Upgrade with decent results for FSX

[bob34 124]

Just reporting results because I know how sensitive the Intel / AMD / ATI / Nvidia owners all are because we all put money into our rigs and don't need to hear which is better.

 

Background:

I'm good with hardware installs and troubleshooting, and I understand what I read fairly well when I look at a spec sheet - but I'm far from an expert on the technical differences on how ATI/AMD/Intel/Nvidia handle different operations in FSX. It's just too mind boggling and in the end - I just want better performance.

 

FSX Platform:

Win 8 Pro - UT USA - AS-2012 (w/graphics @1024), GEX, MyTraffic and a host of commercial aircraft and freeware AFCAD's to get my airports somewhat realistic with the AI. I fly offline.

 

Test Aircraft - PMDG 737-900 NGX in the Virtual Cockpit w/ Track IR

 

Old Hardware - AMD 965 Phenom II @3.4 w/ Asus M4A88T-M/USB 3 and 8gb Corsair DDR3 @1366 - Samsung 500gb SSD    -   Video Card - ATI Radeon HD 5770 w/ 1gb

My video card settings are all "application controlled" since anything I did w/ AA/AF seemed to blur the heck out of the menus. And my FPS never changed much despite the mountains of advice on video settings.

 

FSX Settings

In game I've got traffic @40% w cars and boats @5%.  Weather @70mi I believe.   LOD @large     Scenery Complexity maxed and Autogen @ Normal. Water=Low 2x   Mesh/Texture 19m / 2m. Frames are set to unlimited.

Bojotie's shaders are installed and fsx.cfg is tweaked pretty much by his tool.

 

Old System Performance = Crazy. Nice frame rates based on numerous factors and bad frame rates on others. But to me - I can't accept reducing my scenery or weather - and I can't accept less than 15fps on major airport in the Virtual Cockpit.     So I went for the hardware upgrade on a budget of $500.

 

New Setup

Against a lot of advice, I couldn't help myself wondering what the AMD FX-8350 8 core CPU would do for me.

Going with a lot of advice, I went with the Nvidia GTX660 w/ 2gb.

 

I installed with all the defaults on the Video card - and I re-ran the cfg config tool to adjust for processor speed and GPU memory.

Everything else I left exactly the same.

 

I also saved my weather file from AS 2012 to make sure my benchmarks were somewhat accurate to compare.

Each location had a fair amount of clouds. K

 

 

Results

KSFO on the ground Taxing to 19L (w/ Flightbeam KSFO) / Low Visibility <5sm

Old = 11 FPS

New = 33 FPS

 

KLAX (Default Scenery) Taxing to 24R / Mid Visibility ~10sm

Old = 14 FPS

New = 35 FPS

 

KLGA (Default Scenery)   This geo area has been the bane of my FS Life. Taxing facing Manhatten / Good Visibility ~15sm

Old = 8 FPS

New = 23 FPS

 

KMCI (Default Scenery) Taxing to Runway 19L

Old = 18 FPS

New = 42 FPS

 

LOWW Airport (MegaScenery Austria) Taxing to Runway 34

Old = 17 FPS

New = 39 FPS

 

 

Climb / Decent over USA (w/ UT-USA) and 4 layers of clouds

Old = 22 to 30 FPS

New = 29 to 57 FPS

 

Climb / Decent over Europe and 4 layers of clouds

Old = 28 to 40 FPS

New = 34 to 69 FPS

 

Cruise (average between USA and Europe)

Old = ~35 FPS looking down at clouds  and 70+ looking up at clear sky

New = ~65 FPS looking down at clouds and 120+ (fps counter went crazy) looking up at clear sky.

 

Comments / Conclusions

I realize there's many many things I could have / can do to tweak out this hardware setup.
The fact is - I don't want to. I'm sure I could have made my old hardware setup work, but I just want to fly. I'm sure I could make my new hardware gallop, but I just want to fly. The weather is getting nice outside and I'm not ready to spend my summer tweaking.

I know myself. I'll start tweaking on everyone's advice, and it will suddenly be October.

 

I know many of you think putting AMD and Nvidia together is like putting ketchup on a filet mignon. And maybe so - but 3 pieces of hardware for less than $500 has FSX moving at very acceptable frames - and all this before any type of tweaking or optimization.

 

I had so many options on my budget with i5 / i7, but curiosity on the FX-8350 chip got the best of me.

 

Looking forward to comments / critiques / civilized debate / and for those who love to hijack to another topic - go for it.

 

Have a great weekend.

 

Bob

[z06z33 763]

I run the fx-8350 and I get 25-30fps in the PMDG NGX with the exception of New York regardless of weather or airport I'm over clocked to 4.5 ghz which is a very slight overclock on this chip some people get 5ghz with liquid cooling. I would get an h100 cooler for it that way you have plenty of room temp wise to overclock

[PieEater 10]

Thanks for your review and the time and effort you took, it should make especially good reading for anyone on a tight budget.