Bossco82

Yeah the monitor you will play on. So you are going to play DCS at 1080p, that's 1920x1080 resolution. That a good place to start. As for your CPU being 2.9Ghz. Turning it to 3.0Ghz will make almost no difference. The games requirements are a guide not a rule, ok. The best way to work out what you need is to try it. Then see how well it works. As for your CPU boosting. I would bet it's already doing that. Some pieces of software that will help you work out what your system is doing. Cpuz, Gpuz, HWMonitor, MSI Afterburner. YouTube, Reddit and a Google search will tell you more mate. I would also have a read of the manual for your motherboard. DCS like a lot of games can take some tweaking to run properly. Involving changing settings in Windows, the game itself and "sometimes" the motherboards bios.

There you go Lucshep has cleared that up nicely. As for pick your poison I would go 3200Mhz C14 everyday, but thats my choice. Ged, dont be too confused. I think we are all being cautious because your going to put a lot of money into this machine. At the end of the day. A 12900k with 64gb DDR4, Z690, the Samsung Nvme SSD and a 3090 are going to run really well. If I had the money I would spend mine on this stuff put it that way.

You will have to lower the quality of graphics settings, especially the preload radius, and, the texture quality, to get a smooth framerate, FPS. So it looks smooth enough to fly around basically. The 2.9Ghz is your base clock I think your cpu has a boost function. Flyboy seriously just try it and see what happens. What monitor screen are you planning on using for this?

Hi Ged, thats single rank DDR4 similar kit to mine except its 3600Mhz mine is 3200Mhz. Thats a Samsung B Die kit and I dont know how important that is for your build. It was important for mine because I am on AMD. Hi Thinder, I get what your saying mate. Isn't all that only applicable to AMD 5000 series on the X570 chipset regarding the memory controller? Genuine question mate as I dont know the answer. How does all that apply to Alder Lake, this is for Z690 after all? Ged I honestly dont know which specific DDR4 kit would be best for your 12900k. I know G.Skill is some of the best DDR4 you can buy. I've got an educated guess that 3600Mhz is more than enough for DCS. For your 12900k I dont see it being dual or single rank causing a problem. I dont see having C14 being needed either, its nice to have but... is it worth the extra cost? Ged you plan on using VR and I DONT know how that effects how much Dram you need. Also I only play single player, if you want to play multiplayer you might need 64gb. I DONT know the answers to these questions. Get an answer from someone who does before you click the buy button.

HI Ged, I'm sorry I jumped to advising DDR5. Not knowing your PC building experience etc. I just went to suggesting what will be the next step. I already own some G.Skill DDR4, 32gb 3200Mhz C14, I have 4x8gb sticks. So if I wanted an Alder Lake CPU, I would buy a DDR4 mobo and use this G.Skill kit in it, because its a really good kit. Also, I dont thing DDR4 will cause a performance loss in DCS vs DDR5. Why do I think this, even if I hook up a 1440p monitor to my AMD 6800xt. My GPU will reach its limit before my 5600x with my DDR4 does. This is the thing, if I had an older but working PC to play DCS on. Plus, I intended to start a new system from scratch. I would wait for DDR5. When I look at my own system and owning one of the best DDR4 kits. I would put this memory in an new Intel Alder Lake system. If I had no system and I was starting from scratch..... That would be how much do I want to play DCS before Xmas on whether I went DDR4 or DDR5 See what Bitmaster or LucShep think. G.Skill make some of the best DDR4 kits with the lowest latency but I have no idea how important this is when considering its for Alder Lake. I'm presuming similar rules still apply. So I would "personally" go for a DDR4 kit that is 3200 C14 or 3600 C16 the advantage being its available now.

HI guys, This week I have had too much time on my hands and wanted to settle a curiosity. I have a 6800xt and use Track IR so I play all my flight sims with V-sync enabled to synchronise with my displays 60hz. However, I like to fly low now and then and if I hit a very highly populated area, Syria. I can get an odd fps drop and it naturally halves the rate down to 30fps. So I tried enabling freesync "VRR" on the display and in Radeon and in Windows With enhanced sync, v-sync off in DCS and a Radeon chill cap of min=60 max=60, Thinking if I hit somewhere that causes a dip it will only drop to the low 50's for a second or two and will not be so noticable. Am I wrong in thinking this should have been as smooth as V-sync 60hz? The result was bad, smoooth running for about 5-6 seconds and then a noticable 1/4 second pause on a loop the whole time. Similar appeared in another sim I use. Am I missing something or is this normal?

