Processor Speed Question

So I have an i5-9400f, which has a base speed of 2.9Ghz and a turbo boost speed of 4.1Ghz. What does this mean? Does it automatically run faster, or do I have to do something to increase its speed from 2.9Ghz?

It will boost automatically on a single core.

Just make sure you are in High Performance Mode in the Power Options of Windows Control Panel for playing DCS and other games. You can also double check in your BIOS that Turbo Boost is on but it should be on by default.

Your CPU has these clocks:

6 cores: 3.9Ghz

5 cores: 3.9Ghz

4 cores: 4.0Ghz

3 cores: 4.0Ghz

2 cores: 4.0Ghz

1 core : 4.1Ghz

So, basically, this processor is good enough/fast enough for DCS, right?

It's more than fast enough. While DCS is harder on CPU than most games, high end 3D video games in general are GPU bound more than anything else. When I had a Core i7-4770K (which came out in 2013) I rarely had problems with DCS World.

9400 is good as long as you stay on 2D. VR is another question. But then still your GPU will be the bottleneck.

Holy crap! I've been on "balanced performance" this whole time.

If I choose "high performance" I'll get a boost?

(i5-6500)

Holy crap! I've been on "balanced performance" this whole time.

If I choose "high performance" I'll get a boost?

(i5-6500)

Yes, DCS will use all the CPU speed you can give her. There's a couple power saving features in Windows and the graphics drivers that are on by default as they are really not needed for day to day computing like Web browsers, Excel, etc.

Assuming you have an Nvidia GPU you need to adjust a similar feature in the Nvidia Control Panel as well.

"Reducing System Latency: Enable Max Frame Rate and set your power management mode to 'Prefer maximum performance' to reduce latency. While in this mode, the GPU is kept at higher frequencies to process frames as quickly as possible. To maximize latency reduction in GPU bound scenarios where FPS is consistent, set Max Frame Rate to a framerate slightly below the average FPS and turn Low Latency Mode to Ultra."

And cap your frame rate at 60 fps if you are using TrackIR.

https://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/4958/~/max-frame-rate%3A-cap-frame-rates%2C-save-power%2C-and-more

Yes, DCS will use all the CPU speed you can give her. There's a couple power saving features in Windows and the graphics drivers that are on by default as they are really not needed for day to day computing like Web browsers, Excel, etc.

 

Assuming you have an Nvidia GPU you need to adjust a similar feature in the Nvidia Control Panel as well.

 

"Reducing System Latency: Enable Max Frame Rate and set your power management mode to 'Prefer maximum performance' to reduce latency. While in this mode, the GPU is kept at higher frequencies to process frames as quickly as possible. To maximize latency reduction in GPU bound scenarios where FPS is consistent, set Max Frame Rate to a framerate slightly below the average FPS and turn Low Latency Mode to Ultra."

 

And cap your frame rate at 60 fps if you are using TrackIR.

 

https://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/4958/~/max-frame-rate%3A-cap-frame-rates%2C-save-power%2C-and-more

That's very cool. Thank you. I'm going to give it a try

I have a 2060 Super and I think it's set to "high quality". Ill check again.

No TrackIr. Amazon wants $320 for it. That's nuts. It was $190 a year ago. For $320 I could upgrade my CPU and RAM.

No TrackIr. Amazon wants $320 for it. That's nuts. It was $190 a year ago. For $320 I could upgrade my CPU and RAM.

Holy excrement! I was skeptical but then checked Amazon's .ca site. That's absurd. You guys need to be very wary of 3rd party scalpers who take advantage when Amazon or Newegg run out of stock. It happens with CPUs, GPUs, HOTAS, etc. On the US site it's $187 listed as back in stock in a couple weeks. Don't pay $320 CDN for it but when you find it for a reasonable price it's a game changer for sims. I don't know enough about the Canadian retail space to recommend an ethical vendor. Maybe someone else can help out. Ebay? I ship to Canada when I sell my used components but for whatever reason a lot of vendors don't.

There was a guy on Hoggit the other day who said Amazon had been charging $600 for the Warthog when it was just third party scalpers. It's on sale right now in the States for less than $400 US which is the cheapest I've seen it for a while.

