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Want to upgrade to make FSX and X-Plane 10 Run Smoother

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March 2, 2014 6:01:40 PM

Approximate Purchase Date: One Year Ago

Budget Range: $500

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, Internet, Watching Movies

Are you buying a monitor: No



Parts to Upgrade: Want to upgrade from a Geforce 550 TI

Do you need to buy OS: No

Please note that if you're using an OEM license of Windows, you will need a new one when buying a new motherboard.

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Unsure of as of yet

Location: Spring Hill, FL USA

Parts Preferences: by brand or type Nvidia, Intel

Overclocking: Maybe Need to Learn

SLI or Crossfire: No

Your Monitor Resolution: 1600 X 900 32bit

Additional Comments: (e.g.: Need to have a window and lots of bling, I would like a quiet PC. Please also list specific software or games you're using)

And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: Want to run FSX and Xplane 10 Better and May Possibly Try Star Citizen. Already Playing Eve-Online which runs superb.





Hello all,

I am looking to upgrade my computer to something a little more powerful.
Currently I am running the following:

Gateway
Intel i5 2320 3.0ghz to 3.3ghz
EVGA Geforce GTX 550 Ti
8 GB Ram Upgradable to 16


Was looking into getting a better video card and was kinda being pointed to the GTX 760 2gb but not sure whether to get EVGA or Nvidia.
Wondering about installing a pcie 16 3.0 card into a 2.0 slot.......what will I lose?


Looking for advice as to what I should upgrade besides a video card.


Rob

More about : upgrade make fsx plane run smoother

March 2, 2014 6:07:30 PM

You will lose nothing with the 3.0 card in a 2.0 slot. It will perform exactly the same.

What PSU do you have?
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March 2, 2014 6:32:15 PM

I have a Thermaltake TR2 600W
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March 2, 2014 6:34:50 PM

That is not a very good quality unit. I would replace it with a 500-600w unit from Antec, XFX, Corsair (not cx), Seasonic.

It is not terrible, but is it not great. If you want to use it, 600w is plenty for a gtx760.
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March 2, 2014 6:53:15 PM

tiny voices said:
That is not a very good quality unit. I would replace it with a 500-600w unit from Antec, XFX, Corsair (not cx), Seasonic.

It is not terrible, but is it not great. If you want to use it, 600w is plenty for a gtx760.


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March 3, 2014 3:09:32 PM

Does anyone have any ideas I could use? How much of an increase will I see going from a gtx 550 ti to a gtx 760? Also what brand of gtx 760 is best. There is a huge difference between the builds of evga and nvidia. The nvidia card looks more well made than the evga.
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March 3, 2014 3:12:24 PM

You will probably get a big increase. The 760 is MANY times more powerful and 2 generations newer.

Nvidia is the company that releases the GPU, then companies like MSI, ASUS, Gigabyte, PNY, EVGA take them and put their own cooler and label on it. They are all basically the same card and perform the same.
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March 3, 2014 3:33:34 PM

Is there anything else on my list I should upgrade to get a little further? I mean will changing my motherboard and using my current cpu ram hdd and ps do anything?
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March 3, 2014 3:35:58 PM

No the motherboard does not impact PC performance.
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March 15, 2014 5:13:27 AM

Ok so I have done some thinking.
I have purchased the 59.99 Academic version of Prepar3d. It will not run at max settings very well. I only get around 4-5 fps.
Would I get a huge increase if I step up my motherboard, CPU to an i7 and get the GTX 760 or 770?
Remember I have a best buy purchased Gateway with an i5 2320, 8gb ram, and an aftermarket EVGA GeForce GTX 550ti.

If I change CPU and motherboard can I use the same windows 7 that's on my hard drive or do I need to buy another copy because the windows installation is keyed to only the gateway motherboard and CPU?

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March 15, 2014 7:36:20 AM

your GPU is holding you back WAY more than the CPU.

Get a gtx760 or gtx770 and leave the CPU alone.

You should not be changing the motherboard at all because you can get an i7 2700k and use it with your motherboard. BUT you do not need this at all. The GPU is what needs upgrading.
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March 16, 2014 7:02:51 AM

Those will perform the same. Get whichever you like. The EVGA one will be quieter more than likely because of the cooler design.
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March 21, 2014 8:23:12 AM

Ok, I am a bit disappointed right now. I installed my new 770 card in the computer last night. Here is how it went.

