Best MOBO, SSD etc for DCS

Hello All,

I'm ready to buy my DCS PC. I want to run the RTX2080Ti with a Samsung VR Headset. What are your recommendations for computer parts? Or, is there a place to buy a PC that is DCS ready that will last a few years before upgrading? I will only use this PC for DCS.

Thanks,

Jim

If you're in the USA, I recommend Newegg. Given the 2080Ti, I'm assuming you are after a zero compromise system. If so, grab an i7-8700k or i7-9700k, a good quality Z390 motherboard ($150+) and overclock the snot out of the i7. You'll also need a decent cooler, a 120mm double thick AIO or 240mm regular AIO will work fine. A beefy aircooler may also work, provided it's beefy enough and you have a case with lots of airflow (or run open air). You will also want a minimum of 16GB of DDR4 3200. I haven't found a use for more than 16GB, but DCS + system will eat up to around 12-13GB in larger missions. Your power supply should be in the 650-ish watt range for optimal efficiency. Minimum will be around 500W, but I wouldn't recommend going that low.

Only for DCS? 9600K at 5Ghz all cores. Or a 9900K to please the others.

Guru3d: For gaming it is simple, six cores clocked at a higher frequency works out better than six cores with twelve threads clocked at a lower frequency. And that makes this processor the golden egg when it comes to gaming.

I know nothing about power supply.

Just built and got running an EVGA Z390 Dark MB and i9 9900k cpu with Corsair H150i Pro 360mm cooler.

Still getting all my stuff installed along with stress testing, then to overclocking. Looking forward to checking out the performance in VR here very soon.

any brand name MOBO will suffice. Some have their favorites EVGA, ASUS, And don't skimp on the powersupply.

Here's an example:

https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=229160

DCS does not require hyperthreading, so getting the 9600K is OK. 9900K gives you hyperthreading so if you're using it for VMWare, video rendering etc, it'll help.

One thing. I used to buy the cheapest cases. But I tell you what. I splurged on a giant case (Corsair Obsidian 900D) and I'm never going back. It's so nice to have all the rooms for AIO cooling, fans, easy access etc.

Also, the GPU's are getting so heavy these days. I used a small 1x1 stud to brace it up. But they do make GPU braces that latch on to the motherboard to help with the weight distribution. Cheap insurance. Up until now, I only bought water AIO cooled GPUs. But with 2080Ti, I didn't want to wait another 6-12 months for it, so I got the 3 fan model. And it seems heavier to me. Hence the cheap insurance of sticking a piece of wood under it to help with the weight.

Saying “any brand mobo will do” is flat out incorrect. Sorry, but IMO that’s poor advice.

For DCS you need the highest clock speed, for the highest clock speed you need to overclock your CPU, and for the highest overclock you need a very good OC’ing board. So don’t skimp on your mobo, get a good one.

First, you need to power everything reliably... so get a Gold or Platinum PSU that will more than cover your wattage (and not eventually fry your components). Do your research on the best brands, I have my preferences but you should do your own digging and come to a conclusion.

Go for a 8700K, 9600K or 9700K on CPU. Plan to OC the hell out of it, so either get a badass air cooler or at least an AIO. Of the ones available and tested, the 115i Platinum is returning the lowest temps. Research these and know that a few degrees isn’t a huge deal, but lower is always better.

Get 32GB DDR4 RAM, at least at 3200mhz. Lower latency and better timings are always better. Find B-die kits with tight timings that OC well (will also be dependent on your mobo).

Depending on your chip selection, find a Z370 or Z390 motherboard. If the latter, the Gigabyte Aorusp Master and ASRock Taichi are the best for overclocking.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Isn't it sad that you should need to overclock a top end CPU to make DCS run well.

Isn't it sad that you should need to overclock a top end CPU to make DCS run well.

Even if you buy a $1000 binned chip off of Silicon Lottery, you’re still going to bottleneck in VR. So, yes, you’re 100% right...it’s very, very sad. No idea how the VR optimization remains this poor for DCS (can’t comment on non-VR as I’m not close enough to it the last couple of years).

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Isn't it sad that you should need to overclock a top end CPU to make DCS run well.

You don't.

My friend has a 8600k running on a soft over clock of 4.4 and 16gb 3200 ram on a 1070 gpu, asus maximus 10 mobo...DCS Hornet runs around 50 fps all settings maxed.

