Video Card Advice Please?

[MkIV Hvd]

Now that A2A has me back into simming (thanks for that btw...lots of fun...and lots of things to spend more money on... ), I have upgraded my computer to a more modern platform on which to expand. Turns out that A2A + Orbx everything + AS2016 was way too much for my 7 year old machine without a few scenery settings scaled back...who knew!!??

Anyway, the new one is a Ryzen 7 2700, 32GB Vengeance ram, GTX1060 3GB with a 650 watt power supply. Having said that, I know next to nothing about computers, having used them for 35+ years, I've never done any mods to one until I changed ram sticks last week...I am now full qualified for that operation...and that's all...

I'm running FSX:SE right now and looking to plan ahead for P3D in the very near future, so wondering about the best choice for a video card upgrade? While testing the last few days with scenery settings pretty much maxed out, I'm getting 35-50 fps in the west coast areas I've been flying, with the exception of the really high density areas like Los Angeles, San Francisco, the Olympic Peninsula with a bunch of Orbx airport sceneries etc. where the frames will drop to low to high teens with the occasional foray into the low 20s.

FSX always seems to run better to me when it's not running in unlimited mode and I'd like to be able to lock it at 35 - 60-ish and forget about it and hoping to ultimately run P3D like that as well.

Any/all advice is very much appreciated and I thank you all in advance!

[TBryson2]

That's a loaded question!

I recently installed a Nvidia RTX 2080 Ti. Expensive? Probably the most expensive single item I've ever bought for my computer. Worth it? To me, yes. I could only justify it because I had a motorcycle accident, fixed the bike and sold it. I can honestly say I traded my bike for it, (and some other stuff).

Framerates are excellent! I have a 3 monitor configuration so prior to installing this card I could not get rid of the "stutters' with 3 monitors. Single monitor was fine. Now I have sliders up and everything runs and looks great. (It better at that price!).

Your results may vary. All depends on what your doing and how hard you want to run the system. I will tell you I do not have 3rd party airports (LA, Chicago...) and mostly fly out and away from a lot of congestion. I DO still get some stuttering around LA (I like lots of air traffic, and have ORBX Southern California), but if I turn down the traffic, (say 50%) and road traffic to (say) 10% (where I typically keep it) it doesn't do so bad.

I figure that I'm upward compatible, and I do play other games that take advantage of the graphics. (Battlefield V is fantastic!).

My old card was a Ti 900 something. So I don't know what the difference between yours and an updated card would be. I read some say it's a waste of money, but again, I had to curb my depression somehow. (I sure do miss my bike!)

TB2

[vtracy]

What I seem to have found was:
1- fast CPU; better than many threads. I have changed from 8-thread 3.1GHz to 4-thread 4.0 cpu and tuned it to 4.5
2- RAM at least 16GB
3- fast disks SSDs are best, one for OS, one for FS software, one for sceneries
4- graphics card with as much RAM as I can afford (depending on no. of screens, as well) I have 3+1 LCD, GTX1070, want a 1080ti with 11GB...
Volker

[rhenson529]

Hi,
This really depends on your budget. The 2080ti is the best choice in my opinion, but if budget doesn’t fit, I would consider a 1080ti. These are just my two top choices.

Ron

[Mace]

The nVidia "Super" series of cards are coming out now, too. 2070 Super and so on. They may be priced at a point that is more reasonable (than a RTX 2080, for example) and yet offer the latest-gen features.

I would second the idea that video mem is an important consideration for our particular use (flight sim) -- such that, if I had two cards to choose from, one having 11 GB and the other having 8 GB vidmem, I would choose the 11GB card, even if was, perhaps, a bit less powerful than the 8 GB card.

[MkIV Hvd]

Thanks very much for the replies, Gentlemen!

