I just upgraded my CPU so results here for you all

[flyguy737]

ok so as most of you know I had an E8500 running nicely at 3.30GHz but graphics and performance although good I wanted to see if a Quad core made any real difference. Here are my results.

YBBN FPS on E8500 good average at between 9 and 25 depending on ground or air.

YBBN FPS on Q9400 Slightly better 13 to 30 depending on ground or air.

There is not really an increase in FPS by just changing the CPU from dual core to Quad but my system seems to run smoother and texture loads not taking as long as before. gone is the shimmer effect I had on my graphics when turning, not completely but are far less noticeable.

Now the Q9400 was all I could afford so it's default speed is 2.66 whereas the E8500 default speed is 3.16. Now when I first installed the Q9400 my temps were really bad it seems that the Quad runs hotter then the dual oops temps as high as 90C very bad. So off I went back to Umart and bought a V8 Cooler.

Ok after pulling the whole MB apart to install the V8 cooler I did my first boot up at default speed. Very good temps way way down. First OC to 2.80 Temps good 40C. Send OC 2.90GHz Temps about 55Max running stable .

Now loading times as longer then under the E8500 but performance increase is better. Next will be a better GPU card before I go the whole hog on the major upgrade.

My OC I will try to gain a bit more but for those of you wanting to go from Dual Core to Quad Core CPU, DO IT!

what you loose in speed is gained in performance, But please do buy a better cooler the V8 is great.

More test results to come.

Let me know what your upgrades do and how you get on.

[Hugh Johnston]

My E8400 at 3.6 goes pretty well. Idle at around 38`C with an after market cooler. It's my 512mb card that is holding me back at the moment. I have been pretty impressed with mine. To be honest I don't know why you changed. You could have got that 8500 going a bit faster even if you just bought the cooler.

[Phil Manhart]

IMHO going to the Q9400 was a good move, and with a couple of more tweaks you can experience some FSX bliss.

Please consider trying these fsx.cfg tweaks with the quad core.

[JOBSCHEDULER]

AffinityMask=14

[MAIN] should already be there, for info only

FIBER_FRAME_TIME_FRACTION=0.25

These two tweaks in conjunction place most of the load on the last three cores of the cpu, and allows the first to concentrate on texture loading. Give it a try and see what your FPS does. If you experience blurries, either raise the FIBER_FRAME_TIME_FRACTION back to 0.33 (default value), or eliminate it. If it doesn't work at all, delete it.

For your overclock, 55C at 2.9Ghz seems pretty high. You should be able to squeeze at least a 3.4Ghz OC with a V8 at 60C under load. Perhaps your cpu voltage is higher than it needs to be or your airflow in your case is very low?

Phil

[flyguy737]

My E8400 at 3.6 goes pretty well. Idle at around 38`C with an after market cooler. It's my 512mb card that is holding me back at the moment. I have been pretty impressed with mine. To be honest I don't know why you changed. You could have got that 8500 going a bit faster even if you just bought the cooler.

It's not the speed Hugh, it's the fact that bottlenecks between CPU, RAM and GPU were there under the E8500. I had at one time the E8500 up at 4.21GHz but it only improved my loading times it did nothing to get rid of bottlenecks. Now My system maybe a bit slower but the bottlenecks appear to have gone. So I am now getting better performance and smoother flying with around the same FPS why wouldn't I change? I wish I could have gone to a Q9550 or Q9560 but money is a factor in everyones lives. 

IMHO going to the Q9400 was a good move, and with a couple of more tweaks you can experience some FSX bliss.

Please consider trying these fsx.cfg tweaks with the quad core.

[JOBSCHEDULER]

AffinityMask=14

[MAIN] should already be there, for info only

FIBER_FRAME_TIME_FRACTION=0.25

These two tweaks in conjunction place most of the load on the last three cores of the cpu, and allows the first to concentrate on texture loading. Give it a try and see what your FPS does. If you experience blurries, either raise the FIBER_FRAME_TIME_FRACTION back to 0.33 (default value), or eliminate it. If it doesn't work at all, delete it.

For your overclock, 55C at 2.9Ghz seems pretty high. You should be able to squeeze at least a 3.4Ghz OC with a V8 at 60C under load. Perhaps your cpu voltage is higher than it needs to be or your airflow in your case is very low?

Phil

Thanks Phil I'll try those tweaks now under the Quad Core! I agree Phil I have noticed a major improvement in performance and I'll take that over system speed anyday.

[flyguy737]

ok another test OC 3.00GHz temps ok but after 5 minutes in FSX system crashed. next increased Vcore Voltage up 1 step and Dram voltage up 1 step. FSX crashed after 10 Minutes. Now I have increased Vcore Voltage again 1 more step. still crashes. will investigate further on OC forums.

[flyguy737]

ok so far so good running stable at 3.20 wont do more then that it just wont boot. Left voltages on auto and memory on auto only changed FSB. watched under CPU-Z and realtemp all cores max in the 60C's average temps high 50C's.

CPU-z shows voltages change automatically under load. I noticed today on my MB it is written OC FSB 1600 OC RAM 1200

CPU-z showing FSB max at 1600 as per my MB. RAM not sure but system appears stable almost 30 minutes under FSX.

Night FPS increased dramatically from 8 to 9 FPS to 18 to 20 FPS on ground this is good as night time is the worse on FPS. Daytime FPS increased to almost 35 on ground. not using any tweaks found no improvement by using then and no longer using FPS limiter.

GPU temp max around 64C average 61C I will try to improve airflow next but will leave OC to where it is. After all I is good enough for me and I am getting great performance.

[flyguy737]

another update 40 minutes system still stable but FSX crashed on me night time approach to YBBN just outside if YBAF I suspect this is a win7 problem not an OC problem will try daytime same area then night time again.

Any ideas here?

[jnrjim67]

Try running the system at default and do the same flight if it does not crash you can then eliminate if it windows 7 or the overclock and work it from there.

 

[flyguy737]

Try running the system at default and do the same flight if it does not crash you can then eliminate if it windows 7 or the overclock and work it from there.

 

One step ahead of you. I am going to go back to default speeds and slowly go up checking each time. I'll let ya know what the go is.

[TenBlade]

If you have a 1GB memory GPU you can use the

[bufferPools]

UsePools=0

and

[GRAPHICS]

HIGHMEMFIX=1

[flyguy737]

I used them once before but I will try that again