What can I upgrade without having to buy a new PC?
What I’m looking for is things that will work with my Mothernoard/CPU. So what GPU will work with it? I know it probably won’t be the 20…, 30… series.?
And if I want 32 or even 64GB RAM, which ones will work ( ie. links please)?
I have checked out a new PC, but think it’s out of my pricerange at the moment, so hoping for a cheaper alternative for the moment.
I’am not sure whether its usefully to spend to much money into this system. The price of “used” components are currently also not good and buy new parts for these board is may be also to expensive and not usefull ( also have windows 11 in mind ). May be you find a better cheap GPU ( the 970 have these 3Gig issue ) ( may be a used 1080… ) . But also the DDR3 can be a factor which limits the performance, in special with coming dx12 . More RAM is okay, but give you may be not this-kind of more fps you expect.
But let us see more recommendations… sometime comes very intressting ideas on top
Agreed with Salam and others here; get the best GPU you can buy (or get your hands on) as long as your PSU has enough power (i.e. you have 750W Bronze or better, as 3080/80TI/90 will need over 300W) and save for future improvements.
The GPU can take your computer to great levels, even if you don’t have PCI4 ports.
It might help big time too if you get an NVMe drive for all your games (you will also need a PCIe adapter for it) to be installed on.
Those two upgrades will go lenghts for your performance and of course, can be reused in a new PC when you’re ready for a new MB/RAM and CPU.
My PSU is a Corsair CX750M. So if I can find a Geforce 2080Ti, will that be Ok?
I do have a NVMe drive as my C;\ drive, but only a 256GB with aprox. 83GB free, so will that be enough for the main program, if I can have the community folder and all other addons on another drive?
What about the RAM, what should I look for there?
For memory anything that is DDR3 and non ECC should work. Your manual states support up to 3200mhz, but that will be on memory listed on the QVL (qualified vendors list). There is a small chance that the memory will not run at rated speed. Just be aware that it is a possibility.
As some have already said, when it comes to gaming, the GPU is always your biggest gain. All PCI-e 4.0 cards are backwards compatible with PCI-e 3.0. So basically get what you can afford.
As for storage, the difference between M2 drives and SSDs on your board will be marginal. Don’t spend on M2 drives unless you change the CPU and board. It is kind of pointless.
My personal opinion is don’t look for upgrades so much on that system. The gains you will see from adding a couple of hundred more are vast.
Cheap board b520 £50
AMD 5600x £290
Cooler £20-30
16gb DDR4 3200 £60 (DDR3 memory is actually more expensive than DDR4 in the UK)
If your budget is tight, my recommendation is to first look for a used 1080ti. It should provide a fairly good experience @1080p. Stay away from cards that have been used for 24/7 mining.
Next you could also get two more RAM sticks for 32gb total if your MB supports it.
Next is CPU overclocking: you could look into a beefed up AIO cooler: with something like a H100i you could shoot for 4.8Ghz with 1.296V (1.3V is the max recommended for haswell/haswell refresh). Best is to research Overclocking forums for advice on the optimal combo.
AFAIK your current MB Z97P is not intended for max overclocking potential. You may need to look for a used motherboard for a few bucks to push your CPU to its limit, in order to mitigate main thread bound scenarios in MSFS.
Finally, MSFS needs to be on SSD or better NVMe if it’s not the case already.
Depending on where you are located, prices can vary greatly.
A tentative budget looks like this :
New SSD 512gb = 50 dollars
1080ti, used = 640 dollars
Two DDR3 sticks, used = 80 dollars
Overclocking MB, used = 80 dollars
CPU Cooler, used = 50 dollars
Total 900 dollars (maybe more, these days GPU prices are difficult to predict)
Not cheap, for someone on a budget, but hopefully enough to enjoy MSFS at 1080p with fairly high settings yet cheaper than a brand new 12900k/3080 combo at USD4000++
Any other significant upgrades involve a new chipset, new MB, new CPU, new cooler, new RAM sticks.
Another even cheaper option is to get an Xbox S/X series, I have not tried it but reviewers are saying it provides good experience when it works
However you would loose the benefit of third party extensions, etc…
I had a system much like your own (exact same CPU), and installing an RTX 2070 in it has been a very worthwhile investment. Next upgrade will be a totally new system, though.
Thanks a lot for the advice, I will defenitly look into the different things you mention.
In all the years I have had a PC I have never (and never will) overclocked it, so that’s not an option.
I guess my first choice will be to go hunting for a new (used?) GPU, as I gather that my MB and PSU, can handle it.
Someone wrote that I also can use DDR4 RAm sticks instead of my current DDR3, just to confirm, is that correct?
I did consider a Xbox X, but as you also mentions, it wouldn’t allow me to use third party addons (like the FBW Airbus) so that’s out of the question, but yes, that would have been the cheapest way to “update”.
