GPU upgraded question

[Danthepilot77 19]

Hey guys,

So last December 2021 I built a new pc, specs:

i9-10850k

RTX 3060 12 GB

Corsair DDR4 32GB

Multiple SSDs.

I am on p3d v 4.5 and it’s running pretty good. Was thinking about possibly selling my 3060 and upgrading to a 3080. My main question is, would it be worth it? Would I see much performance improvement? Is it true p3d is mainly cpu intensive? I remember I got my 3060 before I built the rest of my pc and I put it in my old system paired with a i7-3770k and didn’t see much performance difference, so I’m skeptical. Eventually I’ll probably switch to msfs once / if the AI engine ever improves.

 

Thoughts?

Edited August 16, 2022 by Danthepilot77

[fppilot 4,391]

40 minutes ago, Danthepilot77 said:

I am on p3d v 4.5 and it’s running pretty good.

So the first question is what are you hoping to achieve?  If you purchased the 3060 before December 21 then you made a significant investment and the current resale market reality is you will not recover.  Clearly the 3080 prices have also come down. So why get hosed for the tune of $300-$400 on the 3060, and then pay $700-$800 for a 3080 (assume 12 gb)?  So how far beyond "running pretty good" will you then even notice?  And at what realistic cost?  Feel blessed you found a 3060 when you did and play it out...  $700~$800 reserved for your next system.

 

Edited August 16, 2022 by fppilot

[Bob Scott 7,743]

Whether or not it might produce a respectable performance improvement depends a lot on the resolution and refresh rate of your display.

[787flyer 633]

There's a couple of things to bear in mind which have served me well when upgrading various sim rigs I have had with various GPUs:

 

a) As a rule of thumb, I usually do a comparison first based on Tom's Hardware GPU chart that compares relative performance across various screens resolutions for various GPUs. In my mind, a GPU upgrade (given the investment required) is worth making if you can at least double the performance by moving to a new card as compared to your current card. i.e I did upgrade from a GTX 1070 to an RTX3070 and it did make a difference in P3D v5 and I am running a 1440p UWQHD monitor.

 

b) It also depends upon your definition of "performance". Your FPS may increase incrementally, but moving to a RTX 3080 would likely give you better performance in being able to run other graphics settings higher in P3D that effect visual quality more.


I would also just mention that the power required for the RTX 3080 is significantly larger than the RTX 3060 you currently have, so make sure if you decide to make the jump, make sure your power supply is up to the task and as a side note, its well known that the RTX 3080 will also generate more heat for your PC case, so good cooling is also needed.

I hope that helps in making your decision just a little bit easier.😉

Edited August 17, 2022 by 787flyer
typo

[Mace 1,942]

On 8/15/2022 at 9:13 PM, Danthepilot77 said:

Thoughts?

Very little (thoughts) going thru my addled ganglia these days.  😁

But my first thought was...what resolution are you running?

[Rogen 1,095]

Having come from a 1070Ti to a 3080Ti I can say the following.

I have a 1080P monitor capable of syncing down to 23 Hz and I run a 2560x1440 screen mode @ 30 Hz via NVidia's Dynamic Super Resolution with auto switching to and back from the screen mode using an app named "Display Changer".

For myself, being able to maintain 30hz vsync is important in order to maintain smooth fluid flying, and that means being able to maintain an actual P3D frame rate of 30 fps + 10% min i.e. 33 fps.

And by fluid i mean like this Vid example where I'm flying the A2A Commanche

The 1070Ti provided for the following @ a 30 Hz vsync.

I was able to fairly significantly and reliably overclock the 1070Ti GPU and its ram speed, the 3080Ti is the opposite as it appears to be already set at the max it can reliably handle.

With my 1070Ti, 2 x SSAA, Medium / Low autogen draw distance, no cast vegetation shadows, no cast terrain shadows and at times no cast cloud shadows, low reflections, volumetric fog disabled, minimal cloud distance and shader otpions.

Most other settings were fairly maxed though, it's just anything more than the above graphical settings tended to drive the GPU to 98%+, which in P3D does result in a drop in frames and I would thus loose my very smooth 30Hz vsync.

With the 3080Ti it's possible to have everything graphical in the UI enabled and at max in ideal clear sky conditions.

For general use it's slightly tuned down settings wise, e.g. 4 x SSAA, no volumetric fog, Dynamic Reflections @ High and Autogen and scenary draw distance @ High, plus I use some custom cloud shaders that put about a 10 to 25% additional load on the GPU.

So does the 3080Ti allow for maximum settings of everything... that would be a no... as I can still easily drive it to 98%+ and have resulting frame drops.

Is it a great card anyway, yep and I've never had a more fluid experience with near maximum settings.

Has the card cost come down, absolutely, when I bought the 1070Ti it was $799.00 and I lamented I could not afford the 1080ti which at  the time was $1799.00.

Now I see 3080Ti's for $1449.00 AU and the highest price is $1999.00 AU, given inflation this makes the 3080Ti a great buy and actually more affordable than the 1080Ti in the past.

https://www.scorptec.com.au/product/graphics-cards/geforcertx3080ti?page=1

So either there is a glut of cards, or dealers are trying to clear stock prior to a new card release such as the rumoured 4080Ti series with an also rumoured up to 80% more performance, which if true would mean I could run every graphical option at max 🙂

Cheers

Edited August 20, 2022 by Rogen
spelling

[787flyer 633]

7 hours ago, Rogen said:

So either there is a glut of cards, or dealers are trying to clear stock prior to a new card release such as the rumoured 4080Ti series with an also rumoured up to 80% more performance, which if true would mean I could run every graphical option at max 🙂

 

I think both are true. There is a glut of cards now the supply is returning to somewhat pre-COVID levels and related to this the exorbitant prices of GPUs a fair number of people could not afford and of course with the rumored Nvidia 4xxx series coming, dealers want space for their new stock, hence are willing to offer attractive prices.

 

 

In general, it does raise another question or two in my mind about is it worth upgrading to the 4xxx series?

While there is likely to be a performance gain with the 4xxxx series, I would ask at what cost?
The PSU you will need to power one of these things will likely require more power thus meaning some systems will need another component purchase. Then once you have the 4xxx installed, its likely to generate even more heat (as compared to the 3xxx series cards) hence you will need a PC case and appropriate cooling to combat that (perhaps another component purchase/upgrade if your current system is not up to the task?)  and then on top, an increase in your electricity bill to look forward to  (+ inflation of course!) that makes running your PC more expensive.

 

For some I am sure they consider it's stlll worth doing, but for others, these additional factors also come into play which makes the decision often more difficult on whether its worth upgrading or not.

[Bob Scott 7,743]

7 hours ago, 787flyer said:

While there is likely to be a performance gain with the 4xxxx series, I would ask at what cost?

The PSU you will need to power one of these things will likely require more power thus meaning some systems will need another component purchase. Then once you have the 4xxx installed, its likely to generate even more heat (as compared to the 3xxx series cards) hence you will need a PC case and appropriate cooling to combat that (perhaps another component purchase/upgrade if your current system is not up to the task?)  and then on top, an increase in your electricity bill to look forward to  (+ inflation of course!) that makes running your PC more expensive.

In addition to a bigger PSU, it's also likely you'll need a bigger UPS, if you use one.

Additional cooling shouldn't be necessary if you select a card that exhausts out the rear of the case rather than into the case, or one of the hybrid water-cooled versions.

OTOH, if the increase in your electric bill is a consideration, $1500-$2000 for a video card is probably out of the question, too...

[somiller 694]

I would think with your CPU/GPU combo your system is fairly well balanced.

Straight answer knowing my budget and desire to see meaningful performance gain when spending hundreds of $$$...I would not upgrade, especially since the 3060 has 12GB VRAM. All you will gain is some overhead that will allow higher settings for some eye candy with probably 10% - 15% fps increase (AT MOST - all dependent on settings you choose).

I upgraded from a 1070 to a new 3080 12GB for $799.00 a few weeks ago. I really struggled with the decision, because I knew with my 6700K I would see marginal if any gain in fps, but I knew I would be able to go pretty wild with eye-candy that doesn't stress the CPU - shadows, reflections, SSAA anti-aliasing, clouds - while at the same time I knew I wouldn't be able to increase TLOD at all because I was already mostly mainthread limited even with the humble 1070.

I strongly considered a used 1080ti, which benches stronger than a 3060, but with some of the new tech that only works on rtx series I decided to buy a new 3080 - the results show it was the right decision.

My goal is to updrade MB and CPU to a 12700K, which is another reason I didn't choose the 1080ti, because I knew I would be disappointed I didn't spent a couple hundred more and get better performance and later gen tech.

[Danthepilot77 19]

Hey guys, thanks for all the comments.

I currently fly at 1440p or 2K resolution as I have a 2K monitor.

Clouds seem to be my biggest performance hit although I use 512 DXT5 clouds (using Env text and Env shade).

[G-RFRY 1,718]

PC market sales down good news for buyers prices dropping.

Bursting PC Inventories Might Stoke Aggressive Discounts and Promotions | Tom's Hardware (tomshardware.com)

AMD, Nvidia GPU Prices Continue Downward Turn | Tom's Hardware (tomshardware.com)

Edited August 24, 2022 by G-RFRY