Ged, can you let us know what you have actually bought and have now at home? There is so much hardware being released at the moment, then when you consider the impact of the chip shortages. I missed the MSI mobo LucShep suggested completely. So much so if it was me I would be tempted by that and a 12600k.

Hi Ged, Lucshep has a very good point here. DDR4 is available now, with the right motherboard it will work just fine with a 12900k. I maybe should have included it as an option for you to consider. I just didn't want to offer advice that "might" limit you down the line. Everything is pointing towards DDR5 being the next upgrade step. If you went DDR4, then wanted DDR5 later on. It would be an involved job. Involving a complete dismantle, motherboard swap then a possible re-install of Windows due to it requiring re-activation. It's up to you Ged, DDR5 and Win 11 are new, so there are unknowns. DDR4 and Win 10 is tried and tested. Plus will work on Win 11. I also have no experience of how VR impacts CPU/DDR performance.

Hi Flyboy, I have never ran DCS installed on a mechanical HDD. Its an educated guess it will only slow down loading times. You might have to let a mission settle down while the terrain loads up for a few seconds too. Mate Im just saying try it. DCS can become a money pit because once you start flying you want more eye candy. Also use this to see where your system struggles. Then you can make a properly informed decision on investing in what you might need to upgrade. I went through this in lockdown. It was literally build a DCS PC or change my beat up old car. I picked DCS. So I know from experience. However some guys on here are much more knowledgeable than I am. Things like DCD settings etc.

Hi Ged, Ideally it would help more if you told me which case. However In my case I have 3x fans pushing from the front to the back. Then I have one single exhaust on the rear. Then I have my AIO up top with the air pushing up. So Cold air comes in the front, then splits in two. It either gets taken through the rad and out the top. Or gets pulled across the motherboard and components and out the back. The front fans on mine are 140mm so they push a little more air in than the exhaust and AIO take out. You basically want the fans to work together as one unit moving the air in the same direction through the case and across your components. A general rule, In through the front/bottom. Out of the back/top. This helps prevent dust too. Do a web search on case air flow or check out Youtube, plenty of guides. As for Asus or MSI. I had Asus for about 7 years in a row, every upgrade. Then the shop I use had none in stock when I wanted a Z390 in 2019 so I tried MSI. I have used MSI since. The brand does not matter that much, Asus, MSI, Gigabyte or EVGA. Look for the number of USB ports that suit you and the expansion slots too.

Cant say for sure, check for a new version of MSI Afterburner. Other than that try re-installing Afterburner. When I had my 2080ti I kept losing profiles but it didn't crash. A un-install re-install along side getting rid of the MSI/Riva folders did the trick. It wasn't crashing on idle though.

Has anybody else noticed just how many setting there are to keep track of just to play a game in Windows now. I dont use VR!

Yeah, again i'm with Bitmaster on this. Large air coolers do work and they have the advantage of being very simple. You will hear the argument that the only thing that can break is the fan. However, the big ones are mostly a pain to fit and can put strain on the motherboard. To any critics I am aware that they come with support brackets for the back of the motherboard. They still put strain on the motherboard and this build is going to have a very expensive mobo. Ged, please mate from experience just buy an AIO. Like Bitmaster said it really doesn't matter which as they are all based on a design by Asetek! Buy one that matches your motherboard or the one with fancy lights, it doesn't matter. Just buy a 240mm one minimum. I like MSI, so would get a MSI motherboard and matching cooler probably. The advantage being I know I can run the fan profiles through the bios and not have to have another piece of software running in Windows. It a personal choice, having too much third party software personally annoys me. Bitmaster seems to prefer Asus, so would buy an Asus cooler. Some people like Corsair and like having the fancy software to control the cooler. It doesn't matter. What does matter is when it comes to the point you might have to change some dram or take your gpu out to dust the fans. That day I promise you will wish you bought a 240/360 AIO. With that cpu I would get any 360 AIO with a case that can have it fitted at the top. Its a tiny thing but I would work out something to hold up the heavy un-supported end of that 3090 GPU, prevent any sag. YOu can fabricate something yourself or buy a stand, again doesn't matter.

If I bloated this thread I am really sorry. I had a bad head cold in the week and was passing time on some forums and watching boxsets. I'm fine now. I had a problem with Track IR last year on Windows 10 using my old 2080ti. I never worked out what exactly fixed it but I did fix it. I was killing time and simply curious to read about Hiob's experiences. As for Windows 11. I did not deep dive the problem to see what was wrong. I also use an AMD system and it was just after the AMD performance fix got released. I genuinely could not be bothered to look for the cause, so I just rolled back. The only thing I came away from that with was the fact Windows 11 was showing a performance problem at that time. I will try to finish this thread with something useful. DCS at 4k res, you will probably use high detail otherwise what is the point. No such thing as a minimum graphics card, LOL! You need a big one, likely from Nvidia as of now.

