So, what's the state of things?

[BiggerBoat]

I've been away from flying FSX for several months. Had to jump back in to try the PNW demo, and it's glorious. As a long-time PNW resident, I'd say that Orbx has captured the essence of the area quite well.

However, it also brings back the fretting about performance that is the bane of FSX for me. My current system is around 2 years old, and I can get generally good performance if I crank down some settings and tweak the heck out of it, but it's frustrating. I generally hit the wall in terms of autogen, and the numerous trees of PNW exacerbate this.

Which brings me to my question. I'm considering a computer upgrade later this year, and I'm wondering whether FSX combined with the latest tech has hit its stride. Are you guys with the latest hardware generally running PNW without much compromise in terms of settings? Are you able to fly over maxed out autogen mountains and down over the cities with consistent, smooth performance? Can you then toss in some clouds and some AI without bringing it to its knees?

If we're not quite there yet, I might even consider waiting another year or two before upgrading.

For reference, here's my current system:

Q6600 (overclock to 3.2)

ABIT IP35-E

Geforce 8800 GTS 512

G.SKILL 6GB (3 x 2GB)  DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800

I know that people have different perceptions of "smooth", and the common mantra is that FSX is smoother than the FPS might indicate. However, if things are stuttery or drop below 20 fps or so, I really notice it. For me, fight sims are all about smoothness and consistency, and the only thing that gives me that right now is FS9 (which looked OK compared to out-of-the-box FSX, but the Orbx stuff makes it hard to go back to).

I miss the days when processor speeds used to double every 18 months....

[Sniper31]

Well BiggerBoat, it is very possible to achieve what you are asking for in terms of performance. I have a pretty modest system for FSX, with a great CPU/MB/GPU & RAM combo, but an average HHD setup. Also, running Windows & 64 bit is a big plus. My idea of smooth flight is 25 FPS or better and no stutters of any kind. With my hardware, I feel I have every right to expect that. And, that IS what I have been getting AND am currently getting, running FSX with Orbx PNW as you stated. Most of my sliders are maxxed or close to max. I run with about 50% commercial and GA AI traffic using Traffic X. I also am generating HD clouds with REX 2.0. I fly with high quality payware A/C that can tax the system resources, but they are working great for me. I prime example is Captain Sim's C-130X. Runs great for me on my rig, but many other folks say it hurts thier system's performance.

All that said, I HAVE had to make some tweaks to my FSX.CFG. I say some, but I've made my tweaks to my liking (mainly to get rid of stutters) and have since been flying, flying, flying. No video driver change (running NVidia 186.86 for months now) CFG tweaking for awhile now.

So, to reiterate, YES, what you are asking is VERY possible. 

[Valcor]

Well BiggerBoat, it is very possible to achieve what you are asking for in terms of performance. I have a pretty modest system for FSX, with a great CPU/MB/GPU & RAM combo, but an average HHD setup.

An i7 975 with a tough to achieve 4.3Ghz OC and 9 gigs of RAM is modest?    Your GPU isn't bleeding edge but I think you are being modest about your system. 

[Phil Manhart]

You have almost the exact system that I just upgraded from Biggerboat. The only difference was I only had 4 Gb of RAM and a 4850x2 instead of the 8800GTS.

I was able to get great performance out of that with these simple tweaks;

[bufferpools]

Poolsize=0

TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULTI=120

TERRAIN_MAX_AUTOGEN_BUILDINGS_PER_CELL=1500

TERRAIN_MAX_AUTOGEN_TREES_PER_CELL=1000

Autogen= Dense

Scenery Density= Extremely Dense

Traffic= 0  (I used Ultimate Traffic II for AI traffic and it makes a WORLD of difference on framerates!!! I'm not joking when I say that the difference between UT2 at max and TrafficX at max is about 20 FPS.)

[JobScheduler]

AffinityMask=14

Give those a shot if you already haven't and let me know what you find. You can see the system I upgraded to below, it cost me about $400 USD to buy it and put it together, and it dramatically increased my FSX performance. Going from the Q6600 to the i5-750 was a huge jump in performance, as was the jump from DDR2 800 to DDR3 1600 RAM. Just waiting on Fermi now to get my new graphics card...

Phil

[Sniper31]

Well BiggerBoat, it is very possible to achieve what you are asking for in terms of performance. I have a pretty modest system for FSX, with a great CPU/MB/GPU & RAM combo, but an average HHD setup.

An i7 975 with a tough to achieve 4.3Ghz OC and 9 gigs of RAM is modest?    Your GPU isn't bleeding edge but I think you are being modest about your system. 

