Sn8ke_iis

Damn, I was hoping a company as big as FB would be willing to sell high end hardware at a loss or break even to sell VR games like Sony and Microsoft with consoles. With their recent product launches and these recent departures it looks like high end gear is on the backburner. The guy mentioned in his statement that the tech needs to be pushed forward. Of course, they could always license tech but looks like a Rift 2 isn't going to happen for at least a couple years. They probably ran the numbers and realized the market with people with the hardware that can currently run VR is too small. Bummer, the tech won't get pushed forward unless large companies will make the investment. I was hoping they would come out with a Rift 2 with glove by next Christmas.

I use the OSD within MSI Afterburner, you can customize it for all the pertinent specs. You can set it to a hot key which will turn the overlay off and on. You can customize it's position and color through RivaTuner the utility that runs with MSI Afterburner. Obviously most important is temps of GPU and CPU but it will also track utilization, RAM and VRAM usage, etc. Really more than you would want in an OSD, there' a stat for it. Frame rate hit of the OSD is minimal.

I use the Samsung in my sig. It's "Q"LED not OLED. But that's what I went with because of the burn in issue. Colors and blacks look better than any TV I've owned. I've owned several 4k LEDs but never OLED. So I can't fairly compare. Native 4k content from a PC or 4K disc player looks stunning. Screenshots and Youtube videos don't really do it justice. You have to see the native content on a good display. I was able to pick up a 4k disc player on Ebay for less $100. And for the record, with the rig in my sig and the latest DCS patch and Nvidia 399 drivers I can max everything EXCEPT MSAA and SSAA and keep a smooth 60 fps at 4K. Low level over cities can definitely cause frame rate drops. Which map, mirrors, time of day (shadows), weather, fog, dust, AI objects on airfields, AI aircraft, also play a big factor and are good for stress tests for tuning graphics and finding bottlenecks. I was able to recently turn on global cockpit illumination with the latest builds and drivers, so there is definitely optimization happening somewhere. Cockpits look real good at night in moonlight with dimmed internal lights. Persian Gulf map is coming along nicely. Normandy, not so much, still stuttery compared to other maps. In general after having played on a big screen for 2+ years, I highly recommend it. As we go into the shopping season and you're considering upgrades a big screen 4k should be a priority. Prices have really come down and quality keeps going up. Big screen TrackIR combo is very immersive. You can also talk wife and family into it because of movies, shows, and Netflix, etc. I keep mine on a cart so I can roll it in front of the couch, bed, or sim chair.

The duty free has a nice selection of Georgian wine as well. :drunk:

OP didn't state CPU, GPU, or most importantly motherboard. It depends. The most current motherboards from major manufacturers will keep updated BIOS and updated XMP profiles for faster RAM modules that come out over time. My current build has gotten faster and more stable since I first built it last fall. If I turn off my XMP overclock profile I get stuttering. If I turn on my XMP profile stuttering goes away. I've never tried to measure FPS drops or benchmarks, or change settings to mitigate, but it's obvious by the smoothness and the frame rate counter. Since RAM prices are starting to return to normal, can't really go wrong with 32GB. But RAM usage varies a lot from module to module, map to map, single player to multiplayer, background apps, mods, etc. I have no issues with 16GB but I don't usually play online in big scenarios. When I bought my RAM last year, RAM was very expensive and no 2 module 32GB kit was the speed I was looking for. Fast high end DDR4 has dropped in price significantly but is definitely in the category of high end diminishing returns. You're paying a high price for only a few frames per second. Best bang for buck is in the graphics card. With DCS and with most games in general this is true. Only a few major games released in the past couple years efficiently use more than four cores of CPU and fast RAM is pricey. Even a 2080 Ti is a better performance to price benefit than super fast expensive CPU's and super fast expensive RAM.

I'd recommend option #2 even though I'm usually for minimizing costs. I own the ASUS monitor. I usually play DCS on my big screen but the ASUS monitor is hands down the best general gaming monitor I've ever owned. Great for FPS games. Panning around in 166hz with TrackIR is very immersive too. You'll need to dial back setting to get that high a frame rate, but smooth as butter. Multiple settings for eye strain help for long gaming sessions at night too. Overall Gsync works very well for flight simming and gaming. I don't have any experience with Freesync to compare, but Gsync is definitely better than Vsync stutter and lag. When you get the opportunity, hook your rig up to a big screen 4K and you'll never go back. You can get the cockpit up to 1:1 scale and still see sky in your peripheral vision. You can also spot target specks at long distance. I have to clean my screen before every session so I don't call a break into a bandit when it was only just a bug on my screen or some dust. Samsung still makes curved TVs, wish I would have spent the extra money now.

