My 5Ghz Sandy Bridge
As mentioned already at the end of a previous post I finally upgraded my computer with a new 2600K Sandy Bridge processor and a new Socket 1155 motherboard. My expectations are fully met, after tweaking some settings in the Bios I was able to boot at 5GHz with my memory running at 1866MHz. I can confirm that this CPU is really a big step forward and I can see why it’s revolutionizing the industry.
This overclock was made possible by my Gigabyte P67A-UD7 motherboard (one of the best you can buy out there) and by the massive Noctua D14 that you can see in the image above. Thanks to these two components my temperatures are safe and under control making my system 100% stable. In fact I was able to run Prime95 for one hour without problems. Please note that in the screenshot below CPU-Z is reading a wrong Core Voltage, the real amount I used is 1.485.
I have to say that the most effective changes I made in the Bios are the Vcore at 1.485, Load Line Calibration at Level 2, and PLL Overvoltage Enabled. In order to see this last option you need to flash a beta Bios. I used the latest one (F7e) available here. For the memory I just changed the DRAM Voltage to 1.6 and the Memory Multiplier to 18.66. And finally, I turned off all the unnecessary features (like C1E, C3/C6 State, Thermal Monitor, EIST and PROCHOT). I also turned off Multi Threading because FSX and most of the other sims don’t really use it.
These are my rig specs:
i7 2600K @ 5GHz @ 1.485 | Gigabyte P67A-UD7 | G.Skill 8GB DDR3 @ 1866 | Radeon HD 5970 2GB | Noctua NH-D14 | Intel SSD X25-M 160GB | Insignia 120Hz 32″ LCD TV @ 1920×1080 | Win 7 64-bit | Thrustmaster HOTAS Cougar | Saitek Pro Flight Yoke + Quadrant + Rudders | TIR 5 Pro + Trackclip Pro | Razer Carcharias Headset
And now, with my computer stable as a rock, it’s time to install my favourite sims and enjoy the big difference in FPS. I don’t spend a lot of time with FSX but I just can’t wait to see what 5GHz can do to it! Do we finally have the right hardware to run it at its max?
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My name is Giorgio Bertolone, I am the author and webmaster of this website. I work in the Visual Effects industry and I live in Vancouver with my wonderful wife and three adorable kids.
Since young age I had only two interests, computers and aviation. The first one became my job and the second one became one of my biggest passions.
At one point, I decided to put the two things together. The result was flight simulation. And this website was born.
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Dude !!!!!
Very Impressive.
nice rig! im waiting for your 5G report on FSX!
Very nice upgrade .All we hoe to see in close feature , mil sims that can be implement all this features for entertening
keep walking my friend …. the feature is here!!!
Can’t wait to see what that baby does to FSX. I bought a top of the line PC in 2006 and there hasn’t been any major improvements in technology since then that has convinced me to upgrade. The Sandy-Bridge might be a deal changer though.
Giorgio, I have a question for you. Does using a TV as monitor gives you any advantage or disadvantage over a regular monitor? Obviously, a bigger screen is better, but, does it really work fine as a monitor?
I was thinking of buying a Plasma TV (something really big
)to use as monitor, but I’m not sure if that is a good idea.
Thanks guys, I need to spend more time in FSX but so far my rig is rendering FSX with a minimum of 30 FPS in the most complex scenes (city+water+airport+AI) with most of the sliders maxed. I’m testing in FTX Seattle with REX and Ultimate Traffic 2 (both commercial and general aviation are at 100%). No tweaks added to the CFG.
I can’t complain, I’m very happy to fly fluid and with zero stuttering. But this shows one more time how much FSX is poorly optimized. With so much processing power available I would expect a minimum of 50-60 FPS. I wonder if an additional SP from ACES could have helped… But it is what it is and we’ll never see this kind of high frame rate in FSX, we’ll be using FLIGHT for that. They really need to move some workload from the CPU to the GPU and take advantage of the latest techniques and shaders. Taxing exclusively the CPU is a performance killer. Even with 5GHz is still a bad idea.
@Victorinox: I bought a 32” TV because I wanted a cheap and big screen. PC monitor of that size are really expensive. Their quality is better but when I fly I find that the immersion comes from the size of the cockpit view and not so much from the definition of the pixels. Any HDTV works fine as a computer monitor, you can connect it with VGA or DVI. Plus you also get the 120Hz which is nice.
That is exactly what I had in mind. I’ll give it a try! Thanks Giorgio keep up the good work!
Hi,
Just ordered maximus formula IV with 2600k but i dont know about memory and overlcoking. Do you have 2 DIMMS of 2×4 ? Is it still an issue to better only use 2 dimms instead of 4 because of Integrated memory controller ?
@Remco: Do you mean the Maximus IV Extreme? I haven’t seen a Maximus IV Formula on the Asus website.
It seems like a very good motherbooard for overclocking (after all it’s built for that):
http://www.hardwareheaven.com/reviews/1096/pg8/asus-rog-maximus-iv-extreme-p67-motherboard-review-power-use-and-overclocking.html
I heard there were some problems with new EFI Bios but I’m sure that by now there are better revisions.
Hi Giorgio,
What kind of case and power supply do you have?
Pimp, the PSU is a Silverstone Stryder Plus 1000W. My case is not that recent but it still works pretty well and I can fit everything. It’s a Thermaltake Armor.
Hi Giorgio!,
I see that you have Razer Carcharias and TrackIR Pro clip, do they connect good? or I’ll discover some problems