iRacing in the off season.

[wesley123]

An moderate processor and maxed on your graphics card? That is the same like making an peanutbutter sandwich and let half of the peanutbutter fall of the sandwich

Putting up the best graphics card in the world together with an processor like an C2D is useless, as the graphics card is too fast for the cpu so you get an bottleneck.

Rather go for an phenomII x4 for example with an HD5870(wich is already an bottleneck) then an AthlonII x4 with the DH5970 for example, with the first one you will get better performance then with the second.

[DaveKillens]

Thanks Wesley, thanks for the suggestion. Maybe I was misleading in what I stated. Since it will be a dedicated gaming rig, I do not have to take into consideration such things as CPU intensive multithreading or multitasking, or the need for massive storage. When I said "moderate" I was thinking more along the lines of an AMD PhenomII X4 965, rather than some expensive silicon such as the Intel Core i7 965, which is about a thousand more.

I have spent years, thousands of laps sim racing on sub-standard video cards, and I now have one simple rule... you can't have enough graphics. At least one 5870, but most likely I will get a 5970.

The same focus will go into my storage medium. I don't need a SSD, so I can avoid that needless expense.

My philosophy is to identify shortcomings that have a negative impact on the driver's racing performance. When my pedals slid around too much for my liking, I constructed a racing seat, and fixed all the controls so that my ergonomics became excellent. When my frame rates dropped so much it became scary, I promised myself never to have a video card that couldn't do anything I asked of it. When I realized that even one beer, or (cough cough) anything else in that field affected my racing, I now show up at any and all important races 100% sober and with a clear head. Of course that doesn't make me a better racer, it just removes me from being a liability on the track and making some dumbass screw-up.

I sure hope some form of F1T sim-racing league gets off the ground, I will definitely be there. I may not be quickest, but trust me, I will be very well prepared.

[Giblet]

For a comparison, I have an i7-920, 2 500gigs in a raid 0 setup for my OS drive, and I keep my games on my separate D drive.

I should have got a better vid card, as I wanted to take care of the meat first, as I can always upgrade the potatoes later. I got a mid level gts250.

With this setup, I run max detail in 1900x1200, and bottom out at about 40 frames a second, with a full field of cars. In practice I am anywhere from 60-110.

iRacing currently only uses two cores, it will not use 4, but it might get coded for it later on.

If I got a Th2GO (Triple Head 2 Go) adapter to run 3 monitors, My machine would probably laugh at me, and my vid card will show it's shortcomings.

I'll need a new potato soon when I get some extra dollars and go with 3 monitors using Eyefinity or whatever equiv nVidia comes up with when I am ready to upgrade.

The only advantage I get with my CPU/RAID in iRacing, is that when starting a race, when everyone hits the join button at the same time, I am usually loaded first and in my car, and get to leave the pits for the 5 min warmup before anyone else with a lesser machine gets to.

The bottleneck with iRacings three screens is the gfx card at this point. A resolution of 5760x1080 taxes the GPU far more than the CPU.

[Giblet]

Hangaku,

I figured out a major problem with my driving, and have set a new bar for you to beat. With your current track record I think you'll beat it pretty quick

I was keeping a little bit of throttle while I was braking, increasing my stopping distance while decreasing my ability to turn in.

I actually feel kind of dumb for having throttle while braking. I thought it helped stability of the car under braking, and it does to a large extent with the SRF, but for sure not the Skippy.

2:12.733 but iSpeed gave me a potential best of 2.12.189 if all my best sectors were strung together.

That turn 1 can be a real pig.

[Hangaku]

Hangaku,

I figured out a major problem with my driving, and have set a new bar for you to beat. With your current track record I think you'll beat it pretty quick

I was keeping a little bit of throttle while I was braking, increasing my stopping distance while decreasing my ability to turn in.

I actually feel kind of dumb for having throttle while braking. I thought it helped stability of the car under braking, and it does to a large extent with the SRF, but for sure not the Skippy.

2:12.733 but iSpeed gave me a potential best of 2.12.189 if all my best sectors were strung together.

That turn 1 can be a real pig.

I think I've nailed turn 1 precisely once. I can't do it again. I think that's key, because when I did nail it, I came out the other side 2.5 mph up.

Nice time! I ran a 2:12.859 so far, so just a couple of tenths will do me!

Yeah, still trying to learn to left foot break, but not having a lot of luck really. The iSpeed analyzer pretty much shows that everyone who is fast uses a trailing throttle.

[Giblet]

I had the most incredible race today. Well, I guess it could have been a little bit better.



I even had a spin at the bus stop where I went 180, and I still had the pace to catch some guys.

Pressure on a couple of guys in front of me made them over drive and spin out.

I actually yelled "WOOOHOOOO" at one point when I get into third. Also had 5 or 6 laps in the 13's.

Oh I noticed just as I left you got your mic working.

[alleyoop]

wow, great race Giblet!

[Hangaku]

I had a similar race. I haven't done any qualifying for Watkins Glen, so the start order is somewhat random. Anyway, here is the result:

http://members.iracing.com/membersite/m ... stid=23453

Here is my lap times:

http://members.iracing.com/membersite/m ... msessnum=0

And the lap graph:

http://members.iracing.com/membersite/m ... id=1897952

I was well happy. Had a few good races with people too, and stole a couple of places on corner apexes, which is always a lovely feeling.

Any idea what the next circuit is?

[alleyoop]

Mosport

[Giblet]

Good race there to. I see you started getting some consistency to your laptimes there, which is key for sure.

What are you running for a setup? I think you should try mine that I got from an Alien.

It has very good braking stability, and it appears the correct perch setting is also very important.

The nice thing about the Skip is that you can use the same setup from track to track, and get similar results.

Did you know when you get your first win they send you a PDF "First Win" certificate in email?

It's just a PDF of course, but it's a nice touch and makes you feel good

@Alleyoop

I was looking at your Solstice times just for kicks, and it shows times for race at Summit and Charlotte.

I am confused. Since I have been here the Solstice just goes back and forth between Lime Rock and Laguna.

[alleyoop]

I joined iracing about one year ago, and my first races were in a '13th week', usually they change tracks from the regular season and sometime there are mixed class races too.

[Hangaku]

Unreal. This was going to be my maiden win, and I disconnected on lap 13. I feel ill. It was the race of my life too:

http://members.iracing.com/membersite/m ... id=1907724

Bah! Always the next race. Loving Mosport.

[Giblet]

Oh man that hurts so bad. I can feel that from here.

Are you on a wifi or anything, or did your provider just decide you had enough?

Mosport is fun eh? I've only maybe done about 15 laps there so far. I understand the lines now, and tonight I will be able to start to actually push and shave those last crucial seconds off the lap.

A 1:38 is not going to win me anything

[Giblet]

Hey

Have you guys tried out week 13 yet? This time around it's the Star Mazda at Mosport.

That thing is pretty durn quick, and sticks like glue.

[alleyoop]

I've just done 20 laps tonight and I'm pathetically slow.. 1'18"100 - 4.5 seconds from the best
I'm not so bad with the SRF, I made it in the top ten, but whenever I go with a more powerfull car I'm at the back.