dom_vc10 wrote in Wed Nov 24, 2021 4:43 pm:So I have a massively small budget, around 280 Euro so the scope is small. I will obviously need a new motherboard and ram to go with the new CPU which eats that budget up.
[..] my understanding is that FG would be best with a CPU that has a faster core rather than more cores is that the correct assumption?
It depends on how long your current upgrade cycle is. If it's a lot more than an year - FG performance is a changing and unknown target. The next LTS with WS3 terrain, WS3 roads, compositor, planned new GUI etc. will be very different - final WS3 performance is unknown. In some ways FG will be faster , with scripts to merge scene objects to reduce OSG nodes, old OpenGl being replaced when the new GUI comes in, any OSG optimisations, various optimisations, multi-thread safe property tree. For example WS3 terrain is already less CPU bound due to using fewer OSG nodes. However, there will be new features to enable that will use up spare performance.
You will also need new RAM with a new MB - it's also unknown what the RAM requirements will be, as well as what the benefits are for having more RAM .
The best indication of future performance will be after the next LTS releases - and by then there might be a new CPU generation out - and CPU/MBs could be cheaper for the same performance. The shortages due to the pandemic might also have lessened.
You should look at various prices and options using the CPU benchmarks linked on the wiki:
https://wiki.flightgear.org/Hardware_re ... 2018.3_LTSYou should also look at current GPU utilisation with various graphics settings and aircraft. For example if GPU utilisation is 80%, a faster CPU can give 1.0/0.8 = 1.25, or 125% more FPS. If a CPU that is 2x faster is used instead, there will still be only 25% more performance.
Kind regards