Upgrade My PC Specs for Better FSX Performance

[odehnaber]

Hello!

Below are the hardware specs for my PC - is there anything I can do with my hardware without paying so much to boost performance of FSX!? I currently play games such as Crysis and Modern Warfare 2 beautifully and smoothly at max settings (without overclocking) but FSX is the only game I play which I cannot achieve beautiful and smooth gameplay at MAX settings. Any suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated!

Thank you!

HP Pavilion Elite m9050.pt
Processor: Core 2 Quad Q6600 (K) 2.4 GHz (95W) - 1066 MHz front side bus - Socket 775
Chipset: Intel G33 Express
Motherboard: Asus IPIBL-LA Berkeley-GL8E
Memory: 3GB - 240 pin, DDR2 SDRAM
Hard Drive: 320 GB SATA 3G (3.0 Gb/sec) - 7200 rpm
CD/DVD Drive: 16X DVD(+/-)R/RW 12X RAM (+/-)R DL LightScribe SATA drive
Graphics Card: ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB DDR5 memory (the original used to be a GeForce 8500GT 512 MB GDDR2 memory but I had it upgraded)
Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit

[Telkwa]

FSX is the only game I play which I cannot achieve beautiful and smooth gameplay at MAX settings.

The regulars on this forum probably get tired of repeating themselves, so I'll do it today - nobody's running FSX at MAX settings using hardware that's available to the masses.

Maybe someone with access to alien technology??

I'm not a gamer, but I try to keep up on this stuff. I know that a coupla years ago Crysis was (still is?) considered to be "the" game that separated the men from the boys. If you can run Crysis with its settings cranked up you have a capable PC.

[JSkorna]

Hi,

The only thing you could do right now is OC your CPU. Shoot for 3+ GHz. That will still not allow you to max out FSX.

[odehnaber]

Telkwa, if you read my post carefully, I was only making a statement that 'FSX is the only game I play which I cannot achieve beautiful and smooth gameplay at MAX settings'. What I am hoping to achieve, as clearly stated in the title of my post, is some advice on how I can 'Upgrade My PC Specs for Better FSX Performance' - suggestions on my specific PC setup.

I very much appreciate your reply, but I believe the comment about 'regulars' being 'tired of repeating themselves' was unnecessary as this is not a repeated post.

Cheers!

[odehnaber]

Thank you for your suggestion, JSkorna!

What if I upgraded my motherboard and/or chip - instead of overclocking? I guess I would be willing to spend anywhere up to 100-120 Euros for an upgrade to boost performance. Do you think I can get a significant boost to my FSX if I do this? Any recommendations for a motherboard and/or chip?

Cheers!

[charliep51]

Not that much really...A good starting point for me when I looked for a new desktop PC that would have a chance to run FSX in an enjoyable manner was a Gateway DX4840 Intel Core i5/650, 4G system ram @1333mhz, and I added a GT240 EVGA 'reference video card' that works fine with the stock 300W supply. I have not overclocked anything. I have used the free FSX.CFG tweak site at http://www.venetubo.com/fsx.html<- this helped immensly. For < $700 (including GT240 card) I got a pretty fair base unit to develop an FSX build upon...not an FSX killer ..but there is NONE that exists!!

[rioko]

you need a quad 4, dual graphics card and at least 8 GBs of memory. and 500 GBs hard drive. problem solved.

[odehnaber]

Wow! Thanks for the suggestions! I am guessing that with the 4 or 8 GB Ram option I would need to upgrade to a 64 bit OS, right? Cheers!

[charliep51]

You're a little off the GS there pal....
#1 - FSX is a 32 bit application..it cannot EVER use over 4G of ram even on a 64 bit OS.
#2 - FSX is cpu bound so 'dual graphics cards' are way over-kill for single monitor setups. A single GTX560 is the current hot dog for FSX value-minded graphics.
#3 - A 500gb hdd 'anything' sucks..put FSX -and- the OS BOTH on an SSD.
#4 - Visit this site http://www.venetubo.com/fsx.html
#5 - Turn OFF the FPS (shift-z) in FSX and start enjoying simulated flight instead of obsessing over frame rates

[fxsttcb]

you need a quad 4, dual graphics card and at least 8 GBs of memory. and 500 GBs hard drive. problem solved.

Ditto on the glideslope! A 4+GHz dual core will flat leave a slower quad in its contrail. While SP2/ACC will use more than 2GB, the reasoning behind the 64bit OS for FSX(32b) is to alleviate out of memory error issues and make as much memory that FSX can use available to it.

rioko, know what you are offering as advice is correct, please...Don