After departing north out of Barking Sands, I had trimmed the Grumman for a gentle climb as I continued my climb out of 3000 feet. Banking right - the steeply eroded volcanic walls of Kauai's northwestern slope were still partially masked in deep shadows as the night fought off the light gathering in the east. Under my port wing - I could still see the brighter stars - as well as their reflections off the calm sea. Turning east as I passed over Haena State Park on the northernmost point of the island, I catch the first rays of sunlight peeking over the Hanalea Forest Reserve..."Stepping outside" - the early morning light reflected the illumated clouds amongst the rivets in the Grummans' skin - and the reflected and refracted light danced across the windows as I banked and panned around....it looks like a beautiful day for flying...
It's been slightly more than three years since I have had the opportunity to review a "bleeding edge" PC for flight simulation - but my oh my - what a difference a few years make!
In 2007 the dual-core, 8800 GTX system I reviewed managed to run FSX "acceptably" perhaps eeking out 20-30 FPS in rural areas - but quickly surrendering once the detail in the environment increased. But as many (most!) of us have learned firsthand...FSX is a beast that is rather tough to tame. Hardware needed to play serious "catch up" to finally make "As Real as it Gets" a reality. I am pleased to report that the FS-targeted Mach 3 System from HyperSonic Performance Systems is a legimate member of the "FSX beast slayer team."
For starters - here the standard list of components (further customization naturally also available):
CPU: Intel Core i7-980X Extreme Edition 3.33 GHz 6-Core Processor (4.00 GHz Overclock)
CPU Cooler: Corsair CWCH50-1 Cooling Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Motherboard: ASUS P6X58D-E LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6GB/s USB 3.0 ATX
Memory: 12 GB DDR3 -1600 (PC3-12800) Mushkin Ridgeback
Power Supply: Mushkin Enhanced Joule 1200W PSU
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 480 (Fermi) 1536MB 384-Bit GDDR5
Sound Card: Creative 7.1 Channels 24-Bit 96KHz PCI Express 1x Interface Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium
Hard Drive 1: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 7200RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0GB/s
Hard Drive 2: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 7200RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0GB/s
CD/DVD/Blu-Ray: Samsung Black SATA DVD Burner
Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate - 64 bit
Anti-Virus: ESET NOD32 Antinvirus
Case: Raidmax Smilodon
If a list of PC components doesn't excite you - relax in knowing that the Mach 3 System is put together from high-performance components in an impressive, well matched package. This gives you - not surprisingly - excellent results in Windows 7 Experience:
(Note - the test system was only equipped with a single 1TB HDD - so scored lower in the Data Transfer Rate)
While performance PCs such as the Mach 3 do not come cheaply (the Intel Core i7 Extreme is hands down the priciest bit - retailing for @ $1K alone) - you get a serious collection of high performance hardware that does an excellent job handling the heavy demands of FSX. Also note that overclocking a CPU voids its manufacturers' warranty - but that HyperSonic Performance Systems stands behind their PC for 1 year standard warranty - and up to 3 year optionally - a testament to their confidence in the reliability of the components used. Honorable mention for selecting the Corsair closed-loop CPU cooler package: the HDD accesses were noticeably louder than fan noise!
My only gripe: I would personally prefer a larger, full-tower case - allowing for (more) future expansion / reuse. While there is neat cable management as tested - I imagine if there were multiple-GPU cards and / or additional HDD drives (ie RAID) - the mid-tower ATX might get a bit cramped...
That being said - the Intel Core i7 Extreme Edition is already a legendary processor - it has been the CPU to beat in many comparisons. I wanted to see the relative performance of the system (in FPS) in a variety of environments - so I came up with @ 6 saved flights in urban, open farmland, ocean-side and mountain regions - and saved each flight twice - once with fair weather - and again with approaching cold fronts.
While I normally fly with the "FPS target" slider in FSX settings set to 30 - I set it to maximum - 100 FPS - to see what the Mach 3 system could possibly deliver and to what extent environment, weather, aircraft and scenery played in the FS experience.
