Hi everyone, I’m after some advice for my system running P3D v3 and 4. I have a good graphics card, GTX 1080, but my CPU is an Intel Core i5 7500. I like to fly airliners like the PMDG 777, 747 and FSLabs A320 and use payware airfields. No matter what I try with the settings I just can’t get the sim to run smoothly. It can get so bad that I can’t hand fly the aircraft as the FPS are incredibly low. I’ve been considering upgrading my CPU to an i7 7700k. I’m not very experienced with computers so if anyone with more knowledge could tell me if they think upgrading my CPU will help with performance I would be very grateful. 

 

Many thanks. Robo777. 

I use userbenchmark.com to compare CPUs. You can pair them to your liking. Here's your case: http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i7-7700K-vs-Intel-Core-i5-7500/3647vs3648

The number you should pay closest attention to for flightsims is single-core speed. According to this, the i7-7700k should be at least 25% faster than the i5-7500. As your GPU is indeed very good, all performance gains will benefit your sim directly. But it's only 25+%, so don't expect miracles. It will certainly help, whether it's a good performance gain per dollar investment is up to you to decide (for me, it wouldn't).

Thanks domae001, great help. I’ll take this into account, have to have a think if this would be worth the price tag. Thanks for your help. 

You can also overclock the i7-7700k and that will give you a significant boost in performance

zmak, have you overclocked your CPU? And if so how easy was this to do? My experience with computers is not extensive and I wouldn’t want to damage the machine. 

Yes mine is at 4.6ghz. Its not hard to do and its fun but also the big jump in performance is worth it . You shouldnt damage your machine

You can start by reading forums like this and there is a ton of info on google

http://www.overclockers.com/forums/

and here is an avsim thread running now on the topic

 

 

Thanks very much zmak, I'll get reading.

3 hours ago, Robo777 said:

My experience with computers is not extensive and I wouldn’t want to damage the machine. 

Intel sell overclocking protection called the "tuning plan" - see: https://click.intel.com/tuningplan/faq and https://click.intel.com/tuningplan/purchase-a-plan

Basically, if your CPU is on the list (most enthusiast processors are) you buy the tuning plan and if you manage to damage it whilst overclocking, Intel will replace it free of charge. The plan for the 7700k costs $30.

Having slept one night over it, I think the i7-7700k might actually be a decent investment because you can retain your mainboard and ram. The other option would be to wait until Q1/2019 when Intel most likely releases its new processors, which will then require a new mainboard and DDR4 ram. So it's basically 25+% performance now for 300$ or 50?+% performance one year from now for maybe 600-700$.

Btw: Overclocking potential also relies on your mainboard, check if your mainboard supports overclocking before counting on it.

Thanks vortex and domae, after taking into account what you've both said, I have decided to order an i7-7700k. Even if I get max 25% boost in performence, it would still be a lot better than the position I'm in now. Should arrive in the next few days, once I've tried it out I will report back here to let you know how it goes. Thanks for putting in the time to share your knowledge, I really appriciate it.