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Specific build for ONLY FSX

swilli89

swilli89

Golden Member
Hey guys I've been out of the game for quite a bit and just need some advice for a build I'm going to do for my grandfather.

He's 76 and he uses his old computer strictly for Flight Simulator X. It's an E6600 core 2 duo with a ride on 4850.

Over the holidays I watched him play and was horrified to see that he was making do with about 5 fps. That is not a typo! Five frames per second.

This is no good! So like I said I want to put together a computer for him that will pull at least 25 fps. However, I am a student so my budget is fairly tight. The other problem is that benchmarks are hard to come by for this game so that has hindered my research into it.

I do know the game doesn't benefit from moar corez. It's all IPC and clockspeed. If it was you, would you also be leaning towards a high clocked Haswell dual core and something like a radeon 260?
 
It's an 06 game, that machine packs more than enough juice to run it. I guess all it needs is a fresh OS install or maybe even a SSD might help.
 
DesiPower said:
It's an 06 game, that machine packs more than enough juice to run it. I guess all it needs is a fresh OS install or maybe even a SSD might help.
Click to expand...

That's kind of what I was thinking. I was running FS'02 on my ancient Pentium D machine upstairs and it was better than that.

Secure erase that drive, clean install the OS and drivers and I think you will see a big difference.
 
Even today, since it has so many add-ons, and has slow code in places, people are still getting higher-end PCs to handle it well.

After a little Googling:
1. It's been updated over the years, and handles newer CPUs well, and can still stress them. As in, people are doing 4+GHz Ivy and Haswell OCs for better FSX performance.
2. Much prefers Geforces over Radeons, at any given price point, especially using DX9, and that it's all an eye candy v. FPS trade-off, as far as what card. It seems to be easy to go over 1GB VRAM with add-ons.
3. SSDs seems to help with stuttering as it pops in scenery, but there also seems to be more than a few folk disappointed with the minor improvement for the cost. If building a decent new PC, though, if the FSX install can fit in a ~250GB with plenty of room to spare, why not? OTOH, if it's too big for a reasonable cost SSD, then there's SSHDs, SRT, OS SSD, or just HDD.
4. 8GB RAM seems to be a sweet spot.
5. It acts like a simulator more than a game for RAM, benefiting from both clock speed and timings significantly (varying by who's measuring, on different systems, but more than the typical negligible amount), even on newer CPUs (IoW, too much data for cache and/or too much random access). Probably not worth spending a bundle on, but 1866 CAS 8 or 2133 CAS 10 or 11 might be worth getting, and isn't generally too hard to find, nor much more expensive, depending on day (if it is a lot more expensive when it comes time to buy, then too bad, 1600 CAS 9 will have to do 🙂).
6. There are config tweak guides that can help strike an optimal balance between detail, accuracy, and performance, but as someone who's not a sim nut, you're on your own making sense of them, once they go past a few basic settings. 🙂

Absolutely, 100%, not what I was expecting, which is part of what kept me reading on the subject.

SimHQ and AVSim seem to be quite active, with reasonable posters, from the few threads I've skimmed, so are definitely worth going to.
 
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Cerb that's what I am saying! This game seems to be a bit of the crisis of flight Sims in that it still manages to stress modern systems. Your advice is great, I knew some of that but didn't know there was a preference towards Geforce cards. Recommended nvidia card for about 175-200?
 
The speed of FSX is so variable based on settings hidden in the FSX.CFG file. I did a lot of research and here's mine, which works well. I have various upgrades including environment and weather. I dig just relaxing and dashing among the clouds sometimes. They get really serious with scenery and textures.

FSX.CFG (c:\users\name\appdata\roaming\microsoft\fsx) - relavant settings (back his up before testing):


[Display]
MipBias=6

BLOOM_EFFECTS=0
SKINNED_ANIMATIONS=1
TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=70
UPPER_FRAMERATE_LIMIT=0

[BUFFERPOOLS]
Poolsize=100000000


CLOUD_DRAW_DISTANCE=3
DETAILED_CLOUDS=1
CLOUD_COVERAGE_DENSITY=8
THERMAL_VISUALS=0

[FONT=&quot]
[GRAPHICS]
SHADER_CACHE_PRIMED=1693500672
TEXTURE_MAX_LOAD=1024
NUM_LIGHTS=8
AIRCRAFT_SHADOWS=0
AIRCRAFT_REFLECTIONS=0
COCKPIT_HIGH_LOD=0
LANDING_LIGHTS=0
AC_SELF_SHADOW=0
EFFECTS_QUALITY=2
GROUND_SHADOWS=0
TEXTURE_QUALITY=3
IMAGE_QUALITY=1
See_Self=1
Text_Scroll=1
D3D10=1…maybe ‘0’ here
SHADER_CACHE_PRIMED_10=1693500672

