Upgrade or replace

[gavinc]

Hi,
Looking for the collected wisdom of the group.

Currently running on a 5 year old system

Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3 motherboard
Intel I5-750 processor 2.88 GHz native overclocked to 3.2 Ghz
4 GB RAM
NVidia GTS 250 (512 GB RAM)
Seagate Barracude 1 TB System drive
Seagate Barracuda 500 GB Flightsim drive

It isn't a bad rig, I can fly over ORBX North America and get a steady 30 FPS unless I go to Vancouver, San Fran or somewhere else where there is lots of AI at which point it starts to slow down. I do notice stutters from time to time which I attribute to the HDD.

Part of me says just replace the whole thing with a new I5 or I7, SSD drive and GTX970.

The other part of me says - in actual fact the MB, system disk and CPU aren't that bad so I am toying with upgrading it in piece parts.
I was thinking of starting with a 500 GB SSD which is only 170 GBP and see what that gives me. Then go on and upgrade the Video card which is about 280 GBP if the SSD doesn't do the trick.

Or am I just giving my self a bunch of work for no reason and I will end up replacing all the parts anyway.

Thanks
Gavin

[Jafo]

Hi,
Looking for the collected wisdom of the group.

NVidia GTS 250 (512 GB RAM)
Thanks
Gavin

I want one of those!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[typo]...

Keep away from the 970 ....NVidia screwed up...it has 4 gig ram but can only access 3.5....though it IS cheaper than a 980. [which does have 4].

Experts will tell you the numero uno requirement is CPU speed, more so than GFX.

FSX is an antique that doesn't know what new hardware can do for it...so it [the hardware] can't do much at all.

I threw AUD $7000 at it and yes, it's 'better' but not better like any and all other games are [anything can be run maxed - just not necessarily FSX]...

[Dumonceau]

I want one of those!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[typo]...

Keep away from the 970 ....NVidia screwed up...it has 4 gig ram but can only access 3.5....though it IS cheaper than a 980. [which does have 4].

Experts will tell you the numero uno requirement is CPU speed, more so than GFX.

FSX is an antique that doesn't know what new hardware can do for it...so it [the hardware] can't do much at all.

I threw AUD $7000 at it and yes, it's 'better' but not better like any and all other games are [anything can be run maxed - just not necessarily FSX]...

Yes indeed, the GTX980 is bettter than the 970. It's also double the price. I have a GTX970 superclocked from EVGA and I love it. Running P3D locked at 40 FPS and it never or hardly ever drops below 30 FPS.

No way I'm going to spend 771€ on a vid card.

Johan

[txnetcop]

I recently built a computer similar to your configuration for a friend who had limited money to spend and only flew flight sims. The difference was I opted for the i7-875k lga 1156 and added 8GB of DDR3 1600 Corsair Dominator and a refurb Gigabyte 970 video card. It ran P3D, X-Plane 10.3, and FSX with DX10 exceptionally well. The total cost of the rig was less than a $1000.00. FSX was nearly maxed and still avg 38 fps. I ran it on unlimited for frame rates the lowest was 25 over New York, and Seattle on 250GB Samsung 840 EVO SSD-no stutters detected. He did have FTX Global loaded. I thought the 970 was an awesome card considering it only cost $189.00. I oc'd the 870k to 4.13GHz and it ran just great. That was 6 months ago and it has been problem free. I wouldn't worry too much about longevity...I still run a QX9650 on a Gigabyte X-48 DQ-6 motherboard with 4GB of Corsair 1200 memory and EVGA Superclocked GTX 285 on a 250GB Samsung 840 EVO SSD-minor periodic stutters over New York, Seattle, and I can run the memory-hungry A2A Piper Cherokee over FTX Global beautifully. 4GHz seems to be the magic number for FSX on any rig.
Ted

I might add if you have never flown the A2A Piper Cherokee that is one AWESOME airplane in FSX!!!

[vortex]

I do notice stutters from time to time which I attribute to the HDD.

Highly unlikely that your HDD is the cause of the stutters. Replacing it with an SSD will speed up the initial loading of FSX and your subsequent flight but will make virtually no difference to in-flight performance (unless your drives are being hammered continuously by other software whilst FSX is running).

