Help / Advice needed with motherboard setup

[subseauk]

Hi all, as a relative newbie to DCS ( and PCs in general due to being a Mac owner for last 20 years). I have just upgraded the Motherboard to a Asus ROG Crosshair Hero VIII, Ryzen 9 3900X CPU, 32Gb ( 4x8) 3200 Hz Corsair Vengence DRAM, EVGA Nvidia 11Gb GTX 1080Ti and a Samsung 970 EVO Plus 1TB NVME M.2

 

Not being too familiar with Windows since 95!! I am lost with the best settings to use in the BIOS, Windows 10 Pro etc to squeeze out the best from the system.

 

I am looking for a DCS guy who is also a tech guru to help me with the settings I should use or at least explain them to me if possible.

 

Appreciate any help guys.

 

Rgds

SubseaUK

[Thinder]

Hi all, as a relative newbie to DCS ( and PCs in general due to being a Mac owner for last 20 years). I have just upgraded the Motherboard to a Asus ROG Crosshair Hero VIII, Ryzen 9 3900X CPU, 32Gb ( 4x8) 3200 Hz Corsair Vengence DRAM, EVGA Nvidia 11Gb GTX 1080Ti and a Samsung 970 EVO Plus 1TB NVME M.2

 

Not being too familiar with Windows since 95!! I am lost with the best settings to use in the BIOS, Windows 10 Pro etc to squeeze out the best from the system.

 

I am looking for a DCS guy who is also a tech guru to help me with the settings I should use or at least explain them to me if possible.

 

Appreciate any help guys.

 

Rgds

SubseaUK

 

 

Hey!

 

 

I'm not familiar with your motherboard but we have exactly the same GPU and I also run Ryzen CPUs.

 

The first thing I did was to run your specs with this tool:

https://pc-builds.com/calculator/Ryzen_9_3900X/GeForce_GTX_1080_Ti/0Ul0XF8A/32/100/

 

The 1080 ti, as good as it is is too weak for an optimum bound with your Ryzen 9 3900X, which results on an average bottleneck percentage of 10.78% at 1080P and 13.5% at 2160P/4K.

 

Those are the resolution ranges of VR sets, the 1080 ti will happily run full res on an HP G2 but I don't know how much this percentage of bottleneck will affect it.

 

I ran the same test with a GPU overclock setting of 105%, this reduces it to 10.11% and 9.84% at 110% overclock & 12.98% and 12.76% for 1080P and 2160P/4K respectively.

 

Now, I'm not a true expert in 1080 ti settings since I have this card for about 6 days, but if I had this problem I'd under-clock my Ryzen slightly first to reduce it as close, if not below 10% bottleneck, so as to improve the bound between the two.

 

Then try to find a viable solution to improve the 1080 ti GPU and memory clock frequencies without burning them, that would be 5% max in my book.

 

Make sure your cooling solution is top for all devices and the case, I've been working on mine because you wouldn't believe how hot the case can become when you play DCS with this sort of set up, improving cooling first will make sure your gear will run safely and stay more stable at the highest settings.

 

A tip:

 

Aerodynamically, it is way better to run your cooling at the lowest case pressure possible, air temperature increases with pressure and although it might be a matter of fraction of degrees, you're better off with back case fans than front case fans, a lower case pressure will always be a benefit for your GPU and CPU fan although you'll still need to feed your case with enough fresh air.

 

Sorting out your cabling will also affect the airflow inside of the box, having strong front case fans with cabling obstructing their airflow will affect the overall performance negatively, make sure the most direct line between your front fan(s), the surface and fans of the GPU and motherboard/CPU is as unobstructed as possible.

 

 

Other useful tool:

 

MSI afterburner.

https://www.msi.com/page/afterburner

 

GPU-X.

https://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/

 

 

Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti Overclocking Tutorial (Stock Cooler) (en)

 

 

For the first test I assumed 32GB or RAM, 64 for the two other settings.

 

https://pc-builds.com/calculator/Ryzen_9_3900X/GeForce_GTX_1080_Ti/0Ul0XF8A/32/100/

 

 

https://pc-builds.com/calculator/Ryzen_9_3900X/GeForce_GTX_1080_Ti/0Ul0XF8A/32/100/

 

 

https://pc-builds.com/calculator/Ryzen_9_3900X/GeForce_GTX_1080_Ti/0Ul0XF8I/64/100/

 

 

 

Here is the setting I intend to run when I am finished upgrading (CPU and extra RAM).

