FSX limitations on utilizing PC resources

[Luke]

i7-4770K @ 4Ghz, 1070GTX, 32GB RAM, 2 SSDs and a few peripherals. It's not including the monitor.

 

Cheers!

 

Luke

[lnuss]

I have a 550W power supply, and I can't pull more than 200W from the wall.

 

How in the world did you determine that? That's only 1.6 amps, and most household outlets are rated at 15 amps. Even the full 550 is only about 4.5 amps.

[Luke]

How in the world did you determine that? That's only 1.6 amps, and most household outlets are rated at 15 amps. Even the full 550 is only about 4.5 amps.

 

I used a Kill-A-Watt. They're handy devices in general for measuring power usage.

 

Cheers!

 

Luke

[longbreak754]

..........I re-rread your post just now. (Pretending I'm a noob shopping for hardware.) No matter how I look at it, it screams:

"don't buy an expensive pc. You don't need one.". Maybe it's not what you meant, but that's what it pretty much says..........

 

Yes, I admit that, to some extent, that is what I am saying - FSX can be enjoyed on a budget, especially when first entering the hobby. As I stated in post #14 what I am trying to point out is that the often offered up opinion that it requires only the best and most expensive PC to run FSX is not the only way forward. This has been readily highlighted by the various specs posted by members in their signature blocks and by those who have posted in this thread.

 

Taking the view of a Newbie - how many looking for info about the hobby are likely to be dissuaded from taking it up simply because they are often given the impression that you must have a top spec and expensive PC to do so. The same can be said for those who, when they post a more specific Q along the lines of 'Will FSX run on my XX GHZ ........', they receive the same info or, on some occassions, more simplistic info delivered in dismissive and sometimes rude/disrespectful tone.

 

I accept that my views will not be acceptable to all and certainly, based on your comments in your first post in this thread (post #2), to you. But hey! If that makes me one of those *&%#! that you refer to then so be it.....:cool:. It doesn't mean that my views are, to use your word 'nonsense', nor irrelevant.

[Rupert]

There is NO home computer system in the world that needs a 1.2 KW power supply. You could power a small apartment with one of those.

 

Not if you're planning to ever use an electric skillet, most hair driers, a room air conditioner, etc. in that small apartment. Each of these items is typically rated as drawing over 10 amps. And 10 amps with 120vlt equals the aforementioned 1.2KW.

 

Having said that, I agree I have never built a desktop PC yet that actually drew a full 5 amps (600 watts). Though I typically install a 750 watt power supply because as mentioned, many if not most power supplies are more efficient at a lower percentage of top-rated load. Also in the summer some incoming power is at lower than the nominally rated 120 volts. (That voltage sag is what many call a "Brownout."

 

In fact during one troubleshooting trip, I noted the kitchen outlets had only 95-98 volts! Granted though that low a voltage is very rare and really hard on electric motors. It can and occasionally does happen! But even at 100 volts, a (now fairly standard) 15 amp breaker will still, in theory, provide 1.5KW.

[il88pp]

Not 100 percent certain of the socket, but the plugs in my fuse box are 16 amps, and as these things are usually balanced out to match, I assume the socket in the wall is 15 amps or so.

That's at 220-230V

That would mean: conservatively 22x 15 = 3300 Watt max.

 

Just thinking along. (And googling things, I only learned a small amount of electricity stuff in physics class. I don't think that's really the place to learn about it anyway. Should have been a different class altogether. With it's own teacher, practical appication, etc.).

[lnuss]

It's evident that you are not in the U.S., where we use 120 VAC for household plugs. 220V comes into the house, but though it's routed direct for the clothes dryer and perhaps the stove, one leg is picked off to feed 120V to house outlets.

[PhantomTweak]

A lot of the time, 2 legs are used from the 220VAC incoming to the household (in American homes!). Just 2 different sets of breakers in the same box, each feeding different parts of the house. If the house's electric system is PROPERLY designed, they try to balance the use of each leg to give about the same power draw on each. Not vital, but easier on the house's feed transformer. Still 120VAC each leg, relative to ground. The 220VAC is fed directly to AC/Heater, Dryers, Stoves, and so on, as Mr. lnuss mentioned.

