I would appreciate your thoughts on upgrading

Here is my current system, which was built in 2013. I am interested in cpu and video upgrades to provide a more powerful system to run FSX and P3D with complex aircraft and scenery. This system currently runs FSX satisfactorily with all sliders maxed except Autogen and water. I would like to have a cpu in the range of 5-5.2. I think I have the cooling and the case to support it. I would be grateful for any thoughts you may have to share.

Thanks

Rick

OS: Win 7 Pro 64

CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-4820K Quad-Core 3.70 GHz 10MB oc'd to 4.5

Liquid Cooling Kit 360MM w/ XSPC Rasa 750 RS360, Triple Fan

HDD: 250GB Samsung

HDD2: 500GB Western Digital Caviar Black

MEMORY: 16GB (4GBx4) DDR3/2133MHz Quad Channel Memory

MOTHERBOARD: GIGABYTE X79-UP4 ATX

POWERSUPPLY: 860 Watts - Corsair AX860 860W

VIDEO: NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN 6GB

I say this ad nauseam on this forum. Flight Simulator, pertaining to FS2004 and FSX are CPU orientated games, and at that they are only single thread capable.

So with that you need a CPU that is good at single thread crunching. Use this website as a guide on what CPU you should buy withen your budget. Of course the higher the score the better the CPU for FS. If a CPU is withen about 200 of another CPU, it probably wouldn't make much of a difference between the two.

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html

GPU wise, it will have very, VERY little bearing. A massive Titan of a GPU won't do much unless you play other games that rely more on the GPU like Red Dead Redemption. FS utilizes about 25% of the GPU. You could get by with a GTX 1050TI if FS is all you play.

Don't go hog wild on RAM speed as well. That only matters with overclocking. And check the MOBO QVL list on RAM you chose. It may save you from possible RMA crap in the future. A study was conducted and shown faster RAM speed had little difference in computing. If you do overclock, it probably will only jump a few frames if that. It's not so much clock speed, but CPU architecture. I OCed my Proc. once, went to NY which I know has a large frame load for me in the Sim, and I only saw a 2 to 3 frame increase. Hardly worth adding the extra wear and tear on my computer so I pulled the OC. My frames are capped to 25, and for the most part it stays at 25. Which brings me to another point. Don't crank up the frame rate. Your eye won't see a difference between 25/30 frames and you want to give breathing room for the CPU. In the video card control panel, cap the pre-rendered frames to 3 or 2.

FS was thought to evolve with a single core CPU over time, but multi-core CPUs are what came out so single thread ability isn't where M$ thought it be today. So with that, even with today's most expensive CPU, you may not be able to crank all of the settings to max, use HD 4K textures and what have you and think it'll run smooth. Just use moderate FSX settings. I don't use any HD textures and I have that caped in the FSX.cfg file and everything still looks good. At least to me.

FS2004 and FSX are very old. Perhaps P3D would be worth more of an effort in terms of GPU and multi-core functionality. Or even X-Plane, but X-Plane has a ways to go IMO.

Edit-

Your PSU is overkill. Use this calculator. https://outervision.com/

I say this ad nauseam on this forum. Flight Simulator, pertaining to FS2004 and FSX are CPU orientated games, and at that they are only single thread capable.

 

So with that you need a CPU that is good at single thread crunching. Use this website as a guide on what CPU you should buy withen your budget. Of course the higher the score the better the CPU for FS. If a CPU is withen about 200 of another CPU, it probably wouldn't make much of a difference between the two.

 

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html

 

GPU wise, it will have very, VERY little bearing. A massive Titan of a GPU won't do much unless you play other games that rely more on the GPU like Red Dead Redemption. FS utilizes about 25% of the GPU. You could get by with a GTX 1050TI if FS is all you play.

