Help with cheap upgrade to run Normandy

[nick10]

Fellas. PC noob here.

I'm thinking about getting a second hand graphics card (maybe a GTX970) to get within a bulls roar of running Normandy in some way.

Any thoughts on the shortest and cheapest route.

My specs are below. Cheers in advance:

 

 

Windows 10 Home 64-bit (10.0, Build 14393)

Gigabyte System Model: X58A-UD3R

Processor: Intel® Core i7 CPU 950 @ 3.07GHz (8 CPUs), ~3.1GHz

Memory: 6144MB RAM

Available OS Memory: 6142MB RAM

2x AMD 6800 series with crossfire.

[Headwarp]

Do some research and don't take my word for it, but flight sims are pretty CPU dependant.

 

For simming, bumping my i5 2500k from stock to 4.5ghz provided a much larger increase in frame rates than say, upgrading my gtx 680 4gb (evga classified or ftw i forget) to my current gtx 980 Ti 6gb. That being said, looking at the specs on amd 6800 series cards they don't have much VRAM at all so, upgrading video card to something with more VRAM is probably a great idea.

 

I also notice you said second hand, so I take it you're trying to work with a budget.. but the 1000 series from nVidia might be a better investment if you can save a little more over time and is liable to be more "future proof" than a 900 series card.

 

Also just mentioning that I plan to upgrade from 8gb ram to 16gb soon, as is suggested by the recommended specs to run DCS (and other sims now).

 

I'm not saying to go buy a new system or anything.. Just giving you some food for thought... with emphasis on CPU clock speed, as it seems that flight simulators performance is very heavily tied to CPU use.

 

Sorry for stepping away from your question on "shortest and cheapest".. just giving you some food for thought and sharing my experience with you. In your case a single 970 is a huge upgrade to your current gpu setup and should increase gaming performance quite bit overall, but I wouldn't be surprised especially flight simming if your cpu was showing it's age a bit even after upgrading. Might be possible to OC but, I've only ever done so on my i5 2500k which is known to be rather simple and forgiving in that department.. so I'm not going to make the suggestion of attempting it without some careful research and know how. My PC felt like a brand new machine when I did, and it's honestly pretty old at this point.

 

Just to be less confusing - don't be scared to buy your 970 after reading my post.. if/when you decide to upgrade more of your PC later on you can still use it. ;) And it should leave your 6800's in the dust, providing you don't bottleneck the cpu/ram.

 

My last edit here - Personally PC's are one of few things I kind of go big on when I build them, I aim for overkill. I also like warranties on expensive components. If my 980Ti died tomorrow I'd have a new one within a week or two from EVGA no questions asked aside from perhaps shipping charges, and this i5 2500k system I put together 5-6 years ago will probably still be my main machine for several more years without much complaint at the clockspeeds I'm running at.. (on air btw). I just have to make sure to keep it clean so that heatsink cools properly. ;) Heck I'd probably still be ok with my old 680.. but the 980Ti was purchased to run at higher resolutions (I should have waited for pascal tbh but, the 980Ti is still a strong card.)

 

That being said - I'm not rich. My house was cheap. My truck was bought used and is an '02 model. My couch was under a grand. Outside of that the most valuable things I own are my bass guitars/musical equipment, my memory foam mattress, and my gaming rig atm. I only say this to go along with the above statement that when it comes to PC's.. I go big.. and as a result my "aged" system is still running strong.

Edited April 3, 2017 by Headwarp

[nick10]

Thanks so what would you recommend on cpu?

[Cibit]

Hi Nick,

I am almost in the same boat as you, deciding on an upgrade path. The X58 triple channel RAM is so expensive but that is an upgrade along with the GPU that you can take. If you have any interest I have some Corsair 3x2Gb 1600Mhz 8-8-8-24@ 1.65V that you can add for 12 Gb RAM for a nominal sum which will be a big boost for NTTR and presumably Normandy. PM me if your interested.

Also if the budget stretches the 1070 will be a better alternative to the 970 I think it is about £100 more expensive.

 

I am wondering whether for myself a GPU upgrade or a new CPU/mobo/RAM combo will be best. I have a hankering for a 1080GTX as they have come down in price a lot since the Ti was announced.

[dburne]

Fellas. PC noob here.

I'm thinking about getting a second hand graphics card (maybe a GTX970) to get within a bulls roar of running Normandy in some way.

