I5 6600K plus 2080Ti waste of time?

Hi

Top and bottom of it is that my current rig (6600K OC'D to 4.6 on air, GTX1080, 32GB of 3000Mhz RAM (4X 8GB sticks bought as two separate16GB dual kits and subsequantly running 15,17,17,35 @2T) requires me to reduce my settings to Flat Terrain Shadow and Low Terrain Textures even at 1080P single monitor.

This sacrifice comes from my desire to keep shadows on high (to stop the godawful flickering of the trees when hovering) MSAA on X2 and Cockpit Textures on High (again needed especially of things like the Huey which blur dramatically with lower settings).

Neither compromise sits especially well with copter gaming. Low land textures do look substantially less detailed, especially in Normandy whilst flat terrain shaodws kill the immersion low down with cut off aircraft shadows anf other nastiness). Ultimately my megre 1080P set up needs another 20-25fps to consitently make the 60fps Vstink requires in low down/heavy scenes.. Not running Vsync isnt an option as the graphics are not smooth and jar.

The question is whether or not a 2080Ti woud give me those frames? I get the 6600K is long in the tooth and most bottleneck comparitor sites show its a bad mix but equally i dont know if they are correct since all the ones ive seen run the CPU at stock (if they run anything at all and dont just make stuff up).

I dont think the 2080 vanilla would provide me the boost required even if the CPU allows and would be such a great upgrade from a 1080 in any case. Equally im very dubious about dropping £1600 on a new procesor (Intel or AMD) and all the other stuff id need (MB, RAM, PSU (I will have to likely upgarde tis in any case as its 550W), case) for an equally small increase (i could be wrong about the increase potential here). For sure i certainly cant justify a full £3000 CPU/GPU upgrade.

Finaly, Im not holding out for Vulkan since theres absolutely nothing firm about it and DCS other that a few vague references on a 2020 wishlist.

Any advice welcome.

Thanks

2080 Ti certainly is a step up from your current GPU and you will gain more performance, even if CPU bottlenecking would set in. You need to get a stronger PSU for it though, 700 or better 750 Watts and above.

Install MSI Afterburner and take a look at the gpu usage when you experience the low fps. If the gpu is @100% then a 2080ti most likely will bring a boost. If it's lower than that, most likely not.

Ah the dreaded Afterburner!! Ive never really gotten on with it but thats down to my inabilties. Tonight i gave it another go and think i understood what i saw..

There is little variation between my CPU cores (Ie there isnt 1 or 2 maxing whilst the others pootle along) but I think thats down to my ineptitude at overclocking and setting every one of the 4 cores to run at 4.6Ghz. Oddly all 4 can be showing 100% utilization whilst the game is running buttery smooth and the GPU is ticking along at 80% so that goes against my understanding of what it should do but then that understanding is very limited.

The main thing though is with vsync disabled the GPU consistently maxes at 98% when the stuttering starts and the fps counter drops. At such times the CPU can be running at 50-60%. ~At no time does the Temp sneak much past 60 on either the CPU cores or GPU.

Clearly the vsync masks the weakness when its on as its throttling the GPU when its kicking in and the software isnt polling fast enough to fully capture that. Im also assuming the 98% on the GPU isnt 100% as there is an element of it bouncing off its own ceiling that again the software isnt catching.

The lowest fps was an annoying 54 so i dont think im far off but i know this is just an average and so is likely to dip much lower

So - im guessing a big expensive GPU will give me some more frames but only to the point where the CPU will become the limiting factor. I suppose its now a £1200 gamble on where this point will sit, if it will sit 25fps higher and, if it dont, how long it will take me to justify dropping a further £1600 on a Ryzen 3900 or 9700K rig (and if it does how long i can live with knowing i could up the MSAA, SSAA or scene intensity more with better chips)

A lot of money for 1080P on what id consider average settings...

Thanks for replying fellas.

With V-Sync on, the GPU is not at 100% as your FPS is limited to the refresh rate of your monitor; with it off, your GPU is trying to provide as many FPS as it can, hence the maxed out usage.

In any case, I'd hold off on upgrading the GPU just as yet.

https://www.techradar.com/news/nvidias-next-gen-7nm-ampere-graphics-cards-could-be-revealed-as-soon-as-march

With V-Sync on, the GPU is not at 100% as your FPS is limited to the refresh rate of your monitor; with it off, your GPU is trying to provide as many FPS as it can, hence the maxed out usage.

 

In any case, I'd hold off on upgrading the GPU just as yet.

 

https://www.techradar.com/news/nvidias-next-gen-7nm-ampere-graphics-cards-could-be-revealed-as-soon-as-march

Daft as it sounds I do (did) know this but simply didnt put it into practice before testing originally hence my befuddlement. Im getting old. Life is confusing and frightening.

Thanks for the heads up on the Ampere series btw. More buyers angst though a good excuse for a cooling off period! LOL. Half as fast and half a cheap...where have i heard that said before...:-)

You're on Full HD so get the platform upgrade first. If you plan to go the VR route in the next months get a stronger card first.