FSX/P3D best hardware never ever!!!

Dear friends

Two weeks ago I finished my new PC for FSX/Prepar3d and I want to share my results due the fact i'm impress about the performance I reach. Tired of fight with low FPS and chopy sceneries I decide to build a complete new PC and the results are really "fantastic"

If you are on the way to build a new PC for your FSX/Prepar3d probably you will find my post interesting.

My interest in flight simulators becomes stronger when I decide to obtain my PPL in Switzerland (my country), actually I have 50 hours of training in a C172P and soon I will go for the final exam, never the less I found FSX (and later P3D) very good tools to improve my learning curve.

My first PC was just a dual core 3.4GHz with a low-end video card and with normal HDD's, performance was bad, I never reach more than 15FPS and the video exprience was really bad. After reading almost ALL post here and in other forums I decide to do a "one shot investment" instead of trying to improve my old system just doing a patch work.

I have not so much experience building PC's, for sure a lot of people here has much more experience than me, I just reard almost all post regarding HW and I apply most of the recomendations.

Here my system:

Mainboard ASUS Maximus VII Ranger

I7 4970K (4GHz) OC conservative to 4.6GHz (max temp at 100% load= 71 degrees

Cooling system Coolmaster Liquid cooling (close loop) NEPTON 280L

Case Coolmaster HAF-XB EVO

16GB RAM VIPER CL9 -9 -9 1600MHz OC to 2400MHz

6 x OCZ Vertex 460 SataIII in 2 separate RAID0 arrange

1 TB HDD Segate

Graphic card ASUS STRIX GTX-970 OC (not overclocked)

Short explanation why I select some parts:

Processor: If you come from a old dual core like me don't make sense to buy old models, today the 4970K is almost at the same price like the 4770 with a gurantee to run at 4.4GHz out of the box.

NEPTON 280L: I found easy to install and manage and the efficiency is extreamly good compared with other.

Case: Make a big difference in cooling, the HAF-XB, well know as a Lan box is a little choby but the air circulation is one of the best.

SSD: i'm fan of RAID0, when a normal SSD reach (in a media benchmark) 500 MB/seg, using 3 disk in RAID0 give me a impresive performance of 1,500 MB/seg, I read a lot of post's about the scalation is not by a factor of 3 but this is on old MB, today you can scalate 3 disk at almost factor of 3 with out problems, think a good HDD today has a media of 150MB/Seg, installing 3 good SSD's in RAID0 give you 1500MB/seg, upload sceneries and boot your Pc is just a dream, the problem here is you increase by a factor of 3 the chances to have a failure, if one disk is lost: bye bye your data. To be protected againts that fact I use Acronis software to create automatic backups of my entired system.

Graphic card: My old system runs with a GTX-650 and the performance was really bad, after hours of working with the cfg file and apply hundres of tricks I never had more than 15 to 20 FPS. The GTX-970 (now you can buy for just 350.00 USD) push me to a incredible FPS numbers.

My results:

Today I'm able with that system to run FSX with 3 x 23" LCD monitors using Nvidia Surround configuration with just one single video card and obtain 60FPS when I'm ready for departure and almost 100FPS at 6,000ft over ground, FSX configured with ALL sliders at maximum (Scenery, Weather and Traffic)

My FSX use Tileproxy for the scenery and the result is amaizing!! Same configuration used with Prepar3d and the results are much more impressive, FSX eat more processor (up to 95%) with the Affinity mask=84, when Prepar3d just 75% with the Affinity Mask in 255.

Regarding temps: My I7 4970K (at 100% 1 hour test) reach 71 degrees (OC to 4.6GHz) I can run 100% stable at 4.8GHz but temp go up to 85 degrees and this is too much for just 200MHz more clock speed. Most of the time when I run FSX the CPU temp is in a media of 60 degrees.

The GPU runs at 48 degrees with a maximum load of 66%, FSX hit the GPU 50% when P3D demand a little more (66%)

finally I want to recognize than this PC was not cheapt, but compare with the money I spend during the last years just trying to improve my old systems a "one shot investment" make send and will allow me to save a lot of money in try and errors.

