Delta Virtual Airlines Water Cooler | PC Support |
Two questions for new PC: Get SLI? What about Quad core? |
DVA2919
Captain, B777-200
Joined on February 20 2006
Century Club
Online Century Club
Everett Century Club
DVA Ten-Year Anniversary
"Proudly All Boeing" Spotsylvania, VA
154 legs, 430.6 hours
138 legs,
407.9 hours online 114 legs,
352.7 hours ACARS 1 legs,
1.3 hours event
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Posted onPost created on
October 19 2008 10:22 ET by Rick Charles
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I am planning a building a new PC specifically for flight sim. I would like the advice from my fellow DVAers on two questions:
1. Is a SLI setup the way to go, or not bother?
2. Is there any significant advantage to quad core over duel core CPUs for flight simming?
I'm an Intel guy so any recommendations for CPUs/motherboards in the upper-mid price range is appreciated.
Thanks in advance
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DVA2784
Senior Captain, B777-200
OLP, COMM, 737-ATP
Joined on January 01 2006
50 State Club
Globetrotter
Online Double Century Club
Quad-Jet Quartermaster
US Mountaineer Club
Everett 1500 Club
Bi-Millennium Club
US Coastal Club
DVA Fifteen-Year Anniversary
Four Million Mile Club
"The PAST...learn from it or repeat it." Highland Home, AL USA
2,297 legs, 9,670.9 hours
243 legs,
873.7 hours online 2,024 legs,
8,459.1 hours ACARS 22 legs,
51.7 hours event 0 legs dispatched, 0.5
hours
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Posted onPost created on
October 19 2008 20:24 ET by Rob Morgan
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My new PC runs an AMD Phenom 9950 quad core and it was more than worth it for simming. FSX with Acceleration runs very nicely, much better on the quad than the dual core I had. Part of that, of course, is the faster CPU clock speed. I can see the load being spread fairly evenly over all four cores.
Rob MorganSenior Captain, B777-200
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DVA6453
Captain, B767-300
Joined on September 27 2008
50 State Club
Little Chute, WI
94 legs, 159.4 hours
6 legs,
12.6 hours online 94 legs,
159.4 hours ACARS
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Posted onPost created on
October 19 2008 22:35 ET by Chris Kuna
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Rick, don't bother with sli. Get a high end video card and you will spend the same and get the same results.
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DVA2541
Captain, B737-800
E-MAIL
Joined on August 17 2005
Century Club
"What's that button for? OOPs" Erwin, TN USA
122 legs, 206.7 hours
1 legs,
1.1 hours online 1 legs,
1.2 hours ACARS
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Posted onPost created on
October 19 2008 23:21 ET by John Swisher
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Rob,
What kind of frame rates are you getting, what vc do you have. Thanks
John SwisherCaptain, B737-800
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DVA4180
Senior Captain, MD-88
OLP
Joined on March 08 2007
Online Century Club
Long Beach Century Club
50 State Club
Triple Century Club
DVA Ten-Year Anniversary
"Have A&P - Will work for peanuts!" Van Buren Charter Township, MI
351 legs, 783.1 hours
193 legs,
388.4 hours online 340 legs,
759.3 hours ACARS 20 legs,
41.0 hours event
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Posted onPost created on
October 20 2008 04:46 ET by Joseph Schwab
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I have a Quad core 2.5 with 2x Nvidia 8800 GTX's running in SLI... HOWEVER, I have Vista 32 with only 4g of Ram, and i get alot of OOM messages if I try to fly anything but the default FSX planes and ACARS.. cant run sb4 or fsinn either..
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DVA2919
Captain, B777-200
Joined on February 20 2006
Century Club
Online Century Club
Everett Century Club
DVA Ten-Year Anniversary
"Proudly All Boeing" Spotsylvania, VA
154 legs, 430.6 hours
138 legs,
407.9 hours online 114 legs,
352.7 hours ACARS 1 legs,
1.3 hours event
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Posted onPost created on
October 20 2008 11:22 ET by Rick Charles
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Are you saying that VISTA is the issue?
