CPU Bundle or New GPU

[Defiance_co]

Hiya's,

 

New to this forum, but here goes ...........

 

I have got back into flight sims again after a long spell away

 

My fiancee threw out by mistake my old beloved saitek x36 (which would of been fine with x-plane 10's own ingame mapping lol) but i still have my CH pedals :-)

 

I grabbed a thrustmaster  x hotas to tide me over (but for the money it's real decent)

 

Anyways to my question/questions regarding hardware ........... here's my rig spec off top of my head

 

X58 mobo (gigabyte udr3r i think rev 1.3 or 1.6 (max ram is 18gb i think ?) i use 12gb

i7 do 920 @ 4.2Ghz watercooled, never skipped a beat this cpu

12gb DDR3 triple Channel running @ 1600 i think (3x4gb)

128 ssd for OS + X-plane 10 (will upgrade later as it's way too small for simming)

2 R9 290x's (have xfire off as i know it hurts sims) Main gpu is watercooled and running 1267mhz core and 1346 on the memory (so she's no slouch lol)

1k watt psu

G15 kb (orange led)

MX 518 mouse

And last but not really a rig part is, my hyperX 7.1 headset, i am 67% deaf at last testing, so this alone has opened my gaming world right up again (amazing for the money)

 

So my dilemma, do i upgrade cpu to eg: i7 4790k with a motherboard in a bundle, and of course 32gb ram or maybe more ?

Or

Go up a few notches from my faithful high-clocking R9 290x to say a nvidia GTX 980ti and go for a known good overclocking version ?

 

Any input much apreciated as i can only do this years upgrade in stages of around 500-600 quid at a time

 

Unless things change, only 1200 quid on hardware this year, but maybe a new monitor if money allows late this year as i want a 2 mon x-plane setup

 

Thanks

 

Def

 

[FloB]

Hi Def,

 

I would definately go for a new CPU, but it depends on what you want within the sim. AA, shadows, HDR rendering, clouds rely mainly on GPU-power, objects, cars, reflections, view distance eat CPU time.

You should consider an i5 6600k in case...(runs very well with XP10 and has a huge overclocking potential - mine runs cool and stable with 4 cores@4,4 and I'm no expert in oc).

32 GB RAM is enough, even with a lot of addons and features enabled. You could even start with 16GB (2x8) and see how far that takes you. Add more if you really need it.

 

Summer will bring the NVIDIA Pascal generation which will probably be a huge step forward in performance. I would postpone a GPU upgrade until then. Price-performance ratio will be much better then.

 

My 2 cents

Best

Flo

Edited January 7, 2016 by FloB

[Defiance_co]

Hiya Flo,

 

Thanks for the reply

 

That pretty much explains all i needed to know

 

I'll try and upload a screeny

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/opq47106f5evkd2/X-Plane%20Settings%20About%20Maxed%20Out%203rd%20Jan%202016.jpg?dl=0

 

The title of that screeny means my rig is about maxed out playable-wise, but gives you an idea how much my cpu/gpu overcolock allows me to push the graphics without any fancy scenery/mesh/planes

 

EDITED ... Best add, besides my original amd cpu circa 1995 (160/166 mmx or something lol) and then Athlons, not the slot type, i've always had intel for my cpu (though i found phase-change cooling Athlons a blast hehe)

 

I would guess i've used 65% ati/amd and 35% nvidia gpu's over the years, so i am not a fanboy of either but now i do go for the bang-for-buck

 

Many Thanks for the advice it's much apreciated :-)

 

Have Fun

 

Def

Edited January 7, 2016 by Defiance_co

[FloB]

Glad to be of any help. Unless you are very unhappy with the aliasing or the lack of shadows a GPU upgrade won't do much on your system (adding a second or bigger screen (higher-res) might change that, though).
A new CPU will let you chose much higher tree & object settings and that changes the sim quite a bit IMHO. And some of the quality payware aircraft eat CPU time too.

