flight sim x

moby10

i recently bought flight sim x and no matter what computer i tried it on it was jumpy even on low settings.i have now bought a dell xps with a quad core processor, 4 gig of ram and dual nvidia 8800gtx 768mb and 1tb of memory,so does anyone know if this is enough spec to run it on high settings before the cheque clears on it

any help is much appreciated

RoundyMooney

Well, that certainly sounds impressive, from someone who knows little about computers.

I do know this, FSX is a motorious memory hog, as indeed every new Flight Sim was, compared to the last.

I guess, if it doesn't run on that, it won't run on much.

ambasite

it's a dog alright. i tried to run it on laptop with Pentium 1.5GHz, 1gb ram - no chance, even on low settings it was too sluggish.

ch252

Give fs2004 a go, way easier on the computer! I use fsx, and my computer specs are way lower than yours, so should be grand.

Hope this helps,

Darragh.

MooseJam

moby10 wrote: »

i recently bought flight sim x and no matter what computer i tried it on it was jumpy even on low settings.i have now bought a dell xps with a quad core processor, 4 gig of ram and dual nvidia 8800gtx 768mb and 1tb of memory,so does anyone know if this is enough spec to run it on high settings before the cheque clears on it

any help is much appreciated

thats a monster, how much did it cost you ?

testicle

1 terrabyte of memory!!!!!!!!?????????!!!!!!!!

benbulbin

If it won't run on that it won't run on anything!

Have you ever tried X-plane, it has a very accurate flight model and includes tools to develop and test your own aircraft and scenery. It doesn't have all the graphic add-ons of FS but the freeware community are always adding aircraft and scenery, and the Global Scenery graphics (70GB) run fast on decent hardware. V9 should be out in a couple of months but you can try a free beta now, comes with demo scenery for KSBD & LOWI to give you an idea of the gaphics:

x-plane.com/beta
x-plane.org (for aircraft and airport scenery)
http://www.global-scenery.org/
http://homepage.mac.com/cormacshaw/xpih/ (Dublin scenery)

MooseJam

testicle wrote: »

1 terrabyte of memory!!!!!!!!?????????!!!!!!!!

terrabyte harddrive I'd assume

BostonB

moby10 wrote: »

i recently bought flight sim x and no matter what computer i tried it on it was jumpy even on low settings.i have now bought a dell xps with a quad core processor, 4 gig of ram and dual nvidia 8800gtx 768mb and 1tb of memory,so does anyone know if this is enough spec to run it on high settings before the cheque clears on it

any help is much appreciated

Did you do any checking on the web to see if runs faster on a quad or on a dual with a faster clock speed.

moby10

that x plane sounds good and the scenery is fantastic-i dont want to sound like an idiot coz i dont really understand computer terminology but is x-plane a flight sim of its own or can you run it with flight sim x.-in relation to the processor all info on the net was mixed but people generalyl said it had to run at about 3.2-3.5 ghz. the one in that machine runs at 3.46 but dell say you can over clock it to 4.0 coz its watercooled.

WexCan

Have you received the XPS yet?

AFAIC it shoud run perfectly, though I do stand to be corrected as FSX caused many headaches when it came out. The software is fantastic but the high-spec hardware just wasn't as popular at the time.

BostonB

I think theres been a patch too hasn't there.

WexCan

2 patches and an addon methinks. Not entirely sure what they do - haven't been simming in ages. Current computer isn't exactly a beast.

pclancy

The patch helps framerates a lot and sorts out a few bugs. Also improves loading times.

I sold my gaming PC last year with the idea of getting away from sitting at home every night playing games especially FS. I just found my copy of FSX and put it on my laptop and it actually runs grand, allbeit with most of the scenery settings at low and the laptops only got a crappy 128Mb Geforce Go! Its really a case of trail and error to see can you tailor the graphics settings to get the best performace vs quality but with some tinkering it can work well.

X plane is a seperate product nothing to do with MS flightsim. Wouldnt have half the number of free and commercial addons available but is still a very good sim.

moby10

hopefully i will get the computer by the end of the week, but what is a ''patch' where do i get one and what does it do?

WexCan

A patch is just an improvement of a piece of software - you should be able to find the files and instructions on the Microsoft website.

pclancy

A patch is generally a bit of software released by the software maker after the CDs hit the shelves to fix problems with the game or to add functionality etc. Its a file you download from Microsoft then you run it and it will update the game itself, its very simple.