Just one single point more, I compara FSX and P3D and definitive P3D has much better graphics, specially with the GTX970, definitive the old code of FSx cannot take any adanvantage from the latest GPu's, P3D demand almost 16% more GPU than FSX and this is translated in much better graphics, the disadvantage today is a lot of add-ones won't work on P3D even if you use the Estonia migration tool, but this is just a matter of time. FSX, from the perspective of development and improvement is almost dead, for me P3D looks much promissing and take much more advantage from the latest HW available today.

Happy Landings

Helax

Yep, I read this with interest and it confirmed my belief that FSX and P3D will run well on a really top end system. I also agree that P3D is probably the future, but equally, for most of us, FSX will serve us for a few more years.

60 & 100 FPS is of course not such a big deal in itself, but you can trade the FPS in for improved graphics and resource hungry addons. The big deal is of course that a system capable of high FPS is usually capable of very smooth performance when frame rates are appropriately locked.

Finally, both a system and FSX itself do need a little tweaking to run well on even the best systems, but CPU grunt is the holy grail. Maybe we will eventually see faster stock CPUs come to the market.

Personally, I will use my old PC and FSX until either it breaks down or there is a big enough advance in flight simulator technology to make it worth shelling out the bucks for a top end system.

IAN

What's "choby"?

The "Urban dictionary" wasn't much help and what it did provide didn't go well with a computer case.

I just built a similar system with 4970K (didn't overclock yet).

I get no more then 22-25 flps with Cessna in JFK and around New York,

16-20 fps with bigger aircraft like JustFlight's DC-3 and DC-6 (not so cool),

and 13-18 fps with PMDG 737, Wilco CRJ or any other.

Display setting at 70% of max (it actually matters little, from 30 to like 90 it is a 1-1.5 fps difference). The payware airport scenery drops fps by another 1.5, the major fps drop is caused by FXS city area itself and the "resource demanding" aircraft addons.

My fsx.cfg is tweaked per reference pinned in this forum.

Apparently, it is a normal FSX performance as confirmed by many.

Can't complain, I am very happy with this 16 fps performance! My old Core2Duo didn't run PMDG at all, it made no sense even to load it, and now I can fly it at last.

But... these stories about 60-100 fps... why? -)))

By the way guys, if I overclock my 4.0 GHz 4970k by another .2-.4 GHz, would I gain another few fps?

Say, would my current 14-18 fps in JFK with 737NGX go up to 18-22 fps? I'd be so happy if it will!

Another question is, by stating "4.4 GHz out of the box" it is meant that this CPU can be overclocked to 4.4 on stock heatsing and fan, correct?

I have a Cooler Master 212 Evo, can I assume I am safe at 4.4 GHz?

I don't want to go to water cooling yet, until I'm sure my fps in NY/LA (other city) area will increase.

...My FSX use Tileproxy for the scenery...

I'm really not surprised at his performance. When set to unlimited, at most default airports, I see 45-55 FPS, and, when at altitude, 95-105 FPS is common.

I keep it locked at 30 and get seamless performance. Fast CPU, Fast RAM, Good GPU...

Choby? I believe he meant "Chubby"!

If you are familiar with the HAF-XB, that's quite apt...Don

No, this member joined in 2013.

 

 

Just goes to show what kind of CPU power is needed to run FSX well.

Joined in 2013 and he already has two (2) posts! Pretty active poster. However I agree he does seem to have the same attitude and purpose as "that guy again?"

Probably two posts is plenty!

Joined in 2013 and he already has two (2) posts! Pretty active poster. However I agree he does seem to have the same attitude and purpose as "that guy again?"

 

Probably two posts is plenty!

He was probably overwhelmed by the friendly response new posters get around here.

Congrats on your system. Nice hardware. And you must know your way around software too, getting that fps. Well done. Enjoy! Happy flights!

il88pp.

He was probably overwhelmed by the friendly response new posters get around here.

Well said Mark

He was probably overwhelmed by the friendly response new posters get around here.

I merely questioned if he was the same guy bragging about 100 fps.

I don't treat newcomers bad..

Nice post. Thanks and welcome to the forum.....

Doug