from GTX 1060 to GTX 1080. Worth it?

Currently using GTX 1060 with G-sync 1080p monitor. There are times when frames dive to 20 - 23 when viewing externally or when I am around Katusi (guess that airfield has some issues?), or when a couple of players are on the airfield.

I'll keep 1080p monitor. However, wondering should I go for GTX 1080 now. No point to go for 1070 as the prices are higher due to mining craze. I bought 1060 for about 280€ 7 months ago and now it is 330€ so you may imagine the prices of 1070. The prices of 1080 seem ok as it is not that of a good miner, unless I am wrong about the prices. Here is the prices (all GTX 1080):

KAF2 EXOC = 550€

Palit Super Jet Stream = 649€

Gigabyte Xtreme 11Gbps = 651€

EVGA FTW2 = 659€

Performace wise EVGA seems better due to higher memory bandwidth (352.3), higher stock base and boost clocks (1708 and 1847), power consumption (220) and temperature and noise levels. Second is Gigabyte but I never owned anything from them before. People swear about Palit but not sure what DCS community think about it. Never heard of KAF2 before.

These are Finnish prices. Germans might be selling a bit cheaper.

I think that the GPU is far from the limitation in the GTX10 level cards (1050/60/70/80) and the bottleneck is in CPU (two cores max in use) and amount of RAM.

Tested the GPU with 1060 and I don't get it utilized over 40% in 4K all except blur and fake blur maxed out. Instead the CPU dies sometimes oddly by just dropping usage from 25% to 12% every 20 seconds for a while (done all re-installs / refresh etc without help!) and then FPS drops to like 5-10 no matter if I have everything set to lowest possible (even the resolution).

Some areas are like that constantly so it is optimization problem most likely.

As Fri13 said, DCS is getting more optimization on it's way to 2.5.

What CPU / mobo are you running with your 1060 muamshai?

You should be fine with the 1060 card for now at only 1080P, if you have a steady 4.5 Ghz or so chip and 16 Gigs of ram. I see the 1080 for if you want to move up to 4K or VR, little bit of an over kill at 1080.

I have the 1070 and run 2560x1440p with good frames, the overclock helps a lot here!! Could be better and will be hopefully with more optimization by ED, like around airports etc. I may go for the 1080ti if I decide to go VR? Really waiting for the 2nd gen VR to come a round tho for better Res, it's on special at the moment, sooo??? maybe I'll jump in now?

I was looking for a good balance with my new PC build for DCS and other flight sims, with good speed and smooth flow, so I'm not running 4K, instead running 2560 x 1440,144Hz, 1ms and G-SYNCed, more expensive yes, this really changed DCS for me, plus getting to 5 Ghz.

As BitMaster said "G-sync and 5GHz are a good combo" it's in my sig.:)

BitMaster only runs on the 980 last gen card with the same screen I use, 2560 x 1440P with no problems, he runs his CPU at 5 GHz and can hold good frames with the 980.

DCS really benefits from good CPU Power at the moment, your CPU could be the real bottleneck here?

.

Thanks folks for the responses.

I have MSI Z170A GAMING M5 mboard, i5-6600K running at 3.5 GHz and 16 GB memory at 3000 MHz.

I don't have this frame dropping issues in Nevada but go a bit down in Normandy when flying from cockpit and frame rate is usually between 55 - 80. However, external views dive to 35 - 45 frames.

Time to overclock that i5-6600K, even just a little, and you will see good benefits.

In the DCS settings page, make sure in the "Depth of Field section", it's turned off there, this could be your problem when using external views.

.

I have a 6600k running at 4.5 and a 1060 strix OC and my frames are pretty constant @90-100fps at 1080p and locked to 45fps with asw enabled in VR in both 1.5 and Nevada however Normandy seems to kill my frame rate regardless of the settings :(

I would recommend OC'ing your 6600k as it made a noticeable difference for me.

Chopper

I would wait for Eagle Dynamics to further optimize the new DCS maps. A 1060 for gaming at just the measly 1080p resolution that you use should be plenty. Have you tried playing around with the graphics settings of DCS. There are some options which can really kill performance.

I would strongly suggest overclocking as already mentioned by others to overclock your CPU to 4.2-4.5Ghz. So long as you have a decent cooler this should not be a problem. And of course a 700-1000Mhz clock speed increase is free performance. Who doesn't like something for free.

You have mentioned most of the core specs of your PC however I can't see any mention of hard drive type. Do you have your DCS install and on an SSD. All your other specs are more than adequate.

Thanks folks. I'll post the game settings when I'm at home.

. Do you have your DCS install and on an SSD.

Samsung 950 PRO (MZ-V5P512BW) solely for games and OS installation.

Here are my settings from DCS 2.1

I just got a GTX 1080 (NON TI)... compared to my 5 year old 7970 (little improvement)

20-50 FPS on the ramp, no other units, just one plane on the map jump in to cockpit. settings are on high, 1080p (no texture mod), but there is no difference between low and high. (I don't use DCS 2.1). Don't even bother for DCS. Clearly we are yet to see a good videocard that can actual run modern games in 1080p

I just got a GTX 1080 (NON TI)... compared to my 5 year old 7970 (little improvement)

20-50 FPS on the ramp, no other units, just one plane on the map jump in to cockpit. settings are on high, 1080p (no texture mod), but there is no difference between low and high. (I don't use DCS 2.1). Don't even bother for DCS. Clearly we are yet to see a good videocard that can actual run modern games in 1080p

That doesn't seem right.

That doesn't seem right.

To put it short: Nvidia decided that you don't get good frame rate no matter what. You can have 2k or 4k and will have decent fps, but if you try to run 1080p, your card will just chill. I tested it in ArmA 3, and I manage to make it work at 100% usage, but I had to push 150% FHD with max-out settings. at 100% I got 10 fps more and videocard had 50% usage. Back to DCS my gtx 1080 was outperformed by far (about 90 fps at exact same settings) by a RX480. I am surprised no one reported it before since this is an abuse by Nvidia but you buy resolution and you don't get to decide how to use the power of your video-card you payed for. After I fixed the windows power balance, and make sure there is no bottleneck, this is what you you get if you buy GTX 1080 for good FPS: https://photos.app.goo.gl/t9YBcFrOJKEo9x6t2