New PC - How much improvement?

Hi all,

 

I'm looking at a computer solely for flight simming. And something to last for a good few years. I've listed below my current setup vs what i am looking to get. I'm just wondering if someone with a bit more knowledge than me could see if i will have a decent improvement with performance with the new specs?

 

 

CURRENT PC: Intel i7-4790 @ 3.60 ghz with turbo up to 4ghz

16 gb ram

Nvidia GTX 960 2GB

 

 

 

NEW PC:

 

Gigabyte Z270X-Ultra Gaming INTEL Z270 Chipset, ATX Mainboard w/ 4 RAM slots, USB 3.1, 3 x PCIe x16, 3 x PCIe x1 , 6 SATA3, 1 x M.2

 

Corsair Hydro Series H100 V2 (OEM) High Performance Liquid Cooling system w/ 240mm Radiator

MSI GeForce® GTX 1070 8GB Video Card

We need to know which CPU will be in the new build..........

Hi there,

 

Sorry.. I have no idea how i managed to forget the most important detail..

The CPU in the new machine will be: INTEL® Core™ i7-7700K Quad Core OC 4.20 GHz 8MB Cache

Hmm... I can change the build to this processor INTEL® Core™ i3-7350K Dual Core 4.20 GHz 4MB Cache LGA1151 Its £103 cheaper than the above i7..

 

I can see it's also an unlocked CPU and the same Ghz. Would it still be better to go for the i7 or would this do?

I have my doubts as to how much of an improvement you would be able to notice over your present rig with either of the 2 processors.

 

But, if you have the money, go with the i7. And be sure to get DDR4 RAM.

 

Jorgen

Hi Jorgen,

 

With the addons i have for FSX and the levels i'd like the sliders to be this is what got me looking into a new machine. The plan is to sell my current machine and use that money into a new one. But i wanted to come here first to get an opinion.

 

I see many people on here and around other sites with a CPU running anywhere from 4ghz base to 4.8 overclocked. The computer i am looking to get will come overclocked to 4.7ghz i believe.

 

I guess it depends how much better will FSX run with that .7 of a Ghz

I recently overclocked my own i7 6700 from 3.4 to 4 GHz. I really haven't been able to notice much of an improvement.

 

I don't use the sliders, for adjustment, instead I change the settings in fsx.cfg. Both airline and GA AI are set to 100, as is shipping. Leisure boats is at 40, and road traffic at 5.

 

My framerate is locked at max. 30, and that's what I get most of the time.

 

Jorgen

I'm wondering if there are any tweaks i'm missing, Or something i have not done.

 

I sometimes have a decent frame rate but it is not smooth. For example if i am taxing and i switch to a wing view, You can see stutters as moving along. Its like i'm quickly pausing and unpausing. It has bugged me for a long time & i've tried reducing the settings.

 

I think this is where i thought i needed a new CPU which is faster as i know FSX is very depending on CPU.

Have you tried to have a look at Kosta's tweaking guide, posted as a sticky at the top of this forum? It's a lot of reading and experimentation, but it certainly gave me some very valuable pointers.

 

Jorgen

I have been researching the latest Intel chips, too...in consideration of a new system build. The 7700k has my attention for sure. I wouldn't mind paring it with the Titan X 12G video card along with fast DDR4 ram. It will be costly, but I am seriously considering having a system built through Origin PC as opposed to Cyberpowerpc. Cyberpower has built all of my previous simming computers and did a fantastic job, but I never would trust them for overclocking the CPU. I am convinced they do not run stability tests, so I learned to overclock each system. At any rate, Origin will overclock CPU and GPU if you desire. Plus, they do extensive stability tests.

If you can wait a week or two, you might want to see how the reviews of AMD's new processors pan out. They're claiming similar performance to Intel's high end models for substantially less cost. At the very least they might drive down the price of Intel's offerings.

Hi all

 

Thank you for all the replies. I think i might take your advice and wait a little while. I haven't heard about the new AMD so will wait to see what is said about that.

 

Its funny you mention cyberpower as they are the ones where i found the new computer i mentioned.

I tried to look at Origin PC but i think they only operate in the US?

Hi all

 

Thank you for all the replies. I think i might take your advice and wait a little while. I haven't heard about the new AMD so will wait to see what is said about that.

 

Its funny you mention cyberpower as they are the ones where i found the new computer i mentioned.

I tried to look at Origin PC but i think they only operate in the US?

 

AMD announced their new Ryzen CPUs today. Reviews should be out on Mar. 2.

You won't see any difference. The ONLY thing that's really, really important with either FSX or P3D is the CPU single-thread performance (with P3D the GPU plays a bigger role but it's still CPU-dependent). See this chart and note the top three..... https://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html .

 

Doug

You won't see any difference. The ONLY thing that's really, really important with either FSX or P3D is the CPU single-thread performance (with P3D the GPU plays a bigger role but it's still CPU-dependent). See this chart and note the top three..... https://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html .

 

Doug

 

From some leaks these Ryzen CPUs do look promising, especially for those not willing to pay Intel's prices.