Don't overkill on the cpu and don't waste money on an i7, it only generates more heat when you overclock and the sim can't use the virtual cores.

You don't.

 

My friend has a 8600k running on a soft over clock of 4.4 and 16gb 3200 ram on a 1070 gpu, asus maximus 10 mobo...DCS Hornet runs around 50 fps all settings maxed.

 

Don't overkill on the cpu and don't waste money on an i7, it only generates more heat when you overclock and the sim can't use the virtual cores.

Let's specifiy "in it's current state" how about it?

Eventually there will be Vulkan.. the more cores the merrier. That and even at 60fps you can see a lack of fluid motion in the trees and world around you, at least using a monitor. Kind of amazing what another 15-25 fps can do in that regard. Not everyone is content with 50 fps. Although 45fps and motion reprojection is another story in VR.

Also running at 4.9ghz averaging 75C under full load with 8700K that I haven't delidded.. why settle for 4.4ghz with that "lack of heat"? Put a liquid cooler on that thing and get more performance imo. That being said 8600k is a good chip. I'm not downing anybody. But this is all a case of YMMV and how big is your wallet. In the case of VR - it amounts to improved image quality while achieving that 45 fps for motion reprojection.

Just one last edit to talk about "Future proofing." My 8700k was top of the line when I bought it, and 9th gen came out a year later. Buy the best that your budget allows for, and the system will last you a longer time before you're thinking about the next upgrade. 9600K, 9700K, or the much pricier 9900K, as well as apparently the ryzen 2700x, or the upcoming ryzen 3 series are all solid choices. Increased core counts will likely handle vulkan better, whenever that may come.

Best MOBO, SSD etc for DCS

how many cores does vulkan support? they can each render a small piece of the view into one glorious image?

Vulcan share the load to all CPU cores available by multi-threading capabilities, the key is to offload the primary core. Vulcan support more threads not more cores.

We should wear our yellow t-shirt and knock at the ED office.:protest:

Vulcan share the load to all CPU cores available by multi-threading capabilities, the key is to offload the primary core. Vulcan support more threads not more cores

threads are just a data construct. they only run when they are assigned to a core... so you are limited by cores not threads.

and i’m still not sure how the compositor keeps all those threads/cores from overwriting the same vram in the final image.

do they use thread locks?

threads are just a data construct. they only run when they are assigned to a core... so you are limited by cores not threads.

 

and i’m still not sure how the compositor keeps all those threads/cores from overwriting the same vram in the final image.

do they use thread locks?

I personally don't know all the science behind it. But in experience with DX12 titles that behave similarly to what we can expect from vulkan the end result is CPU load being shared across all physical and logical cores of the CPU equally. 50% cpu usage is 50% on all threads.

I'm not saying there isn't a limit to how much hardware can benefit the DCS Engine using the vulkan api.

@3440x1440 @4.9ghz on an 8700k with 2080Ti in one recently released dx12 title will average about 50-75% cpu usage.

In another title I know of, which I believe uses AVX 2 instructions along with dx12 will use 65-99% of my cpu at the same resolution. What you will end up seeing once you exceed a certain amount of "horsepower" so to speak is less overall cpu usage.

Without being a part of the development team which I admit I'm nowhere near qualified for and With my limited knowledge on how it all actually works it's impossible to say for certain what kind of cpu usage to expect, but should it utilize even 50% of my cpu at minimum, 7th gen or older i5 chips will be pegged at 100% at all times. The value of an i7 finds a place in gaming.

The gist of it is that single core performance will not be the golden measurement in Vulkan and DX12 titles. But just to clear up where I might have been misleading in my previous post, there probably is going to be a point at where x amount of cores @ y clockfreq exceeds any cpu bottleneck you might run into, and some of that is dependant on what is being asked of the CPU and the order of which operations must be completed.

There's no telling when we'll see vulkan actually implemented, so my advice to the OP is still buy what you can afford. If you got the dough for overkill, I have to say, I have a lot of love for overkill. My i5 2500k was overkill when I built it. It took me 6 generations to replace it. But if right now is your concern, and you'd like to save some money and revisit the idea maybe a little sooner than you would had you gone for overkill, all you're really looking for is the best single threaded performance as long as DCS runs on DX11, given that you're looking at a quad core or better. With 7th-9th gen intels holding some of the highest clock frequencies achievable.

Saying “any brand mobo will do” is flat out incorrect. Sorry, but IMO that’s poor advice.