Unless Intel puts out another batch soon only scalpers are selling the 9900KS right now for ridiculous prices, it's MSRP from Intel is $513-524. Same thing happened when the AMD 3950X came out and stock was low. Scalpers were selling it for $1000 when it should be $750 US. Unscrupulous vendors will buy out all the stock through normal retail channels and then sell at a high margin. Same thing happened during the mining craze when there was a GPU shortage.

Holy excrement! I was skeptical but then checked Amazon's .ca site. That's absurd. You guys need to be very wary of 3rd party scalpers who take advantage when Amazon or Newegg run out of stock. It happens with CPUs, GPUs, HOTAS, etc. On the US site it's $187 listed as back in stock in a couple weeks. Don't pay $320 CDN for it but when you find it for a reasonable price it's a game changer for sims. I don't know enough about the Canadian retail space to recommend an ethical vendor. Maybe someone else can help out. Ebay? I ship to Canada when I sell my used components but for whatever reason a lot of vendors don't.

 

There was a guy on Hoggit the other day who said Amazon had been charging $600 for the Warthog when it was just third party scalpers. It's on sale right now in the States for less than $400 US which is the cheapest I've seen it for a while.

 

Unless Intel puts out another batch soon only scalpers are selling the 9900KS right now for ridiculous prices, it's MSRP from Intel is $513-524. Same thing happened when the AMD 3950X came out and stock was low. Scalpers were selling it for $1000 when it should be $750 US. Unscrupulous vendors will buy out all the stock through normal retail channels and then sell at a high margin. Same thing happened during the mining craze when there was a GPU shortage.

Yeah, you are exactly right.

Look at how much they want for an old i7-6700K (which I would like to have if I could get a decent price), I could buy a new 3700X for less. As for the TrackIr5, I'd never pay that much. I can't imagine who would shell out $320 for that thing.

For the most part I never order from Amazon unless they fulfill the order. Once I bought a CPU from an Amazon third party vendor, but the store is well known, the price was great, and delivery was fast.

...an old i7-6700K (which I would like to have if I could get a decent price)...

Just a heads up you won't be able to OC a 6700K on your current motherboard that you listed in your response to Bit in the other thread. I wouldn't want you to spend the money and then be disappointed. If you want to upgrade and keep your MB I would recommend a 7700 without the K. If you want to build something newer and are on a limited budget currently an AMD 3600 is a good bang for the buck but would require a new motherboard and likely RAM as well. There's an expiration date on that advice as both Intel and AMD will be releasing new processors over the next year. Either way prices should drop on older CPUs.

For Intel overclocking you need to match a "K" CPU with a "Z" motherboard to manually overclock.

Just a heads up you won't be able to OC a 6700K on your current motherboard that you listed in your response to Bit in the other thread. I wouldn't want you to spend the money and then be disappointed. If you want to upgrade and keep your MB I would recommend a 7700 without the K. If you want to build something newer and are on a limited budget currently an AMD 3600 is a good bang for the buck but would require a new motherboard and likely RAM as well. There's an expiration date on that advice as both Intel and AMD will be releasing new processors over the next year. Either way prices should drop on older CPUs.

 

For Intel overclocking you need to match a "K" CPU with a "Z" motherboard to manually overclock.

Evening,

I wouldn't OC it, I'd just be happy with four-cores at 4Ghz and the extra threads. But I appreciate the tech warning.

A 6700K - if I could get one at a decent price - is better than what I have and no need to swap MBs and get rid of my Win7 and get Win10. Come springtime, when work picks up for us, I'll probably get a 3600X or 3700X and Win10. If the new FS2020 uses all the cores I'll go for a 3700X.

I don’t know if Walmart ships to Canada but trackir is in stock for 139usd.

Also you won’t really ever get a price drop on CPUs. You can go back to 4770ks and they are still at MSRP where they are for in stock. You never get a benefit for buying previous gen intel.

Also you won’t really ever get a price drop on CPUs. You can go back to 4770ks and they are still at MSRP where they are for in stock. You never get a benefit for buying previous gen intel.

