Would upgrading my graphics card help?

W

WuLabsWuTecH

n00b
Joined
Jul 16, 2010
Messages
3
So I built my own box and I'm very happy with the result, but there is one thing that has been bugging me for a while now. On most games, the graphics are very good, but I note that in Flight Simulator X (FSX) the frame rate is only about 8-10 fps. This makes some of the trickier approaches and landings very hard to do (especially in a crosswind with gusts!)

I spent a lot of money on this system, so I don't want to turn down the graphics and simulation quality from Ultra-High, but I was wondering if it's time for a graphics card upgrade or perhaps something else might be the limiting factor. Or perhaps I just need some tweaking? My specs are as follows:

Processor: Intel i7 - 930 @ 2.8 GHz (Quad core)
Memory: 4 GB of RAM
Graphic Card: HIS HD 5770 IceQ 5 Turbo 1GB (128bit) GDDR5 PCIe
OS: 64 bit Win& Ultimate
HDD: 1TB WD @ 7200 RPM

If I wanted to drop some more money into this, would a higher end graphics card improve my fps? And should I go for more GPU or more RAM on the graphics card?

Thanks!
-Wu
 
Don't know how demanding is the FSX. Do you play other games too?

In any case, you might try to overclock your cpu, add 4gb more ram (won't bring much performance but will let your limits off the hook and its dirt cheap), and add a 200$ GPU.. Depending on the game, these variables will affect your performance.
 
Thanks for the reply!

I have everything set for ultra-high right now and a target FPS of 30 but I'm only getting 10-20 at most lower altitudes.

I get an out of memory exception sometimes, but I'm not sure what that means. I look at the memory usage and only about 2.3 GB of RAM are ever in use (out of the 4 GB).

The only other game I play is Starcraft II.

Any recommendations for an upgrade of the GPU? I figure a budget of $200-300, but it's not a hard budget.
 
Considering FSX is a simulation game, i suppose it is CPU dependant as much as the GPU.

Considering your PSU is sufficent.

** Get an aftermarket 30$ cooler for your CPU and overclock it to 4ghz. (Your cpu is pretty powerful) There are a lot of guides around if you don't know how to.
** If you are not that tight on the budged, why not just add a 4gb to basket when you are purchasing a GPU (if you will). They are really cheep these days.

** For the GPU part, You have options, depending on the deal, you can lean towards HD7850-70, gtx560ti, gtx570 or you can just wait for Nvidia's kepler based new generation mid range...
 
Yeah, CPU is critical to FSX, and most flight sims, so Overclocking the CPU is one of the best things you can do for performance gains (but learn to do it right, assuming your motherboard allows it)...that said, I don't think there's a machine out there that can run FSX at Ultra High with ai Traffic and autogen cranked up. Blame it on the software if you have to...but you will need to adjust the settings in FSX on even the fastest CPU and GPU out there.

I would start by lowering the amount of AI air and sea traffic, as well as airport vehicles, and then try lowering the water settings...in fact, the lower water settings are actually more realistic looking in FSX than the highest settings, so I'd run lower settings there, even if performance was not of any concern. Next, in line is to lower the autogen density a little.

I think you will see decent gains just with those settings, and you won't lose image quality with those changes either....just fewer sailboats and airplanes flying around. In my experience in the real world as a pilot, I enjoy flying during the week more than weekends because there is less traffic....so, just pretend it's Monday, and turn down the traffic!! See....an INCREASE in realism as well as FPS! :-D
 
Mobo is an Asus P6T I Believe. I"ll have to get back to you on the ram for when I get home!

I'll take a look at all of these links posted here, but I think the user that mentioned overclocking has a good point. Anyone have any good articles for a beginner's guide on overclocking? I've never done this before, but with 9 fans in my case all currently only running at low, I'm sure I have the cooling required for it!
 
Since you have 4GB of RAM you'd have to be running single or dual channel (hopefully not single). You could try 3 sticks of RAM for triple channel but I'm not really sure if that would give you much (if any) real world advantage.
 
WuLabsWuTecH said:
Mobo is an Asus P6T I Believe. I"ll have to get back to you on the ram for when I get home!

I'll take a look at all of these links posted here, but I think the user that mentioned overclocking has a good point. Anyone have any good articles for a beginner's guide on overclocking? I've never done this before, but with 9 fans in my case all currently only running at low, I'm sure I have the cooling required for it!
Click to expand...

That's a good mobo for overclocking, but keep in mind that when people talk about "good cooling" with respect to overclocking what they mean is an aftermarket air or watercooling system for the CPU. You *may* be able get a little overclock using the stock heatsink on your CPU but you would have to be very careful to watch the temperatures when the cores are under (100%) load. In the end, you really just need to get a better CPU cooler if you want to overclock. As far as how to overclock, well...you will need to read up on that a bit if you want to do it safely. There are guides here and on other overclock forums that can help you out.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top