 

For DCS you need the highest clock speed, for the highest clock speed you need to overclock your CPU, and for the highest overclock you need a very good OC’ing board. So don’t skimp on your mobo, get a good one.

 

First, you need to power everything reliably... so get a Gold or Platinum PSU that will more than cover your wattage (and not eventually fry your components). Do your research on the best brands, I have my preferences but you should do your own digging and come to a conclusion.

 

Go for a 8700K, 9600K or 9700K on CPU. Plan to OC the hell out of it, so either get a badass air cooler or at least an AIO. Of the ones available and tested, the 115i Platinum is returning the lowest temps. Research these and know that a few degrees isn’t a huge deal, but lower is always better.

 

Get 32GB DDR4 RAM, at least at 3200mhz. Lower latency and better timings are always better. Find B-die kits with tight timings that OC well (will also be dependent on your mobo).

 

Depending on your chip selection, find a Z370 or Z390 motherboard. If the latter, the Gigabyte Aorusp Master and ASRock Taichi are the best for overclocking.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Do you think there will be human appreciable difference between the top 6 motherboards? I'm sure some benchmark will show a difference, but I'm talking about 10-30FPS difference in DCS? I highly doubt it. And when I said any brand name MOBO, I should have said highly rated motherboard. I figured that goes w/o saying, but you're right. I should have clarified it a bit more.

according to the vulkan docs, they support any number of cores... because they defer all the work and synchronization, to the application. that said, it still looks like only a single thread/core can issue the draw commands.

so if DCS rewrites all their graphics routines, and they add support for multiple threads, and they handle all the complexity themselves and they do it correctly and in a parallel fashion, then it will use multiple cores for generating the command buffers and theoretically, share that load with more than one cpu core.

that’s a lot of reinventing the wheel though...

Vulcan is for tomorrow?

according to the vulkan docs, they support any number of cores... because they defer all the work and synchronization, to the application. that said, it still looks like only a single thread/core can issue the draw commands.

 

so if DCS rewrites all their graphics routines, and they add support for multiple threads, and they handle all the complexity themselves and they do it correctly and in a parallel fashion, then it will use multiple cores for generating the command buffers and theoretically, share that load with more than one cpu core.

 

that’s a lot of reinventing the wheel though...

It's not reinventing the wheel. More of keeping up with the times. DX12 for example is vastly different than DX11. And ED decided to jump off the DX wagon to jump on the Vulkan wagon. The difference between DX12 and Vulkan are probably debatable. 3DMark already did some tests and it was mostly neck and neck.

But the difference between DX11 and DX12/Vulkan was incredible. Like 13X better. This was drawing objects until the FPS fell below 30FPS test.

The irony is that in the past, making direct calls was the norm, then everyone said let's use an API. And now we're back to lower level APIs.:D

The irony is that in the past, making direct calls was the norm, then everyone said let's use an API. And now we're back to lower level APIs.:D

yes. it swings back and forth.

companies like big abstracted apis because they save time and money and allows them deliver features faster.

Microsoft and the SaS companies have made billions doing it.

Hello All,

 

I'm ready to buy my DCS PC. I want to run the RTX2080Ti with a Samsung VR Headset. What are your recommendations for computer parts? Or, is there a place to buy a PC that is DCS ready that will last a few years before upgrading? I will only use this PC for DCS.

 

Thanks,

 

Jim

Greetings Jim,

How well your computer performs doesn't have much to do with what make and model of motherboard and/or SSD you use. It's mostly dependent on CPU clock speed, and what graphics card you use.

Since you're going for a 2080 Ti, well... that pretty much takes care of the graphics card, doesn't it? ;)

For the SSD, I'd heartily recommend a fast NVMe drive. For DCS, they'll reduce loading times to merciful levels. They will NOT improve framerates--that's what your zillion-dollar graphics card is for :) Use the NVMe drive only for DCS (and maybe other games), use a separate drive to install Windows. A SATA SSD is fine for Windows and most other things.

For the CPU, buying an ultra-expensive one with tons of cores/threads won't make DCS perform better. Buy the cheapest one you can get that's 4.0 GHz or faster, make sure it's a K-type so you can overclock it if you ever want to in the future, and be done with it :) Since it's a gaming computer and not a graphics workstation or Web server, a non-hyperthreaded CPU will work great, give you gobs of performance, and will be much less expensive.

I'd recommend the Core i5-9600K (6 core & threads, no Hyperthreading).