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DVA6453
Captain, B767-300
Joined on September 27 2008
50 State Club
Little Chute, WI
94 legs, 159.4 hours
6 legs,
12.6 hours online 94 legs,
159.4 hours ACARS
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Posted onPost created on
October 20 2008 13:24 ET by Chris Kuna
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I run vista with 6GB of memory and I have zero issues. I have had Vista since the day it was released and I have had zero issues with FSX or FS9.
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DVA339
Captain, B777-200
Joined on October 13 2001
Quatercentenary Club
Online Quadruple Century Club
Southeastern United States
436 legs, 871.2 hours
403 legs,
794.1 hours online 378 legs,
723.0 hours ACARS 5 legs,
10.7 hours event
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Posted onPost created on
October 20 2008 13:36 ET by Brian Myers
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I also run Vista 64 with 8 gigs of ram and have never had any problems, I ACTUALLY like it better than XP!
Brian MyersCaptain, B777-200
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DVA1070
Senior Captain, B777-200
COMM
Joined on January 28 2003
Online Century Club
Double Century Club
"I believe I can fly" Jeffersonville, IN USA
218 legs, 841.9 hours
182 legs,
778.3 hours online 108 legs,
505.1 hours ACARS 42 legs,
200.5 hours event
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Posted onPost created on
October 20 2008 14:11 ET by Adam Gaweda
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Any 32 bit OS with more than 4 GB RAM is a waste of money. 32 bit OS uses 3.25 GB RAM max.
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DVA5919
Captain, MD-11
Joined on May 13 2008
Everett Century Club
50 State Club
Quatercentenary Club
Commuter Conquest
DVA Fifteen-Year Anniversary
"...and don't call me Shirley" Hillsboro, OR USA
494 legs, 1,357.8 hours
4 legs,
3.7 hours online 493 legs,
1,355.3 hours ACARS
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Posted onPost created on
October 20 2008 16:05 ET by Jack Vogel
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Well, that would be true Adam if the world were all Microsoft, but REAL OS's, the various vendor
Unix's and Linux have had this thing called PAE for years, when I was at IBM we would sell Xseries
servers, 32bit, that had 16Gig of memory in them because the OS was set up to handle that
much additional physical memory.
But on windows, yes you need 64bit.
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DVA2784
Senior Captain, B777-200
OLP, COMM, 737-ATP
Joined on January 01 2006
50 State Club
Globetrotter
Online Double Century Club
Quad-Jet Quartermaster
US Mountaineer Club
Everett 1500 Club
Bi-Millennium Club
US Coastal Club
DVA Fifteen-Year Anniversary
Four Million Mile Club
"The PAST...learn from it or repeat it." Highland Home, AL USA
2,297 legs, 9,670.9 hours
243 legs,
873.7 hours online 2,024 legs,
8,459.1 hours ACARS 22 legs,
51.7 hours event 0 legs dispatched, 0.5
hours
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Posted onPost created on
October 20 2008 19:42 ET by Rob Morgan
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John,
Using the PMDG MD-11 in VC, I am seeing about a 27 FPS average.
AMD Phenom 9950
2 GB ram
ATI HD 3800 video with 256 MB Ram.
FSX sliders mid to high range.
Rob
Rob MorganSenior Captain, B777-200
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DVA2541
Captain, B737-800
E-MAIL
Joined on August 17 2005
Century Club
"What's that button for? OOPs" Erwin, TN USA
122 legs, 206.7 hours
1 legs,
1.1 hours online 1 legs,
1.2 hours ACARS
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Posted onPost created on
October 20 2008 21:55 ET by John Swisher
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Thanks Rob
John SwisherCaptain, B737-800
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DVA2784
Senior Captain, B777-200
OLP, COMM, 737-ATP
Joined on January 01 2006
50 State Club
Globetrotter
Online Double Century Club
Quad-Jet Quartermaster
US Mountaineer Club
Everett 1500 Club
Bi-Millennium Club
US Coastal Club
DVA Fifteen-Year Anniversary
Four Million Mile Club
"The PAST...learn from it or repeat it." Highland Home, AL USA
2,297 legs, 9,670.9 hours
243 legs,
873.7 hours online 2,024 legs,
8,459.1 hours ACARS 22 legs,
51.7 hours event 0 legs dispatched, 0.5
hours
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Posted onPost created on
October 20 2008 22:02 ET by Rob Morgan
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You're welcome. btw, in FS9, I see in excess of 80 FPS unless i set a FPS cap.