Any thoughts on the shortest and cheapest route.

My specs are below. Cheers in advance:

 

That's a tough one. I know you want to go the cheapest route, however that system of yours is getting pretty dated now.

 

6GB of system ram is really not enough. Especially with Normandy coming out, you really need more like 16 GB of ram. Otherwise you will likely have some serious swapping to disc going on.

 

If upgrading your motherboard, ram and gpu is out of the question, yes you can throw a 970 or even 980 in there and likely see some improvement, but I would be careful in not investing too much money in that system as it is. It really needs some more ram also if you can swing it...

[Demon_]

What is your resolution?

 

 

https://www.amazon.com/Intel-i5-4670K-Quad-Core-Desktop-Processor/dp/B00CO8TBOW

Edited April 3, 2017 by Demon_

[nick10]

That's a tough one. I know you want to go the cheapest route, however that system of yours is getting pretty dated now.

 

6GB of system ram is really not enough. Especially with Normandy coming out, you really need more like 16 GB of ram. Otherwise you will likely have some serious swapping to disc going on.

 

If upgrading your motherboard, ram and gpu is out of the question, yes you can throw a 970 or even 980 in there and likely see some improvement, but I would be careful in not investing too much money in that system as it is. It really needs some more ram also if you can swing it...

 

So complete rebuild you think?

[dburne]

So complete rebuild you think?

 

IF you can swing it...

 

If not, better vid card and more system ram will certainly help. While the vid card can certainly be used again in any future upgrade you might do, the sys ram certainly could not which is why I say I wouldn't put too much in that current system.

[hughlb]

So complete rebuild you think?

 

I think you'll be chasing a bottleneck around your system if you try to find a weakest link.

 

Realistically your RAM, CPU, GPU all need an upgrade - but then you might as well get a new motherboard and PSU while you're at it. Very quickly it starts looking like a new system ;)

[BitMaster]

A huge VRAM decreases the need for lots of System RAM "to some extend" but not eliminating it.

 

You will need to upgrade it all sooner or later due to aging, so my advice would be a 1070 with 8GB and "maybe" Cibits RAM offer for now so you can keep the rest until you can afford to do that as well.

 

Mind you, a SSD can also help a lot when RAM is low.

 

I am sorry that wasnt the answer you wanted to hear but needed to hear.

[BuzzU]

Nobody has asked how your system runs DCS now? Are you satisfied with it?

 

Will Normandy tax it that much more if you don't install all the ground targets?

 

You didn't answer the question of what resolution you use. It makes a difference.

[nick10]

Resolution is 1600x900

 

DCS runs ok with one aircraft currently. But put a few in there and it shits itself.

 

I'm guessing Normandy will be ultra taxing

[Headwarp]

If you can swing a new system I'd say it's not a horrible time to do so. Personally I'm an Intel fan ever since I built my first intel machine having been an amd budget lover in the past. Intel is pricey though..but in my experience, 4 intel cores are stronger than 4 amd cores by far. The reason clock speed is a big deal is because most of flight sim's calculations are done on a single core. The prices I mention are all in terms of USD.

 

The i7 7700k comes stock at 4.2ghz @ $350 for the processor.

 

i5 7600k is stock 3.8 ghz @ $239 on newegg. Reading newegg reviews people are successfully clocking this thing up to 4.8ghz on air, which is rather impressive, leading me to believe 5ghz or more is possible with water cooling. It may just yawn at a clock increase between 4.2-4.5ghz. I stick with the copper based heatsink and fan personally. (Might I recommend some Arctic Silver for thermal paste.. stuff is wonderful).

 

If OC'ing is an interest.. my understanding is that the i5 is easier to do it with, as people tend to disabled hyper threading to OC an i7 chip. (this could have changed over the years idk)

 

Personally, if I were building a new system right now I'd probably choose one of these chips, and pick my motherboard and ram accordingly. (i7 7700k if I didn't want to risk overclocking, i5 7600k if my intention was to overclock it for faster clock speeds)

 

This will leave you room for more upgrades in the future if you want as well.. such as bigger displays with higher resolution, or VR.. the motherboards will be able to accommodate large amounts of physical memory.. like at least up to 64gb of ram (not that you need that much for anything right now as far as gaming is concerned).

