Talk me out of this PC build to increase dcs vr performance!

So after about a year of fairly heavy dcs use, solely vr, I am convinced its vr or nothing for me.

My current pc works ok, but with lousy fps at times, which is becoming less and less acceptable for me. So far the game is on ssd, 64gb RAM, rtx2080, and i7 2666ghz (iirc).

I now want to get this thing running smoothly and future proof myself a bit with a good upgrade. As a side note I also do a bit of video editing for other projects.

The plan now is motherboard and cpu upgrade. With later upgrade of vr to reverb g2.

My mouse has been hovering over the buy now button on a gigabyte auros Pro ax mobo and an Intel i9 10900k cpu with cooler. The theory is that I will be able to reep rewards by pushing the overclocking well beyond where I am now.

The point I'm pondering is whether or not I actually need an i9 with 10 cores when dcs basically only uses 1, and would an i7 with 8 do just as good a job while saving a bit of cash in the process?

So please shoot down my idea and offer any advice or suggestions.

So after about a year of fairly heavy dcs use, solely vr, I am convinced its vr or nothing for me.

My current pc works ok, but with lousy fps at times, which is becoming less and less acceptable for me. So far the game is on ssd, 64gb RAM, rtx2080, and i7 2666ghz (iirc).

 

I now want to get this thing running smoothly and future proof myself a bit with a good upgrade. As a side note I also do a bit of video editing for other projects.

The plan now is motherboard and cpu upgrade. With later upgrade of vr to reverb g2.

 

My mouse has been hovering over the buy now button on a gigabyte auros Pro ax mobo and an Intel i9 10900k cpu with cooler. The theory is that I will be able to reep rewards by pushing the overclocking well beyond where I am now.

The point I'm pondering is whether or not I actually need an i9 with 10 cores when dcs basically only uses 1, and would an i7 with 8 do just as good a job while saving a bit of cash in the process?

So please shoot down my idea and offer any advice or suggestions.

You don't consider AMD as an option? Zen 3 is just around the corner.

You don't consider AMD as an option? Zen 3 is just around the corner.

Nahh.. Nothing against AMD, but I'm just getting to grips and understanding a bit more with Intel and gonna stick with that route for now.

...

The point I'm pondering is whether or not I actually need an i9 with 10 cores when dcs basically only uses 1, and would an i7 with 8 do just as good a job while saving a bit of cash in the process?

If you don't use other software taking advantage of the 10 cores, I suggest to go with an i5-10600k for DCS.

Wait for the new AMD performance numbers coming in the next couple of weeks. Zen 3 has the potential to leap ahead of Intel in single core performance (absolutely vital for VR in DCS). If it doesn’t, then Intel will still be there.

With regards to getting a handle on AMD vs Intel, with PBO (precision boost overclock), you don’t have to do any tweaking to get the best performance. With Zen2 the only thing to get right is adequate cooling (to get the highest boost), a quality motherboard (VRM power delivery), and RAM that will run 3200-3600 based on the motherboards QVL list. It isn’t worth fiddling with voltages/multipliers/etc based on reviews from the major YouTube channels to get the most out of an AMD platform.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hi,

Straight away I wouldn't get an Intel 10900k, I would get a 10700k if your stuck on buying Intel and put the saved money towards a better GPU. The problem you have with Intel is that even Z490 motherboard do not support PCIe x4 for the new GPU's. That is not a deal breaker now but if you want to future proof you need PCIe x4 and you only get that with AMD right now.

So AMD have new CPU's launching in October. I was an Intel man but now I use AMD. AMD really is install and forget now. So I would buy.

Whichever new AMD CPU has the highest clock speed and 6-8 cores that is released in October. If you are in a rush and want to buy now an AMD 3700x or at a higher cost 3800xt will be fine. Cool this with any 240mm AIO cooler and you will get high single clock speeds.

Probably some AMD tuned Corsair 3600mhz DDR4 32gb will be more than enough.

Any AMD X570 motherboard that suits you. I have the MSI X570 Gaming Edge Wifi, its great.

Again AMD are launching their Big Navi GPU's very soon see what they are like in reviews. Failing that probably a nVidia 3080 when stocks are back.

Then just install AMD Ryzen Master, enable PBO mode and forget about it. If it was my money at the moment I would wait until mid October and watch the reviews of the new kit. Right at this moment would be a bad time to buy.

