Help a novice

[User7902 3]

Hi everyone,

 

I need some quick advice.

 

I've recently come into some money and am hoping to upgrade my PC a bit to help it get better performance out of P3D 2.5

 

My specs are as follows:

 

i7-3770 CPU @ 3.4 GHz

8GB of RAM 

GeForce GTX 780

 

I was originally looking at an upgrade to a GTX 980 ti with 6GB of RAM but after a little bit of reading I am starting to think that maybe a CPU upgrade might give me better frame rates at max settings instead of a new graphics card. 

 

Ultimately I'm confused and can't afford to upgrade both at this moment in time. 

 

I'd be really grateful if someone who knew their stuff could offer me some friendly advice as to which one they would go for....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[vgbaron 3,620]

If your 3770 is a k model, you can easily overclock that to 4.4 - 4.8. Then get a better GPU.

 

 

Vic

[Guest]

Since we don't know what "some money" means, it's hard to give advice on bang for buck.  Since you mention 980Ti, I'm assuming you have at least $650 to spend.

 

Asus 970 4GB Strix ($329 can be found for less around $309) ... but the 1155 socket and chipset you have is pretty old.

 

I'd pair a 970 ($329) with an i& 4790K ($339) = $670 ... this would provide more bang for buck than just a single 980Ti in your existing setup.  Only downside is you'll need a new motherboard based on the 1150 socket type and that will run you about $100-$200 ... I prefer Asus MB's myself:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132125&cm_re=1150_motherboard-_-13-132-125-_-Product

 

So if you can squeeze your budget to $870-$970 you'd have a very solid P3D setup.

 

P3D works best with a balanced system, one component change only shifts the bottleneck.

 

Cheers, Rob.

[User7902 3]

Thanks for the replies guys. 

 

I am going to go with the CPU upgrade, get my hands on an 4790k and motherboard, then go for the graphics card upgrade when I can eventually afford it again. 

 

My GTX780 seems to do just fine at the moment, frames tend to drop a little in heavy clouds and when using slightly more resource heavy planes like the AIrbus X but they keep going strong otherwise. 

 

Hopefully a stronger CPU will help with this

 

Rob