Buying a costly i7 or i9 CPU will impress the kids online, but DCS will absolutely NOT perform better with it.

There's a very slight difference in motherboards--mostly, buy a motherboard that will support that CPU socket type and generation, and you're good to go :) Only thing is, for overclocking, get one with a 10-phase VRM. The VRM is the Voltage Regulator Module, the power regulator for the CPU. A 10-phase one will allow somewhat higher overclocks, allowing your CPU to perform at it's very best *if* you choose to overclock.

Cheaper motherboards (like mine) have a 6+1 phase VRM, and may overclock 10-15% slower than a 10-phase one.

So, Z370-A, or Z390-A is a good bet. Buying a really expensive "Uber-Gaming TRZ-X Ultra-Extreme XZ3000 Twin-Turbo Dynamo Grand-Sport Touring Edition with Leather Seats" type motherboard will eat lots of money and will not perform better.

Oh yeah, memory? With your RTX 2080 Ti, get 16GB (2x 8GB modules) of DDR4. Don't get one module of 16GB, always use 2, so the memory will work in dual-channel mode (best performance for the dollar). Almost any kind will do. Doesn't matter much. 32 GB is good for Internet bragging rights. 64 GB is stupid :)

Peace and happy warfare

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Greetings Jim,

 

How well your computer performs doesn't have much to do with what make and model of motherboard and/or SSD you use. It's mostly dependent on CPU clock speed, and what graphics card you use.

 

Since you're going for a 2080 Ti, well... that pretty much takes care of the graphics card, doesn't it? ;)

 

For the SSD, I'd heartily recommend a fast NVMe drive. For DCS, they'll reduce loading times to merciful levels. They will NOT improve framerates--that's what your zillion-dollar graphics card is for :) Use the NVMe drive only for DCS (and maybe other games), use a separate drive to install Windows. A SATA SSD is fine for Windows and most other things.

 

For the CPU, buying an ultra-expensive one with tons of cores/threads won't make DCS perform better. Buy the cheapest one you can get that's 4.0 GHz or faster, make sure it's a K-type so you can overclock it if you ever want to in the future, and be done with it :) Since it's a gaming computer and not a graphics workstation or Web server, a non-hyperthreaded CPU will work great, give you gobs of performance, and will be much less expensive.

I'd recommend the Core i5-9600K (6 core & threads, no Hyperthreading).

 

Buying a costly i7 or i9 CPU will impress the kids online, but DCS will absolutely NOT perform better with it.

 

There's a very slight difference in motherboards--mostly, buy a motherboard that will support that CPU socket type and generation, and you're good to go :) Only thing is, for overclocking, get one with a 10-phase VRM. The VRM is the Voltage Regulator Module, the power regulator for the CPU. A 10-phase one will allow somewhat higher overclocks, allowing your CPU to perform at it's very best *if* you choose to overclock.

Cheaper motherboards (like mine) have a 6+1 phase VRM, and may overclock 10-15% slower than a 10-phase one.

 

So, Z370-A, or Z390-A is a good bet. Buying a really expensive "Uber-Gaming TRZ-X Ultra-Extreme XZ3000 Twin-Turbo Dynamo Grand-Sport Touring Edition with Leather Seats" type motherboard will eat lots of money and will not perform better.

 

 

Oh yeah, memory? With your RTX 2080 Ti, get 16GB (2x 8GB modules) of DDR4. Don't get one module of 16GB, always use 2, so the memory will work in dual-channel mode (best performance for the dollar). Almost any kind will do. Doesn't matter much. 32 GB is good for Internet bragging rights. 64 GB is stupid :)

 

 

Peace and happy warfare

 

AD

16GB for a 2080ti systems ?

speechless

16GB for a 2080ti systems ?

how is the 16GB of system ram and a 2080ti gpu related?

i didn’t think they had anything to do with each other.

:D

how is the 16GB of system ram and a 2080ti gpu related?

 

i didn’t think they had anything to do with each other.

If you sink that much money in a GPU I would also consider 32GB to eliminate any cause for lag, stutter and what not else. Just to make sure my 2080ti could run well.

the chain / link rule comes to my mind

just my 2 cents

How about with a RTX2070? any benefit from 32 GB RAM? Or would that be a waste for DCSW purposes?

Of course, with a potential upgrade to 32 down the pike?

Oh, and the significance for DCSW of 2666 MHz RAM, v. 3200 MHz or higher?

Thanks!