Upgrade brings new life to FSX

[Steve Hess]

I was able to complete the first part of the upgrade to my system this week.
New CPU, motherboard and memory.

FSX flys like I have a new simulator, double to triple the frame rates, better graphic details because I can turn them up, smoother flying, and a lot more fun!

Next I need a USB to Gameport adapter to get my rudder peddles back in action.
A little futher down the road Windows 7 and a 6gb SATA drive, and then a new graphics card.

[Jetranger]

I did that about a year ago, upped my RAM to over 4 GB,, installed an Extra Cooling Fan,, and got a way better Graphics card,,,

QuadCore Processor,,,,,

*** Also had to AMP up my POWER SUPPLY to a 650 Watt - very IMPORANT when choosing a Video card that the Video Card matches your power supply requirements - READ the Requirements on the side of the Box of the Video Card - Don't Trust some Sales guru, they'll tell ya anything,, good thing I checked at the time 1st !!!!

I used to be a NVidea fan,, but, I thought I'd try something different,, and I Opted for the XFX series Graphics card at the time,,, the XFX 6850 Graphics card,,,

I have yet to have any problems, after setting it up, and it seem to me to Render the Clouds, Water and Sky better than N Video, and without all the constant tweaking and messing around.

I don't use Rex or any other software,, I try to keep it KISS,,, Keep it Simple Stupid !

Get to many other programs running in the back ground with FSX and all I've heard is problems and complaints on those programs Forum Boards.

Try 1 of those XFX Graphics cards , Quite sure they've come out with a newer better Version than the 6850 series by now, there was a 6950 series out as the newest,, but theres probably a new one than that out by now !

http://xfxforce.com/en-us/home.aspx

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xanF38jfho

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Htj_VpmP39k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYf6gbfCaVs

Jetranger

[Steve Hess]

My upgrade started with a AMD FX 4300 (3.8ghz) quad core Black Edition processor, am Asus M5A97 R2.0 motherboard, and 8mbs of Kingston HyperX DDR3 memory.

I have a 700 watt PS that seems to do a fine job.

A faster hard drive and a 64 bit OS are my next priority. Also a Solid State Disk Drive for just FSX.

The video card I am running is a Nvidia 9800 with 768mbs memory. I run two monitors off of it. It does a good job, but after the second step in the upgrade process I would like one with a little more power and memory.

[OldAirmail]

Definitely go with an SSD, and recycle your old drive as a second drive in your system.

I have a SAMSUNG 830 Series 256GB SATA III drive and couldn't be happier. I normally put most of the stuff on the old drive EXCEPT for FSX.

I just bought "MegaSceneryEarth - Pennsylvania". The download was about 18GB!. But I installed it on the E: drive and FSX uses it from THAT drive. The SSD didn't loose any space that I could notice.

The space used on the SSD is easily kept to about 150GB. The old drive is a fast spinning (7200 RPM) Western Digital WD Black drive with a ton (32 or 64M) of cache in it. Not the fastest, but no slouch. You can get them real cheap too ($90).

By the way, if you can't afford a SSD, that Western Digital drive is more than fast enough for FSX. When I replaced my hard drive with an SSD I saw noticeable improvement, but nothing fantastic.

When I replaced my wife's hard drive with a (much smaller) SSD the speed increase was incredible!

The difference in my upgrade was due to the speed of the Western Digital drive. Highly recommended.

[Steve Hess]

I have Megascenery Earth 2 Pennsylvania also.
I think the next biggest speed increase will be a 64 bit OS

[OldAirmail]

I have no clue as to whether a 32 or 64 bit system would speed FSX itself. But I do think that it might be helping with any FSX add-ons such as scenery enhancements.

When FSX was processing the MegaScenery files the Memory usage went up to a little over 6 GB. you couldn't have that with a 32 bit OS.

CPU usage wasn't anything unusual at the time.

[Steve Hess]

A 32 bit OS has a limit of 4gb memory. The OS uses about 1gb so that leaves 3gb for running FSX. Going to a 64 bit OS opens you up to a 32gb memory limit and that makes a big difference. Memory is much faster than pulling what you need from a hard drive.

[OldAirmail]

A 32 bit OS has a limit of 4gb memory. The OS uses about 1gb so that leaves 3gb for running FSX. Going to a 64 bit OS opens you up to a 32gb memory limit and that makes a big difference. Memory is much faster than pulling what you need from a hard drive.

Actually, it's only about 3 GB. on a 32 bit OS. Although I have heard other say that the upper (useable) limit was near 3.4 GB.

Why can't 32-bit Windows access 4GB of RAM?

So, yes, you do want to go to a 64 bit OS.

What I said was "I have no clue as to whether a 32 or 64 bit system would speed FSX itself."

Processes outside of FSX will, of course, be helped. And that, indirectly, will help your system performance as it runs FSX.