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eXpress48

CPU or GPU Upgrade recommendation

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Hi

Since there is no General Hardware Forum and my question targets CPU and GPU, I went along and created this thread in the CPU Section. Apologies if this was wrong.

I currently use the following Rig mainly for Prepar3D V5.x and increasingly MSFS 2020:

CPU: Intel Core i7 8700K --> Overclocked @ 5.1 GHz
RAM: 2x 16GB Corsair Vengeance, DDR4, 3200 MHz, CL16-18-18-36
MOBO: ASUS ROG MAXIMUS HERO X
GPU: Asus GeForce GTX 1080 TI STRIX 11G (No Overclocking)
PSU: be quiet! DARK POWER PRO 11 650W
Monitor: 2x Dell Ultrasharp U2720Q (Only 1 used for flying with native 4K Resolution)

Overall, I'm quite satisfied with the Performance of the Rig, however I started noticing that I hit certain levels where things aren't smooth anymore and I have to lower settings to certain points.

I'm currently thinking about upgrading either my CPU or the GPU. I have thought of the following configurations

CPU: Intel Core i9 12900K
MOBO: ASUS ROG STRIX Z690-A GAMING WIFI D4 (DDR4 with current RAM as specified above)

or

GPU: ASUS GeForce ROG STRIX RTX 3080 Ti O12G-Gaming
PSU: be quiet! Dark Power Pro 12 1200W

Right now, I have the following uncertainties:

  • Based on my current Rig, which Upgrade Path (CPU or GPU) would benefit me more regarding Performance increase?
  • I'm quite certain regarding the new CPU+MOBO Combination, however the RTX 3080 TI might be not ideal. I guess the 3090 would be overkill and probably out-of-budget, but I still want a new Rig that is somewhat futureproof, If I'm going for the GPU upgrade.

Thanks in Advance! 🙂

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If you want to make use of the W11 O/S new features coming to windows then the MOBO & CPU is the way to go, Windows 10 is not future futureproof.

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Raymond Fry.

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TLDR: definitely upgrade the graphics card if you can't do both CPU+GPU.

With MFS you will see far more benefit from upgrading the graphics card, I speak from very recent experience. I went from an i5-2500K @ 4.3GHz overclock hitting 100% load with P3D or MFS, to I5-12400F @ 4.0 GHz turbo and the processor barely hits 40% playing MFS now. An i9-12900 would be massively overkill for MFS; are you even maxing out your existing 8700K?

Meanwhile my GTX980 graphics card remains pegged at 100% running MFS or P3D (I couldn't afford a new graphics card as well as everything else, so I kept my old 980. But my system was 10+ years old and I had reliability concerns that forced my hand somewhat).

Edited by ckyliu
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ckyliu, proud supporter of ViaIntercity.com. i5 12400F, 32GB, GTX980, more in "About me" on my profile. 

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My system MSFS 4K ULTRA 40% CPU 70%. And with MSFS being optimised for XBOX I have noticed that at 4K ULTRA it`s not requiring as much power as it was 6 months ago.  

And as an MS product you can bet it will be optimised for Windows 11 in the future within a year most likely and fully DX12.

I intend to move to W11 at the end of the year MS tends to take some time to optimise a new O/S.

Edited by G-RFRY
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Raymond Fry.

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Right now I'm not seeing any benefits to being on Win11 unless you have 12th gen Intel processor that has both P and E cores (mine is P core only), but I am seeing a lot of hassle and complaints, especially for AMD owners. I would not be upgrading a system purely to get Win11 in future, I'd wait until it becomes clear Win11 is beneficial or essential and use that as the impetus for a new build.

Tbh I would still like to be on Win7 but MFS forced me to go to Win10. I fully intend on skipping Win11, just as I skipped the hateful Win8, abysmal VIsta and sluggish Me. I expect I'll go straight to Win12 unless I am forced by compatibility reasons or there are significant performance improvements that benefit my usage scenarios that would make 11 worthwhile... Or Win12 ends up a disaster, but it shouldn't based on the good-bad-good-bad-good-bad pattern of MS OS releases 😅

Edited by ckyliu
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ckyliu, proud supporter of ViaIntercity.com. i5 12400F, 32GB, GTX980, more in "About me" on my profile. 

