Improve graphics in DCS?

[mjfur]

What can I do to improve my graphics/FPS in DCS? I'm a novice at this.

I currently run DCS in the "medium" graphics settings. I don't really understand what all of the in-game graphics setting options do or how they effect the game.

 

 

Can I make any adjustments with what I have or should I just build new?

 

Win 7

I7-870 (2.93GHz)

8G DDR3 (motherboard maxed out at 8g)

GTX 970

 

 

 

If a new build is required, should I go with two graphics cards (SLI?) or will one high end card be sufficient?

 

Thanks

Edited July 19, 2017 by mjfur

[BitMaster]

A simple question that would result in a mind blowing and overwhelming answer, so let me try simple words and terms.

 

You can make adjustments but a new Gaming PC would also make sense if you can afford it and are willing to.

 

Your CPU is next to impossible to overclock to an extend that it would make a significant difference. Your CPU only overclocks by BusClock override, which in your case by definition will raise the DDR3 clock as well = you would need new DDR3 modules at a greater speed to make that happen ....+ better cooling ( may be hard to get for that old socket ) + LUCK, there is ZERO garanty that it would work, regardless of the DDR3 sticks !

 

The only good component I can see is the 970GTX GPU, that you could carry over to a new PC

and save some bucks for now. If you have enough money to also buy a new GPU I would buy a new GPU as well and keep the old PC as it is a sa backup machine, I think one should have at least 1 spare computer fully functioning ;)

 

The reason why I say "NEW" PC is that you have hit more than 1 limit in your machine, the CPU being fairly slow vs. any new CPU for 200-350€/$ and if the RAM is maxed out you will need to upgrade anyway as 8GB is a borderline config. It does allow to run DCS but with limitations. Couple that with a HDD and you have slow performer per se.

 

You can either buy a new Intel or AMD CPU, both, if you pick the right one, will deliver enough performance for DCS. The top dog 4-core Intel CPU has a higher Single Core performance but is slower when a program can make use of many or all cores a CPU has. That's when, for comparable money, the AMD comes into play. It offers more cores for comparable money and is easier to cool. I have both CPU's, an Intel 7700k for gaming and later on got an R5-1600X as an office machine. If I had to buy a gaming rig I would base it on a R7 1700X or 1800X 8-core AMD Ryzen and would avoid Intel. It's not for the price, the 1800X would even cost 140 more but I get 8 instead of 4 cores and it remains cooler at maximum overclock then the Intel Kaby Lake when you reach 4.8+ GHz on all cores.

The performance difference in general for gaming, or FPS, is only really noticable at 1080p resolution in most games. At higher resolutions the fps are not that much apart, the higher you go with res the lesser the difference becomes.

If you use your PC for anything else than DCS as well the AMD makes sense, if you aim for the highest achievable FPS there is no way around an Intel KabyLake or later CPU, with all the ups and downs of either CPU.

 

Before you buy new GPU buy a SSD if you dont have one. Getting 2 SSDs is no bad idea, I would rather buy 2 x 50GB instead of 1 x 1TB. If you can, get at least one NVMe SSD, they are even faster than SATA based SSD 2.5" drives. NVMe is a SSD that looks more like a DDR memory stick. New boards allow up to 3 of them installed. 2 is standard meanwhile.

 

Get 16GB DDR4, some say ( incl. me ) 32 GB is a good investment into the future for new games and Windows' that may come in the next 5 years. I dare to say DCS uses more RAM if you switch from 16 to 32GB, at least my graphs tell me it does use up to 18GB in some cases and hardly ever less than 14GB. If you only have 16GB DCS will never be allowed to use that much RAM. In my 16GB days I usually used about 12-13GB when I flew on 104th server.

When you buy overclocked RAM it is a GOOD idea to buy ALL the modules in ONE pack.

It may or may not work with higher speeds than 2133 or 2400 if you mix 2 packs of 2 modules, even that they are of the same speed, model and brand. The higher you grab the more truth in in this. I would get a 4-pack of DDR4-3200MHz for AMD CPU ( one that is LISTED as compatible in the list). With an Intel CPU and a good board you can go up to 4133MHz DDR4, as high as you want and are willing to pay. The sweetspot for price is 3200MHz, circa.

 

Get a nice case, a good PSU ( Seasonic Prime is top notch right now ) and you are good to go.