Looks good except for that price, OUCH! I really feel bad for DCS fans in the EU, Australia, overseas, etc. You guys pay such a high premium on computer components. This stuff is so much cheaper in the States. Seriously, for that cost (over $2600 US) you could almost fly here, buy all those components at my local Microcenter and it would still be cheaper. Cheaper still if ordered on NewEgg and Amazon. For you guys it's like buying diamonds from DeBeers.

Brilliant work Chuck, very impressive. F-18 was as well. 101 pages for the YAK. Detailed but still accessible. Should be the standard intro course for aspiring flight sim pilots. Love the emphasis on taxi and pattern fundamentals as well as a good quick intro to combat related maneuvers. I would never have the confidence to hop back and forth between high fidelity DCS modeled aircraft the way I do without your guides. Cheers

Steam is a convenient copy protection client for general PC gaming. DCS has it's own client. Steam would just be a middleman as well as add a background process that you don't really need. PC's take a lot more maintenance than MACs and you have to be very careful what you download and install.

Good vid Alby! You can go ahead and turn on and max to 16x the anisotropic filtering, minimal framerate hit and the textures will look much better on a 4k display. You had the chimney smoke all the way down as well. That being said, pleasantly surprised by what I saw. Saw frame rate drops on takeoff, over the city(would be worse with chimney smoke), and especially over the heavily wooded areas. No surprises there really. Max trees and 2x MSAA is rough on any GPU. Do you have the Vegas or Persian maps? I also saw that you were using FRAPS, could you run a benchmark with the stats? And did you take any benchmarks with your previous card? My main goal in an upgrade would be to turn MSAA on. I can't right now and keep a smooth 60 without sacrificing too much eye candy. With some judicious tuning and settings looks like a 2080 TI could maybe do it, especially if watercooled and the drivers get better. I'm probably still going to skip this gen, but at least people doing new builds for DCS will get some benefit. Good news is when you don't use all those utilities you should see a little boost. Also, if the utilities are visible on screen, DCS is not in full screen mode. If you Alt+Enter you hopefully will see a performance bump and minimize the drops and stutters below 60fps. Also, for actual gameplay and not during testing, Vsync on and/or the frame rate limiter set to 60fps will save your card unnecessary FPS spikes and help keep things stable and prevent thermal throttling.

Here's a thought, It's free F-18 weekend, download it and try it!

Can't say for sure, I think there are several competing VR benchmarks free/pay etc. Still waiting to jump into that. If you are new or recently back into gaming, make sure you take advantage of Steam sales. They have big ones in the summer and Christmas time. (DCS does too). Build up a wishlist and they'll send you a notification. Games from around 2010 and more recent scale well in the graphic settings. I've accumulated more games then I will ever have time for pennies on the dollar. Portal and Fallout would be fun in VR. I've yet to try it to be honest, usually when I play DCS I play for hours at a time, not sure I want to wear a visor for that long. I would definitely buy the visor and suit from Ready Player One.

Nice... I paid for Aida, it's nice to have and the license is for multiple computers but you definitely don't need it. I have the 3d mark steam version. I mainly benchmark with Time Spy Extreme and FireStrike Ultra. Those are pretty much the standards right now. I don't own VR yet, and haven't used that bench. Cinebench is a good CPU test but applies to video encoding and rendering. Not really relevant for gaming. The FireStrike and TimeSpy are good synthetic benchmarks that replicate modern games and CPU physics. TimeSpy is Dx12, Firestrike is Dx11. Or vice versa, I forget. I haven't been able to break the top 10 in scores, but top 20 in the world is pretty good. Especially for my cute little build. Most of the top scores are from the same people tuning their systems. The Uniengine benchmarks are a good alternative (heaven, mountain, superposition) they have pay and free versions. To get on the leaderboards I think you have to buy a license. The leaderboards are a great way to compare prospective components. ASUS and EVGA are usually top scorers. Have fun, but it's easy to fall down a rabbit hole chasing scores and frames LOL, don't forget to play DCS too. edit: I use Thermal Grizzly paste and FujiPoly Pads for TIM interface with the cooling loop aluminum. CPU is from Silicon Lottery, so whatever they use, I think they've upgraded their TIM procedure since I bought mine. I think they use liquid metal now.