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Since you already have a strong CPU I'd also go with a GPU update.  I recently made a whole new system except I kept my GTX 1080 Ti

It has been a super nice upgrade (went from 4790K to 12700K and SSD to NVME) - running 1440P res.  I doubled my fps everywhere and in dense cities sometimes tripled hehe.  However I am still GPU limited.  

Honestly though I might wait for a the 40xx cards if I were you.

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| FAA ZMP |
| PPL ASEL |
| Windows 11 | MSI Z690 Tomahawk | 12700K 4.7GHz | MSI RTX 4080 | 32GB 5600 MHz DDR5 | 500GB Samsung 860 Evo SSD | 2x 2TB Samsung 970 Evo M.2 | EVGA 850W Gold | Corsair 5000X | HP G2 (VR) / LG 27" 1440p |

 

 

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20 hours ago, eXpress48 said:

Based on my current Rig, which Upgrade Path (CPU or GPU) would benefit me more regarding Performance increase?

Developer mode, FPS view will tell you which component is mostly holding you back.

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Ryzen 7 5800X3D | Gigabyte RTX 4090 Gaming OC 24GB | 32GB 3200MHz RAM | 2TB + 1TB NVME SSD | 2GB SSD | 2GB HDD | Corsair RM850 PSU | 240mm AIO | Buttkicker Gamer 2 | Thrustmaster T.16000M Flight Pack | 75" 4K60 TV | 40" 4K60 TV | Quest 3 | DOF Reality H3 Motion Platform

MSFS @ 4K Ultra DLSS Performance with 2.0x Secondary Scaling |  VR VDXR Godlike 80Hz SSW OXRTK @ 4500x4500 Custom FFR CAS 50% | MSFS VR Ultra DLSS Performance - Windows 11

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5 hours ago, Reset XPDR said:

Developer mode, FPS view will tell you which component is mostly holding you back.

In benchmarks most game titles with a 3090 shows the GPU held back CPU LIMITED with the fastest CPU today, the problem is the GPU is developing faster than the CPU only new titles will will likely be better optimised for the future GPU`s. And we are not going to see 7ghz CPU`s. And the motherboard is a big factor it can only pass data through the chipset and CPU at a max rate faster PCIE in the future may help.

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Raymond Fry.

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On 4/7/2022 at 1:45 AM, eXpress48 said:
  • Based on my current Rig, which Upgrade Path (CPU or GPU) would benefit me more regarding Performance increase?
  • I'm quite certain regarding the new CPU+MOBO Combination, however the RTX 3080 TI might be not ideal. I guess the 3090 would be overkill and probably out-of-budget, but I still want a new Rig that is somewhat futureproof, If I'm going for the GPU upgrade.

It depends on how hard you drive your system... You can drive most GPUs to 100% if you choose unlimited fps.. However, if you limit fps to 30 in the sim, you may well find that your current GPU is no longer maxed out.. Well worth a try!

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Bert

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In the end it`s how much you want to spend a GPU & PSU upgrade will be almost double the cost of a CPU & MB upgrade, you may benefit a slight performance increase in MSFS, but as I found everything including windows O/S will benefit from a faster CPU and MB upgrade, faster data throughput all your software and programs will be faster even ADE compiling and saving was faster. And P3D is CPU limited.

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Raymond Fry.

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On 4/7/2022 at 1:05 PM, ryanbatc said:

Since you already have a strong CPU I'd also go with a GPU update.  I recently made a whole new system except I kept my GTX 1080 Ti

It has been a super nice upgrade (went from 4790K to 12700K and SSD to NVME) - running 1440P res.  I doubled my fps everywhere and in dense cities sometimes tripled hehe.  However I am still GPU limited.  

Honestly though I might wait for a the 40xx cards if I were you.

Hey Ryan,

I have been browsing some threads as I am thinking of swapping out my i5-9600K for a i5-12600K. I intend hanging on to my trusty old 1080TI for awhile and was wondering how your setup is running with the 1080TI. Do you have any problems with the GPU struggling to keep up with your new CPU?