 

http://wccftech.com/amd-ryzen-7-1700-overclocked-4ghz/

 

As I said above, reviews will out next week at which time we will know for sure how they stack up against Intel's line-up.

mejjo,

Have a look at my specs below. Then see if you have these lines in your fsx.cfg. Do back it up before any edits. Then set you fsx to UNLIMITED frames. I get 52 to 61 frames and 25 to 42 in the dense scenery areas. You also need to defrag. And shut down programs running in the background. Traffic: 10% vehicles, no clouds. Res: FSX and monitor 'native' res are the SAME (the monitor rules in this case). SAVE YOUR MONEY. The latest and greatest rig ($$$$) is NOT the answer (you'll be sorry!). Good luck.

Chuck B

Napamule

Edit: Forgot: That's 60 fps WITH FRAPS RUNNING. I get 128+ with no FRAPS running.

 

FSX.cfg

 

[JOBSCHEDULER]

AffinityMask=84

 

[bufferPools]

Poolsize=5000000

RejectThreshold=131072

 

[Display]

ChangeTime=4.000000

TransitionTime=4.000000

TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=100

TextureMaxLoad=12

UPPER_FRAMERATE_LIMIT=0

WideViewAspect=True

 

[Main]

ProcSpeed=8161

PerfBucket=7

Fiber_Frame_Time_Fraction=0.10

 

[DISPLAY.Device.AMD Radeon™ R7 360 Series.0]

Mode=2048x1152x32

Anisotropic=1

AntiAlias=1

 

[GRAPHICS]

SHADER_CACHE_PRIMED=1693500672

TEXTURE_MAX_LOAD=1024

MultiSamplesPerPixel=8

MultiSampleQuality=8

ForceFullScreenVSync=1

HIGHMEMFIX=1

 

[sCENERY]

IMAGE_COMPLEXITY=3

MAX_ASYNC_BATCHING_JOBS=3

SmallPartRejectRadius=4.0

 

[TERRAIN]

LOD_RADIUS=3.500000

MESH_COMPLEXITY=50

MESH_RESOLUTION=22

TEXTURE_RESOLUTION=27

AUTOGEN_DENSITY=2

DETAIL_TEXTURE=1

WATER_EFFECTS=4

SWAP_WAIT_TIMEOUT=2

TERRAIN_MAX_AUTOGEN_TREES_PER_CELL=1000

TERRAIN_MAX_AUTOGEN_BUILDINGS_PER_CELL=800

Here are my Diplay Settings (jpg's). Without these it don't make sense I guess.

Chuck B

Napamule

Chuck,

 

I've read your fsx.cfg with interest. There are a couple of entries in there that I seek clarification on.

 

Under [Display] you have

 

TextureMaxLoad=12

 

Under [Graphics] you have

 

MultiSamplePerPixel=8 and

MultiSampleQuality=8

 

Under [scenery] you have

 

MAX_ASYNC_BATCHING_JOBS=3

 

What does all these do? Kosta doesn't mention these in his tweaking guide.

 

Thanks -

 

Jorgen

Another "fun thing" I have seen is that before, with my i7 6700 running at 3.4 GHz, the ProcSpeed in the [Main] section of fsx.cfg was set at 6834. A couple of days ago I got the processor overclocked to 4 GHz, and then generated a new fsx.cfg file. Now the ProcSpeed is set to 5923! Anyone that knows anything about that?

 

Jorgen

MultiSamplePerPixel=8 and

MultiSampleQuality=8

 

These fsx.cfg setting are the AA settings for DX10. They have no effect in DX9, plus it's the only way to tune AA within FSX if you use DX10 (of course, you can also use the nvidia control panel or NI to do this). As for the values given here, which calls out 8x AA, are overkill for FSX in my experience. IMO the quality difference is so slight between 4x and 8x that the stress 8x puts on a GPU (read FPS loss) isn't worth it for either DX9 or DX10.

Thank you for that explanation. Since I only run DX9, that explains why these settings aren't in my fsx.cfg.

 

Jorgen

I have been researching the latest Intel chips, too...in consideration of a new system build. The 7700k has my attention for sure. I wouldn't mind paring it with the Titan X 12G video card along with fast DDR4 ram. It will be costly, but I am seriously considering having a system built through Origin PC as opposed to Cyberpowerpc. Cyberpower has built all of my previous simming computers and did a fantastic job, but I never would trust them for overclocking the CPU. I am convinced they do not run stability tests, so I learned to overclock each system. At any rate, Origin will overclock CPU and GPU if you desire. Plus, they do extensive stability tests.

 

That does sound like a nice box! Having said that, I have to wonder since you're already used to overclocking and stress testing, why you don't save probably at least $500 and build your own box?

 

Building one yourself would also allow you. to buy new hardware "off the shelf" in the future without worrying about issues with box builder designed hardware. From what I read that is a frequent problem for people who bought pre-built computers.

 

One other question. Do you use other programs which need high end video cards? If this is primarily a FSX or P3D machine you don't need anything exotic in you video card. CPU RULES!

 

Michael

A common problem with Dell computers (and maybe others) is that they use a custom power supply, so that a standard ATX supply doesn't fit in the case, and they engineer the power supply so that it's just sufficient to run the computer right out of the box. If you want to change the graphics card, then you better think "change power supply" also.

 

Also, the cables are just long enough to connect things right out of the factory, and if you want to change anything, look at the cables too.

 

Jorgen

jorgen,

Google them because everybody's specs are different and even then they are debateable. I am debating why I posted in first place (hehe).

Chuck B

Napamule

PS: I will change MY tbm to 40. And the 8 to 4 in other lines. Or NOT (hehe).