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My system below . Currently , it runs very well , and very stably , with never less than 53 Fps , and minimal concessions to max eye candy - this in singleplayer mode .

 

I'm thinking of an upgrade , and interestingly , it's gonna cost about the same for a I7-6700k , 32gb memory , or a 1070 . I can only afford one of these !

 

Regarding the CPU , any problems with an H170 chipset ? I am not interested in overclocking .

 

My immediate goal is to get the frames up about 15% , so I can lock at 60 , and hopefully get rid of the shadow fickering . It drives me nuts as i spend lots of time at 3-500 ft AGL .

 

Secondary considerations-post Vulcan-are possibility of VR

And-if it is ever fixed - multiplayer .

By the time either of these is implemented , i could probably afford another of the three listed upgrades .

 

I'm leaning towards the 1070 , but would very much appreciate any PC Guru's advice . Thanks in advance !


Edited by Svsmokey

9700k @ stock , Aorus Pro Z390 wifi , 32gb 3200 mhz CL16 , 1tb EVO 970 , MSI RX 6800XT Gaming X TRIO , Seasonic Prime 850w Gold , Coolermaster H500m , Noctua NH-D15S , CH Pro throttle and T50CM2/WarBrD base on Foxxmounts , CH pedals , Reverb G2v2

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Download and install MSI afterburner or some other monitoring tool with an on-screen display while gaming and configure it to show CPU usage per core and GPU usage. If one core is maxing out on your CPU and your GPU is hardly working you're CPU bottlenecked and the 6700k would allow you to OC to higher frequencies provided you have suffcient cooling and provide performance increases (in the same regard so would a 6500k vs a 6500). Remember we're looking for any given one of the cores on your CPU being maxed out, not the total of all cores being maxed out. 99% of one core on is 25% of total cpu usage for a quad core without hyperthreading.

 

If none of the cores on your CPU are maxed out but the GPU is at 99%, the 1070 should offer you the 15% you're looking for if not more, but it might be the tipping point that causes the CPU bottleneck and then you'd want a faster CPU to get the most out of the card, although you can always do that at a later date. DCS likes lots of VRAM.

 

IMHO I'd upgrade all 3 over time. The GPU/CPU taking priority depending on which one is maxed out while you're flying currently.

 

Memory being the last step.

 

https://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/H170M%20Pro4/

 

Is this your motherboard? Seems the latest BIOS supports Kabylake aka 7th gen even. So yeah a 6700K would work... but so would a 7700K if you update your BIOS. You might even consider the i5 7600k as it's cheaper than both the 6700k and 7700k minus the hyperthreading that DCS doesn't benefit from right now anyway, although who knows with vulkan. I'd imagine the 7600k overclocks decently. On the other hand the 7700k turbos to 4.5ghz out of the box. But as far as single core performance - the i5 7600K turbos to 4.2 ghz out of the box just like the 6700k does. My guess is GPU will be the biggest upgrade for now. But you need to determine that through monitoring cpu/gpu usage rather than let us guess blindly. ;) GPU's are something I personally will never skimp on as I make use of them for a period of years before upgrading and got myself into high resolutions and VR. But for 1080P - today's high end gpu's surpass the basic needs of 1080P resolution gaming. 1070/1080 should do ya if you don't plan on any supersampling.

 

Advice for future upgrades and builds - it's always worth it for the K series when shopping intel processor. It's faster stock out of the box if you're afraid of OC'ing, and then when it is finally out of warranty and you're wondering "do I really need to upgrade?" down the road you can play around and get decent results with overclocking with plenty of guides out there to tell you how to do so safely. Can end up feeling like you brought a brand new computer for the cost of navigating the bios and changing some settings, and perhaps the expense of a respectable AIO cooler rather than air. By the time I overclocked a CPU for the first time, it wouldn't have sold for much at all and it was that or build a new rig at the time. So there really wasn't any downside. That being said - for me and my technical ability it was easy enough to get a stable OC that I'm no longer scared of the idea, and didn't hestitate with my brand new 8700k as soon as I had everything installed last year. ;)

 

*Edit* My apologies for my interest in the PC-hardware forum as of late. It's tiding me over while I'm waiting for my new GPU to arrive. >.<


Edited by Headwarp
Spoiler

Win 11 Pro, z790 i9 13900k, RTX 4090 , 64GB DDR 6400GB, OS and DCS are on separate pci-e 4.0 drives 

Sim hardware - VKB MCG Ultimate with 200mm extension, Virpil T-50CM3 Dual throttles.   Blackhog B-explorer (A), TM Cougar MFD's (two), MFG Crosswinds with dampener.   Obutto R3volution gaming pit.  

