CPU Question

[IanHenry]

Hi,<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>
Being completely ignorant about the mysteries surrounding computer hardware, can anyone help me? Which is the best CPU for FSX?<o:p></o:p>
This:<o:p></o:p>
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550, Yorkfield Core, S775, 2.83GHz, 1333MHz, 12MB L2 Cache, 8.5x, 95W, <o:p></o:p>
This:<o:p></o:p>
Intel Core 2 Duo, E8400, Wolfdale Core, S775, 3.0GHz, 1333MHz, 6MB Cache, 9x Multiplier<o:p></o:p>
<o:p> </o:p>
Or this:<o:p></o:p>
Intel Core 2 Duo, E8500, Wolfdale Core, S775, 3.16GHz, 1333MHz, 6MB Cache, 9.5x Multiplier<o:p></o:p>
<o:p> </o:p>
Is quad of any benefit to FSX? I know quite a few people like the E8400 but here in the U.K there is very little difference between the price of that and the E8500 which to my un educated eyes looks a faster processor.<o:p></o:p>
<o:p> </o:p>
I am currently running an Intel E6700 2.6 so would it be necessary upgrade my cooling?<o:p></o:p>
Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.<o:p></o:p>
<o:p> </o:p>
Many thanks,<o:p></o:p>
Ian.<o:p></o:p>
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<o:p> </o:p>

[SirBenn21]

I got a real good cooler that made it possible to get my Q9400 from 2.5GHz to 3.3 GHz and still run at 35 'C at idle and up to 55 'C on full working load.

Go Here (http://www.thermalright.com/new_a_page/product_page/cpu/u120ex/product_cpu_cooler_u120ex-intel_bp.html) to have a look. (I never forget my wife shaking her head when she saw the size of that cooler!) :d
Weight :790g (Heatsink Only)

As for the CPU, I would go for the Intel Core 2 Duo, E8500.

Quad does have a slight advantage, but Duo Cores do just fine.

Ben

[harleyman]

Depending on your set up a quad has some advantages..But FSX does not fully use it ...

As far as OCing the E8400 is a rock solid performer for FSX..I truely believe that FSX for me runs better on a dual core...

I run FSX on a E8600 OCed to 3.4 and its good..Limiting factor on that rig is the 4870X2 vid card...


My best set up is with a E5200 OCed to 3.3 and FSX runs smooth as silk locked at 35 , and holds it all day there ...No tweaks applied ever...

[Daube]

The more cores, the fewer the blurries, and the more stable the performances.
The more GHz, the more FPS.
You will get better FPS with the E8500 than with the Q9550, but you will also get more blurries when flying fast and close to the ground, especially with high resolution photo-scenery and very dense autogen areas.

[hey_moe]

It really depends on what kind of MB you have along with the memory and V card. It would be a booger to spend the money on a processor and then end up with a bottle neck. I like the quad core processor and the dual core does fine too. What specs is your system...Mike

[Brett_Henderson]

While very few of us can afford to spend $1000+ on just a CPU to stay in front of the tech wave.. we still gotta stay ON it.. lol

If you're building a new computer today, it's kinda silly to not go with a quad-core.

I'm running a Q9550 (they can be had for ~$250 now) at 3.8GHZ and it handles FSX pretty well... NOTICEABLY better than my last CPU (Q6600 @3.0GHZ).

For the $$$ , a Q9550 is prob the best deal right now (if you can find one).

[Kiwikat]

I'm running a Q9550 (they can be had for ~$250 now) at 3.8GHZ and it handles FSX pretty well... NOTICEABLY better than my last CPU (Q6600 @3.0GHZ).

