Computer GPU and peripherals for X-Plane 10

[asuperpower]

I'm sure it is probably quite hard to predict how X-Plane 10 will take use of the GPU. With this in mind, I have a question to ask.

I'm new to X-Plane and these forums. (Please tell me if I am posting in the wrong place.) I have only previously used X-Plane Mobile and a little bit of FlightGear. I have had enough with the restriction of both of the programs. As I am going to build a new computer, I thought I might as well buy X-Plane 10 when it comes out. I have been watching various instructional videos on YouTube on how to fly various planes. I have opted to purchase the Saitek X52 Pro, TrackIR5 and the Saitek Pro Flight Yoke System shortly after the completion of my computer. I have a few main questions:

1. Are the above peripherals a good choice? I have a budget of<$250 per controller. I will not get all of the controllers at once. I will probably get the X52 Pro and the TrackIR5 first and then the Pro Flight Yoke system. I will be mainly flying Boeing 747-400's, 747-8's, F/-A 18's and F-22's (Hopefully.)
   
2. How well will a mildly overclocked GTX 570 be able to cope (running X-Plane 9 or 10) when running for 2 monitors, (each at 1920x1080-perhaps at least mid-high?) one for the Pilot's view and one for the Co-Pilots view. Most of the time I will only be using one monitor anyway.
   
3. Will putting X-Plane on an SSD help very much? Otherwise I'll just put it on 2 HDD's in RAID 0. If so, how much performance improvements should I see? Ideally I don't want to put the flight sim on the SSD as it is only a 120GB SSD.
   

Here are the basic specs of the system:

i7 2600k with water block overclocked to 4.8GHz

Asus Maximus Extreme-Z

Mildly overclocked GTX 570 Direct CU II with water block

OCZ Vertex 3 120GB

2xSamsung SpinPoint F3 in RAID 0

Corsair AX850

HAF X housing XSPC RX360 RAD.

[asuperpower]

Anyone? Anything?

[Kesomir]

1. I've always liked the saitek controllers in the consumer market. Track IR is awesome, but I don't use it anymore because I find it easier to fly using predefined views to switch between instead. For immersion though, it's a great toy.

2. GTX 570 Runs X-Plane 9 fine on a single monitor at that res. Are you going to be using a dual/triplehead2go for the dual monitors? FYI You can't set up multiple viewpoints in x-plane on once pc, so the single viewpoint stretched across 2 monitors is what you'd get.

If you push up into dual 1920x1080 you may want to think about a 580 or another card with more VRAM.

3. It will boot quicker, disc I/O isn't a bottleneck though so no improvement at all once in sim.

The PC is quite a beast.

They key for x-plane 10 is :

1. The fastest cores you can afford.

2. As many cores as you can afford.

A solid GPU is also important with enough VRAM, but as a 32bit application, you may not find things exploited fully until a 64bit switch occurs.

[asuperpower]

1. I've always liked the saitek controllers in the consumer market. Track IR is awesome, but I don't use it anymore because I find it easier to fly using predefined views to switch between instead. For immersion though, it's a great toy.

2. GTX 570 Runs X-Plane 9 fine on a single monitor at that res. Are you going to be using a dual/triplehead2go for the dual monitors? FYI You can't set up multiple viewpoints in x-plane on once pc, so the single viewpoint stretched across 2 monitors is what you'd get.

If you push up into dual 1920x1080 you may want to think about a 580 or another card with more VRAM.

3. It will boot quicker, disc I/O isn't a bottleneck though so no improvement at all once in sim.

The PC is quite a beast.

They key for x-plane 10 is :

1. The fastest cores you can afford.

2. As many cores as you can afford.

A solid GPU is also important with enough VRAM, but as a 32bit application, you may not find things exploited fully until a 64bit switch occurs.

1. I'll use the Saitek controllers and the TrackIR 5 as I am not deeply serious about flying but I want to have a good time.

2. Ok. I'm not using dual/triplehead2go. A 580 is a little out of my budget at the moment so I'll just use one monitor for now and then buy a new card at another point in time.

3. Ok. I'll put the sim on the HDD.

Thank you.

I think I'll stick with the i7 2600k too. It would be nice to purchase an i7 3930k when that comes out but the price is a little steep.

[Hueyman]

Hey hello

I also plan to make a new computer for times to come, not now for sure.

I made a little Open Office document to see what would be the FASTEST home built PC for now, with best parts aviable. it cost about 3600 € ( about 5000 $ ) less expensive than the best Alien Wares with better parts. the fastest CPU, and GPU;

If you're interested, take a look .

I'll save for one or two years, then buy the best parts aviable in 2012 - 2013. Keep in mind, Austin said it himself, " There isn't any kind of computer that could run XP 10 full setting at high FPS for the moment and probably in the years to come ".

If you want a realistic AI, with 10-15 ACF around, you'll need a 10/15 Core CPU to run fine.. something doesn't exist yet. But I don"t worry, I'm used to enjoy a sim, even with medium or low setting, I have currently a bit old 2009 mid range Laptop, running XP9 not very well..

Take a look what I want :

Damn ! I can't upload Open Office files ..

[dpny]

If you want a realistic AI, with 10-15 ACF around, you'll need a 10/15 Core CPU to run fine..

That's not what Austin's said. Two things.

1) There will never be a computer which can max out X-Plane's specs because that's not the purpose of X-Plane's rendering options. Those options are there to give the user a large degree of control over the rendering options so that a users can tune performance on a wide range of machines, from older laptops to modern multi-core monster desktops.

2) It will not take one core to run one AI plane. Most of X-Plane's CPU cycles go towards world rendering.

[Kesomir]

as dpny says - when you enable those extra flight models for yourself in x-plane 9, the sim doesn't bomb and that's the same concept with the v10 AI. They have a hit, but it's not very noticeable until they really start to stack and this will be less so in v10 as the workload gets spread across as many other cores as you have available.