Which Upgrade will Improve P3D Performance Most? GPU or CPU?

[MrYorkiesWorld 3]

Hi there everyone,

 

I hope this post is in the right section, although I couldn't find another one which better fit the topic of my question!

 

I am running P3D 4.2 on an Intel Core i7 4790k CPU (Not Overclocked), 16GB of RAM and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 GPU (Not Overclocked). All of this is based from Windows 10 Pro 64-bit, with a dedicated SSD for my OS, a Separate SSD for P3D, and a Hybrid drive for my DATA etc...

 

I am considering an upgrade to get better performance from P3D, which runs quite well already, however I do want to get more performance at night with dynamic lighting and Anti-Aliasing etc...

 

Now common sense, along with my numerous years of experience building computers would tell me that the GPU is the best thing to upgrade first, however I am torn between upgrading that, and choosing to upgrade the CPU, since flight simulators tend to use more CPU than GPU as a rule due to everything being simulated the way it would be in real life etc...

 

My question is, which upgrade would likely make the most difference to P3D in terms of performance?

 

My settings are medium - high - nothing is set to Ultra, and I a running the Sim at 1080p.

 

Any help would be really appreciated, thanks in advance!

 

--Yorkie

[dmarques69 316]

In my experience its all about a balanced system, mixing high end components with not so good ones give you very marginal improvements and even worse, instability! For start why dont you OC your CPU? The 4790k is still a great CPU that was made for OC, whats your cooling system?

If i where you, not having the 💰 to upgrade all, i would start with the GPU, because is just that, CPU means, mobo and ram also, and ram is still sooooo expensive, and i would OC that boy, staying always in safe temps.

 

 

[DaveCT2003 1,820]

CPU my friend.  Dumbing it down, the CPU determines the speed and the graphics card the quality of what you see.

 

Best wishes.

 

[dlipsitz 0]

I have the AMD FX-8320 4.1 MHz, GTX1060 (6GB DDR5), 16 GB DDR3, WIN64 OS on 240 GB SSD, everything else on a series of RAID1 paired regular hard drives.  Previously, I had P3Dv4 installed on the SSD, with Win7 Pro 64 on a SSHD.  P3D does load faster on the SSD compared to my current setup, but other than that I noticed no differences in performance.  Interestingly, I noticed that P3D performs no differently otherwise.  With both setups, despite maxing out everything in P3D, my GPU is barely utilized, and only about 20% of the BTX1060's RAM is used, while the CPU is maxed out.  System RAM runs about 50%.

I would say if you like the performance of your rig's current setup, graphics upgrades aren't worth the cost (especially with the current GPU shortage inflating the prices).

[hs118 707]

1 hour ago, YorkiesWorld said:

I am running P3D 4.2 on an Intel Core i7 4790k CPU (Not Overclocked), --Yorkie

Agree with @marques, overclocking your CPU could be a $0 or $Low upgrade. I have the same processor and overclocked to 4.8GHz. Runs great. 

You might have to upgrade your CPU cooler.

[lownslo 592]

2 hours ago, YorkiesWorld said:

however I do want to get more performance at night with dynamic lighting and Anti-Aliasing etc...

As mentioned the 4790K overclocks well and handles P3Dv4 quite well.  Try to get the CPU up to 4.8GHz, overclock the RAM as best you can, and drop some coin on a 1070 (or wait a few weeks to see what nVidia brings with its next generation cards).  Overclocking the CPU/RAM and upgrading the GPU will offer the best performance bang for the buck.

Good luck,

Greg

[scottb613 1,188]

Hi Folks,

OC all day every day...

Regards,

Scott

[martin-w 3,234]

17 hours ago, YorkiesWorld said:

Hi there everyone,

 

I hope this post is in the right section, although I couldn't find another one which better fit the topic of my question!

 

I am running P3D 4.2 on an Intel Core i7 4790k CPU (Not Overclocked), 16GB of RAM and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 GPU (Not Overclocked). All of this is based from Windows 10 Pro 64-bit, with a dedicated SSD for my OS, a Separate SSD for P3D, and a Hybrid drive for my DATA etc...

 

I am considering an upgrade to get better performance from P3D, which runs quite well already, however I do want to get more performance at night with dynamic lighting and Anti-Aliasing etc...

 

Now common sense, along with my numerous years of experience building computers would tell me that the GPU is the best thing to upgrade first, however I am torn between upgrading that, and choosing to upgrade the CPU, since flight simulators tend to use more CPU than GPU as a rule due to everything being simulated the way it would be in real life etc...

 

My question is, which upgrade would likely make the most difference to P3D in terms of performance?

 

My settings are medium - high - nothing is set to Ultra, and I a running the Sim at 1080p.

 

Any help would be really appreciated, thanks in advance!

 

--Yorkie

 

 

The GTX 980 is still a very good graphics card. P3D does utilise the GPU a bit more than the sim did in the past, especially given that we are all using higher resolutions now and add-ons that stress the GPU more.

However... the sim is still primarily dependant on a powerful CPU. I would agree that you should learn a little about overclocking, invest in a decent CPU cooler, and experiment to determine just how much performance you can squeeze out of the CPU you have. Expect overclocking the CPU to be linear, as long as your system is reasonably  balanced. 10% increase in CPU frequency should manifest itself as 10% increase in frame rate.

Beyond the above, and thinking in terms of upgrades, a new motherboard and latest CPU architecture would pay dividends. Beyond that, a graphics card upgrade is the next step.

Re RAM, make sure XMP is on.

 

 

 

 

 

[bbuckley 133]

OP:  I have nearly the same situation.   See specs below.  I did just pick up an NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1080ti from them at $699 and just got it yesterday.  Will install this weekend.  I got the GPU since I new that when I do upgrade the CPU from the 4790K I'll want a high end GPU too.  But to upgrade the CPU for me requires a new MB (the Z97 1150 is max'd out with the 4790K). And then I'd also need new faster memory so that path is pretty expensive.

 

My 4790K is overclocked to 4.5Ghz and without a better cooler (I have a Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler) I'm worried about going higher.  I'll check temps again and see if I can crank it up to 4.7 ish.  

I'll let you know what I see from the GPU upgrade.

 

[W2DR 1,859]

I wouldn't do anything. The 4790K will run very well at 4.7Ghz. Changing to a new CPU "could" get you to 5.0-5.1 Ghz but you'd never notice the difference. Same with the GPU. A 1080 will give you a bit better eye-candy with P3D (but not with FSX) and the overall sim performance won't change much.....considering the cost of a new GPU it just doesn't seem worth it. Were it I, I'd stick with what you have..........Doug