Once you get the PC and the game, install the game from the 2 DVDs and then play it a bit. Download the patch from here and just double click on it. That will install the patch. Your PC sounds very high spec so id imagine it will run very well.

Dont forget to get a joystick too, FS is crap without it!

WexCan

pclancy wrote: »

Dont forget to get a joystick too, FS is crap without it!

*mashing arrow key*

Go up damn you!

pclancy

:d

daelight

moby you should be getting great performance from that setup ..

I have an AMD 3700 (running at 2,8Ghz) with a 6800XT gfx card , to add insult I'm even running vista (recent trail thing) and its no problem. I have 1.5GB ram.

Anyway, you definatley need to download Service Pack 1 patch from microsoft, this improves the sim's performance dramatically.

Also, pay attention to the sliders in the display setting of the sim. Having vehicle. boat traffic on 100% and scenery to 'extremely dense' will make it run like a dog.. you need a bit of ying and yang when it comes to those damn sliders.

I don't remember all the slider setting I have but will post them later if I have the time. For sure 'Bloom effects' kills the sim at the moment - some the the eye candy stuff really hurts so try bringing them down a notch or 2 and see how you go.

moby10

thanks for all the info guys-i got the machine a few days ago(bloody big rig) and loaded flight sim deluxe immediately. all the settings at the moment are at ultra high and all the sliders are set to full and i am managing 35+ fps so i am very happy with it. i havent got the patches yet but will do it over the next few days, but for now i am just trying to figure out this f*****g garmin gps.if anyone has any more tips for me it is much appreciated.

p.s. what is the best airport for scenery?

pclancy

savage sounds cool!

Theres some nice scenery in all the aiports in the missions, cant think of any others off hand...too drunk

WexCan

Add-ons much better for scenery. Try Cloud 9 for Amsterdam (payware, but damn good and can give your machine a run for its money, see if it's really up to it )

pclancy

Irish scenery available from these guys for free too

www.ifsd.ie

The Real B-man

Same Spec Pc, runs fine just dont have everything maxed out better fps

ch252

pclancy wrote: »

Irish scenery available from these guys for free too

www.ifsd.ie

does that work on fsx?? I have it on fs2004 and it wont work on my fsx:(

cp251

Don't have FSX, no real desire to either, too much for my current computer.

I don't think the Irish scenery works on FSX, no doubt an update will be released whenever. The Irish scenery has flaws but it would be remiss to complain about something you get for nothing, particularly as a lot of work was put into it. There was a big problem with the Dublin scenery in that it locked the computer completely if you tried to fly over the city. That has been corrected I believe with a new update. There was also a problem with Galway in that you would hit an invisible obstacle somewhere on the runway. The only way to prevent it is to turn off collisions and crashes.

pclancy

I'll test it later on again but as far as I can remember it did work fine for me on FSX.

MS have just released another update for FSX, SP2, prob well worth installing for anyone that's using FSX.

The issues they had with lockups over Dublin and the Galway obstacle were all sorted, have a read through their forum for help.

SP2 Download Here

yhwh

I would love to see some pics of it running on your XPS
Put some up for us.

pclancy

Anyone try SP2 yet?

Celtic Mech

Yeah i downloaded sp2 the other day. it seemed to make quite a difference on fps. seems to allow things to run smoother. i am gettin about 30+fps. My laptop is a Dell inspiron 9400, Pentium core 2 T7200 2ghz, 2gb ram, Nvidia GeForce 7900 GS

BostonB

Celtic Mech wrote: »

Yeah i downloaded sp2 the other day. it seemed to make quite a difference on fps. seems to allow things to run smoother. i am gettin about 30+fps. My laptop is a Dell inspiron 9400, Pentium core 2 T7200 2ghz, 2gb ram, Nvidia GeForce 7900 GS

I have the same laptop, I didn't get FSX because the demo was too slow. I'm still on 2004 ATM. Is it worth upgrading now with the patches?

pclancy

Depends really, i know a massive amount of the FS community are still using FS2004 and have no plans for change...theres even a lot of people using 2000 that are happy with the experience the addons and customisation has done for them. I do remember the demo being slower the the finished product though. The overall scenery is way better, you get better cockpits etc and more airports/activities but thats about it.

