Hi guys, first time posting in this forum.  I had a question for you.  I read all the time in these forums and others about updating vid cards, some buy a newer card every year it seems.  Personally I have never done that.  I was under the impression that unless the CPU is generally upgraded too, the overall systems wont perform well.  This is the idea of a 'balanced system'.  I just got done reading a post from a guy who has a 5 year old I5 chip and went from a 1070 to a 1080 and saw 'amazing performance increase'??  I felt that both those cards way overmatch the CPU.  

Am I missing something here?  What are your thoughts.  Thanks

 

I am not one of those who buys a new video card every year nor do I buy each new generation of video card.  Depending upon the game or sim in question, an upgrade to the video card can make an impact.  Older flight sims like FSX, FS9, early versions of P3D, etc., relied mostly upon the CPU for image rendering as well as all the calculations necessary for the sim.  With these older sims, a CPU upgrade would make the most impact, an upgraded graphics card might make the sim more enjoyable with larger sized texture sheets, higher resolution monitors or multiple monitors and higher anti-aliasing settings, but did little for the actual performance of the sim. 

More modern sims like P3D v5 and MSFS use the CPU mostly for the simulation and use the graphics card for rendering the image.  With sims and games that rely heavily upon the graphics card, an upgraded graphics card can make a significant impact.