 

I was in a similar situation a few months back and I'm very happy I dropped the GPU upgrade (GTX 970 now and then) in favor of an i5 6600k.

 

Cheers

Flo

Edited January 7, 2016 by FloB

[Defiance_co]

Hiya Flo,

 

After watching some yt vids on payware planes i understand that some payware planes eat the cpu power hehe

 

Well as you say, nvidias new gpu format coming out this summer, so maybe i can grab a bit of a bargain regarding a gpu later in 2016 if indeed i think it's needed for my eye-candy addiction :-)

 

Going to buy from my usual online site for pc parts (pretty local to me so i like to drive n buy, hate waiting for deliveries lol)

 

Ohh, i did watch a very detailed x-plane 10 vid, the guy went through all the settings, i was pretty astounded what i thought would be gpu driven was actually cpu driven and visa versa, you live and learn as the saying goes

 

Thanks Again

 

Have Fun

 

Def

[Vantskruv]

I would recommend 32GB ram, as I've been in trouble getting out of memory errors with 16GB ram with consequences which is not fun. Maybe it is because I'm running the HD Mesh Scenery V3.

Actually, today I upgraded to 32GB RAM!

Also I'm using a i7 4790k 4.00GHz CPU which I think is more than enough.

Though my Nvidia TGTX 780Ti GPU is bottlenecking the sim, but I'll with not upgrade until the new Nvidia Pascal series comes out. I've been trying every setting to get more FPS, on the only thing which helps is setting shadows to static.

Running hires version of the MD-80 will give may 17-20 FPS when it is cloudy with shadows on 'static'. Otherwise I would get about 10 FPS. :S

I've been running the Skymaxx Pro V3, which greatly improves FPS, but I have uninstalled because of memory leaks and random crashes. I'm not sure if this have been caused by low memory, but I confess I like the original X-Plane clouds more with the Ultra Weather XP.

(Maybe it is the Ultra Weather XP which is causing the framerate issues, but I'm not sure at this time).

[Morrigan]

You actually managed to get out of memory errors with 16GB ram in X-Plane? I think there should be an achievement award for that 

I have 8Gb ram, run Skymaxx, HD meshes, textures set to extreme and I still can get 20-40 fps on airbuses/Saab340A

 

But as for the question at hand, I think your CPU is totally fine and should be enough for anything your sim can throw at it.

Quick google serach have shown that R9 290 is close competition for geforce 970, so I don't think you should have any issues on that front either.

 

Probably would agree on investing in ram (12Gb is suboptimal, isn't it?). Other than that I think you are pretty set!

[Jack Turano]

I would recommend 32GB ram, as I've been in trouble getting out of memory errors with 16GB ram with consequences which is not fun. Maybe it is because I'm running the HD Mesh Scenery V3.

Actually, today I upgraded to 32GB RAM!

Also I'm using a i7 4790k 4.00GHz CPU which I think is more than enough.

Though my Nvidia TGTX 780Ti GPU is bottlenecking the sim, but I'll with not upgrade until the new Nvidia Pascal series comes out. I've been trying every setting to get more FPS, on the only thing which helps is setting shadows to static.

Running hires version of the MD-80 will give may 17-20 FPS when it is cloudy with shadows on 'static'. Otherwise I would get about 10 FPS. :S

I've been running the Skymaxx Pro V3, which greatly improves FPS, but I have uninstalled because of memory leaks and random crashes. I'm not sure if this have been caused by low memory, but I confess I like the original X-Plane clouds more with the Ultra Weather XP.

(Maybe it is the Ultra Weather XP which is causing the framerate issues, but I'm not sure at this time).

Does photoscenery slow down the sim even more than the alpilotx mesh v3? I have the really bad nvidia k1000m gpu.

Also, how does the sim look like if you have static shadows but hdr rendering enabled? How is it different than normal static shadows?

[Vantskruv]

I don't think the HD Mesh scenery slows down the sim per say (maybe only when loading the sim). I think it is more of a memory resource hog.

