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PostPosted: Tue Sep 13, 2011 6:50 pm
by Dash8captain
Hi Everyone the suspense of seeing all these awesome pictures of FSX and VLC e.g http://nzff.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=15844 is just killing me with jealously, and are seriously considering upgrading my PC or buying a new one my current PC is running FS9 with REX and in heavy clouds frame rates are sometimes going down to 10! the specs of my Current PC are as follows;

500GB Seagate Hard Drive
Radeon HD 4350 512MB DDR2 Graphics card with 1Gb of Hyper Memory
2.51 GHZ processor
4GB of RAM
Windows XP

what should I update? or are these any good? http://www.trademe.co.nz/Computers/Desktop...n-405960074.htm

help would be much appreciated

PostPosted: Tue Sep 13, 2011 7:11 pm
by Dash8captain
Dash8captain wrote:
QUOTE (Dash8captain @ Sep 13 2011,6:50 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Hi Everyone the suspense of seeing all these awesome pictures of FSX and VLC e.g http://nzff.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=15844 is just killing me with jealously, and are seriously considering upgrading my PC or buying a new one my current PC is running FS9 with REX and in heavy clouds frame rates are sometimes going down to 10! the specs of my Current PC are as follows;

500GB Seagate Hard Drive
Radeon HD 4350 512MB DDR2 Graphics card with 1Gb of Hyper Memory
2.51 GHZ processor
4GB of RAM
Windows XP

what should I update? or are these any good? http://www.trademe.co.nz/Computers/Desktop...n-405960074.htm

help would be much appreciated


although I would rather upgrade my current PC

PostPosted: Tue Sep 13, 2011 7:30 pm
by deeknow
Hey Dash8. Welcome to the wonderful world of upgrade shopping laugh.gif

Looking at that rig I'm not sure it'll be something that you'll be happy with long term. To be honest the CPU is pretty lardy and the graphics card although recent is also pretty low performance. I've havent got anything against AMD CPU's exactly but I think if I were you I'd be looking at an Intel CPU and motherboard as a better long term prospect. I dont know anything about the LegendPC's, they do seem good value for money, but if you're keen on a pre-built games machine you might wanna think about spending a couple of hundred more on one of their better spec'd offerings.

Here's some benchmarks (yeah I know, its not ALL about benchmarks, but its one factor) for you to look at that compare that CPU and graphics card to others avaialble now for not a great deal more...

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+Athlon+II+X2+255
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

There are other places that offer pre-built gaming solutions so I'd say keep shopping around

It's not fair to hilight just one vendor when there's so many good deals around, but for example for just $200 extra you could get something like this...
http://www.xpcomputers.co.nz/index.php?pg=...6&id=186370

Do a google search for "gaming PCs" for loads more vendors

PostPosted: Tue Sep 13, 2011 9:00 pm
by AlisterC
My first suggestion to threads like this as always is why don't you just try installing FSX first, plus SP1 and SP2, and see how you go? FSX is not the monster it's been made out to be. Especially with the venetubo tweak site now available.
If you're still not happy, you can always upgrade later. But honestly, your specs don't look so bad to me, and I've seen nice graphics and excellent FPS on pc's less than that. You've got nothing to lose by trying it first. My PC can't be much better than that (I have a dual core and gforce card) and I can run it just fine, same ram, same win xp etc..

Edit: Oh yeah, if you want to run high resolution water and clouds by the likes of REX, then fair enough, an upgrade might be the best bet laugh.gif

PostPosted: Wed Sep 14, 2011 1:38 am
by Timmo
Hmm with a fairly fast clock speed that you have, even if single core, I would follow Alisters advice- you may be surprised

PostPosted: Wed Sep 14, 2011 6:05 pm
by Dash8captain
Thanks Very Much Guys

PostPosted: Fri Sep 16, 2011 6:02 pm
by Dash8captain
Hi Everyone again I have now bought a copy of FSX Gold and installed VLC on It but can only get a maximum of 15 FPS and often sits at 8-10 FPS which is'nt very good - I have followed some directions on how to get better frame rates in the latest PC Pilot magazine - they did help a little bit but I would like at least 20 -25 FPS. I have not Installed the Service Packs yet - but will do any suggestions? this thread is hard to understand also http://nzff.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2205

Cheers

PostPosted: Fri Sep 16, 2011 6:17 pm
by Nzeddy
You don't need to install the service packs cause FSX Gold already has them.

