I7 4790k upgrade??

[tomcatman24 15]

51 minutes ago, reignman40 said:

Even the i5-12600K at around $100 cheaper than the i7-12700K would do just fine.

That's a good thought. I hadn't considered that... Thanks!

[rayharris108 259]

11 hours ago, tomcatman24 said:

I have been using my i7 4790k for flight simming since 2016 and it has served me very, very well in fsx and p3d v4.

I have been pleasantly surprised at how well my i7 4790k, rtx 2070, and ddr3 32gb ram system handles msfs. It gave me new life in the fs world!

That said, I have been contemplating upgrading to something like an i7 12700k and ddr4 ram while sticking with the rtx 2070 for a while.

My question is has anyone done a similar upgrade? And how much performance improvement can I expect, especially in heavy scenery areas? 

I'm trying to decide if the improvement will be worth paying $700-$900 US to upgrade...

Fyi, I fly with most settings on high with a few turned up to ultra and fly a combination of ga and airliners. 

Hi

if it helps, I upgraded my i5 4690 to an i7 11700k OC to 5GHz. I kept my GTX 1080 Ti card, but had to get 32Gb DDR4 RAM, and a Z590 Mobo. My MSFS was already running off an SSD and so worked straight after the upgrade without reinstallation. 
What I noticed was my CPU usage went from 98% with the i5 4690 down to 22-30% with the 11700k. The GTX 1080 was much the same and is probably the main bottleneck now as it’s usually in the high 90s% usage. Overall I get min 30 FPS in large hubs eg EGKK, and 40+ FPS elsewhere, 50-60+ in the air. I’m on SU8 beta and performance is super smooth.

Your mileage may vary but you should see a good CPU boost. 

[Michael Moe 496]

23 minutes ago, rayharris108 said:

Hi

if it helps, I upgraded my i5 4690 to an i7 11700k OC to 5GHz. I kept my GTX 1080 Ti card, but had to get 32Gb DDR4 RAM, and a Z590 Mobo. My MSFS was already running off an SSD and so worked straight after the upgrade without reinstallation. 
What I noticed was my CPU usage went from 98% with the i5 4690 down to 22-30% with the 11700k. The GTX 1080 was much the same and is probably the main bottleneck now as it’s usually in the high 90s% usage. Overall I get min 30 FPS in large hubs eg EGKK, and 40+ FPS elsewhere, 50-60+ in the air. I’m on SU8 beta and performance is super smooth.

Your mileage may vary but you should see a good CPU boost. 

Hi,

So is it possible to upgrade motherboard/CPU/RAM without the need for reinstall MSFS  (and P3D,PMDG,FSlabs ,ORBX and scenerys etc ?)

My P3D/MSFS is a mix of scenerys on seperate SSD´s but some has installed under the //user/documents folder on c:drive

Michael Moe 

Edited February 23, 2022 by Michael Moe

[alanlj44 117]

My ryzen 5 5600X has room left with everything put to ultra and maxed out except medium refresh rate cockpit and no motion blur effect, 1440p, with terrain LOD to 400 and object LOD cranked past the 200 limit up to 400 through Usercfg file. All this with my RTX 2070S.

I usually get around 43-47 fps at cruise in rural and scattered small cities area. Some airports I get around 30-35 some will be around 23-25. Can go as low as 20 on big photogrammetry area but with no stuttering fest. Very intensive weather scenarios involving lots of clouds can impact FPS as much as losing 5-7 fps usually compared to clear sky. So while not mind blowing, simming with this kind of performance is plenty comfortable enough and doesn't mess with my approaches and landings, whereas my 4790K was really annoying during departures and landings. All of this getting the most out of MSFS beautiful graphics. 

As for people with 1080ti, expect roughly the same performances as with my 2070S as both GPU performs almost the same, minus the RTX capabilities and DLSS which might prove very useful later on when/if they implement it. So you can keep your GPU for a little longer. The 1080ti has gained legendary status for a reason, it was a notoriously abnormally good GPU (from a marketing stand point), almost a Titan for a fraction of the price. You don't get nearly as much performance per dollar invested (so to speak) out of a 2080ti compared to its same gen 20XX siblings.

