Over two years ago, I assembled a new PC for running FSX. It comprises a dual core 3GHZ CPU, GeForce 8800 GTX video card, 4GHZ DDR2 RAM, running on 32 bit XP Home Basic. I chose a dual core 3 GHZ CPU at the time over a quad core since FSX was designed for single core and later upgraded through SP1 with approximately 90 percent processing through core 0 and 10 percent spread amongst remaining cores. Since FSX appears to be CPU bound, it was better in my opinion to have core 0 to at least 3GHz using a dual core in my price range rather than a quad at less than 3 gig. For the last two years, I have enjoyed smooth flying just about anywhere with most settings maxed out and flying in a range of 15 to 30 FPS. Yes in a few places lower and a few higher.
Now two years later, I have settled on another PC design for FSX. We know that FSX in its current state will not change nor in the near future will there be a new release. However, state-of-the-art computer hardware and software are such today that one can now design (at a reasonable cost) for achieving significant performance improvement running FSX current software. The new PC that I have just assembled does achieve this end. These are the components.
Power Supply: ULT X3 1000-Watt Power Supply
Motherboard: ASUS P6T Delux
CPU: i7 920 (Overclocked to 3.82 GHz)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U12P
RAM: 12 GB DDR3
Video Card: BFG GeForce GTX 285 OC
Hard Drive: VelociRaptor 300GB 10,000 RPM
Case: Thermaltake Zaser ATX Full Tower
Operating System: Vista Home Premium 64 bit
Other miscellaneous parts
What is the difference between my old and the new - simply, the new one cost less and is three times faster.
I increased the wattage of the power supply, added a motherboard which makes over-clocking easy, over-clocked a i7 920 CPU from 2.67 MHz to 3.82 MHz, added 12 GB of DDR3 RAM, changed from a 32 bit processor to 64 bit Vista Home Premium, installed a Raptor 10,000 RPM hard drive, upgraded my video card from an 8800 GTX to a GeForce GTX 285 OC with 1 Gig DDR memory, and all in a new case large enough to fit an oversized CPU Cooler.
Over-clocking the i7 was accomplished by changing performance settings in the BIOS. I set the BCLK freq to 190 and the PCIE freq to 100. DDR3 freq runs at 1523 MHz. These simple changes boosted the i7 920 Frequency to a stable 3.82 MHz.
About This New System
With the exception of Water and Bloom, I pretty much max out settings. I indicated that before I was getting 30 and sometimes greater FPS with the old system. In Rio with the new system along the coastline over populated areas I get over 100 FPS. I fly over Manhattan with 45 FPS. I freely fly over and around major airport hubs with packed aircraft on the ground and a queue of aircraft on final and remain in the 30 plus FPS range with smooth flight. All of a sudden 45 to 70 FPS has become norm. Another big plus to the new is the quick response to trim settings. One push on a trim button gets immediate response and makes it easy to set up an aircraft on approach with just trim. A final note is that this is my first experience with Vista. I have had no problems with it and look forward to Windows 7. I needed an additional OS as I am keeping my old system to run comparisons of it to the new. Micro Center had an open box sale of a full OEM 64 bit Vista Home Premium package for $47. So I bought it then pre-ordered Windows 7 from Microsoft for $49. I also bought my i7 920 from Micro Center for $200. All my components were bought over the Internet after extensive research for a best buy and hardware fit for FSX.
Since it has been a long time since I have input anything into this forum, I thought I would pass on my upgrade experience.
Happy Flying,
Flight Ace
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