 

https://pc-builds.com/calculator/Ryzen_7_2700X/GeForce_GTX_1080_Ti/0Qe0XF8A/32/100/

 

Those solutions shouldn't cost you much dosh and will always improve your performances. I hope this helps.

 

 

......

Edited August 29, 2020 by Thinder

[subseauk]

Hey!

 

 

I'm not familiar with your motherboard but we have exactly the same GPU and I also run Ryzen CPUs.

 

The first thing I did was to run your specs with this tool:

https://pc-builds.com/calculator/Ryzen_9_3900X/GeForce_GTX_1080_Ti/0Ul0XF8A/32/100/

 

The 1080 ti, as good as it is is too weak for an optimum bound with your Ryzen 9 3900X, which results on an average bottleneck percentage of 10.78% at 1080P and 13.5% at 2160P/4K.

 

Those are the resolution ranges of VR sets, the 1080 ti will happily run full res on an HP G2 but I don't know how much this percentage of bottleneck will affect it.

 

I ran the same test with a GPU overclock setting of 105%, this reduces it to 10.11% and 9.84% at 110% overclock & 12.98% and 12.76% for 1080P and 2160P/4K respectively.

 

Now, I'm not a true expert in 1080 ti settings since I have this card for about 6 days, but if I had this problem I'd under-clock my Ryzen slightly first to reduce it as close, if not below 10% bottleneck, so as to improve the bound between the two.

 

Then try to find a viable solution to improve the 1080 ti GPU and memory clock frequencies without burning them, that would be 5% max in my book.

 

Make sure your cooling solution is top for all devices and the case, I've been working on mine because you wouldn't believe how hot the case can become when you play DCS with this sort of set up, improving cooling first will make sure your gear will run safely and stay more stable at the highest settings.

 

A tip:

 

Aerodynamically, it is way better to run your cooling at the lowest case pressure possible, air temperature increases with pressure and although it might be a matter of fraction of degrees, you're better off with back case fans than front case fans, a lower case pressure will always be a benefit for your GPU and CPU fan although you'll still need to feed your case with enough fresh air.

 

Sorting out your cabling will also affect the airflow inside of the box, having strong front case fans with cabling obstructing their airflow will affect the overall performance negatively, make sure the most direct line between your front fan(s), the surface and fans of the GPU and motherboard/CPU is as unobstructed as possible.

 

 

Other useful tool:

 

MSI afterburner.

https://www.msi.com/page/afterburner

 

GPU-X.

https://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/

 

 

Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti Overclocking Tutorial (Stock Cooler) (en)

 

 

For the first test I assumed 32GB or RAM, 64 for the two other settings.

 

https://pc-builds.com/calculator/Ryzen_9_3900X/GeForce_GTX_1080_Ti/0Ul0XF8A/32/100/

 

 

https://pc-builds.com/calculator/Ryzen_9_3900X/GeForce_GTX_1080_Ti/0Ul0XF8A/32/100/

 

 

https://pc-builds.com/calculator/Ryzen_9_3900X/GeForce_GTX_1080_Ti/0Ul0XF8I/64/100/

 

 

 

Here is the setting I intend to run when I am finished upgrading (CPU and extra RAM).

 

https://pc-builds.com/calculator/Ryzen_7_2700X/GeForce_GTX_1080_Ti/0Qe0XF8A/32/100/

 

Those solutions shouldn't cost you much dosh and will always improve your performances. I hope this helps.

 

 

......

Thanks mate,

The PC Builds thing was something I was unaware of, I will spend some time looking at it and the other programs you mentioned.

 

Cheers

[Thinder]

Thanks mate,

The PC Builds thing was something I was unaware of, I will spend some time looking at it and the other programs you mentioned.

 

Cheers

 

 

No problem, you're welcome.

 

The video link shows you how to squeeze 105% of the 1080 ti, so it looks as if you won't need to tweak your motherboard for CPU performances that much if you're willing to try to overclock it, apparently, the 1080 ti can be overclocked to 105% without extra cooling, above that, I don't know, it's something I'm gonna research later.

 

I'm still looking for more info to get more performances from the RAM but there are Apps for the purpose:

 

DRAM Calculator for Ryzen.

https://www.techpowerup.com/download/ryzen-dram-calculator/

 

 

......

[draconus]

The first thing I did was to run your specs with this tool:

https://pc-builds.com/calculator/Ryzen_9_3900X/GeForce_GTX_1080_Ti/0Ul0XF8A/32/100/

Oh, please, they don't even have DCS on their games list so it's useless in this case. Also downclocking anything on your system to have better "bound" is a myth, wasting resources and counterproductive!

