gt are not to bad, but generally CPU speed and RAM will have the greatest affect. If using XP then 2 Gig DDR2 800 MHZ ram or faster will help a lot, vista go for 4, but make sure you get them in pairs so they will operate in dual channel mode, and dont mix speeds it just dont work. CPU a 3 gig or faster will help. If you already have a PCIX video card look at ram and cpu first.

In terms of upgrades and not knowing the system specs.

If he is using onboard graphics , that would be a fisrt to a 512 meg 7900gt are not to bad, but generally CPU speed and RAM will have the greatest affect. If using XP then 2 Gig DDR2 800 MHZ ram or faster will help a lot, vista go for 4, but make sure you get them in pairs so they will operate in dual channel mode, and dont mix speeds it just dont work. CPU a 3 gig or faster will help. If you already have a PCIX video card look at ram and cpu first.

Okay so he has XP and if you want ill give the specs when I go over there tommrow and post them on here. If I buy the 2 GIG DDR2 800 MHZ RAM will it make the game run smooth with good graphics...

Thats what im mostly looking for is not very dense airports but good enough for dense airports, good airplane textures and you get the point..just about right there in the middle..  :)

In terms of upgrades and not knowing the system specs.

If he is using onboard graphics , that would be a fisrt to a 512 meg 7900gt are not to bad, but generally CPU speed and RAM will have the greatest affect. If using XP then 2 Gig DDR2 800 MHZ ram or faster will help a lot, vista go for 4, but make sure you get them in pairs so they will operate in dual channel mode, and dont mix speeds it just dont work. CPU a 3 gig or faster will help. If you already have a PCIX video card look at ram and cpu first.

I have personally found 2gb on Vista Home Premium to be sufficient. 3 is my sort of reccomended limit... going up to 4 means buying a 64-bit operating system.

Not all motherboards support dual channel either, so that could go to waste

Remember that clock speed does not equal performance. It is the actual processor itself, not the clock speed that makes them good. A few year old 3Ghz will easily be beaten in performance by a modern dual core 1.2Ghz or maybe even a single core at a bit lower in speed. Though a modern 3Ghz or dual core of around 2Ghz or less should be sufficient for most tasks.


But yes, specs will be needed and you have already covered that one.


Will 2gb of DD2 800Mhz cause an improvement with the graphics? Umm... it depends. It will allow you to have more objects. More RAM means more storage for things. You will be able to see more trees, buildings etc. THOUGH.... the CPU or the graphics card may not be powerful enough to handle this. It is rarely one upgrade that will fix everything. You may need to improve other aspects to get an all-around improvement.


FSX is mostly graphics intensive. I personally have 2gb RAM on Vista Home Premium with a 1.8Ghz Intel 6320 dual core and an 8600GTS. I get medium graphics in typical flight and can get maybe 5-10FPS on high spec. If the motherboard is capable, I would try and opt for an 8800GT graphics card... they are going to give you some very good quality for the price.

aside from hardware.......try AlacrityPC

Okay well were not looking to buy a whole system but can you help me with the right RAM to buy that will upgrade the graphics and fix the lag for a: [glow=yellow,2,300]Dell Dimension 4700[/glow]


Also if Ill need another graphics card to support more RAM which is good for the 4700?

Any information on what to buy would be great!

Thanks

Your best bet here, is to look into a CPU upgrade first, because that's your bottleneck. All the ram in the world and a great video card won't help much.

I believe the Dell 4700 has a socket 775 board that might support something like an E6850.. maybe even a Q6600.

If you cannot upgrade the CPU, more RAM won't help FSX (except maybe load times). FSX is very CPU dependent.

The big picture though, is that's a 3 year old machime. I really wouldn't put any money into upgrading it.

I`ve got to say for the record also thats it cool to see you helping your  grandpa.  I live a distance away from my folks and my son never made time to help, or rarely.  Lately he has got his finger out and can`t do enough.  Some folks in later life cannot understand all this new fangled technology, even though my sons grandad is an engineer and a good one at that he is one of them.  Thanks, you are doing something good.  Needed to get that off my chest.

Reider

When you buy a Dell, usually you can configure what exactly goes inside it,,, therefore a Dell 4700 doesn't tell us much about it. So please find out what's in it then we can tell you exactly what's needed.

If you need to find out then find out somehow... or you can do it with Windows / some software by doing this---

Start-------- Run------dxdiag-----press enter. Go to the display tab & tell us the Name,

[quote]When you buy a Dell, usually you can configure what exactly goes inside it,,, therefore a Dell 4700 doesn't tell us much about it. So please find out what's in it then we can tell you exactly what's needed.

If you need to find out then find out somehow... or you can do it with Windows / some software by doing this---

Start-------- Run------dxdiag-----press enter. Go to the display tab & tell us the Name,

Google is your friend.....

CPUz is your other friend.....

Introduce the two to each other and you can all be friends.  Do a google on CPUz

Reider

It would be MUCH cheaper and more personally satisfying to build your own!

[quote]It would be MUCH cheaper and more personally satisfying to build your own!