Always good to have kneeboard reference for speeds, rpm, etc. Chuck's guides are essential if you are switching up between aircraft. If you can land a Spittie, you shouldn't be having a problem. Do you use airbrake? Proper landing configuration is to hold the recommend pattern and approach speeds with airbrake. If you need to go around close it up and slowly increase throttle. Make sure you have the trim set for take off and landing configuration. The light will blink on the dash when the pitch and roll are in proper range. The previous poster was spot on, not much to add. Just practice a good steady gliding descent. The landing gear is pretty tough, she can handle an imperfect flare. I don't usually cut to idle till touchdown. Even then, you don't really have to. You have to spool her back up to ~65% anyway to taxi, depending on fuel weight remaining. She's lighter than when you left. Cutting to idle and wheelbrakes just help slow down faster. I rely more on wheel brakes for yaw than rudder after touchdown. You lose rudder authority pretty quickly as speed bleeds off. Once you get her on the ground consistently and safely you can practice touch and gos with aerobraking. It's fun and makes you feel special. Looks cool on recordings too. Remember, you're in a nice bubble canopy on the nose of the aircraft, not buried in the fuselage like the Spit. The perspective will be a bit different, you'll be able to see your touchdown point. I keep the view shift off in the options and just raise the seat a little.

I have those utilities, although I'm partial to Aida. I remember seeing some variance between what they read and what was set in the bios. I usually just go by whatever 3dmark says after the benchmark. Seems to be accurate for me and that's what it would be judged on as a baseline compared to other users. As far as the specifics of how each measures and collects the data, and the discrepancy, I can't say. edit: I guess I should probably mention, I turn off my OC when I play DCS. Generally speaking 7700k and 8700k are potatoes. They run hot. Not much you can do about it and delidding and upgraded TIM only mitigate the issue so much. I notice no performance drop or frames lost. GPU is definitely the bottleneck for DCS, at least in 4K. I do notice fps drops if my XMP profile for my memory is off. That makes a difference in FPS and stutters. Have fun with the OC. Some people get more into racing their computers than playing games.

There's always used Warthogs on Ebay for a decent price LOL. I just checked their website for kicks, they have rudder pedals. I think they are shipping most of their stock within Russia and the EU. Either that or they went through a really elaborate ruse to say they moved to a new production facility. I'm definitely in the market to try their stuff, especially the renders that I saw. But they are just renders. Who knows when they will have their throttles. From a business perspective they have to be careful. Once they satisfy their market it's pretty much gone for 5 years unless their stuff breaks a lot. There are people on these threads who have been using their Warthogs for years. High end flight sim controllers are a niche within a niche. I would really like to try their analog brake lever for the Spitfire and the Yak but they need to actually be available. Doesn't inspire confidence for long term replacement parts either. I wish them luck though. They've gotten a lot of positive feedback.

If you are doing a new build or upgrade right now, assuming you aren't going for a bleeding edge enthusiast build, I really recommend this as the way to go right now. Buy used and stay in holding pattern. I would recommend just about any peripheral or controller in my signature over spending a lot of money on a CPU or GPU that becomes obsolete and/or cheaper in 12 months. You will get more use out of it over time and it will increase immersion more than some graphic settings. Smooth frame rate is key for immersion not any particular texture or shadow feature. Money on a good display I would highly recommend, but go big screen. You can also use it for other games or watching movies. $1200 on a good 4K display, is a better buy than a 2080 Ti. Buying an expensive graphics card without a good display is kind of putting the cart before the horse. I don't recommend it for DCS over a big screen but the Asus 27" 166Hz is an excellent general gaming monitor if you prefer high refresh rate over big screen. The 4K displays that go past 60Hz are very expensive right now unless you want to be an early adopter. Another 1-2 years and 4K120 will become more of a standard. GPU's will be cheaper than as well. The most common card on Steam hardware surveys is still the 1070. So obviously bang for buck is a big concern for a lot of people. As a community we don't want to give the impression that the barrier to entry is too high in terms of cost, the more the merrier. You can build a gaming rig and set up a simpit on a reasonable budget, you just have to plan and spend wisely.

