FSX upgrade opinion

One fine day in alt.games.microsoft.flight-sim, "BobS"
<noone RemoveThis @noplace.com> bloodied us up with this:

> One other thing you can do (I just did) is to get a copy of FS9 (2004)
> and run it. The amount of *free* downloads is amazing and the cost of
> FS9 itself is only $20 (at Best Buy, $18 at NewEgg) and have a ball
> with all the add-on's until MS comes out with the patch. Then rethink
> your upgrade but right now you have a decent system and it's very
> useable when you consider that FSX can outrun any hardware you can
> throw at it - today.

I was going to suggest just that, an "upgrade" to FS9. One of the regulars
here told me the human eye can't perceive more than about 29 FPS, so I set
my limiter to 35 to be safe, and to save resources for scenery addons. It
runs at 34.8 no matter what kind of eye candy I throw at it. I have all
the sliders maxed out, except autogen, which is now at 75%. On those
coast-to-coast flights where you set the autopilot and go to spot view at
16X, the scenery draws way out on the horizon, instead of somewhere behind
the plane where you can't see it. I don't know why anyone would prefer a
slide show over that kind of performance - a machine is yet to be built
that will run FSX like that.

--
Uncle Vic

Don’t be afraid. The lack of a deity is not an opening for chaos. It is a
call for responsibility. -Lauren Becker
 >> Stay informed about: FSX upgrade opinion 

On Tue, 16 Jan 2007 14:32:52 GMT, Andy Hawkins <andy.TakeThisOut@gently.org.uk>
wrote:

>Hi all,
>
>My current PC is:
>
>Abit KN8-SLI,nForce4 SLI, Socket-939
>AMD Athlon 64 3700+ 2.2GHz Socket 939
>Corsair TWINX1024-4400C25 DDR-DIMM 1024M
>Sapphire Radeon X800GTO 256MB

Going from a 3700+ to 3800+, I'd doubt you'd be able to notice
any difference. Extra 1GB you're likely to notice more of a
difference.

I just built a 2nd box and pulled all the real good shite out of
my Ath 4600+ and stuck it into an E6600 CPU and board. Major
improvement in performance, and not just in FSX.

I also play rFactor and GTR2 and it literally doubled my framerate.
That upgrade was likely due to the fact I also have an 8800GTX and
the Ath wasn't really pushing it that hard.

Personally, I'd wait a bit to try and go a Core 2 upgrade with all
the nice bits because I don't think it's that cost effective to
upgrade what you have for FSX.

Cheers,
Rod.
 >> Stay informed about: FSX upgrade opinion 

Hi,

In article <u5vqq290lrkk8hubukfv4727l2aviiar26 DeleteThis @4ax.com>,
Rod<rodp DeleteThis @hotmail.com.removeme> wrote:
> Going from a 3700+ to 3800+, I'd doubt you'd be able to notice
> any difference. Extra 1GB you're likely to notice more of a
> difference.

But my current processor is single core, the proposed upgrade is dual core.
(I assume that's what an Athlon X2 means anyway!)

Thanks to everyone else for the comments. Unfortunately I can't find FS9
here in the UK for less than about £20 ($40 or so at the moment). For around
£10 I might be tempted.

Andy
 >> Stay informed about: FSX upgrade opinion 

Lets see.... You were willing to spend how much on a hardware upgrade but
$40 for software is to much.........?

Okay,

Bob S.



"Andy Hawkins" <andy.TakeThisOut@gently.org.uk> wrote in message
news:slrneqrqp7.cfv.andy@gently.org.uk...
> Hi,
>
> In article <u5vqq290lrkk8hubukfv4727l2aviiar26.TakeThisOut@4ax.com>,
> Rod<rodp.TakeThisOut@hotmail.com.removeme> wrote:
>> Going from a 3700+ to 3800+, I'd doubt you'd be able to notice
>> any difference. Extra 1GB you're likely to notice more of a
>> difference.
>
> But my current processor is single core, the proposed upgrade is dual
> core.
> (I assume that's what an Athlon X2 means anyway!)
>
> Thanks to everyone else for the comments. Unfortunately I can't find FS9
> here in the UK for less than about £20 ($40 or so at the moment). For
> around
> £10 I might be tempted.
>
> Andy
 >> Stay informed about: FSX upgrade opinion 

BobS wrote:
> Lets see.... You were willing to spend how much on a hardware upgrade
> but $40 for software is to much.........?
>
> Okay,
>
> Bob S.


That is just what I was thinking!
Andy, Why don't you get FS2004 and experiment about with it, just as we have
all done, and then tell this group what you have discovered ? Well worth £20
quid surely?

--
Quilly
 >> Stay informed about: FSX upgrade opinion 

Hi,

In article <ONKdnVYGFP1csTPYRVnytwA RemoveThis @bt.com>,
Quilljar<wykehill-flightsim RemoveThis @yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> BobS wrote:
>> Lets see.... You were willing to spend how much on a hardware upgrade
>> but $40 for software is to much.........?
>>
>> Okay,
>>
>> Bob S.
>
>
> That is just what I was thinking!
> Andy, Why don't you get FS2004 and experiment about with it, just as we have
> all done, and then tell this group what you have discovered ? Well worth £20
> quid surely?

When you put it like that, it makes perfect sense!

Why didn't I think of that?

Andy
 >> Stay informed about: FSX upgrade opinion 

Yep - just like my friend who just purchased a $3,000 motorcycle for his boy
but balked at paying $24.95 for some software for his girls computer.
Perceived value I guess. Hardware is something we can touch and "own",
software is a license to use and we don't own it.....

