OT a little, I have a new toy.

[michael davies]

Well everyone always said FSx was CPU hungry and today it was forced home big time, new Mobo and chip turned up this morning, a previous new GPU in the form of HIS 4850 ICEQ made no difference to FSx at all.

But the new chip (E8400) on the new board just eats it, still running XP and 4GB Ram ( with out the ram fix yet) and its all maxed out and stable at 30-40FPS, no OC or cfg tweaks, just right out of the box playable, CPU temp just murmers along at 25-26 deg C.

Theres a minor stutter in tight turns but the change is dramatic and that can be reduced or removed with tweaks I hope.

Its been an reasonably expensive and long day ( 12hr night shift + 18hrs rebuilding the PC and OS) but very very rewarding.

Why the long ditrate, simple, listen to Texnetcop and Harleyman, both were very instrumental in guiding me through all this, specifically Harleyman and endless PMs of advice and tips, its not over yet as the rest of my software has to be loaded and authenticated but FSx is now very playable as it stands, let alone with FSx cfg and OS tweaking.

Very impressed with the E8400, very impressed indeed.

Kindest

Michael

[harleyman]

Cool beans Michael....Its been our pleasure..We love good results..

BTW..For those micro studders in tight turns a config tweak for the TBM (texture_bandwidth_multi) of 70 - 90 should fix that right up..

Happy flying

[kilo delta]

That chip will clock to 4GHZ easily enough,Michael...................go on, ya know you want to!!! :icon_lol::ernae:

[Rezabrya]

Yep, go ahead and OC it. That chip is very Overclockable and will most likely go to 4 ghz without even breaking a sweat at idle.

[michael davies]

Ohh I will :), silly thing is, do I 'need' to LOL, right now its ok with a simple dial back on autogen or clouds, that may all change when I fly into Heathrow, but that will all be for tomorrows fun at the fair.

Best

Michael


That chip will clock to 4GHZ easily enough,Michael...................go on, ya know you want to!!! :icon_lol::ernae:

[michael davies]

I though I'd saved a copy of the old cfg as reference, seems I didnt ?, well I did but must have deleted it in the file tidy up !, so its back to reading all the FSx tweaks pages :).

TBM and Bufferpool seem to be the two primary ones to fiddly with.

Best

Michael


Cool beans Michael....Its been our pleasure..We love good results..

BTW..For those micro studders in tight turns a config tweak for the TBM (texture_bandwidth_multi) of 70 - 90 should fix that right up..

Happy flying

[Seaking055]

I hear ya on OC'ing, I had never attempted this before I got this now "old" QX6850 of mine, then I started reading up on oclocking.

I"ve had this "old" rig of mine running smooth as silk at 3.6ghz with load temps in the low 40's with FSX for some time now. Maybe I need to see how much higher I can go lol.

I ask a lot of questions on this forum and I agree, whatever you need to know there is always someone to assist you.

Thanks to all the "gurus" .

[JSpal]

Good choice with the E8400. What mobo is it on?

I have an E8400 on a P5Q Deluxe - 8GB RAM. I LOVE it, but I've never gotten it to 4ghz with stability. I've gotten it to 3.6 stable, and 4.0 unstable and running a little hotter than I was comfortable running it.

With a 4870, it does pretty darn good with anything that I throw at it.

[VFR Reviews]

I rather wonder if I should have gone with that rather than my Q6600... probably since FSX doesn't support quads that well :p Anyway, I'm glad you're enjoying it :ernae:

[michael davies]

Hi, I went with the Asus P5Q Pro with XP and 4GB RAM, GPU is the excellent HIS 4850 ICEQ, then I threw on the new cooler.. Arctic cooling freezer 7 Pro...cheap as chips but a very efficient cooler, I had bought a short while ago to solve the old CPU heat problems so just transfered it across.

I did consider a Quad or maybe even an i7 but they were a lot more expensive and FSx seems to prefer Dual cores and anything above 3.5ghz seems to get good results, so I got another Dual, the last one did very well and punched well above its weight, even with its lowly 1.8ghz rating, I tried OC it but it wasnt stable and made no difference to FSx at all.

Best

Michael


Good choice with the E8400. What mobo is it on?

