2 x GTX 1070 in SLI or GTX 1080 high end? P3D V3, i7 4790k @ 4.6GHz

[neu 0]

Hey Guys,

 

I'm about to throw out some money to upgrade from my GTX780 which clearly became a bottleneck with my current setup

 

- P3D v3.4

- i7 4790K @ 4.6GHz

- 32Gb RAM

- SSD

- SINGLE 30" Dell in 2560x1600 native resolution

 

It's quite obvious that even a single 1070 of any kind would be a great improvement, as the 780 is maxed out while the processor obviously has more to give. I'm flying a lot of addon sceneries and aircraft, ASN, PMDG, Pro ATC, TrackIR, etc...lot of stuff taking their own tax on the system.

 

I saved up the cash for even a high-end GTX 1080 but it costs about the same as 2 x average GTX 1070's in SLI, so it came to my mind, what would be the better solution....

 

Here are my thoughts:

 

- A high end GTX 1080 with water or hybrid cooling is not really a good bang for the buck, it's still too expensive and it's not as much more useful as more as it costs. Even in games optimized more than P3D they provide about 10% more than a normal GTX 1080. I'm not sure there's any benefit in P3D - apart from obviously running cooler. Also it's surely more "future proof" and can take more overclocking and hard use.

 

- GTX 1070 in SLI takes up more space, probably I'll need to upgrade my PSU as well. Based on P3D with SLI related posts, SLI config provides about 25-45% more IF DONE CORRECTLY (which doesn't mean that much more FPS, but more stable framerates in heavy environments). It would be 16Gb of memory added, however, since P3D is a 32bit app, and is able to handle 4Gb system memory only (all stuff from GPU memory should be mapped into system memory to be able to work with it as far as I know) I'm not sure it provides any benefit.

 

 

- It might even come out, that a mid-range GTX 1080 or 1070 would be sufficient, and everything else would be way overkill for P3D with my current system (actually I'd be happy for that as it's much cheaper! ). The problem is, that I'm not in the position to experintent with this. Whatever I choose, will stay with me in the next 3-4 years based on my upgrade habits and  my willingness to spend that much money

 

I was reading many posts, but to be honest, I have no idea what would be the best solution...

 

Thoughts?

Greetings, neu

[Bob Scott 7,720]

If you're going to stick with the 30" monitor, a single 1070 is probably the sweet spot.  If you think you might move to 4K at some point, then two in SLI starts looking better.

 

I run two water cooled 980Ti GPUs driving a 55 inch 4K TV at 30Hz with a 4790K at 4.7GHz.  Most of the time the primary P3D core is at 60-70%, and the GPUs are at 35-45%.  In heavy weather the GPU ute rates hit the mid 80s stutter-free, so I think I have just about the right amount of performance headroom.  If the GPUs get to mid 90s or higher, stutters start to appear.

 

Regards

[neu 0]

Thank you Bob, this is pretty much what I was expecting. So far I have no plans to move from the 30" Dell....maybe an Ultra Wide 34" but that's not much difference in terms of pixel numbers.

 

What I'm also considering is to invest into a VR headset. I tried DCS with that and it was actually surprisingly good. I'm aware that it's a newer engine more targeted to consumer market, and I don't expect P3D perform the same way, but I'd give it a try if I could...

 

Greetings, neu

[Bob Scott 7,720]

I have no personal experience with the VR headsets, but from what I read you need every bit of GPU power posssible, as they need to maintain fairly high frame rates to keep them from giving you a major headache.

 

So if you intend to go that way, some in-depth research and planning specifically for those requirements would be a good idea...I suspect chasing that capability may take you in a different direction.

 

Cheers

[neu 0]

Yes, VR is a different kind of animal. I don't have an HMD just yet, and I tried it only with DCS, but since that was convincing, I'd think P3D is also convincing. The recommendation for smooth experience is 90FPS which is hard to reach with P3D with good graphics and a lot of addons. So I'd think that some pleasant GA flights would be achievable, but probably wouldn't work well with heavy hitters like the PMDG birds. Anyway, with Oculus' ATW technology if you can reach stable 45FPS, it's actually not bad (that's what DCS did and I was OK flying for 2 hours without throwing up )

 

But I don't have an HMD juts yet...probably I'll go for a single GTX 1080 for now, and see how SLI support improves long term - if any.

 

Greetings, neu