New to Prepar3d- Video Card upgrade time

[CpnBill 2]

Hello all-

 

Thanks for your help in getting started with Prepar3d.  I purchased it earlier this week and excited to start in on it.  One thing that is bottlenecking me right now is my old video card.  I built my new system about a year ago, but still have not upgraded the video card.  I'm still running a GTX750 Ti.  I can send you the specs of my machine tonight, but I know it's time for an upgrade.  I'm just wondering how much $$$ I really want to throw at it.  I'm slowly starting to search the forums and have found some info but was curious what you guys think.  I'm not sure I'll be doing VR flying.  I currently have 3 1080 monitors, i am not sure when/if it's worth it to upgrade to 4k.  With that being said, do you think a 1070 would be good enough, or do I need to save for the 1080's or something even newer?

[Bob Scott 7,720]

To give any good advice here requires some knowledge of the rest of the system.  A balanced system is what you want to shoot for, unless you're upgrading in increments and/or want the ability to future-proof your graphics subsystem for the next build (as much as that may or may not be possible given the pace of hardware evolution).

So...CPU?  Motherboard?  RAM??

Regards

[CpnBill 2]

Makes sense...and I was going to get that when I got home, but was able to look it up.

• Intel i5-8600k
• Gigabyte Z370 Aorus Gaming 5
• 16 GB DDR4 3000 G. Skill
• Samsung 850 EVO 500 GB
• 3 TB Barracuda 7200RPM for backup

[Bob Scott 7,720]

That's a solid system--except, as you've already realized, that skunky 750Ti.  A better video card will make a considerable difference in P3Dv4 on your rig.

OK, assuming you have your 8600K overclocked to somewhere near 5 GHz (if not you should seriously consider doing that), I'd recommend the 1070Ti and up (1080, 1080Ti, 2070, 2080, 2080Ti)...definitely nothing with less than 8GB VRAM given you are going to be running either a triple-1080 or 4K display system.

Regards

[mpw8679 428]

1 hour ago, CpnBill said:

Hello all-

 

Thanks for your help in getting started with Prepar3d.  I purchased it earlier this week and excited to start in on it.  One thing that is bottlenecking me right now is my old video card.  I built my new system about a year ago, but still have not upgraded the video card.  I'm still running a GTX750 Ti.  I can send you the specs of my machine tonight, but I know it's time for an upgrade.  I'm just wondering how much $$$ I really want to throw at it.  I'm slowly starting to search the forums and have found some info but was curious what you guys think.  I'm not sure I'll be doing VR flying.  I currently have 3 1080 monitors, i am not sure when/if it's worth it to upgrade to 4k.  With that being said, do you think a 1070 would be good enough, or do I need to save for the 1080's or something even newer?

It all depends what settings you want to use.  If u want high levels of AA to eliminate shimmering, dynamic lighting, lots of shadows, fly at night, or fly in overcast conditions get the most GPU you can afford.  I do not buy into the whole you need to balance your system theory.  Even if you had an old 2500K cpu P3D v4 would still take full advantage of whatever GPU you choose.  

[CpnBill 2]

Thanks to both of you......this is great info.

 

As for settings....I'd be happy with 30 FPS and the best lighting, shadows,night and overcast I can find.  I also don't want to go drop $700 on a card.  If a 1070 would do this, then maybe that's where I'll look.  I haven't messed with overclocking as of yet, I figured I will once I start getting into Prepar3d.

[Bob Scott 7,720]

45 minutes ago, mpw8679 said:

It all depends what settings you want to use.  If u want high levels of AA to eliminate shimmering, dynamic lighting, lots of shadows, fly at night, or fly in overcast conditions get the most GPU you can afford.  I do not buy into the whole you need to balance your system theory.  Even if you had an old 2500K cpu P3D v4 would still take full advantage of whatever GPU you choose.  

P3Dv4 will take advantage of the GPU, but if the CPU is only capable of pushing out 15 frames per second, then the GPU only has to do its work on half as many frames each second as it does at 30fps.  In such a scenario, all that GPU may well be unnecessary to accomplish the task at hand.  Push 30 fps in the same scenario, and a lesser GPU may no longer be able to keep up.  Of course with a top-end GPU at the slower frame rate, you might be able to run 8xSSAA or substitute some other workload to keep the GPU gainfully-employed.  But I would never counsel someone running a Sandy Bridge CPU at 4.4 GHz to go whole hog on a 2080Ti unless they were gonna rebuild the rest of their system someday soon.

Regards

 

[mpw8679 428]

2 hours ago, w6kd said:

P3Dv4 will take advantage of the GPU, but if the CPU is only capable of pushing out 15 frames per second, then the GPU only has to do its work on half as many frames each second as it does at 30fps.  In such a scenario, all that GPU may well be unnecessary to accomplish the task at hand.  Push 30 fps in the same scenario, and a lesser GPU may no longer be able to keep up.  Of course with a top-end GPU at the slower frame rate, you might be able to run 8xSSAA or substitute some other workload to keep the GPU gainfully-employed.  But I would never counsel someone running a Sandy Bridge CPU at 4.4 GHz to go whole hog on a 2080Ti unless they were gonna rebuild the rest of their system someday soon.

