DCS is the GPU domination than CPU? More CPU cores will help or not?

[scommander2]

Hi,

To make DCS runs smoothly without disabling/relaxing (not extreme) DCS settings, I have few questions?

1. Get good/excellent GPU is most important? (i.e. RTX5090, or AMD 9070XT)

2. Get more CPU cores (for Intel, more P-Cores as possible) are important even though having the good/excellent GPU?  Or, not critical since the good/excellent GPU will take the most UI rendering?

Thanks. 

[The_Nephilim]

well it really depends on what your Monitor/VR Headset is, to how poweerfull a CPU/GPU you need. I mean if you game on a 1080P monitor you are not going to need a 5090..

[scommander2]

Hi @The_Nephilim, thanks for the comment.

I do have a 4K monitor (3840 x 2160 at 144 Hz and I am not VR ready yet).

[SharpeXB]

I guess it would depend on the settings and resolution. For my system below, running on a 4K monitor with all the highest settings and +/- 120Hz I am currently GPU limited according to the DCS indicator. As I understand it since DCS uses hyper-threading it will use as many CPU cores as you have. 

[trev5150]

I use Process Lasso to force DCS onto the P cores. It's free-mium with fairly good results, so I suggest you give that a try. My biggest problem is the Quest 2 that will be replaced with the Pimax Super 50ppd I preordered.

The only other thing I do with that computer is Star Citizen and that's on maxxed out settings.

i9-13900KF, 64Gb RAM, 4090.

 

Edited March 11 by trev5150

[Hiob]

2 hours ago, scommander2 said:

Hi,

To make DCS runs smoothly without disabling/relaxing (not extreme) DCS settings, I have few questions?

1. Get good/excellent GPU is most important? (i.e. RTX5090, or AMD 9070XT)

2. Get more CPU cores (for Intel, more P-Cores as possible) are important even though having the good/excellent GPU?  Or, not critical since the good/excellent GPU will take the most UI rendering?

Thanks. 

GPU is more important than CPU (generally speaking), but of course it depends on your settings and the situation. You definitely don’t want to be CPU bottlenecked  all the time either.

Currently a 8-core CPU is all you need (recommended 5800x3d to 9800 x3d). More cores won’t help you currently.

[Aapje]

1 hour ago, scommander2 said:

To make DCS runs smoothly without disabling/relaxing (not extreme) DCS settings, I have few questions?

1. Get good/excellent GPU is most important? (i.e. RTX5090, or AMD 9070XT)

Generally, the GPU is a bit more important, but what you really need is a balanced out system. It's pointless to pair a very good GPU with a poor CPU.

In simming games the CPU tends to be more important than in other games, since keeping track of the world state and such, tends to take a lot of CPU.

1 hour ago, scommander2 said:

2. Get more CPU cores (for Intel, more P-Cores as possible) are important even though having the good/excellent GPU?  Or, not critical since the good/excellent GPU will take the most UI rendering?

The number of cores is not a good measure, since in games, what tends to matter more is to have really fast performance for a few cores. This is why the 3D-cache works so well for games, but not so much for many other kinds of applications.

The 9800X3D is a top tier gaming CPU and relatively affordable for such a good processor, compared to the processors with lots of cores.

[SharpeXB]

21 minutes ago, trev5150 said:

I use Process Lasso to force DCS onto the P cores. It's free-mium with fairly good results, so I suggest you give that a try.

From this topic I gather PL is only needed if you’re running Windows 10 with an Intel hybrid CPU or perhaps other special circumstances. With W11 DCS should handle this correctly.

 

[scommander2]

Thanks for all comments.

My goal is to maintain that DCS runs 60 FPS (hope I am not greedy) constantly. 

I have tried Process Lasso/ParkControl to unpark all my cores and all P-core affinity is with DCS on my current system, and I still feel lagging somehow.

A better hardware environment maybe relief the resource usages. 

[Hiob]

50 minutes ago, scommander2 said:

Thanks for all comments.

My goal is to maintain that DCS runs 60 FPS (hope I am not greedy) constantly. 

I have tried Process Lasso/ParkControl to unpark all my cores and all P-core affinity is with DCS on my current system, and I still feel lagging somehow.

A better hardware environment maybe relief the resource usages. 

With your Setup GPU/CPU, 60 fps shouldn't be a problem. Since you already have an i9 CPU, I would rather go for GPU upgrade at first (if you can find any for a decent price that is)

[HansPeter1981]

1 hour ago, scommander2 said:

...I do have a 4K monitor (3840 x 2160 at 144 Hz ...

My goal is to maintain that DCS runs 60 FPS (hope I am not greedy) constantly. 

 

5090

4090

7900XTX

5080

4080 Super

9070XT

5070Ti

4070ti Super

 

In that order... as soon as you go below 4090 you will have to do compromises tona achieve 60fps at 4k at all times... the lower you go in that list the more compromises...

[Pillowcat]

1 hour ago, scommander2 said:

goal is to maintain that DCS runs 60 FPS

I'd say first of all this relies on _very fast _{and big} storage, as stuttering are mostly caused by erratic loading of terrain and objects data chunks on fly

[Aapje]

11 hours ago, Hiob said:

With your Setup GPU/CPU, 60 fps shouldn't be a problem. Since you already have an i9 CPU, I would rather go for GPU upgrade at first (if you can find any for a decent price that is)

Depends on the settings.

Keep in mind that @scommander2 seems to have a laptop, so his '4080' actually performs like a desktop 4070. And that 13900 is going to be neutered as well, but how much depends on how the manufacturer has configured the power limits of the CPU.

[Hiob]

2 hours ago, Aapje said:

Depends on the settings.

Keep in mind that @scommander2 seems to have a laptop, so his '4080' actually performs like a desktop 4070. And that 13900 is going to be neutered as well, but how much depends on how the manufacturer has configured the power limits of the CPU.

I didn't catch that it was a laptop. Of course that limits the performance. ...and the upgrade options.

Edited March 12 by Hiob

[scommander2]

Thanks for the comment.

I am seeking the possible configurations for a desktop.

[Aapje]

Just keep in mind that right now is not the best situation for building/buying a desktop.

I think that a 5070 Ti or 9070 XT with a 9800X3D should give a good result on 4K. You can move up to a 5080 or even 5090 if you want to increase it further.

But GPU prices are very bad right now, so I would wait until the summer.

[scommander2]

Hi @Aapje, thanks.

How about 9950X3D?  Is it too new to tell?

 

[Hiob]

1 hour ago, scommander2 said:

Hi @Aapje, thanks.

How about 9950X3D?  Is it too new to tell?

 

About the same gaming performance as the 9800x3d, but more cores for productive applications that can utilize them. 
Just for DCS the 9800x3d would be the better value.

[Aapje]

6 hours ago, scommander2 said:

How about 9950X3D?  Is it too new to tell?

Basically what Hiob said, with the caveat that in some games it may be a significant, but not huge amount better. We need DCS benchmarks to see how it compares to the 9800X3D for this game.

But even then the value is almost certainly not there for a pure gaming build.

[Marshallman]