Hey guys,

I am a rather hardcore gamer...and like my graphics at the max. And currently I have Vista Ultimate 32 bit...with 3558MB of RAM...an eVGA 8800GT..slightly overclocked. And of course the AMD 6400+ X2 at 3.28 GHz.

Now I play Flight Simulator X. I don't know if you ever heard of this game or not. But it is extremely demanding. I play with good graphics...but my FPS can be really annoying when its down around 10-15, when flying over a city.

Now there are many members on a flight sim forum I'm on..that have almost the exact specs as me, but instead they have the quad core Q6600, also overclocked to about 3.0 GHz, and they get about 37-45 FPS!

So now....my first question IS...I have an AM2 motherboard..This one to be specific: Asus M2N32-SLI. Now it is a AM2 motherboard...and I was wondering...since the Phenom requires an "AM2+" motherboard, is that ANY different from my AM2 socket motherboard? Will the Phenom's performance be unleashed using my Motherboard?

Also is this comparable to the Q6600? Or does it exceed Q6600's performance. Also i read that the Phenom X4 9850 has the Cool n' Quiet technology, so will it be easy to overclock, so they don't overheat? Also will I get a nice FPS increase to about 30 FPS? And good Crysis FPS as well? Also I am planning to go SLI sooner or later as well.

Please tell me whether it's worth it, and whether or not my Motherboard will support AM2+ socket CPUs.


Thank in Advance,

Peter

According to this list on Asus's site it shows 3 different versions of the M2N32 that are AM2+ compatible. It seems that you will need to update your BIOS but you should be able to drop in a phenom with no problems.

But I seriously doubt that going from 2 to 4 cores will help in fps in games. As far as I know most games dont properly use 2 cores yet let alone 4 cores. I would advise that if you want higher fps in games to either get another 8800GT for SLI, or look into the new GPU's from ATI Nvidia.

But then why do people get another 20-25 FPS more than I do..when they have the same GPU, and same RAM, and OS etc. But they just have that Q6600, and that just boosts them. Also I read that the Phenom has some technology, that it turns off the cores it isn't using.

Also apparently Flight Simulator X, doesn't take advantage of SLI. People are mentioning that my CPU is a bottleneck and I should change my mobo and get the Q6600...that's too much of a cost. When I can just buy the Phenom for $220.

So any other opinions?

no other opinions?

You can go and buy a phenom if you are convinved that your CPU is your bottleneck. But I just would of thought that a X2 6400 would be a very capable CPU, and that your GPU would be letting you down.

You can wait and see if anyone else responds with an opinion or take whatever action you feel is appropriate.

You could always let go of your fan boyish ways and just buy the better platform currently on the market if you're such a "hardcore gamer,"

or, sli your video card. sounds like a graphic issue. I played FS, I know how demanding it is.

Sorry this isn't Totally from Personal Experience But,

Judging from what I've read, FS "X" makes the case for holding onto FS-2004, in the same way that Vista makes the case for holding onto XP.

However, some people make the case that flight simulations don't require anywhere near the same FPS rates that something like a first person shooter would. FS 2004 is quite usable with Intel GMA900 onboard graphics, and just needs a serial number not a BS activation.

Mostly depends on your graphic settings, some parts of flight can reduce your Frame rates a bit.

You could see a framerate improvement if you were successful in bringing that Phenom at the same clock speed as the Athlon64-X2. Since that game isn't multi-threaded, it will only respond to a more efficient CPU & the Phenom is better than the Athlon64-X2 when both are running at the same clock speed.

I'm surprised by now that no one is telling this OPer that the C2D quad cores are usually better then amds quad offerings right now......... sadly. The bottleneck on his system is most likely his processor. There's a reason why so many ppl uses the Q6600. Right now its the best processor you can buy at its price range, and the C2D processors are very well known for there fantastic overclocking ability . You can find out more by googling benchmarks, there are a ton of benchmarks for intel quad cores vs amds quads.

That's because it'd require the OP to change his motherboard, and no one wants to make him spend more money than is necessary.

@eclipse245, go for the Phenom. It should raise your framerates by quite a bit, especially since FSX can take advantage of all the four cores(if you have the service pack for it installed). Also, do you have 4GB of RAM? If so, consider running Vista x64 to be able to use all your RAM.

Yes I have 4GB, but since I have a 32bit OS, it uses exactly 3558 MB of RAM...so with 64 bit, it would just use another 500 MB or RAM.

So here are my options:

Get another 8800GT for SLI.

OR

Get the Phenom X4 9850.

which will benefit me more?

I'd be inclined to say that the CPU would be a better help. The game has issues with SLI, so avoid it if possible.

The game loves RAM due to the large amounts of textures involved. So more RAM will help, even if it's only an extra half gig.

I just don't want to spend my money and then see that there is a very little performance boost.

So you seriously think the CPU will help....and by how many FPS would u say approx...would it help with Crysis too?

It would help the frame rates for both games significantly. As for FSX, it's very CPU-dependent and you might get a boost of at least 10-15FPS, since the game is continually calculating textures and generating scenery on-the-fly, plus it's designed to use upto 256 CPU cores.
IMO, if you play only FSX, then consider getting a new Intel motherboard and CPU. You could grab a Q9300 or a Q9450, which would OC very easily and blow the Phenom out of the water.

Thing is, I just built this computer lol, about 5 months ago, when the Phenom wasn't released yet. And about a month later they started coming out. So my only option is to upgrade my CPU or GPU.

So you think I should stil with phenom? I mean 10 FPS increase is great for FSX!

And I play Crysis, BF2, ArmA, lots of other games too.


Is the Phenom easy to overclock..I mean temperature wise?

Yeah, the Phenom would show an improvement in the other games too, provided you can OC it to your current CPU's frequency. This is a problem with Phenoms though, they are very bad overclockers. Some Phenoms may go as far as 200MHz before exhibiting problems, while others refuse to OC even 1MHz above the stock frequency. Still, it would be an upgrade from your current CPU, so go for it IMO.

Maybe just SLI? I DONNO lol, I will see. thanks for the help anyways.