Edited February 23, 2022 by alanlj44

[CFIJose 5,485]

1 hour ago, Michael Moe said:

Hi,

So is it possible to upgrade motherboard/CPU/RAM without the need for reinstall MSFS  (and P3D,PMDG,FSlabs ,ORBX and scenerys etc ?)

My P3D/MSFS is a mix of scenerys on seperate SSD´s but some has installed under the //user/documents folder on c:drive

Michael Moe 

I would not do it. It takes 10 minutes to re-install Win 10.

The problem most simmers have, is that they have too many add-ons and some require activation.

What I like about MSFS & XP11 is that they can stay put on a separate drive. Since I have my sims on separate drives, I's easy to download MSFS, then point to folder. XP11 is even easier. There's no need to do anything but load the sim from the drive.

[rayharris108 259]

2 hours ago, Michael Moe said:

Hi,

So is it possible to upgrade motherboard/CPU/RAM without the need for reinstall MSFS  (and P3D,PMDG,FSlabs ,ORBX and scenerys etc ?)

My P3D/MSFS is a mix of scenerys on seperate SSD´s but some has installed under the //user/documents folder on c:drive

Michael Moe 

Hi Michael,

Yes it certainly is for MSFS - don't have P3D anymore, so can't comment on that.

I noticed no adverse effects at all for MSFS. The only caveat for others is you must have a non-OEM original copy of Windows. I believe most OEM Windows i.e a copy that came installed with a new machine, will not allow transfer of the OS to another PC or new motherboard/CPU - which means a full reinstall.

Provided the drives on the new PC still have the same drive letter, any sceneries on other drives should work as they did before. Worst can happen you have to reinstall them.

[Pochi 68]

Hi,

I am also looking for an upgrade of MB/ CPU.

Currently running quite with i5 5600K and GTX1070.

I am thinking about a cheap upgrade using i5 12400 because it is cheap and mother board for it also. It seems really praised high by the gaming community. Since it is quite useless to overclock with MSFS, it may seems to be a good idea to me.

What do you think?

Pierre

[kkbelos 64]

23 hours ago, alanlj44 said:

I went from the same i7 4790K (which I had overclocked pretty high) to a Ryzen 5 5600X. The I7 was used with a GTX 1070, then with my GPU upgrade to a RTX 2070S. And then I switched to the Ryzen, so I can really compare.

Performances between 4790K 2070S and with the Ryzen were night and day, plain and simple. The 2070S wasn't used to its full potential due to the i7 massively bottlenecking it (the infamous Main thread Limited syndrome). MSFS was then much more fluid whereas I had a lot of stuttering with the i7 and not nearly as much FPS. Also, remember the I7 4790K runs on DDR3 only and that also makes quite a difference. It's clearly an obsolete architecture for intensive next gen software like MSFS.
 

Thanks for the detailed explanation, but there is something I don´t understand. The Ryzen 5 5600X has a core clock of 3.7 GHz (with Turbo up to 4.6GHz). The 4790k has a core clock of 4 GHz (with Turbo up to 4.4). Numbers, at least with Turbo, are not so different. Why the big difference between both? The i7-4790k can reach 4.6 with OC... or is there something I am missing?

[RJC68 823]

22 hours ago, ryanbatcund said:

I just did an upgrade...have not built it yet.  

Old system: 

4790K at 4.4ghz

32 gb ram

GTX 1080 ti

New system:

12700K

32gb ram

Same video card

 

Running at 1440P....I'll let you know

I’ll be interested to hear how you get on with your upgrade Ryan,

I am still running my trusty old 1080TI with a i5-9600K @5Ghz and it does remarkably well

[pgde 571]

15 hours ago, kkbelos said:

Thanks for the detailed explanation, but there is something I don´t understand. The Ryzen 5 5600X has a core clock of 3.7 GHz (with Turbo up to 4.6GHz). The 4790k has a core clock of 4 GHz (with Turbo up to 4.4). Numbers, at least with Turbo, are not so different. Why the big difference between both? The i7-4790k can reach 4.6 with OC... or is there something I am missing?