 

You will have to move to Win10 with those new CPUs. AMD does somehow support Win7 but I dont recommend it. I run both with 10 with no issues.

 

The boards I use are Asus Prime series and I can recommend them, but there are many others that work well or have more feature and LEDs ;)

 

 

CPU-RAM-MOBO-SSD + Case and PSU + GPU if you keep the old PC as it is.

 

For GPU it depends on what screen you have to some degree. If you use Gsync you should stay with Nvidia, if you have FreeSync you should go with AMD, if you have neither one it doesnt matter unless you buy a new screen that has one of the features, than you must buy the correct brand card to have it supported. Gsync is awesome but comes at a higher price, FreeSync is cheaper but you would have to go with a AMD card, which are a bit slower than Nvida. AMD brings new cards next month, so that may change to some extend. It depends on how much money you are willing to spend. GPU and screen can be added at any time, CPU RAM MOBO have to be there right away, the rest may or may not happen or anytime after. You could even run the new combo from an HDD until you can afford more parts etc... Just the bare bones must be bought together, CPU RAM BOARD.

 

Keep in mind that DCS 2.1 is more GPU demanding than 1.5 is. A 1080Ti card is about as much as a Ryzen R7-1800X + Asus Prime Motherboard + 16GB DDR4-3200. The GPU is about as expensive as the other 3 parts together.

 

YOu wont need a 1080Ti if you play at 1080p and a 60Hz Monitor. Your 970 is then actually just enough and well balanced. A faster card makes more sense if you use QHD or 4K resolution.

 

 

SLI I would NOT do now. It would also cost you a lot of money to buy two 1080Ti's and there is zero garanty that it would run faster when configured properly. I would certainly not do it now and therefor buy the biggest fattest SINGLE card!

 

Sufficient ? Hmmm, depends on your judging what that is. Is it colors or resolution or fps, or all together ? Makes it hard to say. Most demand stable 60 fps, some like way more, some say FullHD is enough and some would not go back from 4K and then we have VR as well, a totally different thing. A 1080 Ti is the fastest card right now, if you go 4K or VR that card is almost a must, minimum I would say a 1070.

 

sooo...you need to decide ;)...and I need to make some Pizza now, kids are yelling HUUUNGER :cry:

[kunterbunt]

Actually dcs does not support sli yet. Was mentioned in the last video interview by wags.

[mjfur]

BitMaster,

 

 

Thank you for the detailed response, that's a lot to take in.

 

 

Fortunately or unfortunately I have more money than computer smarts. Looks like a "new build" is in the future.

 

 

Thanks,

[dburne]

Looks like a "new build" is in the future.

 

 

:thumbup:

 

Best option in your case!

[BitMaster]

BitMaster,

 

 

Thank you for the detailed response, that's a lot to take in.

 

 

Fortunately or unfortunately I have more money than computer smarts. Looks like a "new build" is in the future.

 

 

Thanks,

 

Haha OK :smilewink:

 

In that case I'd get an Intel 7700k, 32GG DDR4-3600 or faster, 2 x NVMe Samsung 960Pro 512GB ( or 256GB ), Asus Z270 Board, Seasonic Prime 850W PSU, Asus 1080Ti-GTX "Poseidon" and a nice DIY Watercoolset that allows to slave the GPU into the loop. In your case, ask a local shop if they can build one like that, if not, get a Asus 1080Ti GTX Strix-OC card ( aircooled ) and a Noctua DH-15 aircooler, that's the next best solution. I'd still prefer watercooling, its a lot less noise pollution ;)

 

YOu can put up a list and we can countercheck if things fit, no problem :book:

[Hermit713]

Went from 1150 Lga &i7 3.4mhtz (o.c. 4.5)&16gz ram @1600

To a i7 7700k 4.5 htz (left stock)@32gig ram @ 3000htz and the difference was mind blowing

I'm not sure if it was because of the recent update that they've made to DCS, but frame rates are fantastic in all areas and everything is very close maxed.

[kunterbunt]

Went from 1150 Lga &i7 3.4mhtz (o.c. 4.5)&16gz ram @1600

To a i7 7700k 4.5 htz (left stock)@32gig ram @ 3000htz and the difference was mind blowing

I'm not sure if it was because of the recent update that they've made to DCS, but frame rates are fantastic in all areas and everything is very close maxed.