I typed something out to disagree with you and then did a quick price search and even B&H Photo which is one of the vendors I order from is selling a 7700K at a higher price than I paid for a binned one from Silicon Lottery a couple years ago. Wow...this whole shortage is crazy. Looks like even reputable vendors will take advantage. You're better off just buying used from a fellow gamer on Ebay.

Evening,

I wouldn't OC it, I'd just be happy with four-cores at 4Ghz and the extra threads. But I appreciate the tech warning.

A 6700K - if I could get one at a decent price - is better than what I have and no need to swap MBs and get rid of my Win7 and get Win10. Come springtime, when work picks up for us, I'll probably get a 3600X or 3700X and Win10. If the new FS2020 uses all the cores I'll go for a 3700X.

You can't OC it, it's locked down by the chipset of your motherboard and the VRM, mosfets, and capacitors are not the proper grade for it. If you can find a decent price on a used one a 6700 or 7700 with out the "K" is what you would want, it should be cheaper, theoretically anyway. No need to upgrade to Win10, I was running my 7700K on Win7 just fine. I have no idea what the used market is like in Canada though.

A 3700X is a good processor, that's a sound plan.

FYI you can get old Win8 Pro keys that were never sold or activated if you shop around. They will upgrade for free to Win10 Pro. I got my current Win10 license for $10. It sounds shady but it's legit. Microsoft won't activate a transferable license simultaneously on two machines. An OEM license can't be reactivated. Microsoft wants you to use Win10, they collect analytics and user data from it that's valuable to them.

^ OEM licenses seem to be a hit or miss affair. Last week I used my Win7 OEM key to install Win10 on a new CPU+mobo config and apparently it was activated and bound to my new MS account just fine (obviously, old config is not used anymore). I guess MS might indeed be ready to turn the blind eye on similar antics as long as everyone converts to 10 for good.

You can't OC it, it's locked down by the chipset of your motherboard and the VRM, mosfets, and capacitors are not the proper grade for it. If you can find a decent price on a used one a 6700 or 7700 with out the "K" is what you would want, it should be cheaper, theoretically anyway. No need to upgrade to Win10, I was running my 7700K on Win7 just fine. I have no idea what the used market is like in Canada though.

 

A 3700X is a good processor, that's a sound plan.

 

FYI you can get old Win8 Pro keys that were never sold or activated if you shop around. They will upgrade for free to Win10 Pro. I got my current Win10 license for $10. It sounds shady but it's legit. Microsoft won't activate a transferable license simultaneously on two machines. An OEM license can't be reactivated. Microsoft wants you to use Win10, they collect analytics and user data from it that's valuable to them.

The guy at the computer shop sells Win10 licenses for $80. I'd go with that. I've known him forever and at least with him everything is guaranteed.

Odds are it will be a 3600X or 3700X in the spring. But I would build a whole new rig and just keep the video card and the SSDs I have now and switch them over, sell the rest to my buddy. He's still on an i3-2120 (he plays IL2-46 SAS religiously!) so moving to an i5-6500 will be a noticeable improvement for him.

A lot of my CPU plan has to do with FS2020 and how many cores it uses. If it uses all of them, I'm going big. I want that eye candy! Far as I know DCS is still mostly a single core sim, yes? We have to wait for Vulcan?

I pay no more than 3,90 € on eBay for a legal Win10Pro.

I have done that like 5 times by now and all activated without any problems.

Same goes for Windows Servers and User CAL's, much much much cheaper.

They originate from sources that at least in Germany are legal to resell and must be activated as ruled by a court decision.

Most of those licenses have been bought in the UK via the german eBay site. Those guys have thousands of transactions and usually 99.xx % customer satisfaction.

Here's a link, so you can see.. https://www.ebay.de/sch/i.html?_osacat=0&_odkw=win10+Pro&_from=R40&_trksid=p2334524.m570.l1311.R1.TR11.TRC1.A0.H0.TRS0&_nkw=win+10+pro+key&_sacat=0

Today there is none for 3,90€...5ish€ today, still, very cheap.