My system seems starting to age. And want an upgrade.

CPU: 2700X (SMT aka HT off)

GPU:1080 8G (Founders Edition)

Memory:  16G x2 DDR4-2666

MB: msi x470

With about mid settings in P3Dv4.5HF3 and tweaks here and there, for complex add-on like PMDGNGXu, I got about 30 FPS in VC and sometimes less then 20 in complex scenery.

However, with that condition, I found my CPU only used about 33% and no single core over 50%, GPU around 40% load with less than 5G VRAM, and around 18G RAM usage overall with things like browsers, ASP3D,LINDA etc.. running on 2nd screen.

I've tried to minimize other software running but as FPS and load doesn't change much, seems they are not the problem.

 

Giving these low load, I really don't get ideal where to start to upgrade. it seems all hardware are not yet put to full work....

I also tried to slightly overclock my CPU and GPU, but doesn't seems improved much.

 

And other more "modern" games seems utilize my system pretty well....

 

I know P3D is not well known to utilize all hardware resources... but even just for "what piece should I upgrade"  part... that makes thing hard...

Edited January 31, 20215 yr by C2615

If you're using 18GB RAM and you only have 16GB on your system then something is being swapped to virtual memory (disk)...that could be slowing things down.

22 minutes ago, somiller said:

If you're using 18GB RAM and you only have 16GB on your system then something is being swapped to virtual memory (disk)...that could be slowing things down.

16x2, that 32GB in total then....

Old Ryzens weren't great with P3d.  You should be able to update the BIOS on your motherboard, and drop in a 5x00 Ryzen, which would be night and day.  Worry about the GTX1080 when cards become available down the line

9 hours ago, C2615 said:

16x2, that 32GB in total then....

Indeed it is...missed the "x2".

32 minutes ago, Charlatan said:

Old Ryzens weren't great with P3d.  You should be able to update the BIOS on your motherboard, and drop in a 5x00 Ryzen, which would be night and day.  Worry about the GTX1080 when cards become available down the line

Thanks for the heads up, as I checked on msi, the 5x compatibility BIOS is still in beta, and seems there are someone get problem with it, so maybe I would wait, or if 3X00 do the same trick anyway?

Edited January 31, 20215 yr by C2615

The 3x00 Ryzens are better, but a long way behind the new 5 series.  Try and read up a bit, Ive seen a few people running 5x00's on the likes of B450 Tomahawk boards with no issues.

Have a look at some of the PC forums and see what they say.

14 hours ago, Charlatan said:

The 3x00 Ryzens are better, but a long way behind the new 5 series.  Try and read up a bit, Ive seen a few people running 5x00's on the likes of B450 Tomahawk boards with no issues.

Have a look at some of the PC forums and see what they say.

😂I tried that, and failed, get "The bios in this system is not fully ACPI compliant" error, at least with my 2700X still on borad

Now I flash back to not quite my old bios, but a newer one that can support 3x00, and works fine, as the price is close to 1/2, I might get a 3700X for few year before building a brand new system for MSFS and P3Dv..6?.. after some big add-ons came out.

Well, last time when I change my radiator, I pulled my 2700X out with a few pins twisted, and have to do some surgical operation for put it back. I'm thinking I might not able to retain it if I try to swap a new one, so maybe I'll have no 2nd chance if 3700X fails to work😅

Simply by knowing CPU is the buttom neck and OC it from 3.6 to 4.2 gives some good improvment.

I switch to 3800XT and it boost my P3D performance about 30~50%, from low 20s into 30~35, quite smoother.