Computer for Flight Sim X

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Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
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Leicester
Hello!

My dad want an upgrade. He is currently on FS9 running an old AMD XP @ 1.6 with a 9700 pro I think. Which works fine. However FSX is unplayable even with low settings.

The computer is not a gaming machine primarily so perhaps more emphasis on system speed than just games and it needs to last a good few years.

It will not be overclocked and the budget is whatever it needs to be for the most future proof components possble.

Can you post up ideas please and I will point him in the direction of this thread. He will be buying from OcUK.

Cheers!

Ant.
 
i'm not one who can really pull out the best specs, but i am someone who plays Flight Sim X, with my sig setup i can play at "ok" framerates, for something good you'd be looking at aroung ATi X1950 512MB, Intel Core2Duo 6600, 2GB RAM, etc.. i'll let someone else spec you fully as i'm not 100% sure which board etc.. is best but you're looking at that as a minimum for FSX :)
 
1024x768 32 bit
All the sections set to "medium low"

17fps. :rolleyes: and it looks lousy.

1680x1050, 32 bit
Everything maxed, all sections.
AA, AF
12 fps.
 
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I get the feeling the GFX card is not so important, more the CPU. So yeahI agree a C2D is a must. However we could use a cheap mobo and memory as if we o/c it will only be by a little.

I will try to spec something up and see what you think.

Also performance may improve with the Vista update and new GFX drivers etc. We can only hope!
 
Wouldn't it be worth waiting to see what happens with the FSX DX10 patch? Maybe it will run better under Vista with a DX10 card.....maybe.

If you run FSX with pretty much any current hardware you'll probably have to tweak it down so it won't look much better than FS9 does....
 
Any hardware will be a gamble with fsx, my older machine runs it way better than my new one.

Just don't expect too much, fsx is a random piece of software.
 
Yeah as FSX and other flight sims are the only "games" he will be playing perhaps waiting for a low end DX10 card may be better with Vista and the Vista patch.

But I get the feeling he want a new PC now!
 
Intel Core 2 DUO E6400 "LGA775 Allendale" 2.13GHz (1066FSB) - Retail £124.99

Gigabyte GA_945PL_S3 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £52.99

G.Skill 2GB DDR2 LA PC2-5400 (2x1GB) CAS4 Dual Channel Kit (F2-5400 £129.99

HIS ATI Radeon X1950 Pro ICEQ 3 TURBO SILENT Heatpipe 256MB GDDR3 VIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (RX1950P-256ICEQT) £134.99

Hiper HPU-4M580 Type R 580W ATX2.2 PSU - Black £44.99

Sub Total : £487.95

Vat : £86.96
Total : £583.86



.... It's a lot of money for FSX when it will still probably run like ****! :confused:
 
I cant begin to fatham what spec the developers must have been using to play the game. the game is awfully slow on current hardware.
 
seems to need a very good set up to run well , i have just read a review in micro mart saying the same think i won't bother just yet :(
 
I run it on a C2D at 2.4ghz (6300 with crap ram holding me back)

X1900XT Overclocked as far as I can get it, 680mhz Core I think

FSX is on a Raid0 array. Helps loading no end. (and MS actually recommend it)

2GB Ram.

Medium/High settings at 1280x1024 I can manage 30+fps in the country and 17-22fps in cities and around airports.
 
It's CPU bound but the fact of the matter is that it's poorly optimised.

It makes little use of multiple cores so that's not a solution - it's needs the brute force of a high power single core (which, strangely, the best option currently is a Core 2 Duo - the second core can at least manage a couple of things in the background)

Vista and DX10 are going to add eye candy - it's not being held back by a complex graphic engine so should scream on any relatively new card, but it doesn't because of the legacy/un-optimised code.

...or a serious patch.
 
You have to remember the draw distances are vast on it as well. Over cities there can be a fenominal amount of buildings, cars, trees, clouds + all the textures to go with it.
 
FSX runs damm slow on my machine,

10ghz conroe might do the trick, even then you might not be able to. :rolleyes:

my quad 80 gig raid array really helps out with loading times, i though an 8800gtx would help out as well but noooooo.

:( wish it was multi/well threaded.
 
Aye it seems if you want to play with settings maxed out even 2grands worth of machine won't get you above 20fps throughout the game.

I was only trying it on my PC to show a friend how it performed as I was all boastfull saying it will be fine, we installed to a raptor raid array, set all the good stuff to max and then played.

Wow it sure looks pretty.

Wow it's running at ... 20fps /cry

No idea what their gameplan is with this software, but it's either 2 years early or just horribly coded.
 
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