Oops, I guess I need to update my system specs in my sig...I've had my i7 975 O/C'd and stable at 4.55 now since I got it. The 4.3 was my very first, inital O/C with the chip, but I shortly bumped it where it's at now. I should also add that I have a very good Ultra 1000w PSU (extremely important in my opinion), a great Antec case with a 200mm fan on top of the case, 2 120mm fans on the front, 1 120mm fan on the side (for the GPU) and 1 120mm fan in the rear. Additonally, I have installed a Coolermaster V8 CPU cooler that allowed me to get stable at 4.55 ghz overclocking on air. And last week, I just upgraded to a GTX 280 Superclocked GPU. So, I was being modest I guess, but I also did not point out everything about my system. In the end, the point is still the same. You CAN get the kind of performance BiggerBoat wants (and better!) with today's hardware.

[BiggerBoat]

Thanks, guys. That is encouraging.

So, is there anything on the cusp (say 6 months or a year?) that is going to offer any hope for even additional headroom with FSX, or are things generally where I left them (negligible improvements in CPU speed in favor of additional cores, reduced size/heat, etc.).

I'd love to have a great multi-monitor set-up, and I know that some of the newer video cards are supporting multi-screen gaming out of the box. But, that also means higher resolution and more demands on the system.

Sniper: 4.55 on air is crazy. Nice work. I know I'd probably never get that kind of overclock. I just don't have the patience. I imagine you can pretty much run full tilt, though. Does anything in FSX bring your system down?

My timeline right now is maybe an upgrade in December. We'll see. I am definitely getting impatient, but my existing system more than meets my needs for everything but FSX so I want to hold off as long as possible.

I figure by the time I jump on board the Ozx folks will have all kinds of add-on airports for PNW

[tennyson]

I7 980x is just about to be released. 6 cores and FSX loves more cores.

NVIDIA 470 and 480 is about to be released in a few weeks, too.

As well, there are a few dual cpu motherboards on the horizon and should be arriving soon.

SSD's should be entering a new phase soon where the capacities will double (as they are basically RAM chips with a controller bolted on), so I'd say that holding off for a few months might pay some dividends.

At the very least, if you aren't after cutting edge stuff, the current top of the wazza gear will become cheaper....voila! bargain time!

Frank

[Sniper31]

-snip-

Sniper: 4.55 on air is crazy. Nice work. I know I'd probably never get that kind of overclock. I just don't have the patience. I imagine you can pretty much run full tilt, though. Does anything in FSX bring your system down?

-snip-

Thanks for the compliment. Yes, it took some patience and time (I tested it step by step for several days) and that V8 Cooler is just plain awesome to say the least. That being said, yes, there sure are ways to tax my system, just like any. My system's weakness is the HDD chain...I am running normal SATA HDD's. I just don't need things to open that snappy for me, and the drives I have do the job just fine for me. But, even with the processing power I am running, if I am flying over a large metro area, with a complex aircraft, with AI traffic up over say 75% AND I ratchet up my sliders even more, than yes, my system will slow some. Even in this situation though, it does not dip below 10-12 FPS, and most of the time is closer to 20 fps. Some key notes to point out about my FSX settings are that my Autogen is set at Very Dense as opposed to Extremely Dense, my water is set as per the Orbx PNW guide says to (Low 2.0x I think, or whatever it is) and I don't have things enabled like 'Light Bloom', 'Aircraft Shadows' etc. Further, I have my cloud draw distance set at 60nm or 70nm. But, most of my settings sliders are full right, or close to full right, I use a generous amount of AI traffic (air, ground and water) and my flying experience is very smooth and stutter free, and I am loving it! And, I am by no means a rich person financially (I am in the Army after all) so its not like I can buy whatever I want. I do save money for my hobby though, and I build my systems myself so the two make it possible for me to have a very capable rig.

[tennyson]

So,

Asus have released their new Dual 1366 mobo.

ASUS S1366 Z8NA-D6 Dual Motherboard Dual 1366 Socket in ATX,

Support Xeon CPU, DDR3, SATA and optional SAS Controller,

2 x Intel Gigabit LAN, Onboard Video

Add two i7 980x's, and 24gb of 1600-200Mhz DDR3 Ram and a Nvidia 480.

Not much change from $5200.00 Aus atm.

Frank

[Phil Manhart]

That thing has enough SATA ports and DIMM slots to sink a ship!

I'd imagine you'd probably want to watercool or use the new self contained Corsair CPU Watercoolers with that because of the heat that would build up from the CPUs, especially considering air flowing from the first CPU to the second CPU would be nice and toasty using an air cooler... So add another $150 for two Corsair Water Coolers...

With the money spent on that, you might as well throw in a homemade cockpit and moving chair unit...

I need to start playing the lottery.