Unfortunately my budget does not allow me to buy a brand-new computer. I wonder, however, if replacing my current videoboard  (a NVidia Geforce GTX 1060 6GB) with a NVidia Geforce RTX 3060 12GB will give me such a boost in performance/quality that will make the 700 Euro investment worth to do. Or will a Geforce RTX3050 8GB (550 Euro) be just a slightly lesser choice? My CPU is an Intel Core i7-6700 3.4 Ghz 16GB memory. And for your information, I am not a gamer but a simmer, so this board mainly will be used for FS2020 🙂 

I actually am quite happy how my PC is running FS2020 right now, but of course getting more quality/performance would be great.

Any advice will be highly appreciated. TIA.

Edited February 3, 20224 yr by hvw

Depends on your resolution, if you’re CPU or GPU bound. 
regarding the current GPU prices I would rather upgrade the 6700k. I replaced my 6700k half a year ago - and it was about time. 
700 bucks for a mid range GPU is just sick 🙂 but that’s the way it is. 

Thanks, you are right. The GPU price is rather steep, but hey, it still is about a thousand Euros cheaper than replacing the entire PC. Replacing the motherboard is a helluva job for me and I very much doubt the new board will survive my "handling" 🙂 

Hence I was thinking about replacing my videoboard, albeit it with a mid range one. Some improvement is better than nothing, right? Or won't it be any (or just very little) improvement at all? That actually was my intended question 🙂 

47 minutes ago, hvw said:

Unfortunately my budget does not allow me to buy a brand-new computer. I wonder, however, if replacing my current videoboard  (a NVidia Geforce GTX 1060 6GB) with a NVidia Geforce RTX 3060 12GB will give me such a boost in performance/quality that will make the 700 Euro investment worth to do. Or will a Geforce RTX3050 8GB (550 Euro) be just a slightly lesser choice? My CPU is an Intel Core i7-6700 3.4 Ghz 16GB memory. And for your information, I am not a gamer but a simmer, so this board mainly will be used for FS2020 🙂 

I actually am quite happy how my PC is running FS2020 right now, but of course getting more quality/performance would be great.

Any advice will be highly appreciated. TIA.

3060. 3050 may not have enough future vram. 

 

 1080 to 1440p med/high settings especially clouds. CPU shouldn't hold you back too much Plus a decent Power supply (750 Watts upwards best) for the 3060.

@hvw don't waste your money on a new GPU.

Upgrade your CPU, board, and RAM. To me that's always been a better upgrade value for flight sims.

 

3 minutes ago, DJJose said:

@hvw don't waste your money on a new GPU.

Upgrade your CPU, board, and RAM. To me that's always been a better upgrade value for flight sims.

 

Thanks, but replacing the motherboard is a helluva job for me and I very much doubt the new board will survive my "handling" 🙂  I understand I thus better stay with what I have, right?

 

2 minutes ago, hvw said:

Thanks, but replacing the motherboard is a helluva job for me and I very much doubt the new board will survive my "handling" 🙂  I understand I thus better stay with what I have, right?

 

It's like anything else. Practice means perfect. The more you do it, the better you will get. It's important to learn how to handle computer upgrades. You will save a lot of money.

If you're still hesitant, wait until you can get a custom built from a reputable computer builder.

30 minutes ago, DJJose said:

@hvw don't waste your money on a new GPU.

Upgrade your CPU, board, and RAM. To me that's always been a better upgrade value for flight sims.

 

That used to be the way Jose (P3D / FSX etc.), and certainly those upgrades are always useful, but now the GPU is very important to MSFS I have found.

Last night, my 3080Ti was getting noisy at 70-85% utilisation (4k), while my CPU was barely touching 7% across all cores (only 40% on the one main thread even), so it is a bit of a change with MSFS compared to other sims - this was planned by MS / Asobo to be this way, they way they have designed the sim.

To the OP, I would say pick the resolution you want to run at first and then get the card that will do this at 80% utilisation.
I spent a lot of money on a 3080Ti as I had designs at running it at 4k ultra at 60 fps.  Still no chance - couldn't hold it even with an overclock.
It may be feasible with DLSS implementation later on hopefully.

