I’m getting a good deal on a gigabyte RTX 2070 super graphics card and planning to upgrade
Existing setup:-
Intel Core i5 6600k
16GB DDR4 RAM
Geforce GTX 960 4gb
I’m planning to upgrade CPU and motherboard in near future. For now, would the current setup coupled with RTX 2070 super create significant bottlenecks? How is 2070 super in general for MSFS?
Better wait until you found out what to upgrade (?) before you spent a lot $$
Nothing wrong with a 2070, but at the time of upgrade it’s old ..
As of now, I see my graphics card creating a bottleneck to FPS as per the FPS counter in developer toolbar.
I agree 2070s is a bit old but how long would the 3000 series hold the title of being latest and greatest. By the time supply bottlenecks are sorted out and prices look reasonable, we would already be looking at next generation and succumb to endless waiting. I believe it’s futile to chase after something that’s already attracting too many eyeballs. Not to forget, sometimes the first buyers of a new hardware turn out to be unfortunate lab rats. Instead, I would look at my requirement and price point today and decide on something that’s tried and tested.
If you can overclock that 6600k to something over 4.2 GHz then I would go for it, assuming it is a really good deal.
It also depends on the monitor resolution, probably the most important factor which you did not specify.
Hi, I have i7-3770, which is only slightly slower than your CPU. I just started using GTX 1660 Super, and can enjoy ULTRA at 1080P with 30fps most of the time. To a flight simulator, you don’t have to get any better FPS so I would say this setting is already decent for 1080P playing. I have 32GB and 1T SSD though.
If you plan to play in 2K or 4K or VR, then you may need 2070 Super for ULTRA. But I really don’t think you have to wait for anything better if the price is much higher than 2070 Super you can get now. I would strongly suggest you spend that extra money to upgrade RAM to 32Gb and install a 500G or 1T SSD drive for MSFS. Those things are much cheaper than graphical card upgrade I think.
BTW, now my GPU usage in 1080P ULTRA is usually 80%+, and my CPU usage is 70% or so. So I would say I now have no obvious bottleneck although a 2060 or 2070 (much more expensive) would be truly ideal.
If you go anything further than 2070 Super, I think you’d better upgrade your CPU first. Again, your CPU is decent enough, at least for playing MSFS in1080P. A lightening speed internet (if available) will probably be with higher priority.
My monitor is a plain 1080p 60hz one. I have cpu at 4 ghz, probably would overclock it at 4.2 once I replace thermal paste on it.
I already have a 100mbps connection, that’s not an issue.
I’m running a 2070 Super with a i5 9600k. It drives three 1080p monitors that look like one super-wide monitor to the sim. I get 35-40 fps at high/ultra settings. Dev mode says the that the GPU is the bottleneck. Works great for me. If you’re running a single 1080p monitor, you’ll be totally fine.
In that case, I believe I can reasonably expect to match your FPS count accounting for the potential CPU bottleneck in my case.
What’s your FPS in overcast weather and dense area (eg KATL airport) with an airliner?
Ok, that’s not a configuration I normally fly (honestly, I usually do the opposite: GA aircraft cross country from smaller fields.) So I just flew an approach in the stock 320Neo into KATL with overcast weather, but still could see the city and all the new KATL scenery. I also configured down to single 1080p monitor (but the others were still on)
I was getting between 25-40, with most frames in the low 30s. Unlike my other flights the limit was the main thread (not totally surprising since i was running lower resolution.) So, you might want to plan a CPU upgrade based on my experience. Definitely want to upgrade CPU if you end up with a 3070.
Flying with the simpler GA planes increased my frame rates, but was still usually CPU bound.
I’m assuming it was on high-ultra setting and with multiplayer traffic ON. I believe once DX12 is rolled out, we can expect better CPU optimization because if your rig gets bogged down then I don’t think an Xbox is going to cope up especially in such a busy scenario. So I would wait for the said release before going for a CPU+MB upgrade.
BTW, that test was helpful. Thanks a lot!
My usual ultra with a couple downgrade settings, yes. Don’t recall about the traffic. I “easy OC’ed” my 9600k in the bios and got another handful of frames.
Here is a part list for my current build, if anyone cares: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/fTQQy4 . Prices aren’t accurate, and it doesn’t include all the peripherals.
Okay, looks like RTX 3060 Ti is on the cards and considering the US Dollar pricing, not only going to be cheaper than RTX 2070 super but also better performing. The last thing I would want to see would be the price of 2070 super nose-diving due to these reasons right after I get it… Thoughts?
Sadly your proposed overclock from the Max Turbo Frequency of 3.90 GHz to 4.2 GHz represents only an 8% increase in clock speed! This, and the fact that the chip is still hidebound by it’s own cache’s and registers, means that this will have no effect [beyond generating a lot more heat] whatsoever.
Long gone are the days of the ‘routine’ and useful 50% clock!
I agree, overclocking my CPU hasn’t been much helpful in the past. The only thing I’ve done is all cores being able to operate at 4 ghz simulaneously.
To be frank here.
MSFS 2020 is, in many ways, futureware! By that I mean that it will NOT run with very high FPS, in all circumstances, on the current hardware that the overwhelming majority [possibly all] of users can right now bring to bear! Just to achieve an ‘acceptable’ level of performance is challenging enough for even ‘good’ rigs to achieve!
So, if you want to avoid disappointment with your proposed upgrade, I can only suggest that, before you start paying out the precious, you do as much research as you can. These very forums can be useful in this regard. And, of course, Google is our friend. The trick here is not to confuse the advise of the purveyors of snake oil with that advise which is rooted in evidence!
I am sorry if all the above is in any way depressing and I really wish I could offer you an easier, if not safer, way to proceed.
I can, however, hope for you the very best of luck.
Yep, MSFS is the new ‘Can it run Crysis’ 
The new Crysis era as someone put it!
Anyway, this sim is futureware not only in terms of sufficient firepower not being available, but also in terms of the ongoing work in ironing out bugs/issues including those with regards to optimization. I believe a year from now, the sim might see a performance bump even with existing hardware. Again, 30+fps is quite decent for a flight sim but consistency is the key here which must be looked at by developers.
Regarding GPU upgrade, I was almost certain to go for GB RTX 2070 Super for ~$500 (converting Indian Rupee to USD) but yesterday’s news of 3060 Ti made me pause for a second thought. Still unsure…
The way turbo works on the i5-6600k is such that the higher the frequency the less cores are running on that value, i.e at 3.9Ghz only one core reaches that frequency while the other three are at 3.5GHz
Overclocking it at 4.2 GHz or even higher (if liquid cooled) will run all four cores at that higher frequency, the gain is substantial. I know because that’s the processor I’m running for the past 5 years, overclocked from day 1