Having been Lead Electrician, as well as Lead Electronics Tech, at my last job, I had to set up new circuits, wire the building, troubleshoot problems, etc etc. We had 2 back-up 200KW generators, 200 Amps each, if the line power went down for whatever reason. We had to install what's called a "load bank", basically a giant heater that just blew hot air into the local environment to make the generators function correctly. It had switches to switch different loads in and out, for making a total load. That, plus the power used for the site overall, was set for about 100 Amps. That was where the generators functioned most efficiently. All this babbling is just to show that yes, power supplies function at their best at roughly 50% load.

Thus, if you can get a power supply that provides twice the power drawn by the computer overall, at it's peak, then the PS will function best for you. Doesn't mean a weaker PS wouldn't be effective, nor a stronger one. It just means that it would be the best PS for a given PC.

 

As Rupert mentioned, brownouts can be a problem, as can blackouts. Not real good for a PC to loose all it's power suddenly. And brownouts are very hard on PS's. To help stop problems like that, a UPS, or Uninterruptible Power Supply, is, in my opinion, absolutely essential for computer operations. Also dandy as a surge arrestor for lightning strikes. Not very expensive, but vital insurance for any decent computer system.

Laptops, by the way, have a built in UPS. It runs off the battery constantly, and the wall current, if plugged in, charges the battery at the same rate it's used. That way, the wall power drops out suddenly, or even sags to a lower voltage, the computer just keeps running off the battery.

 

Have fun all!

Pat☺

[il88pp]

Thanks guys. made me Google a bit further.

I found that here in (most of) Europe, the three pronged wall sockets are indeed 15 Amps and 220V like I thought.

But older 2 pronged sockets are not. They are 220V, yes, but only 2.5 Amps.

Never knew that. Good to know.

[PhantomTweak]

Bear in mind, it's not what the outlet is capable of providing, it's what the breaker or fuse feeding that outlet IS providing. The outlet (the wall socket in you parlance) may be RATED at a certain power, but it's the power the breaker/fuse feeding it DOES provide that matters.

You could have an outlet rated at 15A, but a breaker that only provides 10A.

Having said all that, 15A, 220V is a lot of power. P (power in watts) = I (current in amperes) X E (Voltage in Volts). So, 15 X 220 = 3.3KW, which is an awful lot of power to draw from a wall outlet.

But hey, if the wiring is rated for it, and the outlet is rated for it, (I can't help myself!!) then more power to ya!

 

Sorry, I couldn't resist... :rolleyes:

 

Pat☺

[loki]

If someone works from home and has one of HP's Z8 workstations the additional power might be handy. Two 28 core CPUs, a couple of high end Quadro GPUs and up to 3TB of RAM is going to draw a fair bit of power, so they come with up to 1700W PSUs.

 

https://www.anandtech.com/show/11838/hp-updates-z8-workstation-up-to-56-cores-3-tb-ram-9-pcie-slots-1700w

[CRJ_simpilot]

You want the fastest and most recent CPU you can afford if you want to squeeze as much performance out of FSX as you can.. The architecture of a CPU is just as important as the MHz it can give. FS is a CPU hungry game, it is not coded much in the multi threaded department, so don't expect a multi threaded CPU to be utilized. RAM wise you want 16GB, not for the Sim, but for anything else you intend on playing. 16GB is really the sweet spot. Right now you don't need anymore unless you do major video and/or photo editing, etc. GPU wise, I use a GTX 560TI and it's perfectly fine. About 25% of the Sim uses the GPU so you really don't need the best, but again, if you plan on playing something like GTA V, then at least a GTX 1060 would be needed. HDD wise I would indeed get a SSD. All you need is at least a 256GB SSD and use a 1TB platter for spill over. Like your music, other program installs, scenery for FSX, etc.