CPU or GPU?..how to get better FPS

[ZIPPER010]

My system is geting older and i'm looking for an (budget) upgrade, just to make things smoother.

The problem is when i'm flying in a fotoreal scenery like NL 2000 the textures are getting blurry at a certain point and i'm wondering what has the most impact, is it the CPU or my video card?

we are flying the F-104 starfighter around 350-450 kts and that is a disadvantage to GA aircraft.
I have done a lot of tweaking and my FSX-cfg is tweaked by Venetubo.

should i invest in a faster CPU or get an better Videocard?

Dell XPS
2.4 dual core
4 GB ram
nvidia 8800 GTX

[roger-wilco-66]

I'd say this is mainly a cpu issue. If you are into photoscenery, it also can be a graphic card problem if it has less than 1024mb RAM (you'll see black squares instead of ground tiles and get autogen spiking and other anomalies).
The main bottleneck is the CPU though.
If you have a decent LGA775 mainboard that can house a Intel Q6600 Core2Quad CPU, you might opt for one of those (or a later model if the mainboard is compatible).
I switched to that combination 1.5 years ago and still have it (but not very much longer :-) an i7 is on the way ). It runs pretty well, mildly overclocked to 3 GHz on air and in combination with a Nvidia GTX460 and 8GB ram.

Cheers,
Mark

[Skyhawk18]

I'd say this is mainly a cpu issue. If you are into photoscenery, it also can be a graphic card problem if it has less than 1024mb RAM (you'll see black squares instead of ground tiles and get autogen spiking and other anomalies).
The main bottleneck is the CPU though.
If you have a decent LGA775 mainboard that can house a Intel Q6600 Core2Quad CPU, you might opt for one of those (or a later model if the mainboard is compatible).
I switched to that combination 1.5 years ago and still have it (but not very much longer :-) an i7 is on the way ). It runs pretty well, mildly overclocked to 3 GHz on air and in combination with a Nvidia GTX460 and 8GB ram.

Cheers,
Mark

Even high end systems will struggle updating complex terrain textures at that air speed. I suggest that you update both. But if only one is to be updated, the CPU is a good start. :cool:

[Kiwikat]

Unfortunately your whole computer is a bottleneck because it is so old. Replacing your CPU is not going to be cheap because they aren't really available anymore. It is not going to solve the fps problem anyways. You need a whole new computer.

Probably not what you wanted to hear...

[Dimus]

I'd say this is mainly a cpu issue. If you are into photoscenery, it also can be a graphic card problem if it has less than 1024mb RAM (you'll see black squares instead of ground tiles and get autogen spiking and other anomalies).
The main bottleneck is the CPU though.
If you have a decent LGA775 mainboard that can house a Intel Q6600 Core2Quad CPU, you might opt for one of those (or a later model if the mainboard is compatible).
I switched to that combination 1.5 years ago and still have it (but not very much longer :-) an i7 is on the way ). It runs pretty well, mildly overclocked to 3 GHz on air and in combination with a Nvidia GTX460 and 8GB ram.

Cheers,
Mark

I have exactly the same setup and overclock using stock cooler. No problems in general but I avoid densely populated areas and complex sceneries.

[cortomalteseit]

I have a poor CPU similar to yours (an AMD 3 cores, @3.0 Ghz), and recently I've had a great improvement simply buying a new video card (an Nvidia Gtx 550Ti). I know my system is not a monster, but actually i can fly without big problems, almost everywhere at 30 fps.
BTW if your budget can efford it, change both, CPU and GPU! ;)

[stansdds]

Considering the fact that you pretty much need to upgrade everything and that off-the-shelf computers often do not lend themselves to such things and the cost of upgrades, I think you would be better off with a new computer.

[papab]

If you got the $$$ go here:
http://www.jetlinesystems.com/


Rick

[PRB]

My current system:

MB: Asus P6T Deluxe (LGA1366)
CHIPSET: Intel® X58 / ICH10R
CPU: Core i7 920 2.66Ghz (LGA1366)
RAM: 8 GB DDR3/1333MHz Non-ECC Non-Registered Memory Module
VIDEO: GeForce GTX470 (1 GB RAM)
OS: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit
SOUND: ADI® AD2000B 8 -Channel High Definition Audio CODEC
HD: 250 GB system drive, 1TB data drive

This system runs FSX very nicely. The video card is highlighted because FSX started running well when I installed that card. Before that I had two 9800 something or others, with 512 MB ram each, and FSX ran poorly. Replaced the video card and I was stunned at the difference.

- Paul