Jump to content
Sign in to follow this  
johnbla

Is this worth updating?

Recommended Posts

Hi guys

 

I fly mainly P3D ver 3.2. I currently have a Intel Core i5 3570K @ 3.40GHz (overclocked to about 4.0GHz), 8GB of DDR3 and a GTX970.

 

I am considering updating to a 6700K with a new MB and 16GB of fast DDR4 ram and keeping my GTX970.

 

It would probably cost me around $1,000 Aussie dollars.

 

My question, does anyone think it is worthwhile to spend the money to get a smoother sim or would I be better off keeping my hard earned in my wallet.

 

Many thanks for any help.

 

John

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Only you can answer that question John.

 

We're seeing plenty of happy adopters of the Skylake platform, including those that have more powerful CPU's than you.

 

Without doing a side by side comparison of your system and the Skylake system you propose, with all variables the same, it's hard to provide you with definitive numbers, or estimates of how smooth your intended upgrade will be. 

 

Yes you will see an improvement for sure, but whether you regard that as worth the money is subjective. I would, but you aren't me.

 

A recent comment, this is with a 1070 though...

 

Installed all my orbx scenery, ASN, Aerosoft Airbus Bundle, Aerosoft Twin Otter, Majestic Q400 etc and cranked up the settings to almost full on everything.

 

Stayed locked at 30fps, not a stutter, microstutter, anything.  Was smooth as silk.  Can't beleive the difference a 6700k with 1070 makes compared to a 4790k with 970.  Well happy

 

http://www.avsim.com/topic/490685-what-skylake-mb´s-are-you-using/page-2

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Only you can answer that question John.

 

We're seeing plenty of happy adopters of the Skylake platform, including those that have more powerful CPU's than you.

 

Without doing a side by side comparison of your system and the Skylake system you propose, with all variables the same, it's hard to provide you with definitive numbers, or estimates of how smooth your intended upgrade will be. 

 

Yes you will see an improvement for sure, but whether you regard that as worth the money is subjective. I would, but you aren't me.

 

A recent comment, this is with a 1070 though...

 

 

 

http://www.avsim.com/topic/490685-what-skylake-mb´s-are-you-using/page-2

 

 

Many thanks Martin.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I have exactly the same setup i5 and 970. I can afford either a processor update or a graphics card to 1070.Any idea which would be most beneficial to do first. Prepar 3d v3.3.5 .my thoughts was the graphics card .


Colin hodds

I7 9700K,nvidia 3090 ,ssd ,32gig 3200mhz ram ,win10,prep3d

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I'm using this same setup as yourself and getting pretty decent performance, though I do have a higher overclock on the cpu. I'm running mine at a stable 4.7 ghz and would recommend you to bump yours up a bit before buying a new cpu as 4.0 is a pretty mild oc. Saying that you will want to make sure you have adequate cooling first.

 

I personally dont think a few extra frames is worth the huge upgrade cost.


Boeing777_Banner_Pilot_zps560238d1.jpg

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

my thoughts was the graphics card .

 

I would not agree on this. There are some people thinking that an i7 is useless for FSX/P3D as it runs better with HT off, but I can not agree, mine works perfectly with HT on and a matching AF setting. Besides that: each Intel generation provided about 5-10% more power and surprisingly, in FSX/P3D, the real performance-gain seems to be pretty well reproduced by this. Now, if you consider that a 6700K is a CPU from the Skylake Generation and the topic starter has a IvyBridge (Ivy -> Haswell -> Broadwell -> Skylake), you practically go up three generations, giving you 16-33% more performance just because of the improved architecture. Or in other words: if your i5 Ivybridge is currently running at 4.5GHz, a Skylake i5 running at 3.4GHz already has the same performance (if you take the full 33%, otherwise its 3.9GHz). In addition, if you switch from an Ivybridge CPU to a Skylake CPU, you also switch from DDR3 to DDR4 RAM. Unless you go for cheap 08/15 RAM with crap timings and frequency, also this is a step-up and provides some additional performance. Last: the increased L3 cache of a i7 seems also to be beneficial for FSX/P3D compared to the L3 cache of a i5, another small benefit you would gain from such a upgrade.

 

In the end, I would definitely first update a core i5 3570K to an brand new i7 6700K with DDR4 instead of upgrading a 970 to a 1070 or even 1080. But this is ONLY true if we speak about FSX/P3D. For EVERY OTHER game, upgrading the graphics card would do more benefit.

 

Last: there is a rather easy test to see what you would benefit from a new graphics card: stress the GPU using higher resolutions (via DSR in the driver menue) and compare FPS. Example given: you sit at your favourite airport with your favourite plane and your classic settings. Note the FPS you get, for example 35-40. Then, simply increase your screenresolution (after you activated DSR) to about 4x higher resolution and compare again. IF your FPS do drop considerably, a new graphics card would provide you additional FPS. IF your FPS however do NOT drop considerably (more than 10% I would say), a brand new graphics card would not provide you any additional FPS, then you are strictly CPU bound.