BostonB

I don't have any addon's for 2004, tbh I don't even use it that much. I would like if the scenery looked more realistic though. I like the idea of thermals too.

pclancy

Personally I think the scenery does look better, the aircraft, airports, water and weather very much so. If celtic is getting those framerates from the same laptop sure go for it!

BostonB

I was getting more like 10fps with the demo.

I had a 1710 with same spec only a 7950GTX (512mb) and that was a lot faster in the demo. Gave it back as there was a problem with the screen.

pclancy

hmmm 10fps is pretty pants, I dunno what to say then tbh but if you hae the same spec as celtic why not give it a shot?

Fabio

I get about 20fps from FS2004 with almost all of the bars in settings set to the max and it looks fine...

Actually can anyone on here recommend a good plane, a jet airliner preferably that actually requires me to do some flying rather than simply setting the autopilot for the transatatlantic flight and heading off to sleep (exaggeration!).

BostonB

http://www.avsim.com/pages/0806/SST/SST.htm
http://www.avsim.com/pages/0108/ATR72/ATR72.htm

Fabio

I've been meaning to get Concorde for quite some time now but at the moment I am going about completing every test in FS2004 and acquring the licenses...just to keep it official haha!

Has anyone else gone and done this? Not touch a jet till you pass all of the requirements to do so in the tests?

BostonB

I haven't but I'd love to do it. Haven't had the time tbh. I always wanted to get into something like this

http://www.aeroworx.com/b200.html
http://www.avsim.com/pages/0904/b200/b200.htm

Fabio

They look like mighty fine planes alright....I really like flying the KingAir in FS2004 though I only have the default one but still...

pclancy

Have ye seen the PMDG 737 or 747 and the Captain Sim 757? I love those planes, amazing realism...

Bob the Builder

Those specs will run fsx quite well. FSX will be jumpy anyway if all settings are set to ultra high. Try and make sure you have a large FSB (Front Side Bus) figure. I don't know why, but it does improve performance.

http://www.computerhope.com/jargon/f/fsb.htm

MooseJam wrote: »

terrabyte harddrive I'd assume

Why would anyone possibly want that much memory, even for gaming! I have trouble filling 100gb, never mind 1000gb.

pclancy

Yes good fast RAM (properly setup and clocked), high end processor, high-end motherboard and obviously an excellent graphics card are whats needed, FSB speed and chipset type on the board is just one of several fast requirements for all gaming.

It looks fantastic with DX10 so a card that supports that would be a must for a new PC. I think we'll see a lot of new hardware over the coming years that will take full advantage of DX10 and FSX and its abilities taken better advantage of then we see at the moment.

Its gonna mean forking out more cash for new gear though Again.

Some good info on FSX's development can be found on this blokes blog http://blogs.msdn.com/ptaylor/default.aspx

Fabio

So any news on the flight sim forum?

moby10

someone told me that vista uses almost a gig of ram alone and that there are hundreds of small programmes running all the time and suggested that i should install windows xp and and delete some of these unnecessary programmes and that would hughely improve the performance of flight sim? also i am going to post some pics in the ultra high settings to see what anyone thinks coz im not so sure if they are really that good-maybe i have something wrong in the settings-if anyone can help
(i will try to put some pics on tomorrow).
thanks

Fabio

I doubt Vista uses a gig of ram alone cos it can only handle up to 3 gigs (or around that)...

Mind you, you probably do have some stuff on it that ain't needed and is taking up RAM but then so do I I'd say!

pclancy

On all the systems I've seen running vista since its been released i dont think ive seen any use less then 500-600Mb of RAM even when idle. There are a lot more processes running behind the scenes then XP. Running at a gig is over the top though, there must be too much stuff installed such as antivirus or other software thats eating resources.

However so far Ive been actually impressed by how FSX has run in vista on my own laptop considering its graphics card is crap. I havnt been able to figure out if the fact im running 64bit is making a difference or not.

What graphics card have you got Moby?

moby10

im using dual ge force 8800 gtx 768 mb but it is only 32 mb ? im not great with computers but i think the system is only using one graphic card because in settings (fsx) it gives me an option to pick which graphic card i want and i can only pick one of them.????