I've seen many topics about the I7-8700k and i think it's a good value proposition. But still I need to justify spending the upgrade cost. It involves buying a new Mobo due to other socket plus RAM. I didn't think this through (upgradeability of the 1150 socket) when I bought my current system (4 years old). 

So my question is what do I gain by doing this upgrade. 

Current system:

I5-4690K in combination with Gigabyte GTX 1070. 

upgrade to

I7-8700k + same GTX 1070

 

Current performances are still OK. My heaviest use case would be a PMDG aircraft on approach into FT EHAM with Orbx Netherlands and a lot of clouds to draw resulting in a 16fps. In cruise FPS go up to 50. 

If i would upgrade to the I7-8700k (including the RAM performance upgrade), what would the effect be? Is that a 5fps gain or even 10fps, or maybe none. Or is the GPU still the bottle neck?

If the gain is not there yet I think I'll postpone the upgrade and wait for the I9 generation to have landed and have come down in pricing. Plus having a newer socket might also be a pro. 

I upgraded from an i7 4770K with a 970 GTX to first a 1080ti.  Saw an impressive gain.  Upgraded to the 8700K with new RAM and saw another impressive gain.  Be prepared to have get a good cooling unit and strongly consider De-lidding the chip though.  Runs a tad warm.  Well worth the upgrade if you have the coin.

Look into next year's processors though.  I thunk Intel has finally woken up and us changing the Thermal tape out for metal.

Edited September 11, 20187 yr by thibodba57

4 hours ago, bigifooti said:

Or is the GPU still the bottle neck?

It depends on the screen resolution. If you use 1920x1080 then updating the GPU will probably make hardly any difference (except to your wallet). You'd may see some difference at QHD and perhaps more at 4k. Whatever resolution you're using, you need to establish what actually constitutes the bottleneck, if any, in your system. Use an app like MSI Afterburner to monitor CPU and GPU load whilst running the flight sim (making sure to monitor individual CPU cores and not just the generic CPU temp and usage which will always look lower as it's an average). If you're consistently at or near 100% for either the CPU or GPU, then that component is the bottleneck and changing it will probably yield the biggest improvement. If they're both at or near 100% then it's time to turn down some settings or upgrade the whole system. I'd be surprised if the GPU was the problem unless you use a 4k monitor as the 1070 is still a pretty good card for flight sims and, as such, I'd be tempted to keep it (at least initially) even if you go for a CPU upgrade.

Although things are improving, flight sims still depend very much on single core performance so the first thing to try, if you haven't already, is to overclock your CPU. You should comfortably get 4.2-4.5GHz out of your 4690k and that should give a noticeable, no-cost improvement. However, make sure that you have a good cooling solution - too hot and you'll start to get thermal throttling.

Edited September 11, 20187 yr by vortex681

11 hours ago, vortex681 said:

It depends on the screen resolution. If you use 1920x1080 then updating the GPU will probably make hardly any difference (except to your wallet). You'd may see some difference at QHD and perhaps more at 4k. Whatever resolution you're using, you need to establish what actually constitutes the bottleneck, if any, in your system. Use an app like MSI Afterburner to monitor CPU and GPU load whilst running the flight sim (making sure to monitor individual CPU cores and not just the generic CPU temp and usage which will always look lower as it's an average). If you're consistently at or near 100% for either the CPU or GPU, then that component is the bottleneck and changing it will probably yield the biggest improvement. If they're both at or near 100% then it's time to turn down some settings or upgrade the whole system. I'd be surprised if the GPU was the problem unless you use a 4k monitor as the 1070 is still a pretty good card for flight sims and, as such, I'd be tempted to keep it (at least initially) even if you go for a CPU upgrade.

Although things are improving, flight sims still depend very much on single core performance so the first thing to try, if you haven't already, is to overclock your CPU. You should comfortably get 4.2-4.5GHz out of your 4690k and that should give a noticeable, no-cost improvement. However, make sure that you have a good cooling solution - too hot and you'll start to get thermal throttling.

+1 , Very good explanation.. I think the same way...

Mike

Thanks all for your responses. 

So what I read from it is that there is a delta in performance but it might not justify spending another 1k euro. 

Instead try to OC it a bit further. I'm only using the Auto Bios OC. Thereby prolonging the life of this System before upgrading. 

8 hours ago, bigifooti said:

Thanks all for your responses. 

So what I read from it is that there is a delta in performance but it might not justify spending another 1k euro. 

Instead try to OC it a bit further. I'm only using the Auto Bios OC. Thereby prolonging the life of this System before upgrading. 

Looking for a stutter free, lag free, blurry free experience with P3D 4.3? Then get what is in my specs today  ....can exchange cpu to 8700 and the OS to win10 (I think) but everything else is required (no 4k monitor at 30hz stuff), and I can assure you that you'll get twice the P3D 4.3 you currently get with that clunker Haswell.

Edited September 12, 20187 yr by FunknNasty

16 hours ago, bigifooti said:

Instead try to OC it a bit further. I'm only using the Auto Bios OC. Thereby prolonging the life of this System before upgrading.

That's certainly the route I'd take. Many automatic overclock features apply more voltage, and ultimately cause higher temperatures, than is necessary for a stable overclock. As long as you keep the CPU temperature under control and raise the clock speeds in small increments (testing thoroughly at each stage) you shouldn't cause any damage. If you don't already have a good CPU cooler, I'd recommend fitting one before you start - even if you don't get the improvement you'd like, think of a new cooler as the first part of your next major upgrade. I have a Corsair H110i AIO liquid cooler which I'd highly recommend but if you prefer air cooling, the Noctua NH-D15S seems a popular, if very large, choice. With cooling solutions you get what you pay for - there are no good, cheap coolers when it comes to overclocking! Whichever you choose, make sure that it will fit in your case.

This seems to be a well-respected guide to overclocking Haswell CPUs: https://www.overclock.net/forum/5-intel-cpus/1411077-haswell-overclocking-guide-statistics.html

 

Edited September 12, 20187 yr by vortex681

14 hours ago, vortex681 said:

Many automatic overclock features apply more voltage, and ultimately cause higher temperatures, than is necessary for a stable overclock.

 

 

The experience I've had is with Asus Five Way Optimisation. I didn't find the voltage too over the top, as it's not a generic voltage, it's based on stress testing. It's also very configurable. And if the voltage is perceived as a tad high, it's easy enough to manually nudge it down and test. 

Not sure about other manufacturers overclocking tools, had no experience of them. But seems to me it's mainly the  overclock profiles that aren't based on auto stress testing that over volt. They have to over volt to allow for the losers in the silicon lottery. 

Thanks All,

I have an air cooler on there: Gelid Solutions Tranquillo Rev.2 Not a top notch air cooler, but it works. 

Currently i'm just shy of 4,7ghz and during simming it will reach 70c. Maybe just an cooler upgrade is sufficient for now. My case does not easily fit an liquad cooler. So looking into a Noctua or a Be Quite instead. One that is future socket proof.