I run at 30 fps 4k ultra now, and the card is coping.  It is smooth (no stutter at all) which is the main thing.  
The thing is, I could have run 30 fps at these settings with a cheaper 3070.

Edited February 3, 20224 yr by bobcat999

I would highly recommend not buying a GPU right now. Although it is unlikely we will ever return to normal (2019 prices), things will get better in H2 2022 with new wafer and substrate capacity coming online, shipping issues getting resolved, and maybe the Ethereum 2.0 merge (which will greatly reduce mining demand).

But if you can't wait anymore, then go for the RTX 3060. At that price it's a lot better, and the RTX 3050 isn't a huge upgrade (performance is similar to the GTX 1660 Ti/GTX 1070). Also you might want to look into getting a pre-built system, and then selling off either the rest of the parts or your current system, you could end up saving a lot.

If you are playing at 1080p and don't care much about ray-tracing, DLSS and other NVIDIA-specific features, you can also look into the RX 6600 which is sold at ~500€.

1 minute ago, ChaoticBeauty said:

I would highly recommend not buying a GPU right now. Although it is unlikely we will ever return to normal (2019 prices), things will get better in H2 2022 with new wafer and substrate capacity coming online, shipping issues getting resolved, and maybe the Ethereum 2.0 merge (which will greatly reduce mining demand).

But if you can't wait anymore, then go for the RTX 3060. At that price it's a lot better, and the RTX 3050 isn't a huge upgrade (performance is similar to the GTX 1660 Ti/GTX 1070). Also you might want to look into getting a pre-built system, and then selling off either the rest of the parts or your current system, you could end up saving a lot.

If you are playing at 1080p and don't care much about ray-tracing, DLSS and other NVIDIA-specific features, you can also look into the RX 6600 which is sold at ~500€.

I recommend the 3060TI, its faster than the 2080 Super and at Amazon you can get one for 700 Bucks. 8Gig Vram is mostly enough (compared to the normal 3060 with 12 gigs)

Regards

 

Michael

5 minutes ago, MichaelLowl said:

I recommend the 3060TI, its faster than the 2080 Super and at Amazon you can get one for 700 Bucks. 8Gig Vram is mostly enough (compared to the normal 3060 with 12 gigs)

The original poster seems to be living in Europe so the prices are not comparable. At Amazon.de the RTX 3060 Ti starts at 800€ for example.

8GB is indeed enough for most cases, but with ray-tracing it can choke badly, even at 1440p (and in those cases the RTX 3060 12GB can do just fine). Again this is a decision the original poster will have to make, depending on their use cases.

3 minutes ago, ChaoticBeauty said:

The original poster seems to be living in Europe so the prices are not comparable. At Amazon.de the RTX 3060 Ti starts at 800€ for example.

8GB is indeed enough for most cases, but with ray-tracing it can choke badly, even at 1440p (and in those cases the RTX 3060 12GB can do just fine). Again this is a decision the original poster will have to make, depending on their use cases.

I'm also from Europe and yes, I got an MSI 3060TI from Amazon for exact 802,- Euros. For sure it will be his decision, I only told my opinion 😉

17 minutes ago, MichaelLowl said:

I recommend the 3060TI, its faster than the 2080 Super and at Amazon you can get one for 700 Bucks. 8Gig Vram is mostly enough (compared to the normal 3060 with 12 gigs)

Regards

 

Michael

If he can get the 3060Ti for near the same price as a 3060 go for that instead.

Edited February 3, 20224 yr by 40track

Some good points here.  I wonder what effect DLSS will have on VRAM usage?

1 hour ago, hvw said:

Thanks, you are right. The GPU price is rather steep, but hey, it still is about a thousand Euros cheaper than replacing the entire PC.

But for that thousand bucks more you have a complete system including that new GPU in that price.  GPU's are still difficult to find, but new systems that contain those same GPUs are now relatively easy to find.

Edited February 3, 20224 yr by fppilot