As an example I have an AMD 3600, X570 mobo, 3200mhz 32gb ddr4 and a 2080ti. I use DCS at 4k all graphics settings are maxed out. I get a solid 60fps sitting on the Supercarrier on a loaded deck. I also tried an Oculus Rift S recently and had no problem with FPS on slightly tweaked High settings.

I'd wait for Zen3 as well.

Might wellbe that their IPC is higher than Intel, in any case, they got PCIe-v4 and PBO takes out the overclocking hassle. True too is, it remains to be seen if Zen3 also unlocks it's best usable performance with a simple click as well ( I am confident they will ).

If Intel still has a better single core power, well, skip PCIev4 and get an Intel.

My bottom line, as I maintain and also operate Intel and a few AMD, I prefer AMD meanwhile ²over Intel.

My 2 cents

Hi,

Straight away I wouldn't get an Intel 10900k, I would get a 10700k if your stuck on buying Intel and put the saved money towards a better GPU. The problem you have with Intel is that even Z490 motherboard do not support PCIe x4 for the new GPU's. That is not a deal breaker now but if you want to future proof you need PCIe x4 and you only get that with AMD right now.

 

So AMD have new CPU's launching in October. I was an Intel man but now I use AMD. AMD really is install and forget now. So I would buy.

Whichever new AMD CPU has the highest clock speed and 6-8 cores that is released in October. If you are in a rush and want to buy now an AMD 3700x or at a higher cost 3800xt will be fine. Cool this with any 240mm AIO cooler and you will get high single clock speeds.

Probably some AMD tuned Corsair 3600mhz DDR4 32gb will be more than enough.

Any AMD X570 motherboard that suits you. I have the MSI X570 Gaming Edge Wifi, its great.

Again AMD are launching their Big Navi GPU's very soon see what they are like in reviews. Failing that probably a nVidia 3080 when stocks are back.

 

Then just install AMD Ryzen Master, enable PBO mode and forget about it. If it was my money at the moment I would wait until mid October and watch the reviews of the new kit. Right at this moment would be a bad time to buy.

 

As an example I have an AMD 3600, X570 mobo, 3200mhz 32gb ddr4 and a 2080ti. I use DCS at 4k all graphics settings are maxed out. I get a solid 60fps sitting on the Supercarrier on a loaded deck. I also tried an Oculus Rift S recently and had no problem with FPS on slightly tweaked High settings.

OK.. You guys have got me listening and curious about AMD. I have always used Intel but can't ignore the respect its getting here.

Excuse following dumb questions regarding AMD!

I assume except the CPU, which will need to be AMD (socket type??), everything else will connect OK to the AMD motherboard. So my ssd, HD, ram can just plug in and go?

What would be a good example AMD combo MOBO and CPU to consider to come in at similar price/performance point as an i7 10700k and gigabyte auros Pro motherboard?

OK.. You guys have got me listening and curious about AMD. I have always used Intel but can't ignore the respect its getting here.

Excuse following dumb questions regarding AMD!

I assume except the CPU, which will need to be AMD (socket type??), everything else will connect OK to the AMD motherboard. So my ssd, HD, ram can just plug in and go?

Sure, no problem. Just pick a good motherboard like a MSI B550 Tomahawk and you're good to go with native support for the next gen zen3 cpus.(

I was also an intel consumer for quite some time. My switch to AMD was budgetary. I needed to get an SSD and DDR4. My old Z87 4770k was a great combination, but lacked support for those. When I bought my upgrades, they were all on sale, so I spent at least 40% less than I'd spend on an intel system. I paid £365 for motherboard, cpu and 16gb ddr4 + £75 for a 500gb SSD. Later this year I sold my 16gb 3000mhz ddr4 and bought on sale 32gb 3600mhz ddr4 for £140.

what is pbo and how does it work?

What would be a good example AMD combo MOBO and CPU to consider to come in at similar price/performance point as an i7 10700k and gigabyte auros Pro motherboard?

To beat a 10700k, I'd say the new yet to be announced Ryzen 7 4700/4700x paired with either a MSI B550 Tomahawk, a MSI B550 Gaming Carbon Wifi or a MSI B550i Gaming Edge Wifi.

https://www.techspot.com/review/2030-intel-core-i7-10700k/

what is pbo and how does it work?

https://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/3491-explaining-precision-boost-overdrive-benchmarks-auto-oc

Awesome. Thanks. This is sounding more and more tempting, and my hours sitting on the train on the way home from work have found themselves being whittled away with reviews of AMD vs Intel! This is starting to make sense.

