Time for an upgrade

[Boltz]

My pit is now in a flyable state and software work nearly done so it's on to flying for me. I bought 3x 42" TVs for the outside view and I have a 19" (1366x768) screen for exports. My current rig was put together about 18 months ago for FSX on a very tight budget but I have now realised that I need a lot more to get serious peformance out of DCS.

 

My budget is up to £1000 but it is to be an upgrade not a complete new system to please certain people

 

Current system:

CPU - AMD FX 4170 @ 4.2GHz

CPU Cooler - Akasa AK-968 X4

MOBO - Asus M5A78L-M/USB3

Graphics Card - GT640

RAM - 16GB 1333MHz

Storage - 240 GB SSD

PSU - Corsair CX750M

Case - Corsair Carbide 300R ATX

 

I'm thinking the first part to upgrade is the graphics card. I was looking at a 780TI but then noticed that for that price I could run dual 770 4GB, dual 7970 or 3x7870.

 

What would you hardware people recommend to run my 4 screens?

[Rangi]

GT640? I'm surprised you can run the forums without low fps and stutters.

 

Sorry I have no constructive answer as I have no experience trying to run 4 screens.

[Boltz]

The GT640 is able to run at a steady 23-25 fps on medium settings at 3286*1080. I was surprised at that myself but there is no way it can handle 4 monitors.

[Svend_Dellepude]

I've been looking at the 770 too. Seems like you get the most bang for the buck with that. I'm not sure that you get any benefits in a dual config with the DCS engine, but the EDGE should change that.

[Maximus_Lazarus]

Sli works great, crossfire apparently not at all.

 

OX0CQNYnqxo

 

Anyway, if you can play @ 23 frames per second, great but i don't understand how that is even playable.

 

If you have a 1000 pounds to spend on your computer, (mobo + proc + video) , i think you will jizz right in your pants when you are suddenly playing on 100 fps.

 

From what i read it seems that for gaming the i5 4670K is a pretty sweet deal.

Altough for that 100 dollars more, i'd personally go with the i7 4770K myself , even though it won't matter much in gaming performance, especially not for DCS.

 

As for graphics, not really in the mood to get deep into it, just remember that nvidia sli works for DCS, and crossfire does not. ( i could almost not believe it when i was told that crossfire didn't work for DCS but there you have it. )

 

Here's an epic site for comparing hardware :

 

It's called "anandtech bench". Just first choose the hardware you want to compare by clicking on one of the pictures,

Then, in the right drop down menus choose the ones you want to compare against eachother.

 

http://www.anandtech.com/Bench/CPU/2

[Boltz]

Anyone else with some ideas? I'm starting to look at getting a GTX 770 4GB with the possibility of adding another in SLI at a later date. Would a GTX 780TI be better than 2x GTX 770 4GB's for multi-monitor gaming?

[xxJohnxx]

Two GTX780Ti in SLI :D

 

To be honest, I didn't get much improvment from upgrading one GTX780 too two GTX780. So I would rather go for one GTX780Ti.

 

But that might all change with EDGE. Who knows!

[Sorin]

Anyone else with some ideas? I'm starting to look at getting a GTX 770 4GB with the possibility of adding another in SLI at a later date. Would a GTX 780TI be better than 2x GTX 770 4GB's for multi-monitor gaming?

 

Two 770 4GB in SLI are faster than one 780 Ti 3GB. But you will need a motherboard that supports SLI.

 

If you want good performance change the CPU and MB, go for an Intel i5-4670K and overclock it; much faster than any AMD CPU.

[Boltz]

I like the idea of two GTX780 Ti in SLI but that is highly unlikely seeing as I am also upgrading my workshop at the moment. Looks like a mixture of thoughts here and I really can not decide between the two GTX770 4GB or one 780Ti. I think I will go with a 780Ti since I will not have to upgrade the motherboard and processor yet. I might try an overclock but I'm not sure if my motherboard will be up to it.

 

I think it's time for some testing.

[Pikey]

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+FX-4170+Quad-Core

 

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/344278-31-overclocked-4170-6100-intel-core

 

Go Intel. You need high core speed and single thread and OC ability. You are close to an I3 here, the i5 I have sits happy at 33 degrees on 4.2GHz, AMD's aren't gaming machines like they used to be, I know this as I probably clung onto that hope for the last 15 years.

 

When a cluster bomb gets released in DCS world and your FPS sinks its a processor issue, High CPU gives a smoother ride.

 

Yeah the GFX card is always a biggy but don't waste money buying two. The performance increase on the second one is a mere fraction of the first so dollar:FPS ratio sinks. There's not a huge amount of gfx compared to modern shooters etc, but if you go multiscreen you need power and quality or risk burning cards out.

 

Samsung pro SSD's are kicking the other manufacturers all over the place in IOPS but i still didn't see your second drive, you should have two to release IOPS for the OS and services.

 

Memory could be faster, you might need to push that back for a later purchase if you go intel board + CPU.

[KLR Rico]

I highy recommend the i5-4670k, I'm very happy with mine.

[Boltz]

Pikey: I only have 1 SSD with no HDD. The PC is only for my flight sims and I have not yet found the need to expand on storage.

 

This is so difficult to decide. I think I will get a 780Ti and then soon upgrade the processor and mobo. Further in the future I will change RAM, maybe add a HDD and some other parts.

[javelina1]

I highy recommend the i5-4670k, I'm very happy with mine.

 

Oui! It's an awesome chip! :thumbup: