True. XP can use up to 2.5 gb VRAM right now from what I've been told. Choosing the 680 was the easy part. I am agonizing over the CPU/mobo though.
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X-Plane 10 and a new PC
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True. XP can use up to 2.5 gb VRAM right now from what I've been told. Choosing the 680 was the easy part. I am agonizing over the CPU/mobo though.
I am trying to get some answers for you and me.
Here's a start:
Best Gaming CPU: $200 and Up
But this may not apply to X-Plane. X-Plane is such a different animal.
Yep, I checked Tom's. They came to the same conclusion I did. The 3930K, especially if overclocked is the state of the art and relatively speaking, bargain priced. I just don't think XP will use the extra two cores unless you use AI, which I don't. The custom places that OC that chip, when the supporting top end mobo is added, along with speedy RAM and liquid cooling, charge a hefty premium, but they do guarantee it to be fast and stable.
How did it go?
Hey guys--wondering if you got your new PCs? I came across your post last month when I was in the process of considering the same. I'm having one built as we speak, just to run x-plane. It's the first video game that cost me over $1900. I did a lot of research, and ended up going with:
3770k
Gigabyte ud5h z77
8 mg ram, kingston hyperx 1600's
evga gtx 680 4gb
850w psu--Corsair CMPSU-850TXV2
asetek 570LX liquid cooking
2 tb hd
dell u2711
We shall see. Hoping it makes a big difference. Otherwise will have an angry wife and an expensive paper weight.
Hey guys--wondering if you got your new PCs? I came across your post last month when I was in the process of considering the same. I'm having one built as we speak, just to run x-plane. It's the first video game that cost me over $1900. I did a lot of research, and ended up going with:
3770k
Gigabyte ud5h z77
8 mg ram, kingston hyperx 1600's
evga gtx 680 4gb
850w psu--Corsair CMPSU-850TXV2
asetek 570LX liquid cooking
2 tb hd
dell u2711
We shall see. Hoping it makes a big difference. Otherwise will have an angry wife and an expensive paper weight.
That's a beauty. I don't know of any way to make it better.
I'll probably end up doing the same thing because my plug-ins alone for X-Plane makes it worth it.
Let us know of your results, please.
Thanks Topper I'm excited to try it and and will provide a full report once it arrives. Cyberpower had a pretty decent 4th of July sale--came to around $1850 including CA tax and free shipping. I have $70 worth of mail in rebates too but who knows if I'll see a dime from those. Had to play around with the different configurator options-- the starting points of the build--to find the best price. Funny that they would be several hundred dollars different for the same specs. Good deal I think for someone like me that doesn't know anything about building computers-- also added on overclocking (20%), intel protection, cm 920, extra fans, etc. Could overclock yourself but if you pay them to do it it's covered under their warranty.
The hardest decisions for me were 3930 vs 3770, and motherboard.
Will let you know how it goes.
The hardest decisions for me were 3930 vs 3770, and motherboard.
Will let you know how it goes.
I was expecting XP10 to be the "Snow Leopard/Mountain Lion" of Xplane, but instead it turns out to be the Leopard/Lion of the Xplane series.
Give this one a pass and wait for XPlane 11.
I really don't get it. We have 3D maps on the iPhone 5 and Xplane10 can't do this same with full desktop power??
Laminar really dropped the ball on Xplane 10. Was supposed to run BETTER than 9 but runs about 10 times slower!
You'd have to turn down gfx so that it looks puke-uglier than XP9 for it to run AS FAST as XP 9!!
Give this one a pass and wait for XPlane 11.
I really don't get it. We have 3D maps on the iPhone 5 and Xplane10 can't do this same with full desktop power??
Laminar really dropped the ball on Xplane 10. Was supposed to run BETTER than 9 but runs about 10 times slower!
You'd have to turn down gfx so that it looks puke-uglier than XP9 for it to run AS FAST as XP 9!!
Unfortunately, I agree with you.
After all the wait and hullabaloo, I was expecting a much better product.
