olderndirt wrote on Nov 16
th, 2010 at 9:05pm:
One of your choices is a quad CPU of less than 3 GHZ. Curiosity forces me to ask - for FSX, where CPU speed is of the essence, is a quad of lesser speed more advantageous than a duo of higher speed? Are cores more important than Gigahertz? And the Graphics - from what I've gleaned, all other things being relatively equal, the card memory is key and nothing less than 1GB is prudent. Something to ponder while you're trying to sleep
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Speed is only a factor to consider when comparing otherwise identical processors. At cpubenchmark.net you can see that a i5 760 has a score of 4551. It's not particularly scientific, but one faster Intel Core2Duo is the E8600 (which is about 120% the cost of the i5) at 3.33GHz has a score on that website of just 2652 - Pretty much half the actual performance, despite being faster.
It's not about speed... It's about how efficient it is. If ProcessorA runs at 10GHz but takes 100,000 cycles to do a single task, and ProcessorB runs at 1GHz but takes 1 cycle to do a task, the performance is infinately better. So more modern processors and better architecture and better programming means that a slower processor can be better. That said, a i5 760 at 2.8GHz would be beaten by an identical i5 which had a faster clock speed. Imagine a postal centre where they send off parcels... Processor A would be the same as having some sporty blokes in running shoes but they must pass the parcel and send it on hundreds of conveyors to get from A to B. Processor B would be like putting it on a single conveyor by people who are taking it a little more laid back.
As for graphics memory, I shouldn't think it be too much of an issue. At any rate, it's still vastly better than my current graphics card. It also depends on the bandwidth of the memory of the actual RAM on the graphics card.
Paul, I'd love to do a steady upgrade of my computer, but I doubt the physical limitations of the software would allow it. As far as I'm aware, OEM copies of an operating system will only permit 3 critical upgrades (CPU, motherboard, or anything like that) and then you'll get locked out. Retail editions of the software don't really care, but I have OEM installed. I'd be shooting myself in the foot... And ultimately I'd have to buy everything new to upgrade. The only things I can preserve from this computer is the Power Supply Unit and the case, and I'm not sure about the case.
Edit: In other news, I'm going to be waiting for the 2011 processors. The new processors should mean the new i5s are as powerful as a current i7.
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