I'm not sure about the shadows, but setting them to static was my only choice, get almost 10 more fps.

[Defiance_co]

Hiya's,

 

After mulling over specs and benchmarks for days

 

I'm going to lag behind as such and go the 4790k route

 

An Asus mobo (almost 100% decided on model) a 4790k and 32gb of ram with one of the major brands i've used previously

 

I will after getting those items sit tight and await the new intel cpus and nividias new range of gpu/s

 

As i stated, besides x-plane 10 and fsx all my fav games run fine on my currant rig, but now i've decided on a 4790k i hope soon i can buy and maybe treat myself to a payware plane :-)

 

Cheers

 

Have Fun

 

Def

Edited January 13, 2016 by Defiance_co

[Defiance_co]

Hiya's,

After a rethink, and taking into account ddr3 is somewhat aging now, i decided with intels new cpu offerings now delayed until late 2016 early 2017 to take a drr4 route (somewhat) to get me into a bit of a future proofing region

I got the asus rampage v extreme coupled with a i7 5820k and 32gb corsair 3200 ddr4, also a new rad and nzxt lcd fan controller and small assorted sundries

Spent best part of 1k sterling, sounds a lot but i've not upgraded cpu/mobo/ram from gen 1 i7 ! (now to save and wait for the next gpu offerings)

I had some issues getting to grips with the bios !! even though i overclock whatever cpu/gpu i've had, the new bios stuff has so many options it threw me for a day

Anyways, i am chuffed at the results so far, cpu running solid 24/7 @ 4.7ghz with 1.34 vcore though i got 4.8ghz solid now too but needs quite a bit of juice through the core

Still rocking along with my r9 290x clocked to the hilt for now (heard maybe nvidia releasing sometime soon ! ?)

With both cpu/gpu running off the same loop as before but instead of a 240+360 rad setup, i now have an oblong 6 fan rad, rooms approx 22c and max gaming temp on cpu is 40-50c ish, benching it hits 55c average and can spike to 58c

Totally glad i got the x99 platform now, as i can await the upcoming new gpu and cpu releases and decide when/if to rape my wallet again, also the new cpu's hopefully be a good future upgrade to this 5820k

Performance-wise, heck i can sit in 3d cockpit mode now and not dip much under 30fps at airports

And as a present for my revived rig, the fiancee treated me to skymaxx v3 (ohh lord, how i love this, increased fps and totally made the sim so realistic instantly, dunno who's more impressed with the clouds her or me lmao)

So while i'm typing, i have a freebie a380 hurtling towards moscow (uudd) with lovely clouds surrounding me, and typing on forums and of course i have youtube playing too, happy times :-)

Cheers

Have Fun

Def

 

[Defiance_co]

Hiya's,

I had my motherboard die on me

Couldn't even reach the bios screen lol

Q Codes (in a split second on powering up) were 00 14 76

I tried all i could to remedy slowly dying board over the last days of its life

So only having it 11 days i called my local shop (OCUK, used them since its creation many many years ago here in the uk)

Took my new main parts in to them, mobo/cpu/ram, left cpu in case i borked the pins removing it lol

Anyways, lad tested all parts, came out from testing and confirmed the mobo had totally died :-(

So i waited for a replacement to come from stores, great shop if you're in the staffs region etc

In 21yrs of rig building besides a set of triple rated ddr3 being borked this is my only ever RMA (or in my case like for like swap)

So i've been very lucky really, of course ocuk have a great rep for replacing if goods were faulty, glad it's pretty local to me

Great service from them, and now back up n running (ohh used my install allowance on skymaxx pro v3 :-( ) hoping email etc sorts it now i'm hopefully back stable hehe

Have Fun

Def

[Defiance_co]

Hiya's,

Thought i'd best post a bit more

To anyone thinking of the asus rampage v extreme and my post has maybe put you off a bit, then don't let it

Mine was doomed the moment it had a psu connected to it :-(

Not had a single hitch since rebuild :-)

So don't have nightmares lol

Have Fun

Tony