 

Don't go hog wild on RAM speed as well. That only matters with overclocking. And check the MOBO QVL list on RAM you chose. It may save you from possible RMA crap in the future. A study was conducted and shown faster RAM speed had little difference in computing. If you do overclock, it probably will only jump a few frames if that. It's not so much clock speed, but CPU architecture. I OCed my Proc. once, went to NY which I know has a large frame load for me in the Sim, and I only saw a 2 to 3 frame increase. Hardly worth adding the extra wear and tear on my computer so I pulled the OC. My frames are capped to 25, and for the most part it stays at 25. Which brings me to another point. Don't crank up the frame rate. Your eye won't see a difference between 25/30 frames and you want to give breathing room for the CPU. In the video card control panel, cap the pre-rendered frames to 3 or 2.

 

FS was thought to evolve with a single core CPU over time, but multi-core CPUs are what came out so single thread ability isn't where M$ thought it be today. So with that, even with today's most expensive CPU, you may not be able to crank all of the settings to max, use HD 4K textures and what have you and think it'll run smooth. Just use moderate FSX settings. I don't use any HD textures and I have that caped in the FSX.cfg file and everything still looks good. At least to me.

 

 

FS2004 and FSX are very old. Perhaps P3D would be worth more of an effort in terms of GPU and multi-core functionality. Or even X-Plane, but X-Plane has a ways to go IMO.

 

Edit-

 

 

Your PSU is overkill. Use this calculator. https://outervision.com/

Thank you for your helpful response CRJ. Do you have any thoughts on the compatibility of later generation CPUs with my present MOBO? I'd like to install a CPU with more power than my 4820k.

Thanks

Rick

Your motherboard supports the LGA 2011 CPU socket type. So if you want to keep your MOBO, you'd want to buy the fastest single thread crunching LGA 2011 CPU you can afford withen your budget. But, 2011 is damn expensive. The great thing about a 2011 platform is that it supports a massive 64 GB of RAM. I thought about going 2011 years ago, but the hardware was a lot more costly and the LGA 1151 was already out. So I went with an i5 6600k. I'd like to update to an i7 7700k one day.

I'd say go with a 6800k, but there's not much difference in single thread ability between what you have now and a 6800k. Plus, a 6800k is over $400.

Your better off with a new platform if you want a real upgrade. You could recycle the GPU, PSU, hard drives and maybe the case. You'd need new RAM, motherboard, CPU cooler and of course the CPU.

Any budget in mind?

How old is the PSU? If it's 7 years or close to becoming 7 years old you may want to consider a replacement. If the PSU goes it could take the whole system with it.

See here for the cpu's that mainboard will take.

https://www.gigabyte.com/Search?kw=cpu+support+list+ga-x79-up4

About a new system, be aware that processors Intel 7*** and up, will only work with Win10.

Not with Win7.

Those CPUs will work with 7, it's just that you need to download a hack from Github to allow updates since M$ blocks updates to those CPUs and Win 7. Total monopoly and a push to get everyone on board with 10.

I haven't tried it yet, but I do plan on getting an i7 7700k. I asked about that at the sevenforums.com website. Consensus was it'll work with 7.

I already looked at LGA 2011 CPUs and an upgrade would cost around $400 and you wouldn't have much single core improvement over what the OP already has. It be a lot better to upgrade the motherboard, CPU and RAM.

I agree there is not really much CPU upgrade possible here.

But I don't think you checked the list well enough.

You said:

Your motherboard supports the LGA 2011 CPU socket type. ...... I'd say go with a 6800k, .......

But the 6800k is not an option. It goes in a FCLGA2011-3 socket. Not in the LGA2011 that is on his mainboard.

The 6800k is not on the GA-X79-UP4 mainboard CPU-List I linked to. It will not work on an X79 chipset.

Based on the list there is actually no CPU upgrade possible at all, the Core i7-4820K with it's 3.70GHz is the highest speed CPU possible in this mainboard.

Well, thanks guys for the expert help. I can accept the answer that there really is no upgrade that makes sense. I think what I'm looking at is a complete upgrade down the road from the MOBO on up. It really is a beautiful case with a top of the line water cooling system.

Thanks again CRJ and TG.

Ricck

You probably could reuse the case.

As to water cooling, you probably won't see a difference compared to air.