New PC performance report, further consultations on OCing required.

So we managed a new PC,

i7 4790K,

AsRock OC formula,

GTX 970

Hyper 212 EVO air cooled, with 2 fans on top (you stand next to it and feels like you are standing next to an ac).

Generally it is a monster system and I witness it during multitasking (with FSX running, multitasking no prob), very fast.

A Porsche however can not tow a boat, so there are still complications with FSX. Generally, it can do terrain addons and a PMDG 737 at 16-20 fps on the ground which seems perfect at first (Autogen at 1/3 of full, that's the only thing effecting fps and other settings are to a much lesser degree) but, you add weather (ActiveSky 2012 I use) and you no longer can fly even a Caravan, fps dropping to 10-13 when weather is "weatheristic" so to speak.

Also, some default airport sceneries, like KEWR and PANC (traffic 23%, airport vehicles are set to 0!), are true performance killers. Apparently payware airport addon sceneries done in the past few years have less (if any) impact on the performance than FSX default sceneries.

So these two things, Weather and airports, are leaving me a bit irritated, it is a problem we have to solve (improve, by a few fps) with overclocking I guess. If we can go up by minimum of 3 fps (desired 5 but I doubt that's possible) we will be all set.

Now please advise, I have never overclocked before.

First of all, I'd like to do this in two steps.

Step 1: overclock to the values acceptable by air-cooling means (Hyper 212 Evo).

Basically the question is, to what speed do I overclock, how do I do it, and what I must expect (1.5 fps advance? 2?).

When that is not enough, we will go to step 2: liquid cooling. For now lets discuss step-1 please.

First, set up Windows, and, your SSD for performance:

http://www.thessdreview.com/ssd-guides/optimization-guides/the-ssd-optimization-guide-ultimate-windows-8-edition/

I know it says Windows 8, but, the info applies to Win 7 also.

You don't have to do everything he suggests, so, read it thru a couple of times to help formulate your game plan. Take notepad along!

I linked to a set of tools you'll want. You will want to monitor temps with a critical eye.

https://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/showthread.php?285370-overclocking&p=1893585#post1893585

Read the entire thread.

AnandTech has a pretty good OC guide for the i5-4690K and i7-4790K.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/8227/devils-canyon-review-intel-core-i7-4790k-and-i5-4690k/2

Your i7-4790K should hit 4.5GHz without breaking a sweat. Possibly without an increase of the stock voltage.

Take your time, and, be sure, before applying any changes. Triple check voltage entries. Err on the side of caution...Don

Thank you Don. I've read the 5 pages, before I alter any settings I have to get clear with SSD connection. The article says it has to be connected specifically to SATA 3 port, which I am not sure as to where it is on the mobo. According to diagram, there is 1 or 2 such ports but they are big in size. I plugged my SSD into a normal SATA port, the one labels on the diagram as SATA2_0, they say the fastest boot is from "_0" port. I have no problem booting (it's fast anyway) so may be I shouldn't even bother altering it. What do you say?

The other thing is I decided to hold off with overclocking. Something I found... I only played few weekends and last weekend it was a poor performance I believed is due to scenery. What happened is I installed Activesky, and that has set my water effects to MAX without my concern. I lowered it back to 2x and my sim flies like a rocket again, 16-20 fps on the ground. 14 when looking to the sides when taxiing, quickly recovering to 16-18-20 (16-18 PMDG/iFly, 20 QW 757). Good performance.

There are 6 SATA 3 ports that are native to the Z97 chipset.

They are labeled SATA3_0 thru SATA3_5.

There are 2 ports controlled by the Asmedia companion chip labeled SATA3_A1 and SATA3_A2. Facing the ports themselves the Asmedia ports are the 2 stacked on the right.

Do not use these for your OS or FSX drive(s).

Again, facing the ports, the top row, from the left, is SATA3_2, SATA3_1, and SATA3_0.

Use SATA3_0 and SATA3_1 for your OS and FSX drives.

If you are happy with your performance, by all means hold off on the OC...Don

Thanks guys, will leave things as is for now.\

Don thanks for the SATA ports explanation, I have my SSD plugged into correct port then.

Wingman, how really useful is this FSBooster program? Why going with FSBoster is preferred over going with manual .cfg tweaking per the pinned post in FSX forum?

The other thing is, how do I get Direct x10 to work?

First of all, many addons I installed come with Direct x9 insisting on it to be installed.

I suppose that overwrote the x10 I had initially. I clicked on "Preview Direct x10" within FSX and I got black textures all over the place. Is that because I have no Direct x10 installed? What are the advantages of x10? What is it doing?

Sounds convincing, getting the Booster today.

then will go for DX10 a bit down the road. Very expensive fix for $35...

Can't ignore fxsttcb's advices! If not him, I would still be watching FSX videos on youtube dreaming I could be doing the same -)

I tried the Booster, don't really know what it did... not much.

There is another one called "Fiber Accelerator", three times as expensive though. What would that do? if anything.

I was googling for low performance pots concerning Aerosoft's mega airport sceneries, one guy said he "turned off a fiber acceleration", not going into details.

What is the "fiber acceleration" and where/how it is being turned on or off?