Also the memory problems with the 970 GPU apparently affect very few users and most reviewers still think that it's a great card. Take a look at https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=v6k55epUBCE for a serious stress test of the card in the wake of the criticisms. It's a long video but the well-respected reviewer still recommends it and says that if it was his only card he would not think of sending it back.

[Browncoat]

I disagree when it comes to the GTX970. Even with Nvidia's epic failure when it came to the disclosure of how the memory on the 970 functions, the card is by far one of the best video card purchases available. I went from a GTX460 to a 970, and I'm not disappointed at all. The 970 is leaps and bounds more powerful than my old card, while consuming just as much, if not less power. The 970 does have 4BG of memory, but it is split up in to one 3.5GB section and one 0.5GB section. If want to read more about it please refer to this link.

http://www.guru3d.com/news-story/doe...ation-bug.html

Now when it comes to your system. As Jafo said, FSX is more CPU hungry than GPU hungry. 3.2GHZ isn't a bad clock speed for FSX. I ran FSX:SE stock just fine with my i7 930 at 2.8 (stock). Could you see better performance if you upgraded to a new CPU? Of course, but by how much is hard to say, and I dunno if it would be worth it when it comes to replacing the CPU and (at least) the Motherboard. With your setup, I'd upgrade your RAM from 4GB to 8GB. FSX should be running just fine on 4GB, but doubling the memory may help smooth out your stutters. Besides RAM is a cheap and easy upgrade. Next I would look at upgrading your video card. The GTS 250 (9800GTX, 8800GTS 512) was/is an excellent card. But 512MB of ram just doesn't cut it. Especially if you are running the sim at high resolutions. My vote is for the 970 if you are looking at upgrading your GPU. Just make sure you have a decent quality power supply (600watt range). As far as an SSD, that is your call. I added a 500GB Samsung 840 EVO (yes I ran the speed tool/patch) to my system as my main OS/system drive. All of my simulators are on one of my old Samsung HDDs. I tried running the sim on the SSD, but I didn't see any real benefits from running it on a dedicated HDD.

Keep away from the 970 ....NVidia screwed up...it has 4 gig ram but can only access 3.5....though it IS cheaper than a 980. [which does have 4].

Experts will tell you the numero uno requirement is CPU speed, more so than GFX.

FSX is an antique that doesn't know what new hardware can do for it...so it [the hardware] can't do much at all.

I threw AUD $7000 at it and yes, it's 'better' but not better like any and all other games are [anything can be run maxed - just not necessarily FSX]...

[Dino Cattaneo]

Just my two cents... it also depends on what you may want to do in future.
Prepar3D v2 does a MUCH MUCH better job than FSX in using the capabilities of your video card.
So if you do not rule out the possibility of switching to P3Dv2 then investing in a good video card would be a worthwhile.

[gavinc]

Thanks for the advice folks.

When I built the original system I invested in a 750W Corsair power supply so upgrading the Video card shouldn't be an issue.

Think I will go with replacing the GPU and maybe the RAM as I just took a flight over FTX Idaho and according to Task Manager physical memory was 80% utilized.

Gavin

[vortex]

Thanks for the advice folks.
When I built the original system I invested in a 750W Corsair power supply so upgrading the Video card shouldn't be an issue.
Think I will go with replacing the GPU and maybe the RAM as I just took a flight over FTX Idaho and according to Task Manager physical memory was 80% utilized.

Gavin

If (when!) you get a new GPU, consider using DX10 preview mode. It offloads more to your graphics card than DX9 and, with Steve's DX10 scenery fixer (or to a lesser extent, his free files), the graphics problems have been pretty much resolved. I run in DX10 preview mode successfully with my old GTX 275 with its miserly 896MB of VRAM, complete with cockpit shadows!

[gavinc]

So I went ahead and ordered 8 GB RAM and a Palit GEForce GTX 970 card.

The hw arrived on Friday and was installed immediately (glad i was working from home).

Been testing it out over the weekend and while I don't see a significant increase in frame rates (high 50s in Northern BC with little other traffic, lows of 12 -15 in southern England with all the traffic at Heathrow, Gatwick etc) it seems smoother and the graphics are sharper.

I did notice that more of the memory is being used (max mem usage now up around 4.5 GB)

Will try DX10 and see what happens.

Gavin