FS9 will require some tweaks to get it where you want it so don't expect a
"Wow!" out of the box experience but it works nicely once you tune it a bit.
And there is an upgrade patch to ver 9.01 you need to install - download
from the MS site.

Now the fun starts. Just visit some of the most talked about sim sites and
look at what they have for FS9 in both freeware and payware add-on's. I've
downloaded a bunch of freeware to try already and some is .....ok.... and
some of it is really excellent. Your mileage may vary depending on your
setup and expectations but I doubt you'll be disappointed after you get done
tweaking. From your previous post - I would guess that you don't mind doing
a bit of tweaking (part of the hobby....). Lot's of tweaks and other mods
that you can try.....

Bob S.


"Andy Hawkins" <andy.TakeThisOut@gently.org.uk> wrote in message
news:slrneqsbbr.tla.andy@gently.org.uk...
> Hi,
>
> In article <ONKdnVYGFP1csTPYRVnytwA.TakeThisOut@bt.com>,
> Quilljar<wykehill-flightsim.TakeThisOut@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
>> BobS wrote:
>>> Lets see.... You were willing to spend how much on a hardware upgrade
>>> but $40 for software is to much.........?
>>>
>>> Okay,
>>>
>>> Bob S.
>>
>>
>> That is just what I was thinking!
>> Andy, Why don't you get FS2004 and experiment about with it, just as we
>> have
>> all done, and then tell this group what you have discovered ? Well worth
>> £20
>> quid surely?
>
> When you put it like that, it makes perfect sense!
>
> Why didn't I think of that?
>
> Andy
 >> Stay informed about: FSX upgrade opinion 

Hi Andy,

You are correct X2 does indeed mean 2 cores. Does you a Socket 939
motherboard support this cpu?
Like said before going from a 3.7 to a 3.8 will make no difference, even if
dual core as FS doesn't technically support more than 1 core.

I have a Core 2 Duo 6600 in my machine and it was an excellent upgrade. You
also have to look at the L2 cache available. 512kb you say on 3800x2 isnt a
lot and from experience on my upgrade I think this factor is important. I
went from a AMD64 3000+ cpu with 512 cache to C2D with 4mb cache and seen a
huge difference. This of course means changing the motherboard and that can
mean changing everything else at once like memory and graphics. I got a
decent little board from ASRock -
http://www.asrock.com/product/775Dual-VSTA.htm which has 775 socket and
supports C2D cpus. Also has 2 x DDR memory slots and 2 x DDR2 so that you
can keep your old DDR memory (must be 2 identical modules though) and
upgrade later to 2 x DDR2. Same goes for AGP graphics slot and also PCIX x
16 slot. I have just upgraded my memory to DDR2 on it and in the future
when I change my graphic card to PCIX it should support it and if not I
could get a new MB for £50. It works really well with FS and excellent with
first person shooters etc and allows you to upgrade a bit at a time.

--
Ibby (The artist formerly known as Chris)


"Andy Hawkins" <andy RemoveThis @gently.org.uk> wrote in message
news:slrneqrqp7.cfv.andy@gently.org.uk...
> Hi,
>
> In article <u5vqq290lrkk8hubukfv4727l2aviiar26 RemoveThis @4ax.com>,
> Rod<rodp RemoveThis @hotmail.com.removeme> wrote:
>> Going from a 3700+ to 3800+, I'd doubt you'd be able to notice
>> any difference. Extra 1GB you're likely to notice more of a
>> difference.
>
> But my current processor is single core, the proposed upgrade is dual
> core.
> (I assume that's what an Athlon X2 means anyway!)
>
> Thanks to everyone else for the comments. Unfortunately I can't find FS9
> here in the UK for less than about £20 ($40 or so at the moment). For
> around
> £10 I might be tempted.
>
> Andy
 >> Stay informed about: FSX upgrade opinion 

On Wed, 17 Jan 2007 09:33:56 GMT, Andy Hawkins <andy RemoveThis @gently.org.uk>
wrote:

>Hi,
>
>In article <u5vqq290lrkk8hubukfv4727l2aviiar26 RemoveThis @4ax.com>,
> Rod<rodp RemoveThis @hotmail.com.removeme> wrote:
>> Going from a 3700+ to 3800+, I'd doubt you'd be able to notice
>> any difference. Extra 1GB you're likely to notice more of a
>> difference.
>
>But my current processor is single core, the proposed upgrade is dual core.
>(I assume that's what an Athlon X2 means anyway!)

As has been suggested, FSX doesn't utilitse dual core, though your
OS and other apps can run on one while FSX can run on the other.

I went from a 3500+ to a 4600+ and didn't notice that much of a
difference. There was a difference but that was single core to
dual core as well. I noticed a massive difference when I went from
4600+ to E6600 C2D though.

Cheers,
Rod.
 >> Stay informed about: FSX upgrade opinion 

Hi,

In article <d710r2p300u4g0jt01gm1i8noookoqeopn.RemoveThis@4ax.com>,
Rod<rodp.RemoveThis@hotmail.com.removeme> wrote:
> As has been suggested, FSX doesn't utilitse dual core, though your
> OS and other apps can run on one while FSX can run on the other.

I thought I'd seen posts on various forums that using task manager to change
the processor affinity to both processors has a positive effect?

> I went from a 3500+ to a 4600+ and didn't notice that much of a
> difference. There was a difference but that was single core to
> dual core as well. I noticed a massive difference when I went from
> 4600+ to E6600 C2D though.

Looks like I need to consider a new PC then I guess. This one is barely a
year old. It was hardly top of the range at the time, but certainly wasn't
low spec.

Oh well, that's progress I guess!

Andy
 >> Stay informed about: FSX upgrade opinion