Upgrade time - yes another thread!

[Paul Golding 88]

Seems like I'm wasting my time using P3D of late and wondered if there was anything practical I can do with this?

Case	FRACTAL DEFINE R4 BLACK PEARL QUIET MID-TOWER CASE
Overclocked CPU	Overclocked Intel® Core™i5-3570k Quad Core (3.40GHz @ max 4.60GHz)
OC Settings	Show/Hide AI Overclock Tuner: XMP BLCK Freq: 100 Turbo Ratio: 46 By All Cores: 46 Internal PLL OverVoltage: Auto Mem Freq: 1600 EPU Power Saving: Disabled Load-Line Calibration: Auto CPU Manual Voltage: 1.375 DRAM Voltage: 1.65 CPU Spread Spectrum: Disabled CPU Ratio: Auto CPU C1E: Disabled NOTE: OverClock settings are configured by PCSpecialist. They are here for your reference should you ever reset your BIOS.
Motherboard	ASUS® P8Z77-V: PCI-E 3.0 READY, WIFI, SLI, CROSSFIREX
Memory (RAM)	8GB KINGSTON HYPERX BEAST DUAL-DDR3 2400MHz X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card	2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 660 - 2 x DVI, HDMI, - 3D Vision Ready
2nd Graphics Card	NONE
3rd Graphics Card	NONE
1st Hard Disk	120GB INTEL® 520 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk	120GB INTEL® 520 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
3rd Hard Disk	1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
4th Hard Disk	NONE
M.2 SSD Drive	NONE
RAID	NONE
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive	24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
2nd DVD/BLU-RAY Drive	NONE
Memory Card Reader	NONE
Power Supply	CORSAIR 650W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX650 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£79)
Processor Cooling	Corsair H80i Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler (£69)
Thermal Paste	ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND (£9)

Having had a read through a few pages, I have a pretty good idea what I need to do next.  It's nothing that £2k or so won't fix 😂

I'm not worried about the HD space.  The case, power and cooling are fine.  So just in case someone says I can just get a new GPU and maybe better RAM, I thought it worth at least asking before buying a replacement PC.

Thanks for your thoughts...….even though I have an idea what they be!

 

[Bob Scott 6,526]

Well, what are you trying to do with P3D?  Are you using v4? 

That 660 GPU is the most limiting component in your system for P3D.  You could decide what GPU you'll want in the next full system build (whether that be now or later) and try it in the current machine to see if it'll give you what you want together with the current Ivy Bridge CPU...if not, then time to move on to a new system build with the new GPU already in-hand.  An 8GB 1070Ti would probably be the best bang for the buck for P3D use now with VRAM usage trends being what they are, but it'd depend on what you want to do with the sim and your machine later.

Regards

 

[Paul Golding 88]

Thanks Bob. How would I go about checking if the 1070 would fit before buying?  I'm kind of reluctant/lazy about doing stuff myself, so the idea of buying and trying (because I could always use it later) doesn't appeal 🙂

Or are you saying it will fit, but might not actually help overall.

And yes, I kind of have a feeling that I know what I should be doing.

[Bob Scott 6,526]

I'm saying that buying and trying may well give you a usable P3D platform for just the price of the GPU, and if it doesn't you're not out anything because it could then be used as part of a new system build.  It shouldn't require *too* much adventure, but you have to be the judge. 

The primary fit issue would be the length of the card...they're both PCIe devices so the card slot is no different.  You'd want to measure that out to ensure the card isn't too long for the slot it'd be in.  If your case is really packed in tight, card width might be a factor, but that's rare except in mass-produced OEM machines.  The card length should be in the manufacturer's specs.  The 1070Ti also needs a single 8-pin VGA supplementary power pigtail from the PSU, where the 660 had (I think) a 6-pin, so you'd need to make sure that your PSU has that cable/connector.

I still have an i7-2600K machine (not my sim machine for a long time now) and I upgraded it three years ago from a 680 to a 970 and that was a pretty good performance bump (with FSX, not P3D).  P3Dv4 will make even better use of the 1070Ti...the question is whether a 4.6GHz Ivy Bridge CPU (low range of acceptable now, IMHO) can keep it gainfully employed at a high enough frame rate to do what you want, and that's gonna depend on how you run the sim--monitor size, autogen, complex acft, vector scenery etc.  It's probably doable, but not unconstrained with the whole kitchen sink thrown in.  P3D makes much more effective use of the GPU...I would imagine that your current 2GB 660, which was a third-tier performance card six years and three GPU generations ago, is pretty underwhelming with current software.

Cheers

 

 

[Charlatan 68]

Bob has the right idea.  If your willing to drop 2k on a system, that would no doubt be an 8700k/8086k and a 1080ti.  As long as your PSU is upto it, I'd personnally get the GPU and see how it works with your current system.  I have a feeling it may see you right for another 12 months.  If your worried about space, get the zotac mini version.  I have the 1080ti mini in mine and it's perfect, and will fit in just about any case.

Edited July 21, 2018 by Charlatan

[zmak 331]

18 hours ago, Paul Golding said:

Thanks Bob. How would I go about checking if the 1070 would fit before buying?  I'm kind of reluctant/lazy about doing stuff myself, so the idea of buying and trying (because I could always use it later) doesn't appeal 🙂

Or are you saying it will fit, but might not actually help overall.

And yes, I kind of have a feeling that I know what I should be doing.

Google your motherboard for related forums and ask about GPU size and will it fit

Nothing to lose by going with a GPU only first ,

[Paul Golding 88]

Thanks for your thoughts.  I'm thinking doing anything for a month or so might be foolhardy now, given how close the 9000 series CPU and 1100 series GPU's are.  May as well see what a new PC with those comes to.  Aside from that and having read through quite a few threads, I'm thinking a 8700K and 1070ti is probably a good combination with 16mb/3200 memory.

The price difference between the 1070ti and 1080 (not ti) is trivial, so is there a reason for choosing one above the other?

Edited July 26, 2018 by Paul Golding
GPU query