Bossco82

Dude if its for DCS and your on a budget have a look at this, AMD 5600x using a Vetroo V5 cooler, 32-64gb DDR4 3200Mhz C16 and a B550 motherboard. Before you doubt the 5600x, I had one coupled with my 3090 for a while and it ran DCS 4k@60fps no problem on a mix of high/max settings. +1 on what Hiob said, AMD 3000 or 5000 series CPU's will NOT I repeat NOT give you framerate drops in DCS.

Dude if you running DCS without a framerate cap the amount of electricity the 3090 will pull on will be roughly the same. Regardless of what resolution your using. Or it will be as high as your CPU can go to keep up with the 3090, so your CPU will consume more electric. I own a 3090 on water with a 5900x. If I dont use a framerate cap, whether I use 1080p, 1440p or 4k, the difference in electric my PC as a unit pulls from the wall is about 30 watts. Then you have to consider the 3090 requires a certain amount of electric to just run a game, any game on any settings. The lowest I can get mine to pull is about 140 watts with a 60 fps cap. What I can tell you for DCS on max settings system usage at 60fps, 1080p 210-140watts, 1440p 230-310watts, 4k 290-380watts. Those are close enough, thats a 5900x, 64gb DDR4 and a 3090 on water. If I were you I would buy a 42-43" 4k TV and a headtracker and enjoy the magic of DCS at that detail.

Ok to enjoy DCS, CPU, and AMD 5600x/5800x or an Intel 12600k Motherboard, Asus, Gigabyte or MSi B550 or X570 for the AMD, I used a X570 MSI Gaming Edge Wifi and it was excellent. For Intel it will a Z690, I would go for DDR4 version. Whatever you get one with a decent amount of rear USB ports, you will need them for Hotas and pedals Memory 64gb of DDR4 3200Mhz C16, any of them will work If its only for the Operating System and DCS get a 1tb Nvme Pcie 4.0 Gen 4 SSD, you can get a second at a later date if needed or a sata ssd for a steam folder etc etc. This is something you can add to later on. Graphics, Nvidia 3070 or a AMD 6750xt for 1440p@60fps in DCS Cooling a reputable 240mm AIO. There are a few but Corsair's are solid enough. The case thats a personal choice. You want something with 2x 120mm intakes if not more, a roof space for the 240mm AIO and a rear 120mm fan. Corsair, NZXT, Phanteks are all very good. A decent 650-750w gold rated PSU. Your budgeting, I have used the Corsair HX semi modular range. I have a 850w powering my 5900x 3090 rig. For you monitor I play DCS @60fps so that 60hz in monitor speak...I can recommend something like a 32" AOC Q32E2N or Viewsonic vx3211-2k. I have used both, they are both good. Add a headtracker to look around and your sorted. I got these prices off Amazon USA, please remember I am in the UK... 5600x, $190 or 5800x, $300. MSI X570 Gaming Edge, $165. EVGA 3070 FTW3, $680. 64gb DDR4, $200. {Cooling 240AIO $80-120 or Vetroo V5 Air cooler $35.00} 1tb Sabrent Rocket 4.0 NVME, $130. Corsair RM 750x $150. Case {Corsair 4000d or NZXT H510 flow, $120-140} Pick your own those are guides. Viewsonic VX3211 1440p monitor $280. Thats $2165 on the high side if you build it yourself. Thats leaves you $500 for Hotas etc over the Apex PC Now this is all advise, please check reviews. You would have to put this together yourself but its ok once you get started, plenty of videos on Youtube. If you want to play first person shooters at 120fps, you would need a different monitor. This is all to have a great experience gaming on DCS. As a guide check this video out, dont take it personally that a kids building it LOL! Its just a good guide video.

HI Stan, I'm a bit stuck as i'm in the UK, I presume your in the USA. I build PC's for friends gaming setups quite often. I'm not sure of whats available and what stores to use. For example if you were in the UK I would say go to Scan UK. If this is only for DCS you dont really need a 144hz monitor this is because DCS looks fine at 60fps. However if your going to play on some FPS games you might need that high refresh rate monitor. If its for DCS I can recommend a few to you. Viewsonic, Acer, AOC, LG and Samsung all do very good 1440p monitors. What I would advise is whatever you are looking at, type the brand and model number into a search engine, look for reviews. Please feel free to send me a PM if you get stuck for an answer. However like Bitmaster has, I'm sure members like Lucshep, Skatezilla and SVSmokey to name a few will send you a reply. There advise is as solid as any other mate. All knowledgeable guys. If all else fails, we can put together a shopping list for you and you could walk in a Micro Center and pick it all up.

Hi Stan, what resolution monitor would you like to use for DCS. Or are you planning on using VR? I dont use VR but that setup will be great for DCS at 1080p or 1440p resolution. Also if your planning on playing multiplayer, 64gb of DDR4 would be better.

