Hi Guys,

I am running P3D V4 and am looking to update my processor and gfx card. Wouldn't mind throwing in extra RAM also if it helps.Would appreciate suggestions please. Here's my current set up.

Intel Core i7 4790K Haswell Socket 1150 LGA
Asustek Z97 PRO Gamer Motherboard
DDR 3 8GBytes Channel # Dual RAM 
NVIDIA Geforce GTX 680 EVGA Corp. GK104 Revision A2

Thanks guys!

Swadeep

7 minutes ago, swadeep said:

Hi Guys,

I am running P3D V4 and am looking to update my processor and gfx card. Wouldn't mind throwing in extra RAM also if it helps.Would appreciate suggestions please. Here's my current set up.

Intel Core i7 4790K Haswell Socket 1150 LGA
Asustek Z97 PRO Gamer Motherboard
DDR 3 8GBytes Channel # Dual RAM 
NVIDIA Geforce GTX 680 EVGA Corp. GK104 Revision A2

Thanks guys!

Swadeep

Are u willing to update your mobo?

If I were you, I'd look at changing your motherboard, preferably to something with an 1151 LGA socket, as that will give you a wider choice of processor options, and is likely to offer a better choice of upgrades down the line.

I don't really see a need for a processor upgrade at the moment, maybe when Cannon Lake rolls around but there just won't be a massive improvement from Haswell to Coffee Lake unless the applications you use like a lot of cores, but 4 is just fine for P3D, for now at least. The graphics card just depends on what you are willing to spend. 1070 Ti, 1080, and 1080 Ti are all on the table. 1070 Ti is $450, 1080 is $500, and 1080 Ti is $700. All great cards, just really depends on how deep your pocketbooks are. For the ram, 16 GB is a must. Throw an extra kit of 8 GB in and you won't regret it.

In my opinion, there's no need for a CPU upgrade right now (I'm still using a 3570K (!) OC of course) and a GTX 970. My other PC has a 6700K and a 1070 but I don't sim on it.

Make sure your 4790K is overclocked (I'm sure it already is!) but upgrade that card to at least a 1070.

If you're looking to bump up to the new  Kaby Lake-X  series then new MOBO of course and a new card. It's Socket LGA 2066 so 1151 LGA is no longer compatible.

Keeping your current processor I would definitely look at getting a 1080 8-12 gb card.

2 hours ago, Milton Waddams said:

I don't really see a need for a processor upgrade at the moment, maybe when Cannon Lake rolls around but there just won't be a massive improvement from Haswell to Coffee Lake unless the applications you use like a lot of cores, but 4 is just fine for P3D, for now at least. The graphics card just depends on what you are willing to spend. 1070 Ti, 1080, and 1080 Ti are all on the table. 1070 Ti is $450, 1080 is $500, and 1080 Ti is $700. All great cards, just really depends on how deep your pocketbooks are. For the ram, 16 GB is a must. Throw an extra kit of 8 GB in and you won't regret it.

IMHO, follow Milton's advice...don't bother with the cpu for now. I'm happy with my 1070, but there are some here that insist if you're not running a 1080Ti, that you might as well uninstall P3D. I specifically avoided the almost $800 1080Ti, because I've been down the road of the $5000 flightsim rig, and will NEVER do that again. I'm not saying that it wouldn't be an improvement over my 1070, but for me, it won't provide me with $300 worth of improvement.

1 hour ago, somiller said:

 I'm not saying that it wouldn't be an improvement over my 1070, but for me, it won't provide me with $300 worth of improvement.

I have a 1070 as well and feel the same way; sure, the Ti  would be amazing but paying  $800 for 50% at most is a bit much for me. I'm waiting for the Volta Ti variant before I'll even consider upgrading.

I moved from a 4790K to a 6700K and see a significant improvement I believe primarily based on faster memory (I'm running that at 3400 MHz and the 6700K at 4.8 GHz), so I agree with the suggestion that you go with a new mobo.  I'm not ready to update the 6700K yet, I haven't seen anything that demonstrates a significant improvement but I expect it will be the 10 nm Cannon Lake, which will also fit on a 1151 LGA socket (not sure if I'll stick with same chipset so new mobo might still be in the works, we'll see next year).

Thanks all for the suggestions. I'll see and may be go for the full upgrade if budget permits otherwise just the ram and gfx card for now then. 

Cheers

Swadeep

4790K overclocked to 4.7-4.8ghz is still one of the top gaming chips even when compared to the 7700k, Sure it is a little slower but not worth a full system upgrade.  I'd do as you have read and work on the GPU and RAM.

Thanks all! Appreciate your help. 

Cheers

Swadeep

After more than 5 years, I upgraded from a respectable x79 3820 (4.8 Ghz) to a x299 (4.6 - 4.8 Ghz) System and I am deeply impressed from the performance gain in all aspects. So it is not only core speed, which is actually the same if not a bit less - it is the whole package. I cannot give detailed numbers (fps) but over all the new system feels at least "30 percent better" than the old one. Now I can enjoy smooth landing a 747 (PMDG) at KSFO (FB) surrounded by FTX NCA (ORBX) at moderate-high setting in P3Dv4.1. Even at night (DL on) it is acceptable fluid. Though, I have to turn down SSAA from 4x to 2x, but this is more related to the video card (1070) which is the only left-over from my old system.

What most people fail to mention is the potential speed gains from the RAM, especially in CPU limited situations. Most people seem to base their beliefs on the pre-DDR4 era, where the speed gains were usually minuscule and sometimes not worth the extra money. However, in the DDR4 era, you will actually see significant gains in CPU heavy environments. So the CPU IPC and speed being the whole story is far from the reality of it. 

Both Ryzen's AM4 platform and Skylake (X299 / Z370) show some quite stark differences between the stock 2166MHz speeds and all the way up to 4000MHz+ 

Here's a benchmark from the Skylake-X platform; https://imgur.com/a/XU6na - Notice how there's some absolutely massive gains. In some of the benchmarks, we are talking a staggering 70FPS difference.

Here's another, older DDR4 benchmark. A CPU limited game like ArmA shows an 18FPS increase. Fallout with 20FPS. https://www.techspot.com/article/1171-ddr4-4000-mhz-performance/page3.html

So there's definitely other components you need to factor in, in the overall performance / smoothness chart, instead of just dismissing it all by a basic CPU vs CPU comparison. Obviously it also comes down to how much you value that extra performance, as RAM can be quite expensive, especially these days. 

RAM has become such a forgotten aspect and when people do decide to get a decent set, they tend to forget they need to manually activate the appropriate XMP profile to even run at their rated speeds.

So that's a big reason why you would upgrade to a newer platform, to get on the DDR4 wagon.