The price to performance of the AMD is certainly very appealing too.

AMD ryzen 3800x plus a decent b550 motherboard is most definitely a leading contender now after the latest barrage of research.

Awesome. Thanks. This is sounding more and more tempting, and my hours sitting on the train on the way home from work have found themselves being whittled away with reviews of AMD vs Intel! This is starting to make sense.

The price to performance of the AMD is certainly very appealing too.

AMD ryzen 3800x plus a decent b550 motherboard is most definitely a leading contender now after the latest barrage of research.

Please, don't get me wrong on this. I am AMD now, but I don't have any personal favorite brand. If I could afford, I'd definitely get the best and most expensive; that I'd assume to be 10900k or something and a RTX3090. But I'm poor, live on a budge and need to get the best value for the money. If you can afford the best, go for it. My only suggestion is to be open and know and compare all the options available.

Please, don't get me wrong on this. I am AMD now, but I don't have any personal favorite brand. If I could afford, I'd definitely get the best and most expensive; that I'd assume to be 10900k or something and a RTX3090. But I'm poor, live on a budge and need to get the best value for the money. If you can afford the best, go for it. My only suggestion is to be open and know and compare all the options available.

I hear you there brother. Most of us are in that boat. I really appreciate the tips and advice here. I certainly have budgetary constraints but trying to think longer term too and that sometimes it's better to spend a bit more now and not have to buy again for a while. Often that's the cheapest way.

I have to admit in this respect amd is more appealing too with a slightly more future proof product.

I hear you there brother. Most of us are in that boat. I really appreciate the tips and advice here. I certainly have budgetary constraints but trying to think longer term too and that sometimes it's better to spend a bit more now and not have to buy again for a while. Often that's the cheapest way.

I have to admit in this respect amd is more appealing too with a slightly more future proof product.

If you want to be future proof you need to wait a little and see what happens until, let´s say, November timeframe.

At that time you will have many answers regarding performance between AMD vs Intel and all the news from the new GPUs.

And, probably, the Intel Rocket Lake estimated debut.

But, right now, a 10700K and a 3080 GPU seems fairly future proof if you don´t want to wait.

As a side note I also do a bit of video editing for other projects.

I don't know how much video editing you do and how much DCS but even current AMD will blow Intel out of the water when it comes to video encoding.

So after about a year of fairly heavy dcs use, solely vr, I am convinced its vr or nothing for me.

My current pc works ok, but with lousy fps at times, which is becoming less and less acceptable for me. So far the game is on ssd, 64gb RAM, rtx2080, and i7 2666ghz (iirc).

 

I now want to get this thing running smoothly and future proof myself a bit with a good upgrade. As a side note I also do a bit of video editing for other projects.

The plan now is motherboard and cpu upgrade. With later upgrade of vr to reverb g2.

 

My mouse has been hovering over the buy now button on a gigabyte auros Pro ax mobo and an Intel i9 10900k cpu with cooler. The theory is that I will be able to reep rewards by pushing the overclocking well beyond where I am now.

The point I'm pondering is whether or not I actually need an i9 with 10 cores when dcs basically only uses 1, and would an i7 with 8 do just as good a job while saving a bit of cash in the process?

So please shoot down my idea and offer any advice or suggestions.

I too am waiting to upgrade CPU+Motherboard+RAM.

Trust me, if you're guiding only on generalistic data and opinions, then you won't get a decisive answer.

Therefore, and IMHO, if we're talking DCS as main application/sim/game of choice, the only data you should be giving big importance from mainstream testers are the gaming benchmarks of MSFS2020, as it too is CPU unopmitized/botlenecked in similar ways as DCS - so maybe follow those as guidance for comparison of CPUs.

One thing seems certain and clear, if your interest is mainly DCS, right now Intel "K" processors are definitely better than whatever AMD Ryzen 3000 series CPU is out there, no matter the cost.

The problem with Ryzen 2 (3000 series) is that there still are inter ccx latency issues and, also, they can't clock as high as Intel K processors can (never seen any R7 3700X clocking higher than 4.3Ghz).

It's not like they're "bad", but these are their weaknesses for gaming and certain aplications, especially notorious on single/dual core based ones (like DCS and other flightsims).

