Help choosing a 'hammer' for DCS VR

[PicklePicklePickle]

Hello,

 

After spending way too much time trying to tune my P17/W-10885M/RTX3090 eGPU setup, I am considering a full size PC for DCS. As far as I can tell, the thermal/clocking limitations in a laptop(not being able to run a high clock rate consistently) along with possibly the eGPU 22Gbps bottle neck are limiting. As I haven't had a desktop in over a decade, I am looking for input as to what works the absolute best for DCS VR.

 

There is one option that seems to get good reviews in general, and appears to support overclocking:

Dell Alienware R11 i9-10900KF RTX3090 64GB(3400Mhz) 1TB M2 SSD

 

However, this system does not support a second card when an RTX3090 is used and it has no built-in Intel graphics. Since this machine will be dedicated for DCS, has anyone run a VR headset as a single display? i..e boot into WMR/SteamVR and run DCS from there? I'm not sure if there could be some performance issue with sharing the card between the desktop and the VR.

 

I've also looked at OriginPC and getting a system that has the built-in Intel graphics(or a cheap second card) for the deskop, so the 3090 only does DCS VR.

 

Any suggestions welcome, i'm looking for whatever will give me the best chance of success(highest VR fps, lowest stuttering).

[Svsmokey]

27 minutes ago, PicklePicklePickle said:

Hello,

 

After spending way too much time trying to tune my P17/W-10885M/RTX3090 eGPU setup, I am considering a full size PC for DCS. As far as I can tell, the thermal/clocking limitations in a laptop(not being able to run a high clock rate consistently) along with possibly the eGPU 22Gbps bottle neck are limiting. As I haven't had a desktop in over a decade, I am looking for input as to what works the absolute best for DCS VR.

 

There is one option that seems to get good reviews in general, and appears to support overclocking:

Dell Alienware R11 i9-10900KF RTX3090 64GB(3400Mhz) 1TB M2 SSD

 

However, this system does not support a second card when an RTX3090 is used and it has no built-in Intel graphics. Since this machine will be dedicated for DCS, has anyone run a VR headset as a single display? i..e boot into WMR/SteamVR and run DCS from there? I'm not sure if there could be some performance issue with sharing the card between the desktop and the VR.

 

I've also looked at OriginPC and getting a system that has the built-in Intel graphics(or a cheap second card) for the deskop, so the 3090 only does DCS VR.

 

Any suggestions welcome, i'm looking for whatever will give me the best chance of success(highest VR fps, lowest stuttering).

No need to worry about a performance loss . The VR mirror on a monitor does not require any further resources from the gpu , and the monitor is useful for housekeeping , DCS repairs , supporting software setup and the like .

I don't really get the advantage (to the consumer) of a KF cpu . The difference in price is negligible , and dealing with a borked driver or correcting an overclocking error or hardware problem without the onboard video is problematic at best . The only advantage is to Intel , who can sell a defective chip they otherwise would have to trash .

 

[TimberWolf]

You don't need two GPUs to run VR. I've never used the integrated GPU in my Intel chips, at least for my gaming PCs. I ended up getting a 10700KF for my new sim rig. I would compare prices to a DIY computer, although it might be easier to get a GPU in a system instead of by itself.

Make sure the included CPU cooler can handle the heat load if you plan on overclocking it.

[Burt]

Yup I’m looking at the R11 w/ the 3090 and M.2 NVMe. 64gb Ram Giving this R9 to my wife for her work at home pc. But man 2  3090’s lol wow ! Hoping this may get my G2 to release its clarity... I’m either not testing enough which honestly I’m not. Or it just my vision but hopefully it’s not the headset. I will be testing it again this weekend.

[GunSlingerAUS]

Mate, be very careful about spending a load of money on a new rig if it's just for DCS VR in the hopes of attaining a perfect VR experience. I have a top of the line rig (3090/9700K overclocked to 5GHz /32GB/G2) and I can't get DCS VR to run smoothly enough to enjoy it. I am sticking to the 2D experience for the foreseeable future. If possible, try before you buy, and bear in mind that what one player thinks is a perfectly smooth experience may not translate to another player's experience. 

[Brainfreeze]

Seems too much effort and money for marginal benefit. All this hardware will be out of date in 12months time and the benefit of the highest gear today is maybe 20% better for twice the price of the next one below.  Proper settings will gets you to the right place and give more benefit than the underlying hardware.  You may be pretty pissed off if poor settings give you unsatisfactory performance after spending all that money and effort. Aka some users on the forum have very high specs and not happy with their VR.   I have lower specs and very happy with my VR performance.

DCS will improve in the next 12months and then hardware will too and so on for the following years.  Get something you like now and is better than what you have today and enjoy the progress year on year.  It is the journey that matters

 

[PicklePicklePickle]

These are very good points, and the reason I haven't pulled the trigger yet. Well that and my Reverb G2 took a dump so i'm dealing with that. After reading everyone's experiences on this great forum I am 80% sure I am going to be disappointed even if I get the fastest overclocked system that can be built right now.

 

On the other hand, I'm not looking to get to 90fps. I am currently on a laptop(albeit a really beefy one Xeon W-10885, 128GB of RAM and Samsum980Pro SSD) with a 3090 as an eGPU which has a bandwdith bottleneck due to Thunderbolt. When i start freeflight Caucasus above the ocean, I get 45fps. Once I start moving around it drops to 30-40 fps, if I get close to the ground/dogfight maybe 23-30fps.

 

All i'm really looking for is a constant 45fps with little or no stuttering, no matter what i'm doing in the plane. 45fps is fine for me, the problem is that it drops and even at 45fps the horizon randomly stutters. But during the brief periods that it is not stuttering, 45fps is seems plenty smooth for me.

