Upgrade This PC?

[Fangio]

I purchased the PC noted below in December of 2015 in anticipation of playing DCS on the Rift. Today, the reality of this is not so great. With pretty much everything turned either off or all the way down I get a fair bit of stuttering and very low frame rates. I know little about computer hardware or optimizing settings (posting a different thread on that) but I wanted to ask the experts here about my PC and what if anything I could potentially upgrade to improve VR performance. Here is what I have - I purchased online from iBuypower.com.

 

 

Case 1 x Thermaltake Versa H35 w/ Window Gaming Case

Processor 1 x Intel® Core™ i7 5820K Processor (6x 3.30GHz/15MB L3 Cache)

iBUYPOWER PowerDrive 1 x PowerDrive Level 1 - Up to 10% Overclocking

Processor Cooling 1 x Corsair Hydro Series H55 120mm Liquid CPU Cooler

Memory 16GB DDR4-2800 ADATA XPG**

Video Card 1 x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980Ti - 6GB

F802.11AC Dual Band Wireless USB Adapter

Motherboard 1 x ASUS X99-A -- - *Free upgrade to ASUS X99-A/USB 3.1

Power Supply 850W Thermaltake TPG - 80 PLUS Gold, Fully Modular

Primary Hard Drive 256GB SanDisk Z400S SSD* (Single Drive Only)

Data Hard Drive 1 x 1 TB Hard �Drive -- 32MB Cache, 7200 RPM, 6.0Gb/s - Single Drive

Optical Drive 14X LG Blu-ray Re-writer

Sound Card 1 x ASUS Xonar DGX -- 5.1 Channels, 96KHz/24-bit

Network Card 1 x Intel Pro 10/100/1000 Network Card

USB Expansion Card 1 x PCI-Express USB 3.0 Expansion Card (2x External Port + 1x Header)

Operating System 1 x Windows 10 Home (64-bit) *Newest Microsoft Windows*

 

 

I know I could toss a GTX1080i in and that would help. Like double the RAM as well I guess? But would that make much difference?

 

Fang

[Mr_sukebe]

My thoughts, and roughly in order of their priority:

- The 980ti was leading edge, but that's a couple of years ago. That's where you're likely to have the biggest potential gains for improvement

- The clock speed of your i7 is no great shakes. Can that be overclocked? If not, will your motherboard support a newer i5 processor?

- My assumption is that even in game, that the hard drive is addressed for data (for one thing, Normandy is something like 40Gb in size). If you can get 2.1 onto your SSD, that should be fine

- 16Gb of RAM should be fine at the moment, unless you're hosting a server

[uri_ba]

OC the CPU for free. You have an H-55 that should be ok. That's an instant boost.

 

Upgrading to 1080ti is an option.

As is throwing in a second SSD.

 

But I would start from OC and see where it takes me. The 5820k is no sloth.

[Gruman]

I agree, go for the OC of the CPU first. All that really matters for DCS is single core performance.

 

Put DCS on the SSD or throw in a second one for DCS.

 

You will see a small gain from going from a 980TI to a 1080TI (did the same), but don't expect 90FPS. Even with the rift. There is currently just no way to max out the game and have constant 90FPS (and you dont need 90 FPS!, just enjoy the immersion and ignore (disable) any framecounters.)

 

:)

[boedha68]

+1 I have almost similar specs. I play fine for now

 

I wait for the new nvidia card "volta" or "ampere"

 

It's a dillema. But on this point i advise you too wait for next year.

 

Save money and go for the new line in 2018. To get really big upgrades and differences!!!

 

For now... overclock CPU. :D

[Fangio]

THANK YOU for all the great feedback!

 

So... overclock the CPU. OK. For a PC hardware neophyte how does one go about doing this? I am not really sure how to even access the BIOS for the PC and I am pretty sure I will need to do that to access what is required for overclocking?

 

I will likely post another thread in the hardware section for help in overclocking but anyone have any guides or links that will hold the hand of a PC moron through the process that would be awesome!

 

Fang

[Gruman]

The ASUS Board should support the AI Suite from ASUS. Which can automaticly overclock and do a very basic stability test... As long as you have sufficient cooling, the AI Suite will do most of the work.

 

Just access the download page from your ASUS Motherboard and look under Utilities.

There are many guides about the usage of AI Suite in the www.