What to buy for best performance increase in FSX

[Trev]

Hi everone.
I'm running FSX with the Real NZ scenery for wellington, Woodbourne, omaka, Tauranga and Rotorua.
I get frame rates any where from 60 to 4.

My computer is running an AMD X2 dual core 5200+ 2.61ghz processor, 2 gig of RAM and a Radeon X1600 graphics card with 256mb graphics memory.

My question is - which should I replace to get the most improvement, the cpu or the graphics card?

Thanks

Trev

[jastheace]

i would suggest a new processor, what sort of motherboard do you hvae? if it is capable of supporting an AM2 chip you could slot in a quad core processor

[creator2003]

I would replace the cpu with a 3.0ghz dual and new graphic card with more memory like a 8800gts or near ,,a mother board and power psu to support these new parts would be a must ..

[toprob]

I think this really depends on exactly what is causing the lower frame rates. Your system should fly with about 80% settings. How far away from the default 'bucket' settings is it? It would be interesting to figure out where the bottleneck is -- to do this, you really need to vary the settings and figure out what is hitting your performance the most. It may be that with a couple of lower settings you can get it nice and stable. For instance, many photo scenery developers recommend unlimited framerates, but I've never liked the choppy result -- have you tried lowered your frame rate?

What about graphics drivers? One of the major complaints about ATI cards is that it is difficult to find a good driver for your particular card, and you really need to try a few before you find the ideal solution for your card.

Since I don't know how much time you've put into setting up your system, it's difficult to give suggestions without offending, but you'd be amazed how many people get a big boost in performance from housekeeping tasks like defragging.

I admit that I'm more inclined to look for another solution to improve my clunky old system, since buying new bits is not often an option for me, but if you are happy to upgrade, and you want to run FSX with all the settings turned right up, then you will need a faster processor first. Nobody got good performance with full settings until quad-core Q-series CPUs were released, and even then only paired with an 8800 512MB graphics card.

Of course I'm talking Intel/Nvidia here, personally I'm happy with AMD/ATI, but I know that I would have to work a bit harder to get a top-of-the-line system. And even then I'm more likely to be hampered by poor drivers.

[Timmo]

Perhaps a basic recommendation, but I'll add it just to be sure: Install both the service packs. These will make a large difference, especially on a multi-core machine.

[Naki]

Hmm Trev your system is almost the same as mine but my processor is slighlty slower and I have a different card (Nividia 8600GT) so I am interested in how you get on as I am thinking about switching to FSX.

[Trev]

Thanks for the replies everyone
The motherboard is a ASUS M2N32 -SLI Premium Vista Edition
according to the ASUS site it will take up to a Phenom X4 9950 (HD995ZFAJ4BGH),2.6GHz,140W,rev.B3,SocketAM2+,Quad-Core
They retail at Ascent for about $440

The bench marks look like the x4 9950 is approx twice as fast as my current CPU.
I'd just have to flash my BIOS so it would accept the newer CPU.

Trev

[PiperDriver]

QUOTE (Timmo @ Sep 19 2008, 09:12 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Perhaps a basic recommendation, but I'll add it just to be sure: Install both the service packs. These will make a large difference, especially on a multi-core machine.

is an idea

[jastheace]

hi,

i don't want to dissapoint, but i would check with a computer shop before you put a new quad core in, as i had the M2N32-EH motherboard, and it kept packing up. it turned out that the motherboard could not support the processor.

asus had admitted it after i brought two of the boards, the thing that annoyed me the most was that the asus website said they would support the 9850 but would need to flash the bios. but buried about 10 pages deep, there awas a little line that said that this processor was not supported by these boards.

even the computer guys said that they were suprised by the asus website, and that they had tried flashing the bios with no effect. it seems that the boards cannott supply enough power to the processor, so it just doesn't boot. so i would check first just to make sure, i would hate for you to go through what i did!!!