Thanks Max Thunder for the response. I have 64gb now and have seen between 36-42gb of usage in DCS multiplayer, so well worth the upgrade.

Hi Sorata, If you have a fast cpu/dram combo and a GPU with plenty of Dram. 32gb will probably be ok. Why dont you try it, hop on the "through the inferno" Syria server, when it has a few players on. Then use MSI Afterburner to check you Dram and Vram usage. You will know for sure if you need the extra 32gb. I honestly dont know how running it at those speeds will effect it though. Download and install the latest MSI Afterburner and then customise the Overlay display to show "actual" dram and vram usage. Go into settings then monitoring. Check the following "memory usage/process" for both vram and dram. One is near the top of the list the other is down the bottom.

If it is for DCS only and on Win 11. I recently upgraded to 64gb, 3600Mhz C18. I play single and multi player at 4k maxed settings. Going from 32>64gb definitely reduced some stuttering in multiplayer. I don't go near the full 64gb though, maybe touch the high 40's in gb usage at most. However that is rare, must of the time its about 34-38gb in multiplayer.

SOLD

Yes, yes and yes again. I recently got into multiplayer, noticed the stutters so upgraded to 64gb ddr4. Now here is the interesting bit. I had G.Skill 3200Mhz C14 Samdung B-die. I upgraded to 3600Mhz C18 Micron. I dont think the speed and timing are that essential, the 64gb kit gave smoother gameplay overall. Much much better.

Yeah I agree with Gierasimov on that one. The weak spot is that they up the power delivery limit but dont put quite enough cooling capacity for it. To put that into perspective though, thats measuring it at 100% limit. Even doing an undervolt cap at say 0.950mv-0.980mv which is how I would run a card like that anyway. It should eliminate any worry about these two potential weak spots in Zotacs gpu's.

Its only my personal opinion Beirut. I got to like the MSI Gaming X series and the EVGA FTW series. Always very happy with them. I had a scout around the internet for reviews and I cant find many for the Zotac Trinity edition or the AMP Holo. What I did read seems to show that build quality is ok, there are mentions to power and noise though. That stuff is easily solved with using MSI Afterburner, which I do for all Nvidia cards.

If I may let me make something a little clearer here, the gpu die, the chip itself. That comes from Nvidia or AMD, even they don't produce that. A silicon chip maker like TMSC produces it on mass to Nvidia or AMD's design. This is the point the silicon lottery comes into play. The memory, the GDDR5 or GDDR6 etc etc that is again chosen by Nvidia or AMD, its made by someone like Micron or Samsung. Silicon lottery plays a part here too. The companies like EVGA, Zotac, Asus, Msi and Gigabyte etc etc etc. Like Bitmaster has said, they put it together on the board itself to make the graphics card. They choose the chokes, the VRM's and all the other bits. Guess what they don't make those either, someone else does. These companies choose this stuff to a specification. A specification that AMD and Nvidia has set a minimum as a guide. The specification some one like Zotac might use. Could be a top quality one because they plan to overclock it. On the other side they could choose cheaper parts to produce a cheaper graphics card and be competitive in the market. These are things review sites like "Techpowerup" make reviews about. Then there is the design of the cooler, the quality of the fans or thermal paste etc etc etc. The quality of the cooler and the components that handle the power delivery contribute to the graphics cards overclocking ability. Its not just about the silicon lottery, but, that does play its part. Finally you need to consider how that company handles their warranty, the RMA procedure. Where are you in the world in relation to the company you are buying from. There is a lot to consider. So being picky or choosy about which company you buy you computer component from is completely understandable. To answer the OP to the best of my knowledge. Zotac sits somewhere around the middle in terms of quality for build and components. Check some review websites for the exact model your looking at. Scroll through some Amazon reviews etc etc.

HI Ironman, It is a shared opinion and I observed this comparing directly myself. While there is nothing wrong with AMD cards at all! They have a 256 bit memory bus! The bigger Nvidia 30 series cards cope with resolutions above 2560x1440 a lot lot better, especially if your flying down low. This only applies to DCS, so if your going for 3440x1440. Just take a deep dive into Nvidia vs AMD at high resolutions in DCS. Especially if you like smooth graphics performance at 60fps and above. Looking at data for other games as a guide to DCS is not relevant, I know. I did the same thing, built my system and thought, oh dear.....bummer! To avoid any let down please check.

Hi mate, I've fitted a couple over the years, no complaints so far. I know what you mean though. I usually buy, EVGA, MSI or a Nvidia Founders or AMD Reference. However my choice of MSI and EVGA is often because I prefer the way they look in a windowed case.

HI C3P0, yeah if I remember correctly yours is a very nice setup, is this the one you had built for DCS? Its a pretty normal thing your describing. The way I understand it and I know I dont have the names correct. The general instruction sets get bloated over time, things like regular updates to drivers can cause such problems etc etc. Its a bit of a big job and I would check it out first. In the past if I have noticed it becoming a problem. I have backed up and "reset" Windows while keeping my files. Things like programs and games get wiped so these things need backing up. I usually do this every 12-18 months. However I dont have a lot of programs or games on my system. For some people this is not a practical option. Taking a path like Bitmaster recommended is probably a better place to start though.

