Processor help!

[Conure]

Hi everyone,

 

I'm quite short on money at the moment so don't have a huge amount to spend. I just had a couple of questions about a possible upgrade...Basically, I'm playing the game on high texures, with low shadows, low water, heat blur off, HDR off, 2x AA...Now I'm perfectly happy with these settings, the terrain and cockpit look great. The problem I'm having is, strange FPS dips.

 

On the tutorial for example, I can be flying over the coast with a lot of autogen and getting a steady 45-60fps, but when I look at a particular point (usually near the airfield) it drops to about 13. When I'm on the ground at the airport I usually get about 16/17fps. Whilst this would be terrible for an FPS game, for DCS it's alright, but I was wondering...Due to the strange dip in FPS and fact that generally I get extremely smooth frame rates, is this an optimisation issue? I know the next beta release is supposed to be quite focused around optimisation, and even an extra 5fps in these areas would make the game 100x more enjoyable, is this a possibility?

 

Secondly, if not, my specs are this..

 

4GB DDR2 800mhz

Geforce GTX260 876mb

Intel C2Q Q6600 @ 2.4ghz

7200rpm hard drive with a lot of free space

Windows 7 64bit

 

It is well maintained and free of software bugs etc, but I think the CPU is the weakest point in terms of A-10, is that right? If so, do you think I could get a noticable performance boost from buying a new socket 775 CPU, as I don't really want to upgrade the motherboard etc due to money concerns.

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, and I'm sorry for the long thread.

 

Thanks all,

 

Con

[KillaALF]

Ever thought about overclocking your CPU? Also, the sim right now is far from optimized, Wags even mentioned that Beta 3 might run slower than previous versions, so before before spending any money I would wait for the final version. If it still runs unacceptable then you can start thinking about an upgrade. Never buy hardware for "future" projects, only upgrade if what you play right now does not run as you would like it to.

[Conure]

Hi Killa, that is all I needed to know for no really - If it is far from optimised now (and I am reasonably happy with it now) I would excect that even a few more FPS will be much better. I have tried OCing my cpu, infact it's at 2.5ghz now, but for some strange reason if I up it anymore my internet stops working..Apparently it's something to do with the PCI Express settings auto changing!

[mig29]

@Conure

 

I have a weaker PC than you.

core2duo 2.66mhz

2GB 800mhz RAM

Geforce 9600GT

Windows 7 64-bit.

 

I have all the settings set to the highest. Resolution 1280x720. Anti aliasing @ 4x and anisotropic filtering @ 2x (Set from nvidia control panel). After all these, I get a constant frame rate greater than 50FPS. At ground levels (like at airfield), FPS is around 30.

[Invisibull]

...so before before spending any money I would wait for the final version.

 

I think this is sound advice, and it's exactly what I intend to do as well. Further, I'd imagine you'd get better prices after Christmas anyway.

[Conure]

@Conure

 

I have a weaker PC than you.

core2duo 2.66mhz

2GB 800mhz RAM

Geforce 9600GT

Windows 7 64-bit.

 

I have all the settings set to the highest. Resolution 1280x720. Anti aliasing @ 4x and anisotropic filtering @ 2x (Set from nvidia control panel). After all these, I get a constant frame rate greater than 50FPS. At ground levels (like at airfield), FPS is around 30.

 

 

Hmm, sound promising. Perhaps it's just an optimisation thing...If I could get a steady 30fps at medium graphics on final release I would be very happy. I hope with optimisation that is achievable.

[KillaALF]

Hi Killa, that is all I needed to know for no really - If it is far from optimised now (and I am reasonably happy with it now) I would excect that even a few more FPS will be much better. I have tried OCing my cpu, infact it's at 2.5ghz now, but for some strange reason if I up it anymore my internet stops working..Apparently it's something to do with the PCI Express settings auto changing!

 

Hmm, whats your motherboard?

[mig29]

Please forgive me for my above post. I did not notice that A-10 is in question. I was thinking FC2. Sorry again.

 

@Mods: Please delete my posts if possible as they are not helpful at all.

[Conure]

IT's a P5b-VM SE, If you could help at all I would really appreciate it! It's very odd that the net drops because I overclock...

[EtherealN]

If you were to go for a new processor, you could consider one of the dual-cores since they are generally higher-clocked. The issue though is that your current mobo has a slower bus speed than what the newer C2D and C2Q's want.

 

An alternative could be something like this: http://techreport.com/articles.x/19868/2

 

You would only need to replace mobo, CPU and memory, and would "get away" with about 230 dollars with that option. Compare that with a C2D e8400 which sells at newegg for ~170 dollars right now. So the raise in cost for a CPU/mobo/memory replacement isn't too bad. Another alternative could be: http://techreport.com/articles.x/19868/3

 

Then it is 290 dollars for such a replacement.

 

But I'd definitely recommend waiting with doing an upgrade/replacement until the product goes gold and you can look around at what types of performance other people get, and then you can make an educated decision on what kind of benefits the upgrade would give. Having some FPS drops in certain areas is fairly normal, depending on how much "stuff" is at a specific location. You could also try the Water=0 trick in the settings files and see if this helps you out, though this should mainly affect medium and median framerates, not the lows.

[Conure]

Thanks EtherealN, as always your advise is great :-)

 

I will follow what you guys say and just wait til it goes gold. I think if the sim gets some more optimisation I will probably be fine without an upgrade as I'm not too bothered about the glow effects etc!

 

Thanks again,

 

Con

[emenance]

See if you can find someone with your board and a q6600 that is running 3.0 ghz. Maybe you can find in a forum like pcper.com or somewhere. I have been using my q6600 at 3.0 ghz for 3 years. Never a problem.