I have an E8400 on a P5Q Deluxe - 8GB RAM. I LOVE it, but I've never gotten it to 4ghz with stability. I've gotten it to 3.6 stable, and 4.0 unstable and running a little hotter than I was comfortable running it.

With a 4870, it does pretty darn good with anything that I throw at it.

[Cazzie]

Super Michael.

For some odd reason, I despise any autogen in FSX, the ground textures are so sharp and bump mapping so good, after 500-ft ground altitude, I forget about the trees and buildings. And even with my modest dual-core 3.4 AMD, I get fps of 40 -50, as long as I am not around heavy traffic. And all that gorgeous photoreal scenery just does not look right with aurogen applied.

You go Michael. :ernae:

Caz

[Bjoern]

I rather wonder if I should have gone with that rather than my Q6600... probably since FSX doesn't support quads that well :p

A Q6600 still eats an E6600 for breakfast in FSX. Why? Four versus two cores.
A Q6600 though doesn't stand a chance against an E8400. Why? A clock difference of 600Mhz.
And FSX likes clocks.

Anyways, if you could get your quad up to 4GHz as well you wouldn't see a difference between it and an E8400 at the same speed.
However, clocking quads (except the extreme edition ones) is harder than clocking dual cores, since the former usually have lower multipliers and thus need to work their clocks up much via the FSB.
Also, a quad needs more energy than a dual core and produces way more heat than its two-cored brother, so if you want to take the 4GHz wall, you'll need advanced cooling solutions like water.

Ever since I got my quad, I didn't want to go back to a dual at all. This thing is just too good.



- Edit: Congratulations on the new CPU, Michael!

[michael davies]

Oddly I cannot fly with out Autogen trees, I hate landing with nothing be flatness in front, granted the photo real scenery is stunning above 1000' AGL but its the approach that kills it, I've also been doing a lot of helo work for the last few years and trees and autogen are pretty much a requisite.

Still havent tweaked it yet but my mind is now looking at some of this addon enviromental stuff, REX, GEX ?, I'm a bit of a dummy with that stuff, what does what, I think REX is sky and clouds ?, GEX is ground ?, does GEX support autogen, I'd heard one of the scenery addons didnt.

Best

Michael


Super Michael.

For some odd reason, I despise any autogen in FSX, the ground textures are so sharp and bump mapping so good, after 500-ft ground altitude, I forget about the trees and buildings. And even with my modest dual-core 3.4 AMD, I get fps of 40 -50, as long as I am not around heavy traffic. And all that gorgeous photoreal scenery just does not look right with aurogen applied.

You go Michael. :ernae:

Caz

[Bjoern]

Yep, GEX supports autogen.

[harleyman]

:applause::applause::applause: :icon29:

[Bone]

Super Michael.

For some odd reason, I despise any autogen in FSX, the ground textures are so sharp and bump mapping so good, after 500-ft ground altitude, I forget about the trees and buildings. And even with my modest dual-core 3.4 AMD, I get fps of 40 -50, as long as I am not around heavy traffic. And all that gorgeous photoreal scenery just does not look right with aurogen applied.

You go Michael. :ernae:

Caz

I thought I was the only one. Once you're off the ground, it looks more realistic with the autogen off, so i never use it anymore.

Have fun with your new build, Michael.

[txnetcop]

Michael that E8400 is a beast and easily overclocks way up there on air alone. It will take adding some voltage to get things moving. It can take it. I gave my wife my E8400, and replaced her P35 DFI Blood Iron MB with a Gigabyte EP45 UD3P motherboard and Patriot Viper DDR2 1200 memory. Need less to say...WOW! Temp at idle with CoreTemp shows 39C and gaming tops out at 52C. Real Temp shows it a few degrees lower on each.
Ted

[fsafranek]

Oddly I cannot fly with out Autogen trees, I hate landing with nothing be flatness in front,
I hear ya. Reminds me of FS4.

Congrats on the new setup. You'll really enjoy it when you get it all dialed in.
:ernae:

[michael davies]

Ted, what voltage did you require to get it moving ?, I think my RAM wont let it get to high at the moment, oddly the utilities don't tell me what rating my RAM is, it is DDR2 and thats all I can remember. CPUz shows 2ghz and 6x multiplier, yet Everest shows 3ghz and 7x multiplier !, these utilities never match do they, most bizarre.