But I am sticking with XP10. I just hope that future revisions will improve it's performance.
XP9 was buggy as hell when it came out as well. Obviously by 9.7, it became smooth. Plus, so far XP10 is still in beta. Give it time.
I agree that X-Plane 10 needs even more horsepower than XP 9 did.
Huge difference between 3D maps on iOS and the 3D rendered "world" of X-Plane 10 is the fact that every bit of 3D is rendered on the Mac and not being shown via 3D photos online.
Of course, 3D maps and 3D photos surely must be the future! Wouldn't it be cool to fly around Manhattan with the same quality as the 3D maps of San Francisco on iOS 6 beta!!!
Until then, I'm afraid we're stuck with 3D rendered grfx offline by your grfx card in Mac or PC.
And, to make it worse, X-Plane 10 runs out of memory even before thx 3D grfx gets maxxed out! I've said this before....: 64 bits X-Plane is a necessity.
I just tried the new XP 10.10 beta1 (still 32 bits) and loaded the hugely 3D rendered payware KLGA (with Manhattan 3D rendered in background, 16 AI Aircraft, etc.) and yep... X-Plane ran out of memory. The Mac hardware can handle it!! It's just the 32-bitsness that holds it back.... A Radeon HD 7970 won't help this message:
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Friend, let me share some toughts on your build:
-PSU, I recomend the Cooler Master Silent Pro, as they make NO NOISE. Within Silent Pro there are several sub-brands, but anyone is fine.
And scratch the hdds, go ALL SSD.
-PSU, I recomend the Cooler Master Silent Pro, as they make NO NOISE. Within Silent Pro there are several sub-brands, but anyone is fine.
And scratch the hdds, go ALL SSD.
new computer arrived!
Well the computer I ordered from Cyberpower PC arrived on last Friday, and it fired right up. Of course the first thing I did is install xplane 10, and sure enough that fired up too without issue. I was a little nervous because some folks have had issues with the GTX 680 and x-plane 10 but it looks like they fixed those. After screwing around with the rendering options for an hour I settled on a good line up I think--I'm going to try to attach a screenshot. The GTX 680 4gb is a monster, and it overclocks really easy with software downloaded from EVGA. I able to add 135mhz easy--could go up as high as 180mhz without any stability issues and temps never touching more than 70c, although I did adjust the fan curve to ramp up more quickly. I can also get the memory clock up another 350-500mhz w/o any issue. The 3770k is itself overclocked up to 4.2--I had Cyberpower do that so that the machine is still covered under warranty.
I would say mission accomplished with respect to x-plane 10. I still mess around with the rendering settings from time to time, but with those attached below get anywhere between 25-75fps, depending on the scenery and plane. I would say mostly between 35-50 fps although in flat, desert scenes it jumps up over 90 fps easy. Huge difference from my imac 27 2011. I did adjust the visibility down to 50-60m I think, but more so because I like the way it looks--it doesn't have a huge effect on performance either way. Having HDR on alone makes a huge difference--the lighting effects are awesome.
I would recommend the set up for those looking to jump to a PC for gaming--I wrote it out in an earlier post on this page. Good luck guys and happy flying.
Well the computer I ordered from Cyberpower PC arrived on last Friday, and it fired right up. Of course the first thing I did is install xplane 10, and sure enough that fired up too without issue. I was a little nervous because some folks have had issues with the GTX 680 and x-plane 10 but it looks like they fixed those. After screwing around with the rendering options for an hour I settled on a good line up I think--I'm going to try to attach a screenshot. The GTX 680 4gb is a monster, and it overclocks really easy with software downloaded from EVGA. I able to add 135mhz easy--could go up as high as 180mhz without any stability issues and temps never touching more than 70c, although I did adjust the fan curve to ramp up more quickly. I can also get the memory clock up another 350-500mhz w/o any issue. The 3770k is itself overclocked up to 4.2--I had Cyberpower do that so that the machine is still covered under warranty.
