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Ditto! I am on the fence about upgrading my two 6950s to a single GTX 680 (preferably the classified 4GB edition to be released this June by EVGA). Your results will play a significant role in my decision-making process.

Well, that's a lot of stuff to learn! However, it all sounds fascinating, EXCEPT to master the CDU. I hate the CDU. I know how to use it for basic functions, but the CDU and I often get into heated arguments! Well, I guess I'll just have to give my manual / DCS Bible's section on the CDU a good read through again and I should be better. Thanks for the words of encouragement all! I really could not have made it over the huge learning curve of this game without the support of this community.

...I did a cold startup, took-off, contacted JTAC to receive attack coordinates, setup my SPI using my TAD, prepared all weapon systems for attack, navigated to attack point, blew up the tanks, used the divert page in the CDU to find my base airfield, and landed! Wow, that is a lot of stuff I had to learn how to do over the course of the last 3-4 months! But damn, is it rewarding! A word of encouragement to those just starting this sim and feeling daunted - hang in there. What helped me learn this sim was to think about it in steps. I spent one weekend just figuring out JTAC and weapon systems for example while, another weekend, I worked on my landing. Then, it all started to come together. This is also my first real flight simulator so hopefully other simulators I play like ROF will not require such a tremendously long time to learn. Just wanted to share. No one in my RL can relate to how much of an accomplishment it is to overcome the learning curve of this sim!

Hahaha - Got a good laugh out of this.

Do you think that will actually make a difference in the frame rates I'm getting in DCS compared to what I'm getting now? I'm getting like 45-50 FPS on the ground (with MFCDs exporting to helios), and then a little over 60 when I'm over mountains. I don't want to blow $100+ on RAM just to get 2 FPS difference. Plus, I'm still wondering if my computer is just getting faulty information within CPU-Z from 2 of my RAM sticks when in fact they are running at the correct settings. Thoughts?

Just found this thread by a similar person who ran into my problem. Looks like Corsair is selling very similar-looking memory modules; yet they are in fact different from one another... http://forum.corsair.com/v3/showthread.php?t=82227 So what do you guys think I should do? Toss out the old pair and buy another new pair which will match the latest kit I bought? Or, should I just get a brand-new 8 GB set so that I buy all my modules in the same package? Will doing this increase my performance in DCS in any way?

Ok all, here are my CPU-Z screens as promised. Please take note of three problems as made clear by the below images: 1.) Dimms# 1 and 2 are clocked at 667Mhz while Dimms# 3 and 4 are clocked at only 533Mhz. 2.) Dimms# 1 and 2's timings are 9-9-9-24 while dimms# 3 and 4 are 9-9-9-26. Is this significant? 3.) All dimms should be running at 1.6v; yet CPU-Z indicates they are only running at 1.5v even though I have specified the correct voltage setting in the BIOS. Thank you to everyone for helping me to figure out this confusing issue. Here are the images. If they don't pop-up right away, simply right-click and save the URL then open it in your browser:

Question for everyone reading this thread: when you look at all four of your Dimm pages within CPU-Z, are the EXACT same numbers displayed on each page for your memory's timings and frequency? Just curious. Still at work, going to get home in the next few hours and get my CPU-Z pages posted.

When I get home tonight, I will post my CPU-Z tables. I'll get back to you guys soon. Mine definitely do not look like what you just posted.

Thanks for your suggesttion bumfire. If this is similar to what you are suggestiong, I have tried running my RAM on "AUTO" settings within my BIOS. However, that causes my RAM to run at frequencies which are significantly off from its standard settings. Also, the voltage is set to 1.5 in that circumstance. Where do you usually find this XMP profile? Could it be named something else? I'm running the below RAM: Corsair XMS3 1333Mhz 9-9-9-24. Newegg Link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145198&cm_re=xms3_4gb_ddr3-1333-_-20-145-198-_-Product

I thought the same exact thing. My BIOS is all configured as it should be, yet I'm noticing in both 3DMark and Cpu-Z that 2 out of 4 of my sticks of RAM are at a different frequency. I will assume that you guys are right about this; however, just to be on the safe side, I'll throw a post up on my motherboard's website and see if others have encountered this issue. Please feel free to offer additional suggestions, thanks!

Hi all, After running a 3dMark 11 test today, I noticed that my RAM is running at different frequencies to my surprise since I have already correctly set my timings and associated frequency in my BIOS. Regardless, here's the situation. I have four sticks of 2GB per-stick DDR3 1333 Mhz RAM. Two sticks are running at the correct 1333 Mhz freq and are using the correct timings I specified of 9-9-9-24. However, the remaining two sticks are running at 1066 Mhz with an incorrect freq of 9-9-9-26. Does anyone know how to correct this problem? In case it is helpful, my motherboard is an ASUS M4A78T-E. Another issue to mention is that CPU-Z states that my RAM is only running at 1.5v when it should be running at 1.6v. Now, I have already set in the BIOS for the RAM to run at 1.6v; yet CPU-Z does not reflect this fact. I would also add that AMD Overdrive does display that the RAM is correctly running at 1.6v so, is there just a problem with CPU-Z here or do you guys think my RAM is really running at 1.5v? Thanks for all the help!

Nope, this happens also with 11.2 CCC drivers.

I have this also. Just happened with 1.1.0.7. I'm running CCC 11.2.