Hopefully get some spare time this evening to start messing with OC.

Best

Michael


Michael that E8400 is a beast and easily overclocks way up there on air alone. It will take adding some voltage to get things moving. It can take it. I gave my wife my E8400, and replaced her P35 DFI Blood Iron MB with a Gigabyte EP45 UD3P motherboard and Patriot Viper DDR2 1200 memory. Need less to say...WOW! Temp at idle with CoreTemp shows 39C and gaming tops out at 52C. Real Temp shows it a few degrees lower on each.
Ted

[txnetcop]

Michael, a warning, I had to raise the Northbridge temp as well and use DDR2 1200 memory to get it stable. The voltage on the E8400 was 1.475 and on the Northbridge 1.71. This was the best I get stable and only the Gigabyte board would let me keep this setting. I ran OCCT and memtest without one failure. I tried to duplicate this on an ASUS Maximus Extreme at TechCorp and could not. Capacitors began failing during stress testing, so I have no idea how your ASUS will do if you try a more than 4.0GHz overclock. I did add a fan to the Northbridge to keep it cool by the way. The performance in FSX is absolutely unbelievable. It really outpaces the Quads that I used at TechCorp.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835185039

Be careful, raise it incrementally, and test as you go
Ted

[kilo delta]

Michael that E8400 is a beast and easily overclocks way up there on air alone. It will take adding some voltage to get things moving. It can take it. I gave my wife my E8400, and replaced her P35 DFI Blood Iron MB with a Gigabyte EP45 UD3P motherboard and Patriot Viper DDR2 1200 memory. Need less to say...WOW! Temp at idle with CoreTemp shows 39C and gaming tops out at 52C. Real Temp shows it a few degrees lower on each.
Ted


That's a great overclock,Ted!!:applause:
The highest that I went with my E8500 was 4.4GHZ though I was running pc8500 ram on an Evga 680i mobo.
It was a fantastic platform for FSX,though, with very high fps and all settings maxxed out....still have those parts in storage so I must throw them into a new build.:)

[txnetcop]

I don't know which I love more my old E8400 or the new E8600 which I have OC'd at 4.465 using a 9.5 multiplier (9.0 with turbo). It is a awesome Quad eater. However someday I would like to get a Q9650 before I move to i7Core. I just haven't seen any reason to go to i7 Core yet since I beat their numbers in most gaming anyway. In FSX it's not even a close match the higher OC'd Core 2 Duos beat them to death.
Ted

[Bone]

That's a great overclock,Ted!!:applause:
The highest that I went with my E8500 was 4.4GHZ though I was running pc8500 ram on an Evga 680i mobo.
It was a fantastic platform for FSX,though, with very high fps and all settings maxxed out....still have those parts in storage so I must throw them into a new build.:)


Screeeech. Can we hold it right here and talk about which processor is best for FSX...Quad or Dual?

I'm planning on building a Sim Pit with it's own dedicated rig. Currently, my QX9650 is running at 3.79 Mhz, the FSB at 1400 Mhz, and the memory at 1050Mhz. I've taken the CPU up to 4.2 and not really seen much of a performance difference in the way port-overs run or the amount of AI that can be used (these are my metrics because I don't use the autogen). I built this rig and it works great, but I'm not going to use it in my Sim Pit.

So, for a rig that will most likely just be used to run flight sim, what would you think, Quad or Dual?

[Bjoern]

Screeeech. Can we hold it right here and talk about which processor is best for FSX...Quad or Dual?

Dual for FPS, quad for blurrylessness.

[txnetcop]

I agree with Bjoern. I have no blurries but you have to tweak the cfg to doomsday to get it right and I am able to run high fps, but if you already have a quad stay with a quad. I don't have the money to buy one so I have to make what I have compete with them. I get most of my parts from either TechCorp, donation, or the old General Wh61 who has been extremely generous for work I do for him. OOps can't forget Harleyman either...a very good friend a lover of computer technology.
Ted

[michael davies]

blurrylessness.

That'd be the same as sharpness then ? LOL.

I'm not seeing any blurries yet with this dual core, not that I've noticed it has to be said, maybe I'm easily pleased ?.