 

Again just food for thought. I'm not going to tell you what to spend your $$$ on. :)

 

If you feel like you can afford to take the risk, it might be worth seeing if you can get higher clockspeeds out of your i7 950, but get an aftermarket heatsink/fan and some arctic silver at the very least before doing so. If you can get near 4ghz, you might be able to get away with just some more ram and a more modern GPU. Personally I know nothing about overclocking the i7 950, whether it's multipliers are locked or what. All i can really offer is food for thought. Overclocking requires research and an understanding that you do so at your own risk. All I know is I was thinking about upgrading my old i5 2500k, until I finally decided to see what kind of clock speeds she could handle without crossing the threshold of "too hot". And at the point I did so.. I was well outside of any warranty timeline, I had just bought a new copper heatsink/fan as my older one was dirty and throttling my stock cpu speeds due to not cooling properly, and my system was old enough that I didn't mind replacing it if my overclocking experiments proved fatal.

Edited April 4, 2017 by Headwarp

[nick10]

Many thanks. I reckon I will wait a generation on vr. So that's not essential.

But the rest is helpful.

I'm in Australia so temperatures are an issue.

[Demon_]

Resolution is 1600x900

 

This is for the video card. A GTX1060 6G.

 

DCS runs ok with one aircraft currently. But put a few in there and it shits itself.

 

This is the CPU. Managing the AI (artificial intelligence). You need 4Ghz or more. The i5 7600K run at 4.2Ghz (stock).

Edited April 4, 2017 by Demon_

[OnlyforDCS]

Nick10, if budget is an issue, you can always build a second hand system fairly cheaply.

 

The only question is how much experience do you have building a system from the ground up? Its really not that hard, but if you haven't done it before maybe someone should assist you once you get your components.

 

Look at my system specs in my signature. This system will run DCS 1.5 & 2.0 at pretty much 60FPS at 1080p 95% of the time. I can even push it to 1440p, by lowering a few graphics options.

[Raz_Specter]

I am thinking of upgrading my machine and may have the following components for sale if anyone is interested:

 

Asus X99A Motherboard

Intel Core i7-5820K 3.30GHz 15MB Haswell-E Unlocked

32GB DDR4 2400Ghz RAM

Coreair Hi110 watercooler

 

components have never been overclocked.

 

Ping me or let me know if you are interested

 

Cheers Specter

[Headwarp]

Nick10, if budget is an issue, you can always build a second hand system fairly cheaply.

 

The only question is how much experience do you have building a system from the ground up? Its really not that hard, but if you haven't done it before maybe someone should assist you once you get your components.

 

Look at my system specs in my signature. This system will run DCS 1.5 & 2.0 at pretty much 60FPS at 1080p 95% of the time. I can even push it to 1440p, by lowering a few graphics options.

 

@ ground level i may drop to 60ish but in the air i'm usually betwen 80-100fps @ 3440x1440

 

on my i5 2500k @4.5ghz , 8gb ddr3 1600, 980 Ti. But I do run without civ traffic, and I might lower shadows just a bit. But if you're running on a 60hz monitor then it sounds like you're right where you want to be and probably using v-sync. Not putting you down.. just saying i think @ 1080p you could get more if you had a monitor that supported higher refresh rates. JUST AN OBSERVATION. Nothing's broke..nothing to fix.

[nick10]

As a postscript. Bought a second hand gtx 960 for $100. Installed and the gain is huge. Might now go shopping for cheap ram!

[Konovalov]

As a postscript. Bought a second hand gtx 960 for $100. Installed and the gain is huge. Might now go shopping for cheap ram!

Hi Nick,

Your system is similar to mine. However there are 4 significant differences. First I run my i7-950 overclocked from stock 3.06Ghz up to 4.26Ghz. This yielded me decent gains in DCS. Secondly I run my OS and also DCS on an SSD. This also helps in DCS and general system responsiveness. Third I have 12gb of system memory. Finally I have the latest GPO architecture in a GTX1070.

 

Considering you really want to save the dollars I would strongly suggest having a go at overclocking your CPU from stock to near 4Ghz. This will yield free performance for you. Also I would look at doubling your system memory as 6GB just doesn't cut it anymore.

 

Finally I have a spare tri-channel kit of Corsair XMS3 6GB (3 x 2GB) 1600Mhz 8-8-8-24 1.65v ver7.1A RAM (product code TR3X6G1600C8). I'm also in Australia so let me know/PM me if you are interested.

[nick10]

Thanks mate wil do