 

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Thanks for the reply ! I'll look into a monitoring download . Always assumed afterburner would only work on their boards . Prolly shoud look into lasso as well . A lot otherwise to chew on here . Thanks again .

9700k @ stock , Aorus Pro Z390 wifi , 32gb 3200 mhz CL16 , 1tb EVO 970 , MSI RX 6800XT Gaming X TRIO , Seasonic Prime 850w Gold , Coolermaster H500m , Noctua NH-D15S , CH Pro throttle and T50CM2/WarBrD base on Foxxmounts , CH pedals , Reverb G2v2

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Afterburner works with anything except maybe overclocking newer EVGA GPU's which I'm uncertain if that's still true or what. We're not talking overclocking gpu's anyway.

 

You have to play with the settings and what shows up on the on-screen display, but you can defintely get an idea of your CPU and GPU workload with it while flying around in DCS. For seeing what's happening while you game it's honestly the easiest to configure.

 

Don't chew too much.. you're either getting a CPU or GPU upgrade soon and you get to check one off your list. ;)


Edited by Headwarp
Spoiler

Win 11 Pro, z790 i9 13900k, RTX 4090 , 64GB DDR 6400GB, OS and DCS are on separate pci-e 4.0 drives 

Sim hardware - VKB MCG Ultimate with 200mm extension, Virpil T-50CM3 Dual throttles.   Blackhog B-explorer (A), TM Cougar MFD's (two), MFG Crosswinds with dampener.   Obutto R3volution gaming pit.  

 

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I hope you Smokey won't mind if I loan your thread a bit to ask advice from the gurus.

 

 

Download and install MSI afterburner or some other monitoring tool with an on-screen display while gaming and configure it to show CPU usage per core and GPU usage. If one core is maxing out on your CPU and your GPU is hardly working you're CPU bottlenecked...

 

I have been using afterburner for monitoring but it seems that neither my GPU or CPU is maxing out. The most loaded CPU core jumps between 60 - 80% but doesn't go higher than that. GPU is around 70% if I recall correctly but I can max it out if I push the setting further. That was in Epsom campaign's mission 12 where I seem to get around 22 fps at the beginning. I have I7 6700K, Z170 PRO, GTX 1080Ti and 16GB DDR4-2133MHz CL14 RAM. I recently upgraded to the 1080Ti and I am now thinking about picking up more and faster RAM. But how do I know if it's the RAM amount or speed that slows the computer down?

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I don't think 1070 is enough of an upgrade to be worth it. Save for a more substantial upgrade later. The cpu is more of a real upgrade imo. At that speed the memory isn't future-proof enough to justify the upgrade either, imo. Wait until you can afford to upgrade the whole lot of memory to faster sticks I think.

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I don't think 1070 is enough of an upgrade to be worth it. Save for a more substantial upgrade later. The cpu is more of a real upgrade imo. At that speed the memory isn't future-proof enough to justify the upgrade either, imo. Wait until you can afford to upgrade the whole lot of memory to faster sticks I think.

 

Thanks for the reply ! Your points ARE entirely valid . But bearing in mind my personal financials , and the fact that i am 68 and future-proofing is not a concern :) , I'm sure you better understand my thinking .

9700k @ stock , Aorus Pro Z390 wifi , 32gb 3200 mhz CL16 , 1tb EVO 970 , MSI RX 6800XT Gaming X TRIO , Seasonic Prime 850w Gold , Coolermaster H500m , Noctua NH-D15S , CH Pro throttle and T50CM2/WarBrD base on Foxxmounts , CH pedals , Reverb G2v2

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  • 2 weeks later...

Followed Headwarp's advice , and downloaded , Afterburner . Sweet ! It confirmed my thinking on the GPU . Not only was it maxed , performance-wise , but it was using half my ram as well . Pulled the trigger on a 1070 today .