Best

Michael

[michael davies]

Ted,

Real simple question, how do I find out what type of RAM I have, all I know is that its DDR2 and a failing mental image that its 800 something ? edit ok I found it, its PC2-5300 333mhz, now to find out what that actually means LOL, chips and mobos are bad enough but RAM is just beyond belief to decipher !.

Currently running the E8400 at 3.6ghz which gives a FSB of 800mhz, so cpuID tells me, temps are still very low, though they vary wildly with applications, Bios is 36.5degC, HWMon is 24degC and Core Temp is 44degC.

I've left everything else in the Bios as auto, voltages and RAM/DRAM ? settings, seems ok so far.

Whats the best and quickest bench tester out there, Prime95 is supposed to be the best but 24hrs LOL.

Best

Michael

[txnetcop]

Michael I use either Everest Ultimate(payware) or SiSandra 2009 Lite(free). It will tell you everything you ever wanted to know about your system and component parts.

To see if you have blurries, a great way to check is to strap on the F-18 that comes with Acceleration or Javis's freeware F-86(FS9 portover) and climb to about 10-15k and look down. If you are outpacing your cpu's ability to work with your graphics card it will be very noticeable. I have never had blurries with either the E8400 or E8600 and the HIS HD4850, HD4870, or Nvidia GTX285(my latest), but some peple report blurries with Core 2 Duo.

BTW 3.6 is very good in FSX...anything higher is window dressing for eye-candy and not always achievable.
Ted

[kilo delta]

I use Everest too, there is a demo available here.. http://www.lavalys.com/products.php?ps=UE&lang=en&page=1

Your current memory is pretty poor for overclocking,tbh. Depending on your mobo you could go with 1200mhz ram for maximum performance...something like.. http://www.memoryc.co.uk/products/description/4GB_OCZ_DDR2_PC2_9600_Low_Voltage_Blade_Series-5_5_5-Dual_Channel_kit/index.html . If you can't stretch that far then go with some 1066mhz (PC-8500) memory... http://www.memoryc.co.uk/products/type/Computer_Memory/DDR2/index.html?Capacity=4GB&Standard=PC2+8500

[michael davies]

Ted,

Ok will go give the Hornet a good pasting :). Theres a report out there ( edited by your fair hand :) ) that suggests chip FSB should not exceed the RAM, currently I'm running 400Mhz FSB, not 800 as above, yet my memeory is still 333mhz, it is old and the new Mobo will take 2GB sticks so I might just opt for two newer sticks ( I need a lot for Max TBH ) and be safe.

Will also try SiSandra shortly.

Best

Michael

[txnetcop]

FSB continuity is essential in everything but i7 Core and AMD which do not use fsb architecture.
Ted

[michael davies]

KD, thanks for that, was just coming to the same conclusion myself, when pushed hard I reckon my RAM is going to play up, I'll give FSx one big push and see what happens, then drop back to stock 3ghz until the new RAM arrives.

Ted, yes, I see whats going on now, the RAM is well below par, the supplier I use ( Novatech ) doesnt ship DDR2 1200, only DDR2 1066, I'd like 1200, but in reality, will I push it hard enough to justify the extra cost ?.

Choices choices LOL.

Right, time to go fly a little :)

Best

Michael



I use Everest too, there is a demo available here.. http://www.lavalys.com/products.php?ps=UE&lang=en&page=1

Your current memory is pretty poor for overclocking,tbh. Depending on your mobo you could go with 1200mhz ram for maximum performance...something like.. http://www.memoryc.co.uk/products/description/4GB_OCZ_DDR2_PC2_9600_Low_Voltage_Blade_Series-5_5_5-Dual_Channel_kit/index.html . If you can't stretch that far then go with some 1066mhz (PC-8500) memory... http://www.memoryc.co.uk/products/type/Computer_Memory/DDR2/index.html?Capacity=4GB&Standard=PC2+8500

[Bjoern]

That'd be the same as sharpness then ? LOL.

Well no, not exactly.

Anyone can have sharp textures, it's important that they don't blur out once you go low and fast for a while.

A quad raises the threshhold for burries quite considerably, say you won't encounter them as early as with a duo.
It has to be understood though that your Ram also plays a role in this game. What good is a fast CPU if the memory can't keep up?