I would say mission accomplished with respect to x-plane 10. I still mess around with the rendering settings from time to time, but with those attached below get anywhere between 25-75fps, depending on the scenery and plane. I would say mostly between 35-50 fps although in flat, desert scenes it jumps up over 90 fps easy. Huge difference from my imac 27 2011. I did adjust the visibility down to 50-60m I think, but more so because I like the way it looks--it doesn't have a huge effect on performance either way. Having HDR on alone makes a huge difference--the lighting effects are awesome.
I would recommend the set up for those looking to jump to a PC for gaming--I wrote it out in an earlier post on this page. Good luck guys and happy flying.
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Very interesting, thank you.
I see you like a very wide field of view. You've got about 30º more than I do.
You've got the recommended FXAA post process HDR anti-aliasing. How would the 4xFXAA anti-aliasing work?
I do like the wide field of views particularly with the CRJ 200 which I think I was flying at the time I took the screen shot. 4xFXAA does take a big hit with respect to fps but I can take some of the objects down a notch (particularly some combination of cars, roads and clouds) and use it. It's a small difference but nice. Nice not essential by any means.
Like everyone I'm hoping 64 bit and continued performance tweaks will make a difference in the long run.
Forgot to mention that I notice a roughly 5-10 fps difference from using full screen resolution to windowed, even though the windowed view is almost exactly the same size as full screen. If you auto hide the task bar all you have is a little white frame around the picture while you fly.
Also figured out that I like glossy monitors much better. The U2711 is nice for sure but seriously nothing compares to the mac 27 inch display.
Well, you're in luck. I saw a thread that showed that some of the developer previews had GTX680 drivers. However, since it's dev preview, they aren't any faster than the ones for older cards. Let's hope it's rectified and they make fully functioning fast drivers in the final release
I missed your note before now but you have good advice. I will def go to a SSD at some point. It was hard to choose a power source---I really just guessed but the corsair seems to be ok without too much noise. The GTX 680 does sound like its going to take off when it ramps up but I messed with the fan curve to keep it nice and cool. Thanks again for sharing your thoughts.
As mentioned before going SSD won't help that much with X-Plane.
The game might launch slightly faster, but, in the every day experience of X-Plane 10 an SSD won't help.
The newest 3D hardware will help the initial 3D settings department, but the game needs to be 64 bits to be able to run to its full potential. Especially on OS X.
I'm getting fed up with the out-of-memory errors.
Of course I could cut the amount of AI planes, use less plug-ins etc. but those extras make X-Plane 10 so worth while.
Using just the default X-Plane DVD's you won't run into these issues. But connecting a few iPads (X-Plane EFIS.app, AirTrack, IGMapHD) and iPhones (AirTrack, xGPS) and using pushback stuff etc, and having lots and lots of heavy scenery (freeware and pay ware) the game won't even launch into EHAM (with the superb freeware scenery) or EGLL (Aerosoft Airport combined with the photorealistic scenery DVDs) without crashing. Also the pay ware KLGA with the huge Manhattan scenery cannot load.... the out-of-memory errors just keep coming.
Maybe booting into Windows 7 might help....
The game might launch slightly faster, but, in the every day experience of X-Plane 10 an SSD won't help.
The newest 3D hardware will help the initial 3D settings department, but the game needs to be 64 bits to be able to run to its full potential. Especially on OS X.
I'm getting fed up with the out-of-memory errors.
Of course I could cut the amount of AI planes, use less plug-ins etc. but those extras make X-Plane 10 so worth while.
Using just the default X-Plane DVD's you won't run into these issues. But connecting a few iPads (X-Plane EFIS.app, AirTrack, IGMapHD) and iPhones (AirTrack, xGPS) and using pushback stuff etc, and having lots and lots of heavy scenery (freeware and pay ware) the game won't even launch into EHAM (with the superb freeware scenery) or EGLL (Aerosoft Airport combined with the photorealistic scenery DVDs) without crashing. Also the pay ware KLGA with the huge Manhattan scenery cannot load.... the out-of-memory errors just keep coming.
Maybe booting into Windows 7 might help....