2020 New System Considerations

[Cake]

I’m in the process of planning a new build for the year and have a few questions. I have been enjoying VR with my first gen gear over the past few years, but I want the gauges to be easy to read and bogeys realistic to spot and identify.

 

Mainboards and CPU's

1. If ED implements Vulkan going forward, how will this influence the choice of optimal architecture for mainboards and CPUs? For example, will multicore / multithread have advantages in DCS that didn’t exist previously where the fastest core was king?

 

2. Is there a best platform winner going forward between AMD and Intel and which product line will be best?

 

Vulkan and VR Performance

3. For those of us who have or will convert to VR as a primary display method for DCS, will Vulkan offer substantial performance gains?

 

4. Is there an obvious choice for the next generation headset? I know there are many threads on this, but I'm thinking I will at least wait to see what materializes out of the HP Reverb Gen 2 camp.

 

5. Will it become possible to use VR natively in DCS (independent of Oculus or Steam VR)?

 

6. Will Vulkan by default support VR SLI, or support it with just minor coding changes?

 

 

I’m really liking the idea of having the smallest possible well cooled computer case, but obviously we have to go bigger if multi-GPU is in the plan.

[Svsmokey]

1: Vulkan will unload the cpu a little by preloading shaders/textures in the gpu vram prior to draw calls . This will improve cpu frametimes , but not necessarily fps . This at the expense of using more gpu vram .

3: it will certainly offer a smoother experience , but may or may not provde better fps .

4: not really . Too many variables and individual preferences to make a blanket recommendation . Do your research bearing in mind your ipd , whether you will use the headset for other than seated simming , price point , comfort etc .

5: who knows?

6: SLI is dead ., and if it weren't , DCS VR cannot make use of it anyway .

[Cake]

6: SLI is dead ., and if it weren't , DCS VR cannot make use of it anyway .

 

Thanks for responding Sysmonkey. My understanding so far is pretty similar to yours, but I've seen a material from Nvidia addressing the idea that the RTX line is designed around the capability of supporting one GPU per eye. So now they have something called NVLink, which I guess is similar to SLI but much more capable, and more expensive?

 

I thought the reason we don't have multi-GPU support for VR was because the Steam and Oculus APIs were not designed for it, but as VR headsets become more capable and more demanding of processing will multi-GPU make a comeback because someone else creates a new standard for VR? I'm thinking it might. I think DCS is basically close to a professional environment when it comes to hardware investments - It was a lot easier back when my state of the art investment was $159 for a Riva TNT AGP card to sim in Falcon 4 and Su-27 Flanker.

[Gnadentod]

SLI/NVLink or Crossfire support has to be specifically implemented into DCS itself afaik. There's the point.

[Cake]

SLI/NVLink or Crossfire support has to be specifically implemented into DCS itself afaik. There's the point.

 

Agreed.

 

My question is more of what's next and how will this affect system choice for DCS in the future as opposed to the current implementation?

 

According to Nvidia, the tech is or would be available to do this in RTX and it is compatible with Vulkan.

 

Specifically, Nvidia states that

A better way to use two GPUs for VR rendering is to split the work of drawing a single frame across them—namely, by rendering each eye on one GPU. This has the nice property that it improves both framerate and latency relative to a single-GPU system.

 

and that

...if an engine already supports sequential stereo rendering, it’s very easy to enable dual-GPU support.

- bold font is my emphasis

 

See https://developer.nvidia.com/vrworks/graphics/vrsli

[derneuemann]

Hello

 

to 1.:

The choice of architecture doesn't really change. There are several reports of other games that perform best in CPUs with 8 threads. I'm looking for another nice example of XP11 and Vulkan.

 

I would clearly stay with the 6700K until new CPUs with significantly more performance per clock in games. Maybe ZEN3. My 6700K now runs with 4.7GHz and 4.6GHz cache, as well as 3600MHz Ram CL16.

 

Even a 9900KS with 5.3GHz OC no longer grows worlds here.

 

to 2 .:

It is currently the case with CPUs that Intel has not changed since Skylake (6700K) and AMD with ZEN2 only achieves the same performance per clock in games. Since ZEN2 makes max 4.5GHz, every Intel from 4.5GHz since Skylake and 4 cores is on the whole just as fast.

 

 

With the GPUs, it is the case when I go according to the reports in the forum that AMD is a bit weaker here and performs worse than in other games in relation to the other competitors.

 

to 3.:

As already mentioned, Vulkan will improve the frame times of the CPUs, which should bring clear advantages for VR. More than current a 9900KS @ 5.5GHz would bring for us.

 

to 4 .:

not currently. A new headset was teased at the end of March, but nothing has changed since then.

 

The HPReverb has a great picture, but a narrow field of vision.

The Pimax 8k x has a great picture and wide field of view, but the price.

The Oculus Rift S has a narrow field of view and not the best resolution, but is also very suitable for other games.

 

I hope that something new will come this year.