Regards

Richard


 

Richard

i7-12700K | Noctua NH-D15S Black Version | MSI Pro Z690 - A | 32 GB DDR4 3600 | Gigabyte Gaming OC 4090 | 1TB WD Blue NMVe (MSFS 2020) | 500 GB WD Black Gen 4 NVMe | 4TB WD Black Conventional | Fractal Design Torrent Case | Seasonic 1000W Gold Plus PSU | Thrustmaster Boeing Yoke | Honeycomb Throttle | Airbus Side Stick | Virpil Rudder Pedals | Sony X90K 55 Inch TV |

mmBbmS1.png

 

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49 minutes ago, RJC68 said:

Hey Ryan,

I have been browsing some threads as I am thinking of swapping out my i5-9600K for a i5-12600K. I intend hanging on to my trusty old 1080TI for awhile and was wondering how your setup is running with the 1080TI. Do you have any problems with the GPU struggling to keep up with your new CPU?

Regards

Richard

I don't know if you'd see much of a difference - guessing you're GPU limited right now?  That's what I am using 1440P with my 1080 ti and this new 12700k.  Performance is locked at 30 in almost every place except SU9 seems to have lost me about 10-20% performance for some reason.


| FAA ZMP |
| PPL ASEL |
| Windows 11 | MSI Z690 Tomahawk | 12700K 4.7GHz | MSI RTX 4080 | 32GB 5600 MHz DDR5 | 500GB Samsung 860 Evo SSD | 2x 2TB Samsung 970 Evo M.2 | EVGA 850W Gold | Corsair 5000X | HP G2 (VR) / LG 27" 1440p |

 

 

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4 minutes ago, ryanbatc said:

I don't know if you'd see much of a difference - guessing you're GPU limited right now?  That's what I am using 1440P with my 1080 ti and this new 12700k.  Performance is locked at 30 in almost every place except SU9 seems to have lost me about 10-20% performance for some reason.

Correct Ryan,

My 1080TI runs out of steam before my 9600K does, that is in full 4K locked at 30fps also. I typically see my CPU usage around 65% and my GPU I try to keep below 90%

I probably would have just tried a new GPU first but I have a friend willing to buy my CPU, motherboard & RAM which will offset the cost of the new kit quite a bit so I thought why not.


 

Richard

i7-12700K | Noctua NH-D15S Black Version | MSI Pro Z690 - A | 32 GB DDR4 3600 | Gigabyte Gaming OC 4090 | 1TB WD Blue NMVe (MSFS 2020) | 500 GB WD Black Gen 4 NVMe | 4TB WD Black Conventional | Fractal Design Torrent Case | Seasonic 1000W Gold Plus PSU | Thrustmaster Boeing Yoke | Honeycomb Throttle | Airbus Side Stick | Virpil Rudder Pedals | Sony X90K 55 Inch TV |

mmBbmS1.png

 

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17 hours ago, RJC68 said:

I probably would have just tried a new GPU first but I have a friend willing to buy my CPU, motherboard & RAM which will offset the cost of the new kit quite a bit so I thought why not.

A question if I may. If you swap out the mobo, CPU and GPU I’m guessing Windows thinks this is now a different PC. Would it still allow you to use it or would it require a purchase of a new OEM licence?

Most Windows licences are OEM which locks it to the original mobo etc.


Ray (Cheshire, England).
System: P3D v5.3HF2, Intel i9-13900K, MSI 4090 GAMING X TRIO 24G, Crucial T700 4Tb M.2 SSD, Asus ROG Maximus Z790 Hero, 32Gb Corsair Vengeance DDR5 6000Mhz RAM, Win 11 Pro 64-bit, BenQ PD3200U 32” UHD monitor, Fulcrum One yoke.
Cheadle Hulme Weather

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8 hours ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

A question if I may. If you swap out the mobo, CPU and GPU I’m guessing Windows thinks this is now a different PC. Would it still allow you to use it or would it require a purchase of a new OEM licence?

Most Windows licences are OEM which locks it to the original mobo etc.

Oh Boy, I did not think of that Ray,

I am not sure, I wonder what others have done when they upgraded

Edited by RJC68

 

Richard

i7-12700K | Noctua NH-D15S Black Version | MSI Pro Z690 - A | 32 GB DDR4 3600 | Gigabyte Gaming OC 4090 | 1TB WD Blue NMVe (MSFS 2020) | 500 GB WD Black Gen 4 NVMe | 4TB WD Black Conventional | Fractal Design Torrent Case | Seasonic 1000W Gold Plus PSU | Thrustmaster Boeing Yoke | Honeycomb Throttle | Airbus Side Stick | Virpil Rudder Pedals | Sony X90K 55 Inch TV |

mmBbmS1.png

 

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