 

You changed everything but the video card? what card are you using?

[Hermit713]

Radeon fxr9 extreme (2 of them) but as we know D.C.'s doesn't do crossfire or sli. But is amazing when running war hammer DOW III, WARHAMMER, battlefield 1, and a slew of other games that do. DCS could benefit greatly with crossfire support.

 

I have the Maximus extreme board in lg1150 form back now from asus ( I bent the main board pins they are so fragile). I will try a new devil canyon 4.3 ghtz i7 stock in place of the slower 3.5ghtz

I will pick up win 10 as well as the lga 1151 is not supported by win 8.2 .

[Hermit713]

The recent update of DCS really made some fantastic fixes IMHO..

[Hermit713]

Bitmaster, I have not tried any overclocking the 7700k yet, but is yours a lotto chip (1.33 volts) or is that average voltage to get the board stable @5.0 ghtz? I saw a guy returning his chips until he got one that was a center bake lottery winner( over clocked with very little over voltage).

 

Delidding seem easy to do with big rewards with 20deg Celsius cooler running chip. But honestly the chip has been working great the way it is

[BitMaster]

Bitmaster, I have not tried any overclocking the 7700k yet, but is yours a lotto chip (1.33 volts) or is that average voltage to get the board stable @5.0 ghtz? I saw a guy returning his chips until he got one that was a center bake lottery winner( over clocked with very little over voltage).

 

Delidding seem easy to do with big rewards with 20deg Celsius cooler running chip. But honestly the chip has been working great the way it is

 

 

Look at this chart, it will give an idea about the Voltage spreading on 7thgen CPUs when overclocked.

 

http://www.overclock.net/t/1621347/kaby-lake-overclocking-guide-with-statistics

 

According to that list my chip is neither a looser but also no real winner.

 

I must also state, it highly depends on the load that you pu ton the CPU. I have 2 profiles for 5G.

One is called EASY, that runs daily when needed for DCS on 1.300V and LLC2 ( default ), PowerPhase and such all default values as well. That setting is what I meanwhile play any game with and have zero issues.

Just dont try to do heavy stress testing with those EASY settings, it will fail pretty soon. In order to get all cores stable when priming or IBT it needs the values stated in my signature

which also adds quite some heat !

 

I prime daily, I have an account at mersenne.org for many years now and even some servers I manage do prime 24/7/365 on a a few unused cores that I cannot use in HyperV etc..

For those hour long runs I dont OC, hell no, why should I. OC when you benefit from it and keep it standard whenever you stress your CPU over a long time, aka prime95 as contributor, do hours of video transcoding etc. Mersenne will not buy me a new CPU if I ruin mine for finding primes ! The Voltage you feed is the punishment you put on your CPU, the more the sooner it WILL FAIL due to degration. It's the VOLTS that kill the CPU, not the heat !

 

I have not delidded my CPU on prolly never will. It runs cool enough in DCS at 5G and that is the only program that I personally overclock for, any daily computing etc. is done at XMP settings and 4.5-all_core setting...which already is a 7% overclock from Asus UEFI settings.

[mjfur]

Haha OK :smilewink:

 

In that case I'd get an Intel 7700k, 32GG DDR4-3600 or faster, 2 x NVMe Samsung 960Pro 512GB ( or 256GB ), Asus Z270 Board, Seasonic Prime 850W PSU, Asus 1080Ti-GTX "Poseidon" and a nice DIY Watercoolset that allows to slave the GPU into the loop. In your case, ask a local shop if they can build one like that, if not, get a Asus 1080Ti GTX Strix-OC card ( aircooled ) and a Noctua DH-15 aircooler, that's the next best solution. I'd still prefer watercooling, its a lot less noise pollution ;)

 

YOu can put up a list and we can countercheck if things fit, no problem :book:

 

If I go with this set-up, will I be able to transition to VR/Oculus Rift in the future or is that an entirely different build direction?

[BitMaster]

If I go with this set-up, will I be able to transition to VR/Oculus Rift in the future or is that an entirely different build direction?

 

It doesnt get faster than the above right now, 5GHz + 1080Ti is a nice combo. Even if you dont overclock and settle with the default 4.5 it is a very nice performer.