Anyone using i7 Quad Core with FSX?

[munnst]

Just wondering how an i7 system performs with FSX.
I have a 2.33 Quad Core (not i7) which is about 5 years old.
While it's `okay` it's starting to drag it's heals a bit.

My systems is;

2.33 Quad Core
64 bit 4 gig RAM.
Nvidia GTS 250 1 gig.
RAID 0 discs (striped for speed)

[tayas42]

My current machine (3 months old...) is I7-2600K, with WIN7-64, 8GB RAM, Nvidia GTS 430 1MB.

My FSX Gold + SP 1 & 2 is totally different type of ballgame since I moved from my old trustful
WINXP Pro in the previous 6 years-old PC.

I would suggest you to upgrade your system if possbile to the newset available I7 + more RAM.
Later, you may try to tweak your system and the FSX. Good Luck.

[munnst]

What would be better on an i7 setup?

Single or Dual Graphics Cards?

16384MB (4x4GB) 1600MHz DDR3 Quad Channel
8192MB (4x2GB) 2133MHz DDR3 Quad Channel

On board sound versus sound card (I will be using headphones. Does the onboard slow the system in any way)

[fxsttcb]

Single Graphics Card. Unless you are using multiple monitors at extreme resolutions, SLI/Crossfire can be a hindrance, rather than a help.

The faster memory may have a slight edge for FSX. 6-8GB is plenty for FSX. It can only address 4GB(32bit App) and the 2-4GB extra can be used by Windows and it's Background processes. If you have some 64bit Apps that can take advantage of more, go for it, but, remember, more than 16GB will not be addressable without 64bit Pro or Ult versions of Windows 7.

When my SB Audigy died, I went back to the onboard and didn't notice a difference in performance. Sound Quality? Yes!...Don

[LCole]

I have a first generation I7 (2.8 GHZ). Good FPS, as long as I'm not in the big city. My default airport is Boeing Field, in Seattle, on RWY 31L. FPS might drop to 12 or 13 FPS initially, but once I get north of town, there's no problem at all.

[Rossangie]

I`m running an i7 2600K at 4.4 ghz. Has eight cores and is a huge improvement over my quad core 9850

[loki]

The i7 2600K has 4 cores, not 8. The additional 4 "cores" that appear in Windows come from the hyper-threading feature of the processor. These virtual cores are not used by FSX at all.

[fzangger]

I'm running an i7 with 16 GB memory and have never had a problem with the FS slowing down. It and FS9 run great. I highly recommend an upgrade if you can afford it. You do not need more than 4 GB of memory for FS as mine is a little over kill. In addition, I have most of the FS settings maxed out which gives me better clarity of the scenery.