If you are sticking with your preorder I admire your dedication and will be very curious about your performance. I cancelled my preorder with EVGA and told them why. I currently run a Titan Xp under water, even with selling my Titan, can't really make the numbers work. I would also need to buy a new waterblock from EK. I can play most current titles fully maxed at 4K60 barring supersampling and AA options. Right now I'm playing older games bought on Steam sales that I never played. It's really fun to crank up older games to 11 on graphics and mods at 4K and the Titan doesn't even break a sweat. I can play DCS currently at 4K60 with everything maxed except MSAA, SSAA and global cockpit illumination. I get frame rate drops over the Vegas Strip and Dubai, other than that frame rate can go 100+ at 4K over the desert and at altitude with Vsync off. If you are doing a new build and want the fastest single card solution the 2080 Ti is the way to go, that's why I bought my Titan 18 months ago. That being said, the prices on these cards need to drop below $1000 to really justify it. Used 1080 Ti's are cheap right now because everyone has upgrade fever. Hopefully by this time next year prices will have dropped and we'll have a better outlook on RTX, ray tracing, and DLSS. But unless you're really excited to play new AAA games at max settings that actually support DLSS, of which DCS will most likely not be one, these cards are just too expensive. Nvidia really dropped the ball on this one. They've never released a new generation of cards with such a poor price performance ratio. What's really crazy is the people whining over internet rumors have pretty much been vindicated. This really wasn't a new generation, just incremental. It's like the alternating Iphone upgrade. And that's price/performance in US $ at MSRP. If you have to pay import duties, VAT, exchange rate, etc. forget it. By the time developers have a good size library of RTX games for us to play, the next gen of cards will be out. NNNNNOOOOOO SALE! I read multiple articles, benchmarks, etc. Reliable sources are Jared Walton at PCgamer, Steve Bourke at Gamer's Nexus, and Paul's Hardware on YT. I even concurred with Jay 2cents conclusion, and I usually disregard his videos as they're sponsored and have a conflict of interest. Thing is I always have the option to change my mind and still upgrade, but I'd do it with the KingPin version. EVGA XC Ultra 2080 Ti scored the exact same as the FE model direct from Nvidia. The EVGA has a better air cooler and doesn't run as hot, but I run a custom loop. Air cooler is irrelevant for me. I can just order one direct and save $50.

No joy on the DCS specific benchmarks from me guys, just cancelled my preorder, better luck next time Nvidia. The DX11 benches were terrible. Just buy a used 1080 Ti and wait for the next generation. Not sure what Nvidia was thinking with this one. Definitely not worth the upgrade. Used 1080 Ti's are under $400 right now. Some of the Vulcan benchmarks on Doom looked promising, but we don't have any kind of time frame for the release of a Vulcan DCS build. If there's a worthwhile performance gain then I might pick up a Kingpin model. If you are in the market for a $1200 card, the 2080 Ti is a better card than the Titan Xp, but other than that...

I saw a 1080 Ti new in box on Ebay for less than $300 US. Someone probably already bought it though. It was several hours ago.

I play at 4k with FXAA enabled in Nvidia Inspector. MSAA or SSAA is too expensive on graphics resources. With FXAA enabled, I can max out everything else and keep a smooth 4K60 on most maps and areas. When it drops below 60, I just turn off the mirrors.

My first DCS module was the Spitfire. Everything else is easy to land compared to that. The engine torque and the narrow undercarriage are widow makers. The ground effect characteristics are very quirky too, easy to bounce close to stall speed. Key is to properly trim the aircraft and maintain a good glide speed. Once you land it consistently without take off assistance you feel very special.

I recommend an open air case, especially if you don't liquid cool, and if you do liquid cool, you'll have room for easy access and maintenance. There is no requirement for PC components to be in an enclosure. It just creates bad thermals. RGB lighting is pretty standard nowadays as it's only a few dollars worth of LED's. You just turn it off in bios or utility if you don't want to see it. You'll miss a lot of good motherboards if you judge them by their LEDs.

NICE! I didn't even think they were going to release any 3 fan models before the 20th. I got the Ti XC Ultra. I had the Nvidia keynote open in one tab and the EVGA store open in the other. I got lucky :shifty: That, and I work from home. I'm going to put it under an EK waterblock. Really interested to see the Kingpin Hybrid. That will be tough to beat. Good time of year to buy new components for the rest of your build if you can wait till all the crazy Black Friday type sales. The end of the month is looking really busy for me, but I'll try to at least get something preliminary up as far as numbers and update once I have it under water. I encourage others to as well, performance can vary quite a bit from module to module and map to map. We'll see when we actually get our tracking numbers. My preorder still says 4-6 weeks. John's right about mainstream benchmark sources, it's up to us. There is always quite a bit a variance among games and sims. Hopefully, the DCS engine likes the fast memory and new architecture. We'll see. 2 weeks...:joystick:

Loving the YAK module now. Thanks guys. I didn't realize how much I liked my Jetseat till I played the YAK without it. I flew the Yak-52 for a few hours on release day then stopped. You lose too much immersion without the tactile feedback. Being able to feel the runway and stalls, even without weapon effects on the unarmed Yak, can't fly without it. Awesome :thumbup: