New System for Fs9 home cockpit

[pmillerrusso]

Hello,

Hope anyone can help me with the mb and cpu / mem upgrade that I want to do for my in process FS9 home cockpit...

I understand that dual core processors don't really help FS9 so I am thinking of getting a faster single core processor. Here is my current and proposed systems:

Currrent:
Athlon XP 3200+, 2 GB dual-channel ddr (400 fsb), ATI X850 Pro AGP 256MB, Nforce chipset

Proposed:
Athlon 64 3800, 2 GB dual-channel ddr (800 fsb), ATI X850 Pro AGP 256 MB, via chipset

So basically going from Athlon XP 3200 to Athlon 64 3800 with faster fsb for dual channel memory. I am trying to keep cost down by reusing the X850 AGP card but I am willing to entertain options/suggestions...

My goal is to run FS9 (full screen - no instruments of course) for outside view alone and all other instruments on networked pcs...

Any opinions appreciated...

THanks,


Peter

[Toly]

Hi Peter,

I have Athlon 64 3800+, single-core, with Nvidia 7900Gs. It's adequate to run FS9 on high settings, with default scenery. With FSGenesis mesh, Bird's Eye view and Ultimate terrain I'm lucky to get fps in high teens. I usually fly with a VC view, but it doesn't seem to make much difference performance-wise. Regardless, I have a choice of either blocky, spartan scenery and high fps or beautiful scenery and a slideshow. And yes, this is FS9.

I had set up another PC, AMD 6000+ and moved my video card there. I get low to mid-20s fps with everything maxed out, in urban and other demanding areas.

If your'e going through the pain of the upgrade, I'd recommend you add another $100 and get AMD 6000+ or better. I'm afraid the jump to AMD 3800 won't make as much of a difference as you're hoping.

Rgds,
-Toly.

[pmillerrusso]

Toly,

Do you mean the AMD X2 6000+? The dual core cpu? I had considered that. I can't seem to find a single core Athlon 64 chip higher than the Athlon 64 3800.


Thanks,


Peter

Hi Peter,

I have Athlon 64 3800+, single-core, with Nvidia 7900Gs. It's adequate to run FS9 on high settings, with default scenery. With FSGenesis mesh, Bird's Eye view and Ultimate terrain I'm lucky to get fps in high teens. I usually fly with a VC view, but it doesn't seem to make much difference performance-wise. Regardless, I have a choice of either blocky, spartan scenery and high fps or beautiful scenery and a slideshow. And yes, this is FS9.

I had set up another PC, AMD 6000+ and moved my video card there. I get low to mid-20s fps with everything maxed out, in urban and other demanding areas.

If your'e going through the pain of the upgrade, I'd recommend you add another $100 and get AMD 6000+ or better. I'm afraid the jump to AMD 3800 won't make as much of a difference as you're hoping.

Rgds,
-Toly.

[Gsey]

If your looking for a strong single core cpu then you will need to look at the amd opterons. They are server cpus and really are good.

However you would need to buy a new motherboard + cpu as your current motherboard would be a socketA which is quite old and you already have the strongest cpu for that type of socket.

So seeing as you would be having to go down that road I would suggest looking at a new intel core2 duo sytem. They are the strongest right now for the money and the new memory speeds really does improve system performance. On the down side you wouldnt be able to use your agp card unless you bought a specific asrock or ecs motherboard but I wouldnt recommend that for fs.

If you are set on keeping you agp card to keep costs down then look at building a opteron system based on the 939pin. You can find plenty of opteron cpu and 939 motherboards on ebay and can move to the dual core later as well.

Gary

[Toly]

Toly,

Do you mean the AMD X2 6000+? The dual core cpu? I had considered that. I can't seem to find a single core Athlon 64 chip higher than the Athlon 64 3800.

Thanks,
Peter

Yes, it's a dual-core. It seems that most likely you'll need to upgrade your motherboard & ram anyway so you might as well look at dual-core CPUs, even for the only reason that they have higher MHz. Dual-core won't buy you any performance, but it won't worsen it... You can also get a dual-core AMD 4400-5000+ for around $60-100 (check on newegg.com). I think you'll see pronounced difference with a faster CPU but won't see much change with faster RAM, fsb, etc.

As Gsey has pointed, if you want to maintain AGP compatibility, your motherboard choices are quite limited, although you should be able to find some, even for AMD X2s. Checking out Opterons may be a good idea. Go to tomshardware.com for comparative performance of different CPUs and let their charts help you decide.