 

 

I suggest to first run everything on default settings and check for long troublefree gaming - no freezes, crashes, burning smells ;) Then run some Firestrike benchmark just to check if your PC has comparable performance to similar systems and you're good. If you still want more out of it, then you can dig into overclocking and tweaking.

[subseauk]

Oh, please, they don't even have DCS on their games list so it's useless in this case. Also downclocking anything on your system to have better "bound" is a myth, wasting resources and counterproductive!

 

 

I suggest to first run everything on default settings and check for long troublefree gaming - no freezes, crashes, burning smells ;) Then run some Firestrike benchmark just to check if your PC has comparable performance to similar systems and you're good. If you still want more out of it, then you can dig into overclocking and tweaking.

 

Thanks Draconus,

I appreciate any and all input from you guys as you all have far more knowledge and experience with PCs the I do. I obviously have a lot more catching up tp do on the subject.

Cheers

:thumbup:

[Thinder]

Oh, please, they don't even have DCS on their games list so it's useless in this case. Also downclocking anything on your system to have better "bound" is a myth, wasting resources and counterproductive!

 

 

I suggest to first run everything on default settings and check for long troublefree gaming - no freezes, crashes, burning smells ;) Then run some Firestrike benchmark just to check if your PC has comparable performance to similar systems and you're good. If you still want more out of it, then you can dig into overclocking and tweaking.

 

 

Downclocking was MY choice, I would do that before I get a viable solution for overclocking and have a good base for comparing results with lower bottleneck percentage and temperature before overclocking anything.

 

There is no need for bottleneck calculator to have DCS listed for bottleneck, bad bound and high temperature to be performance limiting issues, suggesting otherwise is what cause people to run their systems with bad settings and cooling.

 

"Comparable performances" to "similar systems" is vague, there is no such thing as "comparible" for home built PCs.

 

CPU and GPU will operate under different conditions, especially if the PCs are not factory built with the same standard, starting with the room temperature, casing, cooling, cabling which will affect the temperature under which those systems will operate.

 

His PC is limited by his GPU, and its operating temperature will be the main limiting factor, downclocking the CPU is more likely to provide with better results than keeping it at 100% under his precise condition, it will greatly contribute to reducing the case and motherboard temperature which will always be a bonus for his GPU.

 

Comparing won't help him to fine tune his PC, but this method would, as I understand that it is precisely what he is looking for, the CPU is never going to work at 100% if the 1080ti doesn't create the conditions to allow for it and to achieve that, the whole system needs to generate less heat.

 

Reducing bottleneck and temperatures, before exploring the possibility to run his 1080ti and RAM at higher clock setting will but he needs to know if his CPU running at lower settings produces better result than at 100% for the reasons I just quoted.

 

If he is new to PC building, he needs to know more than just running tests.

 

https://www.techpowerup.com/download/techpowerup-throttlestop/

 

 

https://forums.evga.com/GTX-1080-TI-high-temperatures-under-load-m2710004.aspx

 

 

This should help clarifying things...

 

 

......

Edited August 31, 2020 by Thinder

[subseauk]

Hi Guys,

Sorry if I opened a can of worms with the original post. As I said I appreciate all inputs and opinions from you guys and take them all into consideration. I would always tread carefully when it comes to system settings and would probably reach similar results in the end but without your input it would take me a long long time to get there!!

Thanks again.

:thumbup:

[Thinder]

Hi Guys,

Sorry if I opened a can of worms with the original post. As I said I appreciate all inputs and opinions from you guys and take them all into consideration. I would always tread carefully when it comes to system settings and would probably reach similar results in the end but without your input it would take me a long long time to get there!!

Thanks again.

:thumbup:

 

 

Your 1080ti run hot, it is a known fact with this card, I noticed that straight away, and I'm not even running the game at the highest resolutions I'll need with a Reverb G2 because I haven't got the right CPU nor this headset yet.

 

 

I gave you an opinion based on this, with main advise based on reducing your GPU temperature as low as possible and every step you take toward this will affect the final result.

 

 

......

Edited August 31, 2020 by Thinder

[subseauk]

Your 1080ti run hot, it is a known fact with this card, I noticed that straight away, and I'm not even running the game at the highest resolutions I'll need with a Reverb G2 because I haven't got the right CPU nor this headset yet.

 

 

I gave you an opinion based on this, with main advise based on reducing your GPU temperature as low as possible and every step you take toward this will affect the final result.

 

 

......

Hi Thinder, thanks for that. I am considering putting in an extra fan or two as there does not seem to be a lot of flow out of the AIO fans. Also maybe putting one on to the GPU area to see if that helps.

cheers:thumbup: