Need advice on PC upgrade

[KombatMilc]

I am going to spend some money upgrading my PC, but I do not know exactly where I should spend the money. I have been contemplating getting a new graphics card. Maybe a R9 290X or maybe an FX-9370 CPU. I would like some input from the community about what I should do. The main reason I am doing this is because of DCS only.

 

My system as of now is:

OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit

Motherboard: ASUS ROG Crosshair V Formula AM3+

CPU: AMD Phenom II x6 1100t @ 4.0 GHz AM3

GPU: AMD XFX HD6970 w/ 2gb of VRAM

RAM: Mushkin 996999 8GB (2 x 4BG) DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) 7-8-7-24

Sound Card: ASUS Xonar Essence ST

SSD: Mushkin Chronos Deluxe 60gb (contains only OS)

HDD: 2 x 1tb Wesern Digital Black in RAID 0 (contains all games and data)

PSU: Antec High Current Pro 850 watt

 

I get kind of low FPS in DCS especially in ares that are building heavy or there are a lot things shooting. In regular flight online I can get at the most ~30fps. Add in some tracers a few planes and vehicles and it gets pretty choppy.

 

I could probably lower the setting in DCS but when I did my FPS either didn't improve or got worse.

clutter/bushes: 0

trees: 6062

preload: 150000

TSSAA: off

cockpit shadows: on

fullscreen: on

textures: high

scenes: high

civ traffic: off

water: low

visib range: medium

heat blur: on

shadows: high

resolution: 1920x1080

aspect ratio: 1.7777777777778 (I always set it to 16:9 but it always reverts to this)

monitors: 1 screen

cockpit displays: 256

MSAA: 2x

HDR: off

 

To gather some information about how my PC was handling DCS I installed HWiNFO and gathered some data to see how well my components were handling DCS. I fired up DCS and joined the 104th server and flew around for a little more than an hour.

 

I displayed the information on my Logitech G19 keyboard display so I could gather information without having to log it or tab out of DCS.

 

My Phenom II x6 1100t was using 2 cores to run DCS (as expected)

Core# 5 was under 45-50% load

Core# 6 was under 55-75% load

Total CPU load was 20%

 

My system was using 7525MB of virtual memory with 8647MB still available 46% load

 

It was using 5453MB of physical memory with 2633MB still available 67% load

 

The Radeon HD6970 was at 75-85% load using 2021MB of dedicated memory, and 121MB of dynamic memory.

 

My SSD containing my OS only was doing next to nothing

 

The 2 Western Digital Blacks in RAID 0 were doing absolutely nothing at all once I got in game.

 

 

With that information what do you, members of the forum, recommend I do? I am looking to make an upgrade in 1-3 months.

Edited November 1, 2014 by KombatMilc
spelling

[Demon_]

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106-5.html

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html

 

Maybe a Gtx970, or TSSAA disable :D http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=1030771&postcount=2

16/9= 1.777777778

Edited November 1, 2014 by Demon_

[KombatMilc]

Thank you Demon for that suggestion on the TSSAA. Disabling it did help out a bit. It seems to have increased my FPS by about 2-5 frames. Every little bit helps!

Edited November 1, 2014 by KombatMilc

[Demon_]

Try:

Scenes = Medium

Water = Low (first main factor of low FPS)

Visib Range = Medium (second main factor of low FPS)

MSAA = 2X

Trees Visibility = 6000 m

Mirrors= Off

 

Stuttering? Open windows Services and in there you will see "AMD External Events Utility", turn it off.

[KombatMilc]

I made a few more changes and updated the original post. Moving the scenes from high to medium or low did not make a difference in FPS.

 

Thank you for the help, but even with those settings I peak at 40 fps, but once I get around a few other planes it drops into the 20's and sometimes dipping as low at 15 fps.

 

I think it is time for an upgrade.

Edited November 1, 2014 by KombatMilc

[JST]

DCS is incredibly bad at CPU utilization, and there is no CPU out there that will run the game butter smooth. EDGE should help with this, though how much, remains to be seen.

My rig is an i5-4690k and R9 270 (Radeon 7870) and I usually average around 40 FPS online as well, although peak is 60 (v-sync)

 

Nontheless, a new CPU would probably help getting average framerate up, but even with the latest top-end Intel processor you will drop frames and stay in the low 20's in certain situations.