9700k @ stock , Aorus Pro Z390 wifi , 32gb 3200 mhz CL16 , 1tb EVO 970 , MSI RX 6800XT Gaming X TRIO , Seasonic Prime 850w Gold , Coolermaster H500m , Noctua NH-D15S , CH Pro throttle and T50CM2/WarBrD base on Foxxmounts , CH pedals , Reverb G2v2

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I hope you Smokey won't mind if I loan your thread a bit to ask advice from the gurus.

 

 

 

 

I have been using afterburner for monitoring but it seems that neither my GPU or CPU is maxing out. The most loaded CPU core jumps between 60 - 80% but doesn't go higher than that. GPU is around 70% if I recall correctly but I can max it out if I push the setting further. That was in Epsom campaign's mission 12 where I seem to get around 22 fps at the beginning. I have I7 6700K, Z170 PRO, GTX 1080Ti and 16GB DDR4-2133MHz CL14 RAM. I recently upgraded to the 1080Ti and I am now thinking about picking up more and faster RAM. But how do I know if it's the RAM amount or speed that slows the computer down?

 

I haven't made it that far in to the Epsom campaign or flown on the Normandy map for quite some time.

 

I'm currently recovering from hardware purchases at the moment but plan to get 32GB of 3200mhz CAS 16 ram myself. Whether this will help in Normandy campaign for the spit I can't be certain, but I do remember a time where the Su-25T Georgian Oil War campaign in DCS World 1.5 was maxing out the 8GB of ram in my system at the time and caused me much lower fps than I'd like due to the large amount of units and upgrading to 16GB provided a substantial FPS increase.

 

You can add memory usage to MSI Afterburner's OSD, as well as page file usage, which I think is actually ram usage + page file usage.

 

http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-3553452/ram-speed-affect-gaming.html

 

Some comparisons about speed of ram. IMO, 3200mhz is about the best price to performance ratio when sticking to 16 CAS. I'm currently running into either a CPU or memory bottleneck myself in the Dubai region of the Persian gulf map in VR that I'm hoping a ram upgrade alleviates.

 

 

Good luck with your GPU upgrade SVSMonkey. Just bare in mind changing one piece of hardware can run you into a bottleneck on another component. Hope it gets you the 15% you were after.


Edited by Headwarp
Spoiler

Win 11 Pro, z790 i9 13900k, RTX 4090 , 64GB DDR 6400GB, OS and DCS are on separate pci-e 4.0 drives 

Sim hardware - VKB MCG Ultimate with 200mm extension, Virpil T-50CM3 Dual throttles.   Blackhog B-explorer (A), TM Cougar MFD's (two), MFG Crosswinds with dampener.   Obutto R3volution gaming pit.  

 

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SVSMonkey..

 

:megalol:

 

Yeah , running about 48% on Cpu cores so i've got some headroom there , and new GPU will free up 8g ram as well , so it's looking good .

Thanks again for your help...

9700k @ stock , Aorus Pro Z390 wifi , 32gb 3200 mhz CL16 , 1tb EVO 970 , MSI RX 6800XT Gaming X TRIO , Seasonic Prime 850w Gold , Coolermaster H500m , Noctua NH-D15S , CH Pro throttle and T50CM2/WarBrD base on Foxxmounts , CH pedals , Reverb G2v2

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Alarm ??? I set it up in NVCP

9700k @ stock , Aorus Pro Z390 wifi , 32gb 3200 mhz CL16 , 1tb EVO 970 , MSI RX 6800XT Gaming X TRIO , Seasonic Prime 850w Gold , Coolermaster H500m , Noctua NH-D15S , CH Pro throttle and T50CM2/WarBrD base on Foxxmounts , CH pedals , Reverb G2v2

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:megalol:

 

Yeah , running about 48% on Cpu cores so i've got some headroom there , and new GPU will free up 8g ram as well , so it's looking good .

Thanks again for your help...

 

=x sorry SVSmokey =x, not monkey.

Spoiler

Win 11 Pro, z790 i9 13900k, RTX 4090 , 64GB DDR 6400GB, OS and DCS are on separate pci-e 4.0 drives 

Sim hardware - VKB MCG Ultimate with 200mm extension, Virpil T-50CM3 Dual throttles.   Blackhog B-explorer (A), TM Cougar MFD's (two), MFG Crosswinds with dampener.   Obutto R3volution gaming pit.  

 

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