Need a better CPU - Help me choose

[Bob Morton]

Hi All - my CPU is an Intel i7-6700K 4.00ghz.  I bought it a few years ago and I feel that it might be a bottleneck in my search to improve my VR experience.  I have a 2080ti for a GPU.

 

For those of you who are savvy about hardware, is there new CPUs out there that would give me a significant improvement in terms of VR quality over the CPU that I currently have?

 

Thanks for the help.

[Gunnars Driver]

What you need for VR in DCS is pure clock speed.

I actually think a 6700K should be possible to overclock to betwen 4.8 and 5ghz, if you can do this you are quite close to a new CPU single core performance.

 

If not, get a cpu that have high clock speeds in turbo mode( should not be below 5ghz to have a little headroom forward.

Still, even with a new CPU you probably need to apply some of the ”OC Settings” to make it run the whole time during gaming at the turbo speed.

Edited December 6, 2020 by Gunnars Driver

[TonyG]

Is it overclocked?  New CPU means new MB and maybe update ram.  How much are you willing to spend.

 

I’m running my 6700k at 4.6 and it’s not even close to running too hot at that speed. 

[Bob Morton]

Thanks. That is interesting. I  not overclocking my CPU. I have never tried that. Does it mean I need to get some new cooling equipment?  How can I even tell how hot my cpu is at any given time and how high it can go. Any resources for over lock noobs?

[Gunnars Driver]

You need a decent cpu-cooler for moderate overclocking. 
do you know what cooler tou have?

 

coretemp is a small fine free software go keep the temps in track.

https://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/

 

overclocking has never been as easy as now. Youtube etc is full of information.

What motherboard do you have ?

 

 

[Waxer]

Bob, I am pretty sure that I can help you get a better result.

 

Overclocking is actually very easy, but not everyone wants to learn how and to mess around with it. Some motherboards allow you to do "one click" overclocking, but even that usually requires you to go into the BIOS of your computer's motherboard as it start up in order to change a setting. Not everyone has the confidence to do that, even though it is well worth the effort with Intel CPUs that allow it, and it is actually very easy. Easy - at least - to do a basic overclock that gets you "low hanging fruit". However one complication of overclocking is that you do need to consider higher heat build up from your CPU and inside your case. So you do need to get - at minimum - a premium air cooler like the BeQuiet Dark Rock Pro 4 or the Noctua NH-D15. And you also need to make sure you have good air flow into and out of your case. It's not hard, but don't ignore this if you overclock.

 

However the new AMD CPUs, the Ryzen 5000 series offers the best CPU performance current available in the consumer PC space. And the nice thing about them is that you don't need to overclock them to get the best from them. Plug and play. No overclocking faffing around. It is still worthwhile to get good cooling (and spend money on this... it makes a difference). But the CPUs are also quite energy efficient and so will put out less heat than overclocked Intel CPUs of similar performance (9900K, 10700K and 10900K). 

 

(Finally the OP is right that clock speed matters for DCS. But also the architecture gains from AMDs CPUs relative to intel also yields a very noticeable performance improvement. So it is not just about clock speed. Certainly when looking between AMD and Intel).

 

If I were you I would either overclock what you have (and consider cooling). Or if you have a little cash available buy a 5600X and a B550 motherboard. You should also get 3200 MHz CL 14 or 3600 CL 16 memory to go with it ideally.

[Gruman]

AFAIK the highest CPU your MB will support should be the 7700k. You wont get many gains from that.

So CPU Overclocking (since you already have an unlocked K variant) would be the cheap way to go.

What is your cooling solution? Look inside your case. If it is a small Heatsink with a small fan, you need a new one :).

Get a Noctua air cooler or an AIO-Liquid cooler and you can run that 6700k at arround 4.9GHz/5GHz.

If you have an ASUS MB, overclocking can be easely done by AI Suite.

 

As the posters above already said, if you want a new CPU, you need a new Mainboard.

Ryzen 5800X/5900X/5950X would be the way to go. You could reuse your Memory sticks... Depends on their speed. At least 3600MHz are recommended to properly use the ryzen system.

 

[Edit] BTW, you can always try to disable Hyperthreading after you overclocked your CPU. Helped in the past with performance. Since DCS is not optimised for more than 2 Cores, this helps.

 

Edited December 7, 2020 by Gruman