Basically what Bitmaster said. You could go with a 5600x CPU then pump as much as you can into a GPU. If you want to use a resolution at 3440x1440. You really want a AMD 6800xt or Nvidia 3080-3030ti. Have a search on Youtube for video's by "PointBlank". As for the CPU something like a 5600x or and Intel 12600k using DDR4 would be just fine for DCS. For the Dram I would recommend 64gb at a speed of 3200Mhz C16 or 3600Mhz C18, seriously both are just fine.

From my own personal experience, for 1440p a 2080, 2080ti, 3070, 3070ti and AMD 6800xt will give pretty much perfect results on 1440p. An AMD 6800xt and a decent 1440p Freesync monitor. You can max it out graphics wise and get a properly butter smooth 60fps. Its almost a perfect combo. I didn't bother mentioning Nvidia 3080 and upwards because those are 4k capable cards, overkill for 1440p.

Really good choice there mate, when you set it up look for the "target framerate control" option under advanced graphics in Radeon. Set if to your desired fps. Then enable Freesync on both the monitor and in Radeon itself. If the option is there make sure you enable the VRR option in Windows. This should allow for you to turn the graphics settings right up and have a very smooth, may I suggest 60fps experience.

OK 4k looks gorgeous in DCS, really gorgeous. Things like the Tpod screen look fantastic. However there is an almighty drawback, thats spotting in a dogfight. I get canned in the multi player servers because I simply cant see the other guy. Also dont underestimate the graphics power required for 4k, it finds the edges of my 3090! thats on water! If you go 4k I would heavily advise you make sure it has Freesync, if you want 32" something like the Viewsonic VX3211 4k 1440p is the simplest solution and the best balance of dogfight spotting and cockpit/terrain visual candy. Again it would benefit from Freesync. Then you have 3440x1440 ultrawide on a 34" panel. The extra wide viewing space is only there if you "zoom out" on the cockpit view. There are some visual guides on here and elsewhere that shoe the problem. Its not a problem either just more of an inconvenience. A monitor is a very personal choice mate. A 32" 1440p Freesync monitor will give you a great DCS experience and be the simplest plug and play option. Its my opinion but a 32" 4k monitor, you wont see to dogfight without the "guide target dots" to help you. I use 4k but its on a 43" TV. Its great I love it but get a cheaper TV like a Hisense or similar for this. Only go for 4k if its on a bigger screen. An ultrawide will look great and probably come with Freesync as standard. You will have to zoom out slightly when the mission has loaded to get the full effect. Unless this has changed in the last year or so from an update to the view options. Ive never done multi monitor as it always seemed like a headache, so cant comment on that.

As the title says I have this DDR4 kit from G.Skill for sale. Its one of the more sought after kits and is Samsung B-die. Its on eBay here, I am open to offers UK only please. G.Skill Trident Z RGB DDR4 3200Mhz C14 (4x8gb) F4-3200C14Q-32GTTZR | eBay

Yep I am the same as Bitmaster, "fingers crossed". In all seriousness I opened it to test it now. Win 11 all updates AMD X570 motherboard. Check your motherboards drivers for the USB ports, plug the Track IR into a port directly into the back of the motherboard. Also, try them all one by one. Sometimes my Track IR has NOT liked the high speed USB ports. Best of luck hope it gets sorted.

OK well since I posted that I bought a new desk. Got bought a 3090 and found a 43" 4k TV that is actually an IPS screen that does an excellent job with DCS. I can tell you that a 32" monitor, has more vertical space than a 34". The ultrawide 34" is nice and fancy buy you have to use the cockpit zoom function to take advantage of the wider aspect ratio. An ultrawide monitor is actually much shorter than a 32" 16:9, it is obviously slightly wider. For me personally I wasn't happy with it really, adjusting the zoom got on my nerves after a while. I prefer 16:9. That is a personal choice, as I wasn't sure I bought my ultrawide used off eBay, it was back on and sold a month later. Some DCS users love ultrawide though so keep that in mind. I can tell you that if you hook up your AMD 6900xt to a proper Freesync monitor you can use the "target framerate control" in Radeon. Its really good for keeping your frames stable.

If it helps as as reference. My 5900x is at about 32-38 deg C in the Bios and about 36-40 deg C at idle in Windows 11. I dont see the same single core usage either.

Just thought I would chime in on this issue. I recently had exactly the same problem. It was a problem with Realtek drivers on my motherboard audio. Running a heavy script/thread in the background. A complete audio un-install and then re-install with latest drivers fixed it. This was in Windows 11 using a 5900x. It could also be a sign that a blockage in the AIO is starting. Probably a build up slowing or reducing the efficiency of the pump.