 

to 5 .:

nobody knows here

 

to 6 .:

Even under Vulkan it is up to the game developer whether SLI / NVLInk or Crossfire can be used.

 

In general, you better have a 2080Ti currently, or soon a 3080TI, than two slower models.

 

Has always been and will remain so. Only those who want to pay more power than a "3080TI" would need mGPU. But here, too, there is a big assumption that it is best to get the most out of the GPU than to put a second next to it.

 

I wish there was still the possibility. Imagine the possibilities that the concentrated computing power of two or three 3080TI would give you.

 

 

The only thing that could work with mGPU would be to assign a GPU server with several GPUs (business cards) to a VM via a Windows server and with Nvidia's expensive licensed software.

 

But whether someone tried it for DCS;)

 

Lead with the smallest possible housing and the maximum hardware that you can operate in it.

 

In my Fractal Node 202 my 6700k ran at 4.5GHz and even a 2080TI runs without problems.

 

Here the DAN A4 case is very interesting, which the good Daniel developed a long time ago and now sells quite well.

 

 

Attachments:

 

 

 

 

https://www.dan-cases.com/dana4_de.php

Edited May 4, 2020 by derneuemann

[BeastyBaiter]

I say wait as well unless you need more CPU cores for something else. I think there is a very good chance AMD will dethrone Intel in terms of best single thread performance and thus best DCS performance with Zen 3 but that hasn't been released yet. And since it isn't out, we don't know how well it will do. Intel hasn't done anything except rebadge their CPU's since 2015 and that is not going to change with this years release.

[panton41]

The people saying SLI is dead are pretty much right. SLI has always required both the game developer and nVidia to work together for the improved performance, and nVidia hasn't really don't much with it since the 10xx line. It really looks like while it'll technically exist in hardware and on the driver no one, not even nVidia, are supporting it anymore. Plus, in my experience, SLI has always been a buggy kludge for better performance and I've found buying a single higher end graphics card is the better solution.

 

For that matter, both DirectX 12 and Vulkan allow similar functionality native to the API without the need for a hinky crossover bridge and special driver juju.

 

Now, I can think of reasons for multiple graphics cards, but it's not for gaming.

[Cake]

Hello

 

to 1.:

The choice of architecture doesn't really change. There are several reports of other games that perform best in CPUs with 8 threads. I'm looking for another nice example of XP11 and Vulkan.

 

I would clearly stay with the 6700K until new CPUs with significantly more performance per clock in games. Maybe ZEN3. My 6700K now runs with 4.7GHz and 4.6GHz cache, as well as 3600MHz Ram CL16.

 

Even a 9900KS with 5.3GHz OC no longer grows worlds here.

 

to 2 .:

It is currently the case with CPUs that Intel has not changed since Skylake (6700K) and AMD with ZEN2 only achieves the same performance per clock in games. Since ZEN2 makes max 4.5GHz, every Intel from 4.5GHz since Skylake and 4 cores is on the whole just as fast.

 

 

With the GPUs, it is the case when I go according to the reports in the forum that AMD is a bit weaker here and performs worse than in other games in relation to the other competitors.

 

to 3.:

As already mentioned, Vulkan will improve the frame times of the CPUs, which should bring clear advantages for VR. More than current a 9900KS @ 5.5GHz would bring for us.

 

to 4 .:

not currently. A new headset was teased at the end of March, but nothing has changed since then.

 

The HPReverb has a great picture, but a narrow field of vision.

The Pimax 8k x has a great picture and wide field of view, but the price.

The Oculus Rift S has a narrow field of view and not the best resolution, but is also very suitable for other games.

 

I hope that something new will come this year.

 

to 5 .:

nobody knows here

 

to 6 .:

Even under Vulkan it is up to the game developer whether SLI / NVLInk or Crossfire can be used.

 

In general, you better have a 2080Ti currently, or soon a 3080TI, than two slower models.

 

Has always been and will remain so. Only those who want to pay more power than a "3080TI" would need mGPU. But here, too, there is a big assumption that it is best to get the most out of the GPU than to put a second next to it.

 

I wish there was still the possibility. Imagine the possibilities that the concentrated computing power of two or three 3080TI would give you.

 

 

The only thing that could work with mGPU would be to assign a GPU server with several GPUs (business cards) to a VM via a Windows server and with Nvidia's expensive licensed software.

 

But whether someone tried it for DCS;)

 

Lead with the smallest possible housing and the maximum hardware that you can operate in it.

 

In my Fractal Node 202 my 6700k ran at 4.5GHz and even a 2080TI runs without problems.

 

Here the DAN A4 case is very interesting, which the good Daniel developed a long time ago and now sells quite well.

 

 

Attachments:

 

 

 

 

 

https://www.dan-cases.com/dana4_de.php

 

Thank you and everyone else for the thoughtful responses. I’ll be hanging with my RIFT 6700 1080Ti setup until the next logical headset upgrade comes.