[SCENERY]
LENSFLARE=0
DAWN_DUSK_SMOOTHING=1
IMAGE_COMPLEXITY=4
[TrafficManager]
AirlineDensity=20
GADensity=20
FreewayDensity=15
ShipsAndFerriesDensity=40
LeisureBoatsDensity=40
IFROnly=0
AIRPORT_SCENERY_DENSITY=2
[TERRAIN]
LOD_RADIUS=4.500000
MESH_COMPLEXITY=90
MESH_RESOLUTION=23
TEXTURE_RESOLUTION=25
AUTOGEN_DENSITY=3
DETAIL_TEXTURE=1
WATER_EFFECTS=6


[DISPLAY.Device.ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series.0.0]
Mode=2560x1440x32
AntiAlias=1

[/FONT]
 
AVSim has a guide that's less than a year old, so should easy to transfer to new parts, but it requires membership to go to the link. I found a copy here, however, just thinking to try the search with filetype😛df. Most of the links inside the PDF don't work, including more recent benchmark results than I could find. Until a few hours ago, I had no idea that FSX could still push PCs like that.
 
Can you give us a hard number on how much you're able to spend? The compromises that make sense on a $500 PC don't make sense on a $1000 PC.

Also, is your grandfather's current PC something that is upgradeable or is it a really proprietary system like a small form factor OEM system or an all-in-one?
 
IMO if we are talking the price of new parts the old system "E6600 core 2 duo with a ride on 4850" is not worth upgrading due to the high cost of DDR2 etc.

Now if you are willing to take some chances on used parts and if the MB can handle something like a 45nm Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor E8600 3.33 GHz you could get off cheap on the used CPU/RAM and spend your money on some modern graphics but I think even the E8600 with DDR2 is still going to hold you back.

There is no substitute for modern (Sandy Bridge or newer) CPUs with DDR3.

Do you live by a Micro Center?
 
Cerb said:
Absolutely, 100%, not what I was expecting.
Click to expand...

Me either... 😵 I'm not using FSX yet, but FS'02 is still stuck at one core. I loaded it on my HTPC last month (Pentium G620) and it ran it very well.

I may have to rethink my next build... it'll be taking on FSX, too.
 
If only it had 64 bit capability, it would really shine. MS has a new 'preview' of a 64 bit sim but it hasn't gone anywhere in a while.
 
mfenn said:
Can you give us a hard number on how much you're able to spend? The compromises that make sense on a $500 PC don't make sense on a $1000 PC.

Also, is your grandfather's current PC something that is upgradeable or is it a really proprietary system like a small form factor OEM system or an all-in-one?
Click to expand...

I am going to be able to spend $650 NOT including the monitor. He already has a decent one, at least for now. It is an HP mid-tower. The only thing I figured I could salvage would be the dvd-drive and possibly the PSU. I just really don't trust an oem PSU and I think it would be worth it to get a quality one for maybe $40 or $50 (at least higher quality than what HP used)

And of course I meant a Radeon 4850 512MB not ride on haha.
 
If you're up for rebates, I think I might actually be able to beat mfenn's list a wee little bit:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...=Combo.1541445
$45 HDD w/ combo, then $60 for the RAM AMIR

Slightly cheaper mobo+CPU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...=Combo.1519804
Or, slightly faster CPU for only a couple bucks less:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...=Combo.1542806
(the RAM+HDD combo is what makes these ones viable)

Also, if you have to pay sales tax anywhere, pretty much, or don't have to with Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Windows-Premiu...me+premium+oem
Another $10.

An i5-4570 could be fit, going slightly over budget, by dropping down the video card to a GTX 650 Ti, but I'm not sure it would be worth it. The high-clocked Haswell i3s should be two or three times as fast as the Core 2, if not more, while the move from the i3 to i5 might be up to around 15%, but might be <5%, and no i5 slower than the 4570 no-suffix version should be considered, IMO, when the 3.3-3.5GHz i3s are definitely in-budget.

OTOH, if $650 is a max including shipping and everything, rather than including some buffer for all that, a GTX 650 Ti might be a way to stay within budget, without losing much of anything elsewhere.
 
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For a fast FSX build, I'd want an OC'd i5-4670k. You need all the CPU power you can get; this game is a dog.
 
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