Yes, Instructions per clock (IPC)-- see https://www.pcpartguide.com/ipc-vs-clock-speed/ or Google "IPC vs Clock Speed" for more explanations.

[tomcatman24 15]

On 2/23/2022 at 3:06 AM, rayharris108 said:

 

if it helps, I upgraded my i5 4690 to an i7 11700k OC to 5GHz. I kept my GTX 1080 Ti card, but had to get 32Gb DDR4 RAM, and a Z590 Mobo. My MSFS was already running off an SSD and so worked straight after the upgrade without reinstallation. 
What I noticed was my CPU usage went from 98% with the i5 4690 down to 22-30% with the 11700k. The GTX 1080 was much the same and is probably the main bottleneck now as it’s usually in the high 90s% usage. Overall I get min 30 FPS in large hubs eg EGKK, and 40+ FPS elsewhere, 50-60+ in the air. I’m on SU8 beta and performance is super smooth.

Your mileage may vary but you should see a good CPU boost. 

That certainly does help! Thank you!

[tomcatman24 15]

On 2/23/2022 at 4:36 AM, alanlj44 said:

My ryzen 5 5600X has room left with everything put to ultra and maxed out except medium refresh rate cockpit and no motion blur effect, 1440p, with terrain LOD to 400 and object LOD cranked past the 200 limit up to 400 through Usercfg file. All this with my RTX 2070S.

I usually get around 43-47 fps at cruise in rural and scattered small cities area. Some airports I get around 30-35 some will be around 23-25. Can go as low as 20 on big photogrammetry area but with no stuttering fest. Very intensive weather scenarios involving lots of clouds can impact FPS as much as losing 5-7 fps usually compared to clear sky. So while not mind blowing, simming with this kind of performance is plenty comfortable enough and doesn't mess with my approaches and landings, whereas my 4790K was really annoying during departures and landings. All of this getting the most out of MSFS beautiful graphics. 

This is very helpful. Thank you!

[Drebin8 17]

I'm in a similar situation - I currently have a 4790k OC to 4.7, 16 Gb DDR3 and a 2080ti.

I'm currently getting parts together for a new system - 12700k or 12900k, DDR5 and keep the 2080ti. Looking to upgrade to a 4000 series GPU when they come out later in the year, but that will depend on how outrageous prices are.

I don't get to upgrade very often so trying to put together something that I'll be happy with for another 6+ years. It'll also be the first system I build myself, so wish me luck. I'll chime in in a week or two (hopefully) with how it compares to my old 4790k system. 

[jfri 42]

On 2/22/2022 at 11:36 PM, alanlj44 said:

I went from the same i7 4790K (which I had overclocked pretty high) to a Ryzen 5 5600X. The I7 was used with a GTX 1070, then with my GPU upgrade to a RTX 2070S. And then I switched to the Ryzen, so I can really compare.

Performances between 4790K 2070S and with the Ryzen were night and day, plain and simple. The 2070S wasn't used to its full potential due to the i7 massively bottlenecking it (the infamous Main thread Limited syndrome). MSFS was then much more fluid whereas I had a lot of stuttering with the i7 and not nearly as much FPS. Also, remember the I7 4790K runs on DDR3 only and that also makes quite a difference. It's clearly an obsolete architecture for intensive next gen software like MSFS.



However, now you'll discover your 2070 to be lackluster, sorry 😄

What screen resolution were you using ?
Do you also use XP11 P3D5 DCS ? If so were the experience the same there ?

[tomcatman24 15]

On 2/24/2022 at 9:39 PM, Drebin8 said:

I don't get to upgrade very often so trying to put together something that I'll be happy with for another 6+ years. It'll also be the first system I build myself, so wish me luck. I'll chime in in a week or two (hopefully) with how it compares to my old 4790k system.

I'm in the same boat as far as building/upgrading something that will last for quite a few years.

As far as building the system, just take your time and make sure things are doing right. I've built several computers for myself and others and I always tell people, if you can read, you can build a computer 😄

Can't wait to hear about your new build!