Rob MorganSenior Captain, B777-200
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DVA4180
Senior Captain, MD-88
OLP
Joined on March 08 2007
Online Century Club
Long Beach Century Club
50 State Club
Triple Century Club
DVA Ten-Year Anniversary
"Have A&P - Will work for peanuts!" Van Buren Charter Township, MI
351 legs, 783.1 hours
193 legs,
388.4 hours online 340 legs,
759.3 hours ACARS 20 legs,
41.0 hours event
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Posted onPost created on
October 21 2008 01:42 ET by Joseph Schwab
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No, I am not saying VISTA is the issue.. I am saying I dont have the support I need to upgrade past 4gb of RAM, and I use ALL of that for FSX and acars alone..For some reason, even with no acars, I cannot fly more than 20 mins in my Maddog '06 payware without getting the dredded OOM message...
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DVA1070
Senior Captain, B777-200
COMM
Joined on January 28 2003
Online Century Club
Double Century Club
"I believe I can fly" Jeffersonville, IN USA
218 legs, 841.9 hours
182 legs,
778.3 hours online 108 legs,
505.1 hours ACARS 42 legs,
200.5 hours event
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Posted onPost created on
October 21 2008 10:39 ET by Adam Gaweda
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Joe, you don't need to upgrade past 4 GB if you are running Vista 32 bit, your OOM problem is caused by something else. The most I've seen FS9 or FSX use at a time was about 2 GB of memory. Maybe you are running some process that causes a memory leak. How big is your page file ?
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DVA3680
First Officer, B767-300
OLP
Joined on November 01 2006
Stock Car Racing Club
Century Club
Berthoud, CO
114 legs, 232.4 hours
97 legs,
212.8 hours online 106 legs,
215.1 hours ACARS 2 legs,
3.7 hours event
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Posted onPost created on
October 21 2008 11:50 ET by Kevin Williams
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Joseph, read this about your OOM errors: http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1200017427/41#41
Rick. From what I've read SLI doesn't help a bit and in some cases slows down fsx as it needs some CPU cycles to help synch the cards. One fast card is the way to go.
I've toyed around with a quad and a dual, and a faster dual will win. I setup a test where I overclocked a Q6600 to 3.6GHz and a dual core E7200 to 3.7GHz, and the dual core won the fps battle (although not by much). But one thing I did notice as I was flying around was that task switching with the e7200 took longer than with the quad. All the guys who are really big into hardware for fsx have the high end quads and report fewer scenery snaps and run everything on ultra high (+ some).
As far as building a PC the word is wait as the new i7 CPUs are right around the corner, but expect to spend $1.5-$2k (from what I've heard). But if you were to do it now here's what I would get, ranked by performance/price. These would all be overclocked:
-E5200 @ 3.6 GHz ($85)
-E7200 @ 4.0 GHz ($120)
-Q9550 @ 4.0 GHz ($320)
Mobos (get a DDR3 one):
-P43/45
-X48
RAM: 4GB DDR3 latency of 6 or 7 (no 9s!)
Kevin WilliamsFirst Officer, B767-300
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DVA4180
Senior Captain, MD-88
OLP
Joined on March 08 2007
Online Century Club
Long Beach Century Club
50 State Club
Triple Century Club
DVA Ten-Year Anniversary
"Have A&P - Will work for peanuts!" Van Buren Charter Township, MI
351 legs, 783.1 hours
193 legs,
388.4 hours online 340 legs,
759.3 hours ACARS 20 legs,
41.0 hours event
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Posted onPost created on
October 21 2008 12:00 ET by Joseph Schwab
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Total Page file for all drives: 103369 MB
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DVA3680
First Officer, B767-300
OLP
Joined on November 01 2006
Stock Car Racing Club
Century Club
Berthoud, CO
114 legs, 232.4 hours
97 legs,
212.8 hours online 106 legs,
215.1 hours ACARS 2 legs,
3.7 hours event
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Posted onPost created on
October 21 2008 12:05 ET by Kevin Williams
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How much memory does your vid card have?