HI Flyboy, Mate its not that simple, the GPU you require relies on the resolution you are going to run DCS at, IE the dots on the screen. 1920x1080 will be 2,073,600 pixels on the monitor, you would need for high settings in DCS, GTX 1070, 1080 or RTX 2060, 2070, 3060 maybe super versions when using high/ultra settings. For AMD probably a 5700 for high settings. Im not familiar with earlier AMD cards. 2560x1440 will be 3,686,400 pixels. This will require, GTX 1080 or 1080ti, RTX 2060 super, 2070 super, 3060ti, 3070. For AMD I know a 5700XT will do this at high settings. However your CPU and motherboard/DDR memory will be barely coping at this resolution. 4k, 3840x2160 will be 8,294,400 pixels. At this point and I am not joking you will need a complete PC rebuild, because it takes a 3080, 3080ti or 3090 to cope with DCS on high settings using 4k. The higher the resolution the more power the whole system needs. Not just the GPU. Finally you need a decent PSU to runs these graphics cards. Preferable gold rated. You have to check the wattage and amps the GPU requires and make sure your power supply can provide that power under load. I know your system from another thread, that pretty much limits you to 1920x1080 resolution. Replacing anything in a PC is not exactly an off the shelf thing. Its one complete system and every components performance relies on the others. If I were you look what power supply you have and that will tell you if you can even upgrade your GPU or not. Your system, i5 9400f, Asrock B360M, 8gb DDR4 (speed ???), Storage ???, Cooling ???, PSU ???, GTX 1660. You cant just change one thing. Decide what you want to do with DCS. For example you might want to fly using 1080p resolution on high settings with 4x MSAA to improve image quality. You can probably upgrade your machine for this. If you want 1440p resolution on ultra settings with super sampling for the best image quality. Buy a completely new system and start from scratch. This is all why I said in your other thread see if you can simply try the basic install of DCS on your current system first. Chasing graphic performance and eye candy on DCS can become a proper money pit. Some guys on here have spent thousands to get the best DCS experience.

Sounds like a corrupted Windows update. I had this at the start of 2020.

HI Ged, I cant add much to what Bitmaster has said there, solid advice. All I can really add to that is some brand I know for sure are solid and reliable. Just in case you have trouble finding components in stock and delays get too long. The power supply, do what Bitmaster says. you could also consider The Super Flower Leadex Titanium range is very reliable. The PSU is not something you want to spend less on put it that way. The SSD, yeah just make sure its Pciex4.0 Gen 4, I have a Sabrent Rocket and its brilliant. Samsungs are one of the best and WD are good too. My install of DCS is 285gb but they get bigger the more modules you have. I have all the terrains except the Channel. I have most of the jets but very little WW2 stuff. The motherboard, you can consider MSI. I have fitted about six in a row over the last two years for friends. Both Intel and AMD not had a problem so far. The MSI MPG Z690 Carbon Wifi would be my choice. Looks good, plenty of options for expanse and plenty of USB's The DDR memory, at this point I would wait a reasonable amount of time and go DDR5. I cant see what speed and latencies will be available but from what I can see it would be a kit 5000mhz or above with a latency of probably C38 or below. I would buy 64gb of it too. This will be the most difficult to find right now. As for cooling, if I had the money I would go custom water all around. However the Asus 3090 is fine as it is. I would want a 240 but better a 360 AIO cpu cooler. I would get a case that can hold a 360 AIO that has proper airflow. Its a personal choice, I would look at Corsair, Lian Li or Silverstone for the case. Something that could hole a 360 AIO at the top so the heat escapes up. Best of luck, like the man before me said take your time. Hope it all fits into place on what sounds like an epic build there.

Hi Flyboy, Ok its not too bad a setup to start with as long as you plan to use DCS with a 1920x1080 monitor. Resolution above that is going to be too much for the system. I would get some decent... 2x16gb of DDR4@ 3200mhz C16, Corsair, G Skill and Crucial are all good. Then something like a Crucial MX500 1tb SSD (Sata connection) for your drive. Then take it from there as I have no idea how a GTX 1660 will perform in DCS. It will probably be ok with 1080p resolution on medium settings. See how you go with that, if you are using the Intel stock cooler you might need a slightly larger one. You will have to check your temps when you get DCS running. Depending on how much storage you have now maybe download the basic game and see how it runs first. Before you do any upgrades or buy any DCS modules.

