The next steps

[AndyE1976]

I'm contemplating what to upgrade in order to get acceptable performance over dense city areas like LondonX and ManhattenX and also to get rid of the blurries on my photoscenery.

My current setup is a Dell XPS system with a Q6600 @2.4ghz, 4gb RAM, W7 Ultimate 32-bit, one 300gb and one 1TB drives and a 8600GT graphics card, ThemalTake 750W PSU.

I get a pretty solid 18fps (limited) in most places with just about any aircraft, except in really dense scenery areas. I'd like to be able to run the PMDG 747 out of Heathrow or just go near London in anything more than the default Cessna!

One option is to drop a tonne of money on a system that I feel would definitely meet my needs now and in the foreseeable future, but as I mostly flight sim it's hard to justify. That machine would be an i7-980X, 24gb RAM, GTX480 and a Velociraptor RAID array.

The other more attractive option is to just add to what I have.

My question is how effective would the following be in achieving better performance for photo scenery and in high density areas and would they work with my system?

1. ZOTAC GTX470
2. 2x300GB Velociraptors in RAID0 (possibly the 450/600GB drives with a SATA3 controller card)

I've tried a BFG 9800GT and BFG GTX295 cards in the past and my machine didn't like it at all - the GTX295 was actually slower and the 9800GT kept crashing, hence I'm reluctant to just go out and buy another card in the hope it might work.

[kilo delta]

Which Dell XPS system? If it's a 6xx or 7xx system you're in luck in that you can OC the system, if it's a 4xx system you're out of luck (not sure about the 430..but the 420 bios is locked down for definite). First step would be to overclock that chip...depending on the stepping (and with an upgraded cooler) you should be able to get up to 3.5ghz. What is the ram speed and timings that you are running? Upgrade to the fastest that's available for your board. Upgrade the gfx to a GTX260 OC or maybe a GTX285.

[AndyE1976]

It's an XPS410, not entirely sure of the memory specs, it's DDR2 obviously and I think it's 800mhz. The memory is maxed out, the MB will only take 4gb, which is one of the reasons I was thinking of going i7.

Unfortunately with the system I have I'd have to replace a lot to go i7 and knowing how PC stuff gets obsolete so quickly I tend to go for the best I can get at the time to get the most life out of it - which makes it expensive.

What I'm thinking is what I can add to my existing system that I can then take forward into an i7 system, hence I was looking at the graphics card and then the disks. MB, CPU and RAM would all need to be replaced if I went i7, so I don't really want to drop money there.

[kilo delta]

Seems like OCing is out then, as the bios is locked down. Have you upgraded the memory yourself as the standard fit ram was 667mhz (pc5300). I don't think the mobo will allow the use of quad core chips either. Worst case scenario is that you can reuse your old HDD's,optical drives,sound card for a new build.
It may be worth while trying an 800mhz memory upgrade (if you have the standard 667mhz) and trying a software overclock (http://files.extremeoverclocking.com/file.php?f=189) before giving up on your current system.

[AndyE1976]

it may be 667mhz rather than 800 - it came with 2gb and I added 2gb last year. The Q6600 is a quad core chip and I don't really have any problems with the speed of the computer except for FSX.

I'm dubious as to the benefit that going from 667mhz to 800mhz would bring when my graphics card is an 8600GT with 512mb RAM and my hard disks, whilst of adequate size, are pretty slow.

That's why I'm looking at possibly upgrading in steps;

1. Graphics and disks
2. cpu, mb, ram

I intend to carry over my PSU, sound card, optical disks etc to any new build.

So really what I'm looking for is to know whether the GTX 470 or 480 is going to work on my system and whether it will improve FSX performance in high density areas.

[kilo delta]

Sorry..I meant to say 45nm Penryn quad core chips. The Q6600 has a rated fsb of 1066mhz iirc...so the standard 667mhz RAM will be bottlenecking it somewhat. I'm unsure..but I think the maximum RAM speed supported by your board is 800mhz, still shy of the 1066mhz but a step in the right direction if you plan on trying an overclock.There will be virtually no FPS benefit to FSX going with faster disks. The GTX470/480 will require a newer,more powerful PSU than the standard Dell 375watt item. The 8600GT 512mb is a pretty low spec item these days and would be struggling with higher resolutions ...a secondhand 8800GTX or a GTX260 OC would be a viable upgrade.
I've a Dell XPS420 as a htpc..upgraded with qx9650,8gb 800mhz ram, dual 500gb 7200rpm drives and am able to run an Nvidia 8800 Ultra off the standard psu....I'd imagine that the power requirements for the 470/480 are higher though?

[AndyE1976]

I have a 750w ThemalTake PSU which I bought to support the GTX295 I tried, so I can handle the power requirements of the GTX470/480.

The faster disks were to improve the texture load times, not the FPS.

My goals are to improve FPS in dense scenery areas and reduce blurries in photoscenery.

Graphics card is targetted at the FPS and the disks at the blurries (I think texture fill rate will help with that too).

CPU and RAM are going to be a bottleneck, but I get an acceptable framerate (for me) in non-dense areas, so really the question is whether the graphics card will help lift the FPS in dense scenery areas or whether this is all on the CPU.

[harleyman]

That chip you run will Overclock on air to 3.4 easily giving you much needed FSX performance

[kilo delta]

That chip you run will Overclock on air to 3.4 easily giving you much needed FSX performance

Not in the XPS410 as the bios is locked down, only option is to try a software overclock. :) *

FPS really is down to the CPU speed (and matched RAM and Motherboard)...GFX card horsepower only comes into play when you're running high resolutions (1920x1200+). The dense scenery has more autogen and therefore requires more cpu cycles to process them.


*There is also another option of overclocking the Q6600 chip on XPS4xx systems... http://www.flickr.com/photos/linux-works/2523160024/ . Never tried it though.

[AndyE1976]

Looks like I'm going to be building a new system in the new year then.

[harleyman]

Not in the XPS410 as the bios is locked down, only option is to try a software overclock. :) *

FPS really is down to the CPU speed (and matched RAM and Motherboard)...GFX card horsepower only comes into play when you're running high resolutions (1920x1200+). The dense scenery has more autogen and therefore requires more cpu cycles to process them.


*There is also another option of overclocking the Q6600 chip on XPS4xx systems... http://www.flickr.com/photos/linux-works/2523160024/ . Never tried it though.





I missed it was a Dell..Thanks for that...

[Snuffy]

I missed it was a Dell..Thanks for that...

And thus the reason I stay the hell away from name brand computers.

Build your own from a kit and you can do pretty much anything you want. Kit building isn't all that difficult a thing to do.

[AndyE1976]

thanks, I pretty much have my spec down, just waiting til finances allow for a new machine. My current rig is ok, it just could be better.