 

It looks like i'm going to be waiting on the Reverb RMA for a while, so now maybe i'll get a Pimax or something else. I'm not sure if HP is just going to send me the same hardware back(with the same fault) and it will just fail again. It is a shame because when it worked, it was very good.

[Brainfreeze]

I tried a quest 2, aside from my g2 and  it’s ok. Won’t use it if the g2 is around but can definitely do the job. 
my gear ( in signature) gives me fluid / no stuttering.  Am currently using motion vector but really not necessary either.  Think upgrading from laptop is definitely worth. Going overboard is not. 
But a man got to do what a man got to do...

[GunSlingerAUS]

4 hours ago, PicklePicklePickle said:

These are very good points, and the reason I haven't pulled the trigger yet. Well that and my Reverb G2 took a dump so i'm dealing with that. After reading everyone's experiences on this great forum I am 80% sure I am going to be disappointed even if I get the fastest overclocked system that can be built right now.

 

On the other hand, I'm not looking to get to 90fps. I am currently on a laptop(albeit a really beefy one Xeon W-10885, 128GB of RAM and Samsum980Pro SSD) with a 3090 as an eGPU which has a bandwdith bottleneck due to Thunderbolt. When i start freeflight Caucasus above the ocean, I get 45fps. Once I start moving around it drops to 30-40 fps, if I get close to the ground/dogfight maybe 23-30fps.

 

All i'm really looking for is a constant 45fps with little or no stuttering, no matter what i'm doing in the plane. 45fps is fine for me, the problem is that it drops and even at 45fps the horizon randomly stutters. But during the brief periods that it is not stuttering, 45fps is seems plenty smooth for me.

 

It looks like i'm going to be waiting on the Reverb RMA for a while, so now maybe i'll get a Pimax or something else. I'm not sure if HP is just going to send me the same hardware back(with the same fault) and it will just fail again. It is a shame because when it worked, it was very good.

I honestly don't think you'll notice any improvement whatsoever over your existing system. 

[dburne]

5 hours ago, PicklePicklePickle said:

These are very good points, and the reason I haven't pulled the trigger yet. Well that and my Reverb G2 took a dump so i'm dealing with that. After reading everyone's experiences on this great forum I am 80% sure I am going to be disappointed even if I get the fastest overclocked system that can be built right now.

 

On the other hand, I'm not looking to get to 90fps. I am currently on a laptop(albeit a really beefy one Xeon W-10885, 128GB of RAM and Samsum980Pro SSD) with a 3090 as an eGPU which has a bandwdith bottleneck due to Thunderbolt. When i start freeflight Caucasus above the ocean, I get 45fps. Once I start moving around it drops to 30-40 fps, if I get close to the ground/dogfight maybe 23-30fps.

 

All i'm really looking for is a constant 45fps with little or no stuttering, no matter what i'm doing in the plane. 45fps is fine for me, the problem is that it drops and even at 45fps the horizon randomly stutters. But during the brief periods that it is not stuttering, 45fps is seems plenty smooth for me.

 

It looks like i'm going to be waiting on the Reverb RMA for a while, so now maybe i'll get a Pimax or something else. I'm not sure if HP is just going to send me the same hardware back(with the same fault) and it will just fail again. It is a shame because when it worked, it was very good.

 

I am running the Reverb G2 at 100% resolution Motion Smoothing on and forced to 45 fps.

DCS very high graphics settings and get a very smooth experience. Sure the occasional reprojection artifact but to me it is just not that bad.

Having a great time with it and spending multiple hours a day in with it.

 

I do have a fairly stout rig with a RTX 3090 FTW3 Ultra and i9 9900k at 5.2 GHz all cores.

I am getting a very enjoyable experience in DCS. 

[PicklePicklePickle]

Since I already have the RTX3090 and Samsung 980Pro, I looked at just buying the missing components from newegg and it was way cheaper than buying the Dell or OriginPC. Got an i9-10900K and a 360mm water cooler for it. If it's no better, then at least i tried!

Edited January 31, 2021 by PicklePicklePickle

[Brainfreeze]

  Would be very surprised if that's not better than a laptop!  Let us know though  

[PicklePicklePickle]

I just finished putting together my attempt at the DCS 'hammer' PC tonight. Installed Windows, DCS, SteamVR and got right to it. So far, it is a dramatic improvement!

 

I started with just the Valve Index to keep things simple, and the desktop monitor and headset both on the RTX3090. The first thing that I noticed is that if I just set the DCS preset to 'Low' and leave the PD at 1.0 and Steam VR at 130%, it actually runs at the headset rate of 90fps during the F-14 Caucasus free flight. My previous system never did that. Even if I set the PD to 0.5 and SteamVR to 20%, in addition to all low settings in DCS, my old system would still only get to 50-60fps with that unusable pixelated mess. It must have been a bottle neck with having the RTX3090 as an eGPU over thunderbolt, or something like that.

 

An interesting thing I noticed is that if I test the i9-10900K with CPU-Z, it doesn't really test higher than the Xeon W-10885M in my old system. But yet there seems to be a huge difference.

 

The Index and DCS stutters seem to be gone. I did notice that if I stress the system with prime95 the CPU temp reaches 89-90C. While it doesn't seem to go beyond that, it seems high so I might have to double check the thermal paste. I'm a bit out of my element so I don't know if it is normal.

 

I will post more of an update once I do more thorough testing, but for now here are the system specs:

 

Asus Maximus XIII Hero motherboard (Z590 chipset)

i9-10900K with 360mm water cooler

128GB g.skill ram

Samsung 980Pro 1TB system&DCS drive

RTX3090 (MSI Ventus)

Corsair 680X enclosure and lots of fans