I now have some further thinking to do, but definitely going forward with more useful information. I don't have a plan to run multiple monitors in the future, so not sure if that would make a difference, but in any case I think all the options mentioned are viable. I keep thinking that they seem really expensive, but then I look around the living room and there are half a dozen guitars around that are worth more than that, so what the heck...Hey, what's the worst that can happen??!!

@TB2 condolences on the loss of your bike...it's nice you've found a way to deaden the depression! BTW I chuckled at your traffic settings...I never display airline traffic and had my GA traffic at 9% until the constant parade at Catalina got in my way once to often...now GA's at 0% too haha. I like sightseeing when/where I want without anyone getting in the way...as an old guy, the one self entitled act I allow myself...

[Lewis - A2A]

Get P3D and see how you get on would be my advice. The 1060 isnt too bad a card and FSX and P3D tend to be more CPU bound tbh.

cheers,
Lewis

[MkIV Hvd]

Get P3D and see how you get on would be my advice. The 1060 isnt too bad a card and FSX and P3D tend to be more CPU bound tbh.

Thanks Lewis, I was thinking along those lines myself. As is, frames have been really good lately, but it seems inconsistent...low frames in the aforementioned places, but noted yesterday 55 - 65 fps at an Orbx airport (2O1, Gansner) running Orbx NorCal an NA landclass, so I'm good with that for now. P3D will be the next step in the upgrade overall upgrade. The only thing holding me back for now is money to re-acquire all the Orbx scenery and a few A2A airplanes!

I do have a bit of a concern about all the comments I've read about P3D being a bit temperamental when working with Win 10, as I'm not IT guy...we can deal with that at the time...money first!

Cheers!

[Lewis - A2A]

Not sure where you have found those comments but thats unfounded so no worries there. Windows 10 should be the windows everyone is running by now, Win7 is outdated as it is already for gaming and entertainment + officially end of life very soon and then you certainly wont be wanting to run it.

cheers,
Lewis

[MkIV Hvd]

That's good to know, thanks again Lewis! So now it's only money then......

[TBryson2]

@TB2 condolences on the loss of your bike...it's nice you've found a way to deaden the depression! BTW I chuckled at your traffic settings...I never display airline traffic and had my GA traffic at 9% until the constant parade at Catalina got in my way once to often...now GA's at 0% too haha. I like sightseeing when/where I want without anyone getting in the way...as an old guy, the one self entitled act I allow myself...

Thank you sir! I would prefer 100% traffic (or at least 70%) because I enjoy having to work around them, unless it gets too a.i. stupid of course. I like coming into an uncontrolled airspace and setting up my approach with other aircraft in the pattern. (Something I did a fair amount in real life).

[rhenson529]

@TB2, have you tried Ultimate Traffic Live? I use this and am very happy to run the traffic at 100% for both GA and Commercial. If you turn off traffic in P3D and Orbx, UTL appears to deliver without much impact to frame rates.
Ron

[jclay13]

Here’s a good overview of all of the Nvidia cards:

https://youtu.be/rj2pM9Wn33w

It is explained in terms of X-Plane but the concepts such as 4K vs. 1080p and single monitor vs. multiple monitor are good to understand with regard to the GPU.

[TBryson2]

@TB2, have you tried Ultimate Traffic Live? I use this and am very happy to run the traffic at 100% for both GA and Commercial. If you turn off traffic in P3D and Orbx, UTL appears to deliver without much impact to frame rates.
Ron

Not yet, may be in my plans though! Thanks

[Solareagle]

If you have a GTX 1060 and want to upgrade the RTX 2060 Super would be the logical next step right now, unless you have tons of money to spend. P3D does shift a lot of the load off the CPU onto the video card, so it will certainly take better advantage of the video card and than FSX does. This will boost your performance because both sims are CPU bound as long as your video card is decent, and taking work off the CPU will free it up. So in either the case of FSX or P3D the CPU is the main limit to the performance you'll get, and in that regard more cores doesn't do much much. Its clock speed and IPC (instructions per clock) that determine your frame rate.