!!!??? Dude, that will be awesome! Normal landing is boring. I want to land with no landing gear at all! Although, I don't think I"d want to do that in real life, ha!

Thanks Ice, that helps a great deal. I will try what you mentioned and see how that goes. I'm sure I will get this down with a little bit of practice. Thanks for the help.

hahaha, thanks Airdog. Somehow, I wonder if your first piece of advice would earn me a "mission incomplete" plus a prompt court-marshall and/or someone who just shoots me after getting out of the cockpit! I will pay attention more to my radio communications with the ATC. I must admit, I find landing to be harder than anything in this game. I can drop bombs all day or start up my aircraft in a few minutes; but landing is where the real skill seems to come in. One more question since we're on the topic of landing...when the ATC radios you your heading and distance to runway when you inform the ATC that you are "inbound," does the "distance to runway" information indicate how far you are currently from the runway when you radio that you are inbound or indicate how far you should be from the runway when you begin your approach? Thanks all!

Just as the title says. I know this question probably has a simple answer I have overlooked. I do remember reading in the flight manual that you should always land into the wind; however, how do I know which way the wind is blowing when I take-off or land? Also, should you ideally take-off with the wind at your back? To add one more point: when I contact the ATC and they tell me to take-off on "Runaway 14" for instance, how do I determine where "runway 14" exactly is without rolling right up to the base of the runway? What I mean is, I can hit f10 and look at the map to see where I should taxi to get to the runway, but the runway itself is not marked on the map as "runway 14" or anything. Any suggestions? Thanks all.

Thanks for the link. I believe that is what I was looking for.

Hi all, I was just thinking last night while using my f1-f12 keys to communicate with ATC how absolutely amazing it would be if I could use my mic + built-in voice recognition software to communicate via my voice with ATC or any other mission entities. When this thought came to my head, I also remembered my Rainbow Six 3 days on the Xbox when you could use your Xbox Live mic to issue orders to my teammates. Although some thought this was an unnecessary feature, I thought it really added to the immersion effect of the game. So, just wanted to see 1.) if this is currently possible and I just didn't realize it or 2.) if the DCS team would have any interest in licensing a voice recognition engine to be used with the next DCS game. Thanks to the entire ED team for making such an outstanding simulation!

OMG that is ridiculous! How in the world did you figure that out? Man, I wasted a solid 3 hours customizing my snapviews by using x, y, z coordinates. Arg... Well, thanks so much for sharing that. When I re-arrange my monitor setup in the future, that will come in very, very handy!

Hello all, I have a 4 monitor setup (3x24" Dell U2410 for eyefinity and 1xAcer T230H Touchscreen). Since I use my monitors in various configurations throughout my day, I often have to switch in and out of eyefinity mode. As a result, when I change back to eyefinity mode in the evening to game and go through the whole bezel-compensation process, sometimes ATI does not give me the same horizontal resolution which I had during the previous evening. It all just depends on how exactly I use the bezel compensation tool. Here's the problem: when placing MFCD's on my touchscreen or setting up custom snapviews, I need to always use the same eyefinity resolution as a baseline to accurately set the aforementioned, related values. The obvious answer is to say "Use a profile!" Well, I've tried that but switching in and out of eyefinity profiles with CCC 11.2 does not work for me. CCC allows me to switch between non-eyefinity profiles just fine (usually), BUT if I try to switch from a non-eyefinity profile to an eyefinity profile (or vice versa), it won't work. Instead, if I'm switching from a non-eyefinity profile, CCC will just switches to my 3 24" U2410 displays mirroring one another in non-eyefinity mode. Just to note: I'm using two XFX 6950s in crossfire (although crossfire doesn't work in windowed mode with my touchscreen...) If there was a way to fix my profile problem in CCC, that would fix my first problem of establishing a permanent, bezel-compensated resolution which will not change every time I switch in and out of eyefinity mode. With all that said, I welcome any advice people might have with regard tot his issue. Thanks!

I've figured out my problem which was causing the stuttering: horribly messed-up RAM timings. Following Mugenjin's advice, I installed CPU-Z and noticed my RAM was several numbers off of the manufacturer's recommended 9-9-9-24 timings. In addition, my clock speed was at something like 1000Mhz when it was supposed to be at 1333 Mhz! After going into BIOS and manually setting my timings, clock speed, and voltage settings, my system runs at like DOUBLE the speed it did before while working in Windows. My stutters, in all games, have now decreased by like 90%. A-10 is now playable! I figure that the remaining 10% of stuttering will disappear entirely once I setup my SSD drive. I purchased a Corsair Performance 3 128 GB drive. I'm going to load windows and my flight sims onto the drive and nothing else. I then have 2x500 GB WD drives which I will use to store all my other stuff, install other non-high performance games, and backup my windows install and documents folder. I figure that this will a.) increase my loading speeds considerably, both for games and Windows 7 and, b.) provide me with a good backup solution to preserve my data. On that last point, what backup program do all of you like to use? I've used Norton Ghost in the past but am considering using Windows 7 Ultimate's backup utility this time around. Thoughts?

That's a great idea! When I reinstall everything, I will re-evaluate how I have my data partitioned and stored. My problem is I have a 500 GB drive with everything running off of it in the same partition and the thing is nearly full. It has to be impacting my performance to some degree I figure; even if it is a small hit to performance.