Technical Question

[Mick]

I'm still semi-absent, using a computer in my local library to get on line for a little while most mornings. My Win7pro rig has trashed its main internal drive, and rather than replace just the drive on such an old rig, the plan now is to build a new one from scratch, then recover and restore everything from my old system from backups, giving me a brand new Win7pro system with all new hardware. That poses a question. My techie friend who will do the build has been doing some perusing of the available hardware and he's all excited that processors can now be had with up to ten cores. The thing is, I only have one program that uses any significant amount of processor power: FS9. I seem to recall reading that FS9 was written from old single-core processors and can only use one core. I started with FS9 on an old single-core rig, then moved to my recently deceased rig with a four-core processor. The processor was much more powerful than its predecessor, but it didn't seem to run FS9 and faster or smoother or better in any way than it had been. My techie friend knows all about computers but he doesn't know anything about FS9, so he's uncertain about this. So - does anyone know - is it possible that a multi-core processor would reduce the power available for FS9, so that I should shop for a processor with the least number of processors that I can get?

 

[MrZippy]

Maybe this topic from another site may give you some useful advice! https://www.avsim.com/forums/topic/389647-now-you-can-run-fs2004-on-all-cores-with-just-one-click/

 

[Shessi]

Hi Mick,
A lot of people seem to think this about multi-core CPUs. There are also processors that are capable of hyper/multithreading. The difference between the two, is that a multi-core processor increases the overall speed of the pc, whilst multithreading is where that processor assigns threads to parts of a programme, which increases the speed at which that programme is processed.

A big BUTT, to have mutlithreading working you have to have a programme which is designed to make use of this multithreading, and guess what, FS9 is not one of them (in fact there are/were very few programmes that do). It is because the the muti-core processor came along and sped up the overall speed of the pc.

Since Fs9 was designed for pc specs then, specs have hugely increased. And as you say Fs9 was designed to run a on a single core CPU, and was designed to run at it's own programme speed, so you cannot speed up the programme itself or any part of it.

The best way to make Fs9 a better overall experience is to use an SSD HD to load the sim or sim required data as quickly as possible; A reasonable amount of RAM (you really don't need more than about 3-4Gb of memory for Fs9, more is not more, but you need about 16Gb base to run a modern pc with a modern OS and progs); A reasonable spec GPU (Fs9 again doesn't need anything spectacular); and of course a high res BIG screen (even here you have a resolution max with Fs9).

It's really about balance beween CPU/Motherboard/RAM/GPU and HDD, so there are no bottlenecks or a component that's stupidly high spec that will be idling along (a waste of money) or 'pushing' the other components. This is what will make your Fs9 better.

As far as how many cores, there are no mainstream single core processors, so a quad core processor will do fine for Fs9. If you are going to stick with Fs9, then this will be absolutely fine, but don't forget you may want to use FSX/P3D or MSFS2020, in which case you might want to build in some redundancy for a future sim upgrade! lol

...choices...choices..

Cheers

Shessi

 

[Desert Rat]

Jay explains well here. Probably best save money on your CPU and invest it in a better GPU.

 

[Mick]

Thanks guys! I've printed these replies and will discuss them with my friend later today. Then we'll hopefully be ready to pick out and order some hardware.

 

[Dangerousdave26]

Even though FS9 was written for a single core it still benefits from a multi core system. You should be able to set the affinity mask and tell FS9 to run in core X while all other processes run it Cores Y - Z.

10 cores is probably over kill but you have to compare prices. A quad core might not be as cost effective.


You want to get away from Windows 7 ( I hate saying that but it is true).

 

[Mick]

E ... You want to get away from Windows 7 ( I hate saying that but it is true).

Nope. I have a lot of software - not just FS itself and the programs I use in painting skins and other fiddling, my best photo processing software, most of my office suite, and a number of other things I have and use won't work in newer operating systems. I'm not willing to give all that stuff up nor am I willing to buy and learn replacements that won't do the jobs any better. I suppose the day will come when web sites will only work with browsers that will only run on later op systems, but that time is years in the future. Hopefully a lot of years. As for upgrading to new versions of FS that would require new software to work on models, that's not going to happen. I've spent well over a decade building up my worlds in three different FS installations and I have zero interest in starting over in a new sim. It's like a model railroader whop spends many years building up a layout, then something slightly more sophisticated with a few more bells and whistles comes along but it's in a different scale and using it would require starting over from scratch. Not interested! If I live long enough to see the day when getting on line requires a browser that requires a new OS, I will keep my Win7pro rig for my FS hobby and get a second confutor to access the interweb.