Did you do this:
For Vista:
WINDOWS VISTA ONLY:
1. Open a command prompt with Administration rights. You find the command prompt box under "Programs-Accessories-Command prompt"
2. Right Click the command prompt and select "run as administrator".
3. Enter in the box at the prompt: (copy/paste if you wish)
bcdedit /set IncreaseUserVA 2560
and press enter
4. Reboot
TO set that back to default in VISTA just start the command line prompt with Admin right again and type:
bcdedit /set IncreaseUserVA 2048
Hit enter and reboot
Make sure you have the VISTA updates from Windows Update installed that address out of memory errors too.
http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1188591122
As long as you have Vista up to date with Windows update... or SP1 for Vista installed, you should already have those patches
Kevin WilliamsFirst Officer, B767-300
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DVA4180
Senior Captain, MD-88
OLP
Joined on March 08 2007
Online Century Club
Long Beach Century Club
50 State Club
Triple Century Club
DVA Ten-Year Anniversary
"Have A&P - Will work for peanuts!" Van Buren Charter Township, MI
351 legs, 783.1 hours
193 legs,
388.4 hours online 340 legs,
759.3 hours ACARS 20 legs,
41.0 hours event
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Posted onPost created on
October 21 2008 12:07 ET by Joseph Schwab
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QUOTE:
As long as you have Vista up to date with Windows update... or SP1 for Vista installed, you should already have those patches.
I have SP1 installed... so i should already have those patches....
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DVA3680
First Officer, B767-300
OLP
Joined on November 01 2006
Stock Car Racing Club
Century Club
Berthoud, CO
114 legs, 232.4 hours
97 legs,
212.8 hours online 106 legs,
215.1 hours ACARS 2 legs,
3.7 hours event
|
Posted onPost created on
October 21 2008 12:08 ET by Kevin Williams
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k, good. Did you do the first part?
Kevin WilliamsFirst Officer, B767-300
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DVA4180
Senior Captain, MD-88
OLP
Joined on March 08 2007
Online Century Club
Long Beach Century Club
50 State Club
Triple Century Club
DVA Ten-Year Anniversary
"Have A&P - Will work for peanuts!" Van Buren Charter Township, MI
351 legs, 783.1 hours
193 legs,
388.4 hours online 340 legs,
759.3 hours ACARS 20 legs,
41.0 hours event
|
Posted onPost created on
October 21 2008 12:09 ET by Joseph Schwab
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not yet. I will after this flight i am on right now..
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DVA784
Captain, A320
Joined on August 13 2002
Century Club
DVA Twenty-Year Anniversary
"Just Do iT..." Matthews, NC USA
120 legs, 222.8 hours
28 legs,
49.7 hours online 101 legs,
184.0 hours ACARS
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Posted onPost created on
October 21 2008 19:19 ET by Jamal Pratt
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I would say Go with Quad Core! al lthe way and upgrade Vista to 64 so u can use more than 4 gigs
im running an Intel Quad Core 2.5GHZ 6GB of ram and the Nivida Geforce 9800
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DVA2919
Captain, B777-200
Joined on February 20 2006
Century Club
Online Century Club
Everett Century Club
DVA Ten-Year Anniversary
"Proudly All Boeing" Spotsylvania, VA
154 legs, 430.6 hours
138 legs,
407.9 hours online 114 legs,
352.7 hours ACARS 1 legs,
1.3 hours event
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Posted onPost created on
October 21 2008 21:18 ET by Rick Charles
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Thanks to all for the suggestions. This is the kind of exchange I was hoping to get.
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