Use this FSX online tweak tool: http://www.venetubo.com/fsx.html

2.5ghz is alright for FSX but not the best...

PostPosted: Fri Sep 16, 2011 6:47 pm
by Dash8captain
Nzeddy wrote:
QUOTE (Nzeddy @ Sep 16 2011,6:17 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
You don't need to install the service packs cause FSX Gold already has them.

Use this FSX online tweak tool: http://www.venetubo.com/fsx.html

2.5ghz is alright for FSX but not the best...


Sorry i Meant FSX Deluxe

PostPosted: Fri Sep 16, 2011 7:04 pm
by Nzeddy
Buy FSX Acceleration (includes all SP) or just download and install SP1 then SP2.

PostPosted: Sat Sep 17, 2011 9:01 am
by AlisterC
There are a few settings you should watch out for too that hurt your fps. I was surprised to find last night "aircraft casts shadows on itself" robbed me of at least 2-3 frames per sec flying the ifly 737 and viewing from spot plane. Turn off bloom is another good example. Also watch your water setting. You'll see a big improvement not having shiny reflective water. Experiment with that setting to see what works for you and what doesn't.
But SP1 and SP2, plus the venetubo site should make a world of difference.

PostPosted: Sat Sep 17, 2011 3:53 pm
by Dash8captain
Hi - I've got my frame rates not too bad now but I now have another bigger problem - after takeoff in the Majestic Dash 8 about two minutes into the flight the computer will shut down - what is causing this?

Cheers

PostPosted: Sat Sep 17, 2011 4:00 pm
by Ian Warren
Is this crash from any airport , or from a saved flight ? I d move all saved flights into a another folder and try restart again .

PostPosted: Sat Sep 17, 2011 4:47 pm
by Nzeddy
Maybe it's overheating.

PostPosted: Sat Sep 17, 2011 5:17 pm
by Dash8captain
yea any airport - I think it may be overheating - bugger!!

PostPosted: Sat Sep 17, 2011 6:00 pm
by Nzeddy
Time for a new computer! biggrin.gif tongue.gif

PostPosted: Sat Sep 17, 2011 6:07 pm
by deeknow
Are these crashes on your new rig, or you still running the old one?
If I ever had probs w FS9 crashing it was almost always related to a new scenery addon, I'd suggest you try disabling them one at a time to see if thats the case, and repeat the same flight and aircraft and route

PostPosted: Sun Sep 18, 2011 4:31 pm
by Dash8captain
deeknow wrote:
QUOTE (deeknow @ Sep 17 2011,6:07 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Are these crashes on your new rig, or you still running the old one?
If I ever had probs w FS9 crashing it was almost always related to a new scenery addon, I'd suggest you try disabling them one at a time to see if thats the case, and repeat the same flight and aircraft and route


No this is with my old rig with FSX - I might just carry on with good old reliable FS9 until I get a new rig!

PostPosted: Mon Sep 19, 2011 6:06 pm
by AlisterC
Have you tried flying out in another plane? ie a default one? How are your weather settings? Are you trying to fly out of a high detail area (like realnz marl/wellington)
FSX is hard on a PC already, let alone can be extra hard once you throw a complicated payware plane into the mix. Perhaps try turning down some settings (eg decrease your cloud generation distance for example, turn your water settings down, turn off aircraft shadows, turn down autogen, turn off all ai traffic) and try again. (until you get another pc lol)
I've had some crashes like that in my ifly 737. It's all just too much for my PC to handle at times with fsx. No problem however in any other plane so far.