PC upgrade advice

[jlaw2799]

Hi there all,

I'm currently looking at upgrading my PC (CPU or GPU or both) to get better performance in the sim particularly with the FSLabs A320.

My current CPU is the i5-8400, base 2.8GHZ, boost up to 4.0GHZ.

My GPU is the Sapphire Nitro RX580 with 8GB of DDR5.

I notice in task manager my CPU is at 100% meanwhile my GPU is at around 80% utilisation. Am I right in thinking that my bottleneck is with the CPU?

Ideally would want to stick with a CPU with the 1151 chipset for Intel.

Any recommendations and advice would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers :)

[JorgenSA]

If you want to spend money on hardware, the first thing you should spend it on is the CPU.

In P3D, the thing that really matters is the CPU horsepower - meaning the highest sustained clock rate you can get. The number of cores does not matter nearly as much. Forget about the so-called "turbo boost" speeds.

Ideally, if you can get a faster CPU that would fit in the socket on your present motherboard, and it also would fit in your budget, then go for it. For instance, the i7-7700K that I have will fit in your LGA1151 socket, and provide a base clock rate of 4.2 GHz.

But whatever CPU you choose, and it is probably going to be an Intel so you can keep your present motherboard, get one that can be overclocked if you decide to do that later on. For Intel CPUs, that will mean one with a "K" suffix.

So take a look at the market, and keep an eye on the budget too. When you have made a selection, but before you buy it, come back here, and we can comment on it.

Jorgen

[jlaw2799]

Thank you for your reply! I appreciate it!

From my immediate research I've looked at the i7 9700K along with a decent liquid cooler (for overclocking)?

What would be your thoughts on this?

[JorgenSA]

I have only heard good things about this one, and wish my budget would allow for one.

Go for it.

Jorgen

[cirurgiao]

Found this post which maybe will give me answer to my question:
I built a new pc (I think it's huge) for multitasking, bought another license for P3Dv4 and will run it there.
Asus Rampage Extreme VI / I9-10940X / Galax GeForce RTX 2080TI / 128GB Corsair DDR4 3000Mhz / 3 1TB Samsung SSD (1->OS=>Win10-64 / 2->P3Dv4 / 3->P3Dv4-addons).
Intel has 2 softwares for overclocking - XTUSetup & Performance Maximizer - which I downloaded but didn't work in my system and have no clue why. Don't know if Asus have it too.
Since I9-10940X 14 cores run @ 3.30 I would like to get more with overclocking and although I understand its priciples help would be awesome.
Tks
Eduardo Passos

[JorgenSA]

Hi Eduardo,

Your ASUS motherboard should have overclocking utilities built-in, or available for download from ASUS. At least I could download utilities for that for my Z170-A.

The first thing you should do, however, is to upgrade the BIOS on the motherboard to the latest level, if it is not already there.

Jorgen

[cirurgiao]

Tks for answering, Jorgen. I verified that I have Asus AI Suite installed.
Maybe a dumb question but how can I verify actual CPU frequency before overclocking it?

[Ankemiel]

If you want to spend money on hardware, the first thing you should spend it on is the CPU.

In P3D, the thing that really matters is the CPU horsepower - meaning the highest sustained clock rate you can get. The number of cores does not matter nearly as much. Forget about the so-called "turbo boost" speeds.

Ideally, if you can get a faster CPU that would fit in the socket on your present motherboard, and it also would fit in your budget, then go for it. For instance, the i7-7700K that I have will fit in your LGA1151 socket, and provide a base clock rate of 4.2 GHz.

But whatever CPU you choose, and it is probably going to be an Intel so you can keep your present motherboard, get one that can be overclocked if you decide to do that later on. For Intel CPUs, that will mean one with a "K" suffix.

So take a look at the market, and keep an eye on the budget too. When you have made a selection, but before you buy it, come back here, and we can comment on it.

Jorgen
[You rightly refer to the importance of base clock speed. What I wonder is whether converting the system from 64 bit to RAM 128 or even 256. Does this improve FDP's for P3Dv5./quote=Ankemiel ]

[JorgenSA]

The question then becomes: will Windows 10 64-bit run on 128-bit or on 256-bit RAM?

The answer to that is way above my paygrade.

And I don't think it will help with the frame rate - and you don't need a higher frame rate than 30 anyway, since that is the maximum your eye can see.

Jorgen

[Ankemiel]

The question then becomes: will Windows 10 64-bit run on 128-bit or on 256-bit RAM?

The answer to that is way above my paygrade.

And I don't think it will help with the frame rate - and you don't need a higher frame rate than 30 anyway, since that is the maximum your eye can see.

Jorgen
[Jorgen, Thanks for your quick response, it now makes it easier for me to choose to upgrade the PC \Ankemiel]

[hamzee110]

Hi there all,

I'm currently looking at upgrading my PC (CPU or GPU or both) to get better performance in the sim, particularly with the FSLabs A320.

My current CPU is the i5-8400, base 2.8GHZ, boost up to 4.0GHZ.

My GPU is the Sapphire Nitro RX580 with 8GB of DDR5.

I noticed in task manager my CPU is at 100% meanwhile my GPU is at around 80% utilization. Am I right in thinking that my bottleneck is with the CPU?

Ideally would want to stick with a CPU with the 1151 chipset for Intel.

Any recommendations and advice would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers :)

Hi, I think you are using the best CPU. In my opinion, I recommend you to replace your GPU with a popular manufacturer like NVIDIA. For added performance, you can use NVMe SSDs. Ohh sorry, I forget to ask one thing...Which motherboard you're currently using?

[moni]

Found this post which maybe will give me answer to my question:
I built a new pc (I think it's huge) for multitasking, bought another license for P3Dv4 and will run it there.
Asus Rampage Extreme VI / I9-10940X / Galax GeForce RTX 2080TI / 128GB Corsair DDR4 3000Mhz / 3 1TB Samsung SSD (1->OS=>Win10-64 / 2->P3Dv4 / 3->P3Dv4-addons).
Intel has 2 softwares for overclocking - XTUSetup & Performance Maximizer - which I downloaded but didn't work in my system and have no clue why. Don't know if Asus have it too.
Since I9-10940X 14 cores run @ 3.30 I would like to get more with overclocking and although I understand its priciples help would be awesome.
Tks
Eduardo Passos

Thanks cirurgiao for sharing your nice information. I like your config, I9-10940X / Galax GeForce RTX 2080TI / 128GB Corsair DDR4 3000Mhz with Samsung 1TB SSD its awesome I just love it. Its a flaming setup.

[armishch]

Hi there all,

I'm currently looking at upgrading my PC (CPU or GPU or both) to get better performance in the sim, particularly with the FSLabs A320.

My current CPU is the i5-8400, base 2.8GHZ, boost up to 4.0GHZ.

My GPU is the Sapphire Nitro RX580 with 8GB of DDR5.

I noticed in task manager my CPU is at 100% meanwhile my GPU is at around 80% utilization. Am I right in thinking that my bottleneck is with the CPU?

Ideally would want to stick with a CPU with the 1151 chipset for Intel.

Any recommendations and advice would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers :)

Hi, I think you are using the best CPU. In my opinion, I recommend you to replace your GPU with a popular manufacturer like NVIDIA. For added performance, you can use NVMe SSDs. Ohh sorry, I forget to ask one thing...Which motherboard you're currently using?

Hi, I'm using Intel Core i3 10100 CPU with an ASUS ROG Strix motherboard. Could you please recommend me a good GPU for this combination? Thanks in advance!