If you end up going for an Intel K, you do not need an i9 10900K for DCS (or other flightsims).

Even an i5 10600K is enough, so long as you pair it with a good cooler and then overclock it to ~5.0Ghz (which seems really easy to do). Then it's comparable to an i9 10900K.

And for it, no need for ultra expensive motherboards, there's plenty good Z490 motherboards around 200.00 USD/EUR.

For the RAM to be used, I would choose speeds/latency of no less than DDR4 3600Mhz CL18, and 32GB of capacity (2x 16GB sticks).

Contrary to most believers, I'm not so confident that AMD Ryzen 3 will surpass Intel 10X00K chips for single/dual core applications but, considering rumours that inter ccx latency issues may finally be solved, plus a 15% IPC increase, then it could mean equivalent performance to Intel K chips (even so, then there'll be the topic of overclocking to be inspected) but at a lower price.

This is why everybody willing to upgrade is waiting for next month.... and so should you too, IMO.

The big deal is that Zen 3 may finally break the 5ghz mark this time. But as other posters have said, it's best to wait for the Zen 3 reviews before making a decision.

That will impact the motherboard selection as well; while we are expecting the X570 and B550 boards to support Zen 3, it won't be until live chips are in hand that we will know how well it will support.

Further, RDNA2 is coming out in a month or so as well, which will either be in the performance class of the 30 series, or at least alleviate the high demand for them, so we should be seeing radical changes in the computer market in the next month or two.

It seems like the wise advice is to wait a bit - something I am not good at!. In this case I think I will heed the advice given here and see what AMD comes up with on 8 Oct.

As of now from the testing and reviews I have read, it would appear for DCS Intel has the edge on fps with a slightly stronger single core over-clocking, however at normal clocked speeds perhaps there is not such a difference making it pretty much a tie. The other aspect I am becoming more aware of is heat management required to get that apparent over-clock advantage, and here perhaps AM wins out, as unless I go in for a large cooling device, the AMD will in most circumstances perform better and is easier to manage.

If the new Zen 3 is able to match or even exceed the 10700k clock speeds single core and probably ships with a cooler at a lower price point than the Intel it might be an interesting choice, however right now its still a lot of speculation.

Interestingly enough I put my DCS and PC through the DCS optimization last night as posted on YT by Lukas S with the shaders mod and all the rest. WOW....that made a huge difference immediately and was so much beyond what I thought I was able to squeeze out of DCS. Straight away I was able to take out the A10C, fly low over built up areas, with fairly high settings on my Rift S with no stuttering and a massively smoother experience than I have ever had before in DCS. So if nothing else this gives me a little more patience to wait and see what comes out on the CPU front and wait it out for the Reverb G2 as well.

For certain, wait for the new AMD gear and the subsequent benchmarks thereafter. Don't hold you breathe on better single core though - if AMD gets to 5 GHz it'll be just barely 5 is my prediction.

Also, AMD hasn't been as overclockable an Intel in the past so there's that. Looking at what can be done with AMD in the past it doesn't seem to be worth bothering with.

We'll see. Everyone likes an underdog so I'm rooting for AMD but am still running Intel in all my equipment. Competition is good. Intel's top of the line CPUs would probably still only be 4c/4t and only 4 GHz if it wasn't for AMD.

Having been facing similar problem, my take so far is to wait for the Zen 3: it's right around the corner. If it doesn't look as good in terms of gaming performance I'd be looking at 10700. The reason being: 10900 is marginally if at all better in gaming (in some cases it seems to be even slower) while I'd need a bit more application performance than 10500 can offer. So maybe put your mouse away from that order and wait just a little bit more ;)

Yeah, I'm gonna hop in on the wait and see fence for now. I had high hopes for the 3090, but they are sold out, so I guess waiting is the best choice there.

CPU wise, at some point in the future (years IMO) DCS might be multicore (and even I doubt more than a few cores), but right now single core is where its at. So intel in general has the advantage for now. But looking at the AMD v Intel thing its not just about the GHZ things like cache size and other factors do matter IMO, and there intel is generally ahead. I was frankly disappointed to hear that for 11th gen Intel is gonna stick with their ancient 14nm process again. So who knows, maybe AMD can win.

Latest rumours (covert benchmarks) have AMD single core being in the hunt with Intel 10900.

Tiger Lake (11 gen) is 10 nm.