In all cases except urban areas the Mach 3 easily handled everything that I threw at it...this with graphic sliders generally maxxed out (all screen shots were paused - external views stayed @ 75% of the displayed FPS - and 3D cockpit views @ 60%). As I personally enjoy the external aspects of simming as much as the flying challenge - I prefer more "scenic" VFR flights - and thus less urban.
The two urban areas I saved flights in, flying west towards Manhattan from Laguardia, and a Learjet approach into Tokyo through broken clouds, showed that FSX still has some teeth after all. "A Microsoft SW engineer once said that if FSX ran on a 256-core processor it would use all 256 cores..." Derek Boreman from HyperSonic Performance Systems explained during a phone call.
With all the graphics sliders at or near their maximum - the static frame rate in NYC claimed low 30's - but when making sharp, banked turns - the frames still dropped into the teens and I saw stuttering of ex. the high-rise building on Manhattan. I would think it would be tolerable taking off in a large commerical aircraft, as turn rates are fairly low, but some graphic complexity would have to be turned down if one were planning active rotary aircraft flights near such cities.
Other than these dense urban areas the smoothness and speed of the graphics updates were amazing and flying was immensely enjoyable. The "suspension of disbelief", the temporarily forgetting that this is a sim, started seeping back in...but then it kept getting better:
Having been disappointed in my own PCs past abilities to display graphic with the quality and speed that I desire - I had not purchased anything in the way of add-on aircraft, scenery or textures...other than to illustrate a review such as this - screen shots are not what I want to take, but rather the interaction with the moving images.
Taking Derek from HyperSonic's advice on some recommended add-ons I purchased and installed the following aftermarket upgrades, repeating my saved reference flights each time to see how palpable the extra software made the simming experience.
I started with the C185 Skywagon Bush X from Carenado (I knew I wanted a "bush" plane for what was to come in the Pacific NW scenery), which added a number of subtle details like an antenna whipping madly in the airstream when viewed from outside and is a blast to fly. Short field takeoffs were impressive, reminding me of actual flights I'd taken in a L19 Birddog with the local Civil Air Patrol many years ago as a teenager.
These screen shots of the C185 were over Asheville NCs gently rolling hills which had "come alive" with the additional details imparted by Ultimate Terrain X USA. The UTX terrain add-on probably had the single-largest impact in frame rates, but at the same time imparted the biggest visual change in detail outside the window (below, left).
Now the northern coastline of Kauai had vastly more detail and roads were populated with the headlights of cars far below (above, right).
But then I installed REX v2 and everything magically changed again. FSX's excellent clouds were replaced by a stunning variety and accurate range of naturally looking clouds and lighting.
The Mach 3 hardly seemed to care, while the additional scenery and textures did drop the frame rates (overall and combined perhaps 15-20% from stock), but the visual experience in my living room (the Mach 3 was tested on my 50" HD TV next to my HTPC / gaming rig) was unlike anything I have experienced in the simming world. I am sure plenty has already been written so I'll let the remaining pictures speak for themselves...
The REX v2 also changed the ocean's hue - and the subleties of transition of color in the morning sky...
Now came the real test, the 150,000 square mile, highly detailed Pacific Northwest scenery form ORBX. The realism of the mountain textures changed dramatically but at no noticable penalty to the rendering speed of the Mach 3 system.
There are endless valleys to explore...I even managed a glacier landing on skis that one of the Carenado C185 liveries offered.
Sometime I have to take a vacation and visit this area in reality....If the simulation is only 10% accurate this is a simply stunning part of the world to behold...
So there you have it. Beyond even my own expectations the Mach 3 system delivered in its promise to provide an outstanding flight simulation experience. I was amazed not only by the leaps in graphic detail made by third-party software developers to enhance the FS environment but more so that the processing capability of computers has advanced to allow this level of fidelity in the home.
While FSX showed that it still has not been fully tamed, the Mach 3 from HyperSonic Performance Systems is simply a well-designed PC using proven high-quality components, that should provide years of dependable service and when viewed against comparable top-end systems from other high-end PC suppliers - even can be seen as a great value. Try one out yourself, you will not be disappointed!
Dan Ross
danross526@gmail.com
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