Aceshigh Posted May 2, 2010 Share Posted May 2, 2010 Hello everyone.. My old PC is getting a bit long in the tooh but I cannot afford to update the lot just now. I have two options for FSX / FTX so Im told at the computer shop. My current CPU is a intel E8500 2 core 3.16 gz My curent video card is a 9800GTX+ My motherboard deos not seem to allow overclocking past 3.3ghz it freezes up when I try. The shop said if I update to a INTEL CORE 2 QUAD Q9400 2.60GHz-6M FSX will run better. Then they said to update my card to a nivida 260+ video card. they are very cheap as they are a bit old now. So my question is clear.. would these minor updates do my flight sim frame rate any good or a waste of money? Would a slower quad have more power? Would a 260 + card be an upgrade over a 9800+ ? I cant afford a whole new PC as yet. thanks, any advice appreciated. Mark Freeman Sorry I forgeot: I use 4gig ram win764 bit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyguy737 Posted May 2, 2010 Share Posted May 2, 2010 look at my specs in my signature then consider this, do you have more then 4gig ram? are you using win764bit? I have the same CPU but XP does not make good use of ram over 3gig and I find win7 64bit uses the cpu better as the E8500 is already a 64bit CPU. maybe change your MB and add some RAM. I am upgrading to a Q9400 soon it is on order but I also have a GTX260 but would recommend GTX285 as it seems the best here. Lots to consider how and much you want to spend. go for win 7 64 bit or a better video card first. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aceshigh Posted May 2, 2010 Author Share Posted May 2, 2010 Sorry I forgot t post that I have 4GB ram 800mhz. Win 7 64 bit. I cannot seem to find the 275 or 285 anywhere left on the market. So would my current video card be the slower part in my system? Just recently with PNW my frame rates are getting slower. thanks Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyguy737 Posted May 2, 2010 Share Posted May 2, 2010 look on ebay plenty of 285's still around also try Umart www.umart.com.au try a defrag of your system. don't go the 275 or 295 stick to a 285 or if you can afford it get a gtx 480. try ebay again for these as it is cheaper. or consider a new MB that supports more then 4 gig ram. what windows performance are you getting? what memory do you have ( i have PC2-6400) this memory should run at 667Mhz on a FSB of 333. if you have a FSB of 400 then it would be 800. you times by 2 the ram bus to the fsb bus but if your memory is only 800Mhz on a 333 FSB it should be set to 667 Mhz and that will make it 1:1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aceshigh Posted May 2, 2010 Author Share Posted May 2, 2010 My PC rating is 5.9 the ram is 2 sticks of 2 gb each, 800mhz duel channel corsair if I recall. FS bus is 400.. I cant remember the gigabyte motherboard model. I think its a EP45 . not sure. My hard drive is two raptors. 300gb each All FSX/FTX sliders set to the settings Orbx recommend in their PDF setup files. Defrag used is O&O 12 pro defragged on "Space" then defragged on the "Name" setting. My CPU is only a duel core, does quad core do anything for FSX / FTX or is this a myth? thanks, mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyguy737 Posted May 2, 2010 Share Posted May 2, 2010 i'll let ya know if the quad does make any difference when I get mine this week. as for the memory it is not 400 FSB it will support upto 400FSB it depends on your MB sounds like you got a board similar to mine download CPU-Z this will give you some valuable info on your system. does your bios have the MIT intelligent tweaker? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aceshigh Posted May 2, 2010 Author Share Posted May 2, 2010 CPU-Z says the main board is a Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3R In the bios you can set very basic overclock, they call it Cruise, sports, full thrust "etc" Im on the second one now, any higher and I get freeze up's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyguy737 Posted May 2, 2010 Share Posted May 2, 2010 ok that MB is just one up from mine. Don't use the sports cruise etc modes that is in C2 dont use it disable it. look at the top of the BIOS it should say MIT Intelligent tweaker? second make sure you have the lastest BIOS version for your MB you can download it and flash your bios. Also you should have settings above the multiplier that says auto, fast and turbo. set this to Turbo and make sure you multiplier is set at 9.5 I have my FSB at 348 gives me 3.30 GHz CPU speed and my memory at 400MHz adjusted to 2.66D. 2.00D is 1:1 and 2.66D is 3:4 This does make a difference. My temps don't go above 58 but I only have stock cooling. Remember download realtemp too and make sure that you are monitoring your temps. the BIOS temp is not correct. don't rely on it. I will try to help you where I can. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aceshigh Posted May 3, 2010 Author Share Posted May 3, 2010 thanks... I will look into it all in the morning. I have a bad cold at the moment and very little sleep. Dont wish to poke around in my bios until I'm more awake! LOL bad things happen when one is half asleep and adjusting bios settings. :Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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