Greetings, Chris

Intel i5-13600K, 2x16GB 3200MHz CL14 RAM, MSI RTX 4080 Gaming X, Windows 11 Home, MSFS

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Thanks for the help guys will have a play tried pushing overclock further but not had much joy


Colin hodds

I7 9700K,nvidia 3090 ,ssd ,32gig 3200mhz ram ,win10,prep3d

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

And I thouht my 3570K was a crumby overclocker! :-) I got to a stable 4.4 before my voltages and temps got to my max. comfort zone, then rolled it back to 4.3 for some extra safety margin.

 

That is paired with a GTX 980 which is underutilized in my system (typically 40-60% range IIRC) using a 4K display but with SGSS turned off.

 

Fire up a GPU monitoring tool and see how much you're using the 970. That may confirm what I suspect and many are suggesting and spend your money on the 6700K.


13900K@5.8GHz - ROG Strix Z790-E - 2X16Gb G.Skill Trident DDR5 6400 CL32 - MSI RTX 4090 Suprim X - WD SN850X 2 TB M.2 - XPG S70 Blade 2 TB M.2 - MSI A1000G PCIE5 1000 W 80+ Gold PSU - Liam Li 011 Dynamic Razer case - 58" Panasonic TC-58AX800U 4K - Pico 4 VR  HMD - WinWing HOTAS Orion2 MAX - ProFlight Pedals - TrackIR 5 - W11 Pro (Passmark:12574, CPU:63110-Single:4785, GPU:50688)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

As someone who's currently running a 3570K, but with a 980ti, I've also agonized about whether a CPU upgrade would be worthwhile.

 

What it comes down to (for me) is this:

 

- I get decent overall (not outstanding) performance in XP, FSX, and P3D. The portions of the sims that are CPU limited are indeed, CPU limited.

- An upgrade would require new CPU, MB, RAM, at least $600-750 CDN for sure to go to a 6700K with a decent MB and 32 GB of DDR4.

- I'm guessing that the best case scenario in upgrading all components will maybe net me a 15% increase in frames - this is important - since I'm still not going to get a constant 60 fps everywhere I fly, I'm still very likely to lock at 30 fps. I rarely drop below 30 fps as it is now (and the things that cause me to do so aren't CPU related) so this increase is going to be invisible to me most of the time.

- I get currently get outstanding performance at 1440p with extremely high settings in all the other games I play - Rocket League, rFactor, Dirt Rally, GTA5, you name it.

 

So... although yes, I figure I would see some benefit from an upgrade, I've decided that I wouldn't see my money's worth at the current time. I'm kinda cheap though! :wink:


Jim Stewart

Milviz Person.

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Well a little bit of overclocking testing cpu bound area egll aerosoft upping from 4ghz to 4.2 barely got a frame difference tried higher but o/c was not stable . I think I am doing some thing wrong not sure what . Either way the 1 or 2 fps difference does not make it worth the hastle . This what is putting me off upgrading the motherboard and cpu rather than the graphics card will I get so little back for a large investment. I am on a 15 4670k the original poster was on a 3570k. Wish I could do both


Colin hodds

I7 9700K,nvidia 3090 ,ssd ,32gig 3200mhz ram ,win10,prep3d

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

What did you expect? If you go from 4000MHz to 4200MHz, you increase the clocks by only 5%. And those 1 to 2 FPS you gain are exactly those 5%. Not more and not less.


Greetings, Chris

Intel i5-13600K, 2x16GB 3200MHz CL14 RAM, MSI RTX 4080 Gaming X, Windows 11 Home, MSFS

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Well a little bit of overclocking testing cpu bound area egll aerosoft upping from 4ghz to 4.2 barely got a frame difference tried higher but o/c was not stable . I think I am doing some thing wrong not sure what . Either way the 1 or 2 fps difference does not make it worth the hastle . This what is putting me off upgrading the motherboard and cpu rather than the graphics card will I get so little back for a large investment. I am on a 15 4670k the original poster was on a 3570k. Wish I could do both

 

 

 

Overclocking is linear in a well balanced system.Meaning that if you increase the overclock by a small percentage you get the same percentage increase in terms of frame rate.

 

That's not the same of course as upgrading to a new architecture, a new architecture generally has a higher IPC. [institutions Per Cycle] 

 

If you are currently running a 4670K, and you switch to a 6700K, then you may not find that a worthwhile investment. Jumping one architecture, Haswell to Skylake can't really be expected to yield mind-blowing improvements in performance.

 

It's personal choice of course, but I wouldn't upgrade if I were only one architecture out of date. Some are enthusiastic about hardware of course, and flush with cash, so chose to upgrade more frequently.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this  

  • Tom Allensworth,
    Founder of AVSIM Online


  • Flight Simulation's Premier Resource!

    AVSIM is a free service to the flight simulation community. AVSIM is staffed completely by volunteers and all funds donated to AVSIM go directly back to supporting the community. Your donation here helps to pay our bandwidth costs, emergency funding, and other general costs that crop up from time to time. Thank you for your support!

    Click here for more information and to see all donations year to date.
×
×
  • Create New...