If you can get a good deal on a 9370, then go for it, but it's just a factory overclocked 8350, so if you can find the latter cheaper, get that and overclock it yourself.

 

6970 is still a decent graphics card for 1080p, and just about what you need for this game at that resolution, although a 7970/280x or a 770 would be a nice upgrade. Only if you were going for 1440p/2160p I'd suggest a 290x/GTX 980.

 

But, in the end, I wouldn't suggest upgrading yet. My rig is better than yours, but my situation is similar. Framedrops to low 10's and jagged gameplay, although averages might be slighty higher.

 

What I suggest is that you wait for EDGE, see how your rig handles it and then pull the trigger on upgrades, if necessary.

[Mustang]

DCS is incredibly bad at CPU utilization, and there is no CPU out there that will run the game butter smooth. EDGE should help with this, though how much, remains to be seen.

My rig is an i5-4690k and R9 270 (Radeon 7870) and I usually average around 40 FPS online as well, although peak is 60 (v-sync)

 

Nontheless, a new CPU would probably help getting average framerate up, but even with the latest top-end Intel processor you will drop frames and stay in the low 20's in certain situations.

If you can get a good deal on a 9370, then go for it, but it's just a factory overclocked 8350, so if you can find the latter cheaper, get that and overclock it yourself.

 

6970 is still a decent graphics card for 1080p, and just about what you need for this game at that resolution, although a 7970/280x or a 770 would be a nice upgrade. Only if you were going for 1440p/2160p I'd suggest a 290x/GTX 980.

 

But, in the end, I wouldn't suggest upgrading yet. My rig is better than yours, but my situation is similar. Framedrops to low 10's and jagged gameplay, although averages might be slighty higher.

 

What I suggest is that you wait for EDGE, see how your rig handles it and then pull the trigger on upgrades, if necessary.

 

Install this driver and watch your FPS rise

 

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=393257

[KombatMilc]

Install this driver and watch your FPS rise

 

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=393257

 

Would my 6970 benefit from this driver? I am running currently running Catalyst 14.9

 

edit: just saw it was on the list

Edited November 1, 2014 by KombatMilc

[KombatMilc]

Mustang, I installed the driver and began joining servers and starting single player missions, but I did not see a noticeable impact on performance. I am going to revert to 14.9.

 

Thank you for your help!

Edited November 1, 2014 by KombatMilc

[Mustang]

Would my 6970 benefit from this driver? I am running currently running Catalyst 14.9

 

edit: just saw it was on the list

 

Yes the driver will work on your card, but the benefits are aimed more at GCN based cards (7xxx and above, your 6970 is just a generation behind)

 

 

Mustang, I installed the driver and began joining servers and starting single player missions, but I did not see a noticeable impact on performance. I am going to revert to 14.9.

 

Thank you for your help!

 

strange really, i can see definite increases with my 7850 card (and so have many others)

[skinnadoor]

What's described below.. are only a few parts that were introduced..along with some old ones...I still have on the way, 16GB of Kingston 2400mhz ram, and the ASUS strix GTX970 4GB along with track IR5

 

 

It's not just a video card that carry's the weight of DCS.... Using MSI afterburner and seeing that i'm using almost all of my 1GB of Vram... i'm getting away with murder here.

 

CPU and motherboard upgrades alone can have a huge impact on DCS..... from just upgrading those two components...it is almost night and day... good frame rates....Feels like I upgraded my video card.. for real.

 

Old system...

 

AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Processor 3.2Ghz, Gigabyte GA-890GPA-UD3H Motherboard, 16GB PC1333 DDR3 RAM, AMD Radeon HD6800 1GB GDDR5, MS Force Feedback 2 Joystick.

 

 

Add the new CPU .....Intel Core i5-4690K Devil's Canyon Quad-Core 3.5GHz and Motherboard ASUS MAXIMUS VII HERO (Intel LGA 1150)

 

Brought this video card back from the dead.... substantial frame rate increase..... and noticeable graphical enhancements....

 

 

From what I can tell over the last week... the CPU.... does do most of the heavy lifting. Start with the CPU and mainboard if your gear is more than 3 years old.