What is your voltage set at? :kilroy:

[IanHenry]

Hi,
My specification at the moment is:
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p> </o:p>
Motherboard - MSI P965 Platinum
Processor – Intel E6700
Graphics Card Nvidia 8800 GTX
4GB Ram (I don’t know what speed, all I know is 800 was mentioned, as I said I’m quite ignorant about those matters!)
<o:p> </o:p>
Also I don’t want to overclock.
<o:p> </o:p>
I need to decide whether to try and upgrade my current machine or wait a little and get an i7 powered one
<o:p> </o:p>
Regards,
Ian

[Brett_Henderson]

What is your voltage set at? :kilroy:

1.41 .. I'm runnig a Vendetta cooler. All four cores stay in the low 50s (c) running FSX

:jump:



Edit.. low 60s

[Kiwikat]

I'm running mine at 3.4 GHz at 1.27v. I'll try your overclock when it gets cool again. Since I don't have AC, its quite warm in my room. I'm surprised my temps are holding decent with my 3.4 GHz OC.

Another quick question, do you have the e0 version?

[Brett_Henderson]

I'm running mine at 3.4 GHz at 1.27v. I'll try your overclock when it gets cool again. Since I don't have AC, its quite warm in my room. I'm surprised my temps are holding decent with my 3.4 GHz OC.

Another quick question, do you have the e0 version?


Yes :applause:

[kilo delta]

I've a few E8500's in my systems......fantastic overclockers when used on the right mobo and with decent memory. I'd one running FSX beautifully when overclocked to 4.4GHZ using 4gb of Patriot pc8500 on an evga 680i mobo. That chip, as with all of my home builds, was cooled by a Tuniq Tower 120mm cooler.

PS. the above system ran fsx just as well as my overclocked QX9770 system. As has been mentioned already, quads will help eliminate blurred ground textures.

[txnetcop]

Hi,
My specification at the moment is:
<o:p></o:p>
Motherboard - MSI P965 Platinum
Processor – Intel E6700
Graphics Card Nvidia 8800 GTX
4GB Ram (I don’t know what speed, all I know is 800 was mentioned, as I said I’m quite ignorant about those matters!)
<o:p></o:p>
Also I don’t want to overclock.
<o:p></o:p>
I need to decide whether to try and upgrade my current machine or wait a little and get an i7 powered one
<o:p></o:p>
Regards,
Ian

Ian it depends on which i7Core you get. If the i7Core 950 is available in your location combined with the newer ASUS P6T Deluxe v2(be sure it is a V2 board) it will be a great experience. I would get nothing less than 6GB Corsair 1600 or 2000 mhz memory. I will be glad to help you with building tips. There are some already available on youtube.com as well for the new version motherboard. I built two of the newer testing units this last week at TechCorp and they both ran FSX very well except for the i7920 which had to be OC'd to 3.8 before becoming enjoyable. However the 920 is a great overclocker and game processor. You may as well build for tomorrow's games and let's face it, FSX still needs all the horsepower you can give it to really crank up the eye-candy. Off to work now. Enjoy your new build!

Ted

[IanHenry]

Thanks for the offer Ted, I just might need your advice. As regards the i7 950 it's quite expensive at the moment, retailing at £430 here in the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">U.K.</st1:place></st1:country-region> (about $705) I hope it might come down in price.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>
<o:p> </o:p>
Regards,<o:p></o:p>
Ian.<o:p></o:p>
<o:p> </o:p>

[RyanJames170]

just a thought ian but you might like the new duo core the E8800 or E8700 i think it is quite fast. if your not looking to oc the i7 probaly wont be the ticket for you.
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[kilo delta]

I've just been offered a brand new i975 Extreme chip for €500....would have been tempted but I've used up my yearly SWMBO allowance on a Nikon D300 camera, 28-70mm f2.8 lens and a 120GB JVC full HD camcorder all in the last month:monkies:.

Ted........have you had a chance to try out the i975 yet? :)

[txnetcop]

I've just been offered a brand new i975 Extreme chip for €500....would have been tempted but I've used up my yearly SWMBO allowance on a Nikon D300 camera, 28-70mm f2.8 lens and a 120GB JVC full HD camcorder all in the last month:monkies:.

Ted........have you had a chance to try out the i975 yet? :)

WOW what an incredible price! I have built a unit with the i975 core in it, but I was not the test engineer for it. I will get my chance next month when I go back down to Austin. There are only two of us that test with FSX, but again we are only allowed to publish very little of our results because NTS/TechCorp is for mfg testing only. The results are only allowed to go back to the mfg.

I can tell you that I was very impressed with i7 950. James and I had all the eye-candy turned on full with full traffic and stormy wx. Never dropped below 40fps. I only OC'd it to 4.0 for FSX on air, but it would easily OC higher without all the difficulties encountered with the early i7 920-940s. Temps were very cool, and combined with the Corsair Dominator 2000mhz memory the unit was flawless.

We also tested the AMD AM3 790X boards and the AMD 955 Phenom II, and an beta AMD 975 Phenom II-those boys at AMD are not asleep and moving up fast to compete with the new Nehalems. I met with three of their engineers at the conference room, and we talked over several senarios for speeding up AMD processors through BIOS ops. I love it when companies compete and have something to compete with.
Ted

Maybe Ian would interested in buying the i7 975 if you still have access to it for that price

[kilo delta]

If Ian's interested I'd be glad to contact the seller for him :). There were 2 chips afaik...though considering the retail version is €970 I'd imagine they'll sell quickly.


This is the thing that I miss most in my old job..........getting to test out all of the latest computer parts (That .....and all of the freebies that were given to me too :frown: )

[Bjoern]

Depending on your set up a quad has some advantages..But FSX does not fully use it ...

The only drawback that FSX has is running its main thread on Core #1, which unfortunately is also primarily used by Windows and most other applications running in the background (unless you tell them otherwise).

Other than that, FSX uses every percent of CPU time it can get - regardless of the number of cores.



The more cores, the fewer the blurries, and the more stable the performances.
The more GHz, the more FPS.
You will get better FPS with the E8500 than with the Q9550, but you will also get more blurries when flying fast and close to the ground, especially with high resolution photo-scenery and very dense autogen areas.

Daube said it.



Motherboard - MSI P965 Platinum

The P965 chipset isn't among the youngest anymore and thus can get quite picky with newer processors.

Here's the CPU compatibility table for the P965 Platinum (sorry, german only, but you get the idea):
http://www.msi-computer.de/index.php?func=prodcpusupport&prod_no=266&maincat_no=1&cat2_no=&cat3_no=#menu

The C steppings of the 8400, 8500 and 9550 appear to run okay after a BIOS update, but the newer E steppings are reported to be barely not compatible.

Thus, purchasing one of the three suggested CPUs and getting them to run is going to be quite of a gamble. Either you look very closely for a version with C stepping or you bite into the sour apple and get a new mainboard together with that CPU. A cheap P35 or P45 board will do the trick quite fine.



1.41 .. I'm runnig a Vendetta cooler.

Geez, 1.41V! On air! :jawdrop:

[Seaking055]

I have whats considered now an old CPU the QX6850 3ghz I have it o'clocked to 3.6 running smooth as silk. My issue was getting the right cooler, after 3 I eneded up with this one and it's amazing. Running FSX my 4 temps are 48-53C and in idle in the low 30s

Heres a link, a bit more expensive but man does it do the trick it's a monster but it sure works.

http://www.canadacomputers.com/index.php?do=ShowProduct&cmd=pd&pid=019601&cid=FN.349

[noddy]

I have got the QX6850in my Dell XPS 720H2C, clocked to 3.67ghz and it does run very well. At full load the max temp is 78C. Guess I could fiddle with the fan settings and see what happens then.

[Bjoern]

At full load the max temp is 78C. Guess I could fiddle with the fan settings and see what happens then.

Define "full load" (FSX or Prime 95) and "maximum temperature" (normal sensor or core sensors).

If the maximum temperature per core during a Prime 95 run is 78°C you're still fine, however if it's 78°C for the CPU in total during FSX usage, you should really start thinking about a new cooling solution.

[kilo delta]

From memory, my old Alienware ALX liquid cooled system ran similar temps on my overclocked QX6850. The liquid cooling setup and case airflow of the 720H2C are much better however. I wound up removing the liquid cooling and fitting a tuniq tower cooler.