HI Flyboy, For anyone here to help properly. We could do with some more information. What motherboard chipset are you on? What i5 CPU do you have, model number? You can download "CPUZ", open it and it will tell you. What graphics card do you have fitted? Download "GPUZ" same again it will tell you. For your SSD, my DCS install is 285gb in size. So you will need space for that plus the Operating system and any other files or programs you have. For your Dram, you will need an absolute minimum of 16gb ideally 32gb. There is more to that regarding speed and latency but I cannot advise on that until I know the CPU and motherboard because of compatibility. It would also be a good idea is you are able to. Take the side panel off your computer and look what power supply you have. Finally resolution of the monitor plays a big part in knowing what specs you need to enjoy DCS. So that is 1920x1080 or 2560x1440, 4k is a big ask for DCS unless you plan on spending big money on PC parts.

I've got a Corsair TX850m 850w PSU. I run a AMD 5600x in a X570 system. I run a 6800xt daily. But I have tested my mates 3080 and then his 3080ti. All ran fine with my PSU running DCS @4k. Checking with a watt meter power draw was 540-560 watts on a heavy low level mission over Dubai. Also in "river run" using F-18. That was using his EVGA 3080ti FTW. If I limited it to 60fps though power draw was under 380-480watts for the system. I would also like to point out that buying a quality PSU is really important. I could have probably used a 650-700w psu for these tests. However not long term and I definitely would not have used a bronze efficiency. Its common sense that higher quality components go into higher efficiency psu's. These components cause less noise and interference. Also always check the amps on the rails, especially for the GPU you intent to use. The wattage a psu is capable of delivering is important. However I always try to check the amps a CPU or GPU might require and check that the rails have a sufficient supply. Another thing check who really makes the PSU. In my experience when I am buying one I usually check out Corsair, Seasonic and also Super Flower, then I try to find a detailed review of that model.

HI guys, Thanks for the replies regarding Track IR and how you have them set up. Very interesting. I run with V-sync and I have made all the changes regarding usb connection and hot plug etc you have suggested. DCS and Track IR have been running without a problem and have done for a while. However, a while back earlier in the year I did have a problem when I was running my 2080ti. None of my hardware was maxed out to drive the fps at 60fps, but, I had this noticeable stutter when panning. I did everything you guys suggested all at once, but, never pinned down what the problem was or what correction actually solved it. So I was just curious, just in case it came back. In fact what reminded me was when I recently tried Windows 11, bang, proper panning stutter again. So I simply switched back to Windows 10. I didn't have the time to sit and problem solve it.

This has got me thinking and confused. I was always under the impression Track IR had to be synchronised to 60fps, you had to synchronise the game/monitor to be in time with Track IR's polling rate, (I think?). If I dont run 60fps, I cant run 120! I get a stutter when I am panning the Track IR around. If I dont use Track IR and just look straight ahead I can use freesync and let the framerate just run. This has got me thinking I don't have something set up right

I have done most of what you suggest there and it does improve it a lot. My Windows install is mainly for gaming and I do check for background tasks, I have almost no 3rd party utilities running in the background. As for drivers its all the base Windows ones running. I'm not a PC gaming expert, just a long term user since the 90's. You always wonder if there is something you have not come across though. Thanks for sharing mate. I know that Track IR runs in sync with 60fps. I do use V-sync through DCS. I'm wondering if the micro stutter could be caused by V-sync actually being 59.!!!!!!fps. I dont know. I tried running DCS without V-sync and using the auto.cfg trick to cap fps to 60. Then turn on my freesync (I'm on AMD Radeon) in Radeon and on my monitor. It didnt improve it for me. I also tried using Radeon chill to cap at 60fps. V-sync just seems to be smoother for me? I'm open to idea's on all that though. However my experience is very smooth. Cheers Hiob.

Cheers mate, By the way, I get your point about using x2MSAA and I totally agree with you that the shimmering at distance is really annoying. Its just not so noticeable on a 32" 4k monitor like mine so I leave it off. My 6800xt copes with this ok but its drops the fps to sub 50 when under say 5000ft. The AMD card does not like MSAA and DCS at this resolution. All other games are fine. If I was using a large TV, I would definitely need MSAA on though, the shimmering would be like you say, too obvious. You mentioned how Track IR micro stutter is not linked to fps. I've noticed that too, my cpu or gpu are not at full load yet I experienced this stutter in the past. How did you eliminate the problem. I changed the Track IR's priority to high in task manager and tweaked a few curves in Natural Point. Much past that I was out of ideas

One thing to consider buying a TV for a monitor is pixel density, I think that's the term. Its the amount of pixels in each square inch on the actual screen. I think a 50" TV works out about the same as a 32" 1440p monitor.