I opened the case and removed the 550 ti and then realized that I did not have the 6 + 8 pin connectors that the 770 required. So to make sure I did some research and found that I do have a 6 pin and a 6 + 2 pin connector. Now I did some more research and found that the + 2 makes the 8 pin connecter from one of the 6 pin connectors. I guess its best of both worlds. Thought I was going to buy a new PSU.
Anyway I installed the card and buttoned everything up.
I started the computer and it started re-detecting everything including the 770. In this process it did install the latest drivers for my 770 because I did verify that with the nvidia website. So I assumed I did not need the disk that came with the 770.

After a restart of the computer I immediately started X-plane 10 and maxed out all the settings at which i was getting 1-2 FPS on the 550 ti

Once the sim loaded I watched the FPS Counter and there was only a 2-3 FPS difference from the 550 ti!!!! WTF!

On FS9 There was only a 15-20 FPS change
on FSX there was only a 5-10 FPS change
and on Prepar3d there was a 20 FPS change.

Remember, this is the difference from the 550 ti to the 770 with all sliders maxed!!

Am I expecting too much?

The benchmark for the 770 was 3-4 times higher than the 550 ti

What's the deal?

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March 21, 2014 10:24:36 AM

The gtx770 is MILES better than the 550ti. It is the difference between low and max ultra settings in most games. There must be another issue here.
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March 21, 2014 11:34:35 AM

Great! What do I do now?
What info do you need to help me?
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March 21, 2014 11:45:00 AM

When you run the game, what is your RAM and CPU usage percentage?
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March 21, 2014 12:25:20 PM

I have a screen shot of the task mgr and xp10 in background with tech box up but can't post on here.
The CPU is running at 52% and the 8 gb ram is running at 5.11gb or 63%
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March 21, 2014 12:26:59 PM

This is during gaming, not tabbed out right? You NEED readings for in game.
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March 21, 2014 12:44:45 PM

How do I get in game readings?
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March 21, 2014 12:46:22 PM

Use a program like HDmonitor. Open it and play the game. It will record the max CPU and RAM usage and you can see it after you exit the game.
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March 21, 2014 2:15:10 PM

tiny voices said:
Use a program like HDmonitor. Open it and play the game. It will record the max CPU and RAM usage and you can see it after you exit the game.


Okay, I will give that a try tonight will you be online tonight?
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March 21, 2014 2:27:10 PM

Probably not, but I should check back some time tomorrow for a while and ill be back steady by Sunday afternoon.
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March 21, 2014 9:13:35 PM

I can not find a program called HDMonitor. I can only find HWmonitor by CPUID. I installed the pro version and tried recording a log but just got a bunch of graphs and no where does it say the highest cup and ram usage. It just shows voltages and temps.
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March 22, 2014 11:16:01 AM

HWMonitor is what I meant. My bad.

Open task manager and run your game. Then go to the CPU graph. It will have the MAX usage.
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March 22, 2014 12:09:02 PM

How long should I run the game for? It got shut down by windows in a timeout problem. Something about too much data for the 770 can handle in 2 minutes. I will run it again and let you know.
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March 22, 2014 12:22:34 PM

Just run the game like normal. A few minutes should be plenty to get the CPU to it max usage.
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March 22, 2014 6:20:03 PM

Ok, I have not run the game yet but the HWmonitor only shows temps, voltages, and fan speeds. Where do I find the CPU and Ram usage?
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March 22, 2014 8:51:01 PM

Hey, I am pulling the 770 out and returning it to the store. I have just been through a bad startup problem a fatal error in P3D.
Windows not starting. I think the card might be defective. When I loaded up my EVE-Online game, The graphics stuttered for like 15 seconds and that never happened on the 550 ti.

I think I might get the non-reference card too. Maybe this card is getting too hot because of such enclosed space.

I'm not sure but I am taking it out.

I ran another HWmonitor test with XP10 so I have those graphs if you want them.


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March 22, 2014 9:37:23 PM

Hey (really wish i knew your name)

I just took out the 770 and reinstalled the 550 ti and flew the P3D and X-plane 10 and got the SAME results if not a hair better.

There must be something with that card or i need to upgrade something else.


Rob
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March 23, 2014 11:12:35 AM

I highly doubt there was an error with the card. Without knowing your CPU and RAM usage, we cannot recommend anything.

I explained 2 posts above, how to monitor usage with task manager.

ALso, what are your MAX LOAD CPU and GPU temps?
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March 23, 2014 11:18:53 AM

When you said 'tabbed' out you meant on screen not minimized right or did you mean you needed readings off of the sim while in full screen not windowed?
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March 23, 2014 11:21:12 AM

You do not have 2 monitors so in order to get the reading you must play the game normally with task manager running in the background. It can be minimized, doesn't matter. It will still record data. Then quit the game and go look at the task manager graphs.
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March 23, 2014 11:54:59 AM

tiny voices said:
You do not have 2 monitors so in order to get the reading you must play the game normally with task manager running in the background. It can be minimized, doesn't matter. It will still record data. Then quit the game and go look at the task manager graphs.


Oh I already did that. That's what the percentages above were from.
The CPU is running at 52% and the 8 gb ram is running at 5.11gb or 63%
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March 23, 2014 12:06:51 PM

What is your GPU max usage?

If it is not 100%, then none of these things are the problem at all and something is wrong. You do have the monitor connected to the GPU not the motherboard right?
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March 23, 2014 3:34:04 PM

tiny voices said:
What is your GPU max usage?

If it is not 100%, then none of these things are the problem at all and something is wrong. You do have the monitor connected to the GPU not the motherboard right?


It's hard for me to explain to you what's happening. I just took pictures of xp10 at full screen with task manager and a program called gpu-z in small windows. Can I send them to you?

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March 23, 2014 3:40:37 PM

Yeah. Upload them to photobucket or some such host and link them.
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March 23, 2014 4:54:35 PM

That doesn't really help much as most of those are power charts which don't mean anything.

The CPU seems to not be running at 100%, the GPU doesn't either, nor does the RAM. Wha twas the max temp for the GPU? 79c is pretty warm, is that as hot as it got?
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March 23, 2014 5:19:53 PM

tiny voices said:
That doesn't really help much as most of those are power charts which don't mean anything.

The CPU seems to not be running at 100%, the GPU doesn't either, nor does the RAM. Wha twas the max temp for the GPU? 79c is pretty warm, is that as hot as it got?


I saw 81 a few times.
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March 23, 2014 5:21:24 PM

That is fine. Those temps are not the issue either. I really don't know what to tell you. If you lower all the settings does it run fine?
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March 23, 2014 5:31:14 PM

Well I asked about the same setup on xplane forums and was told that I am expecting too much. That no one can run xp10 at max yet. I just expected too much maybe. I still think there is a problem with the card because I got two bsod today because of an audbus.sys page fault. I thought that might be because of the new card. I am wondering if it's running too hot because of the tight area it's in. Might need to get the EVGA 770. It's got an open fan chassis. Might run cooler.
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March 23, 2014 5:41:17 PM

No, 81c is fine. As long as it doesn't go over 90 it will be fine.
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March 23, 2014 6:10:12 PM

What about the errors?
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March 23, 2014 6:15:52 PM

That error is an audio driver error. Uninstall the Audio drivers completely and reinstall them. Also check microsoft audio drivers as it is a microsoft driver causing the error.
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March 23, 2014 6:21:03 PM

tiny voices said:
That error is an audio driver error. Uninstall the Audio drivers completely and reinstall them. Also check microsoft audio drivers as it is a microsoft driver causing the error.


Ok

So what's your conclusion on my problem?
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Best solution

March 23, 2014 6:22:16 PM

I believe you answered it yourself. Nothing can max xplane right now. Just play at lower settings. Your hardware is fine. Keep the 770.
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March 23, 2014 6:27:49 PM

Thank you so much for all your help. Sorry I was a pain. I just wanted to make sure before I had to return it in 7 days.
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March 23, 2014 6:29:05 PM

Not a problem. I'm always glad to help!
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March 23, 2014 6:34:50 PM

tomcatguy74 said:
Ok, I am a bit disappointed right now. I installed my new 770 card in the computer last night. Here is how it went.

After a restart of the computer I immediately started X-plane 10 and maxed out all the settings at which i was getting 1-2 FPS on the 550 ti

Once the sim loaded I watched the FPS Counter and there was only a 2-3 FPS difference from the 550 ti!!!! WTF!

As a long time X-Plane user (and aircraft developer) I can tell you positively that there isn't a PC on the planet that can run X-Plane 10 with all settings maxed out. Not gonna happen. It's that way by design. Head on over to x-plane.org, create an account, and talk to the experts there.
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