Regards

 

Your logic applies quite well to FSX and the earlier P3D versions but it is flawed with V4.  I’m not saying buy a 2080ti to match up with a Q6600 by any means.  I ran a 2500K with a 1080ti for about a year.  I had it tuned for a solid 30 FPS most anywhere.  Zero autogen, minimal traffic, and the likes.  Many times I cruised into a complex airport in low light conditions with overcast then watch my frames drop in half because my GPU saturated.  It’s always a balancing act.  But don’t limit your hardware to balance your system.  Within reason

[mpw8679 428]

3 hours ago, CpnBill said:

Thanks to both of you......this is great info.

 

As for settings....I'd be happy with 30 FPS and the best lighting, shadows,night and overcast I can find.  I also don't want to go drop $700 on a card.  If a 1070 would do this, then maybe that's where I'll look.  I haven't messed with overclocking as of yet, I figured I will once I start getting into Prepar3d.

If you are wanting a nice night environment and nice shadows I think you will be disappointed with a 1070. You will have to lower settings like shadow draw distance to the point you will see the cloud shadows rendering around the plane. Yucky.  What is your max dollar amount you would like to be at?

[CpnBill 2]

Ideally $400 or less, but obviously that can be adjusted.....I'm just old school, can't believe the darn video card is one of the most expensive component. 🙂

 

 

[F737MAX 5,599]

3 hours ago, CpnBill said:

As for settings....I'd be happy with 30 FPS and the best lighting, shadows,night and overcast I can find.  I also don't want to go drop $700 on a card.  If a 1070 would do this, then maybe that's where I'll look.  I haven't messed with overclocking as of yet, I figured I will once I start getting into Prepar3d.

Just to give you some an idea of my experience - I have an Asus GTX 1070 O8G, you will not get a solid 30 FPS in overcast conditions with high AI, complex payware aircraft and detailed airport, and other eye candy turned on.
I've brought the settings right down in Active Sky, but my overclocked GPU still hits 99 - 100% load in overcast conditions.

18 - 25 FPS in cloudy weather, with low dynamic reflections, HDR, extreme complexity, dense autogen, low water detail, 60% AI, complex payware aircraft and detailed airport.
Forget about SSAA in anything other than clear skies, unless all you want to hear are the GPU fans working overtime.

Try to extend your budget or wait until you can afford a Ti card. Most people reckon that you'll be glad that you did.

Edited March 6, 2019 by F737NG

[CpnBill 2]

When you say Ti....do you mean 1080 / 2080?  Or would a 1070 Ti do the trick?

 

Also thank you, that's exactly what I'm looking for in your response...

Edited March 6, 2019 by CpnBill

[strat919 12]

Not trying to butt in, but I am running a 6700k at 4.7. OC, I have a 1080 (non Ti) and am perfectly satisfied running at 4k with single monitor at 30hz..... except with overcast condition with AS. I'm ready to bite the bullet on a 2080ti if I was certain it would greatly help in that situation. Any thoughts?

[F737MAX 5,599]

57 minutes ago, CpnBill said:

When you say Ti....do you mean 1080 / 2080?  Or would a 1070 Ti do the trick?
Also thank you, that's exactly what I'm looking for in your response...

You're welcome. 
I can only suggest based on what I have read on these forums. I think that a GPU with the fastest clock speeds and at least 8GB VRAM should be what you are aiming for, given your requirements stated earlier.

I also think that 11GB VRAM cards and those that support Ray Tracing will become 'recommended' in future, especially with murmurings of where development of the rumoured P3Dv5 is heading.

That said, this is all supposition and you can only choose the card that meets your requirements for the amount you can / are willing to spend.

15 minutes ago, strat919 said:

Not trying to butt in, but I am running a 6700k at 4.7. OC, I have a 1080 (non Ti) and am perfectly satisfied running at 4k with single monitor at 30hz..... except with overcast condition with AS. I'm ready to bite the bullet on a 2080ti if I was certain it would greatly help in that situation. Any thoughts?

Here are a couple of discussions about the nVidia 2000-series GPUs to give you some more user-based info:

https://www.avsim.com/forums/topic/547561-rtx-2080-a-performer/

https://www.avsim.com/forums/topic/550383-rtx-2070-results-in-v44/

[mpw8679 428]

43 minutes ago, strat919 said:

Not trying to butt in, but I am running a 6700k at 4.7. OC, I have a 1080 (non Ti) and am perfectly satisfied running at 4k with single monitor at 30hz..... except with overcast condition with AS. I'm ready to bite the bullet on a 2080ti if I was certain it would greatly help in that situation. Any thoughts?

Oh yes it would help greatly