GPU Upgrade for X-Plane

Tropheus

Hi,

Thanks to the help on this forum, I built a PC a couple of years ago with the following spec:

Intel Core i5-3570K Box, LGA1155
Club 3D Radeon HD 7950 13Series, 3GB GDDR5,
8GB-Kit G.Skill RipJaws-X PC3-10667U CL9
ASRock Z77 Pro3, Sockel 1155, ATX
Samsung SSD 840 120GB SATA 6Gb/s

I can max out all games, but play X-Plane a lot and it's well known to be a killer for most GPUs in terms of framerate. I'm leaning towards upgrading the GPU - around €400 budget and will also add another 8GB of RAM. I know most games don't use RAM above 8GB, but X-Plane does for scenery.

I toyed with upgrading the processor, but I have it overclocked to a steady 4.7ghz so don't think I'll get much gain from an upgrade. I'm not sure if an i7 will make much difference for X-Plane.

I may also upgrade the SSD as I have X-Plane on it and quickly running out of space.

Suggestions welcome.

Digital Solitude

For under €400, a GTX970

Should be a large upgrade

EoinHef

Is it X-Plane 10?

Some documentation on the hardware rquirements here if it is

http://www.x-plane.com/desktop/system-requirements/

May want to go with a R9 390 for the few extra gigs of video memory and some extra ram for the system. CPU should be fine,still a good cpu and thats a hefty overclock you've achieved there. What voltage are you using for that?

Tropheus

Yes, it's X-Plane 10.

I have the additional turbo voltage set at +0.164v and have had no issues. It get's to 100c when testing, but nowhere close to that for normal use.

I have a 450w PSU. Will I need to upgrade for the new GPU? I'll take a look at the R9 390. I might even stretch to another 16gb of RAM. Looks like I'll get that for under €100.

mad turnip

A 450W would be a tight fit for a 390 with an overclocked CPU. Is it a budget brand PSU? If its a good brand your probably ok.

Tropheus

mad turnip wrote: »

A 450W would be a tight fit for a 390 with an overclocked CPU. Is it a budget brand PSU? If its a good brand your probably ok.

It's the Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 450W as recommend to me on this board. I'll upgrade if necessary as it's not a huge cost.

EoinHef

Id agree a 450W would be a little tight for a 390,could always sell it and get a few bob back towards a new PSU. If you were running a non over clocked CPU id say you may get away with it but with a OC of 4.7Ghz on a 3570k id say your usimg a decent amount of power.

Dat ram usage though!! Up to 20GB for complex scenarios,crazy!

Id be a little worried about the 970 if the game wants a minimum of 4gb's of vram as with its segregated memory design you may run into issues,the 390 will give similar performance and will have all the vram you will ever need. All this at the cost of power consumption though.

550W PSU should suffice if you get a decnt brand

Tropheus

Yep, the X-Plane Specs are mad, but when you see it running on a good PC, you can see where all the resources are going. I was maxing every game with my spec until I started using X-Plane.

Think I'll go for the 390 and get a 550W PSU to be on the safe side. I'll squeeze in another 16GB of RAM and a bigger SSD also. That should keep me going for a few years.

EoinHef

Is your current ram 2 x 4gb or 1 x 8gb?

EDIT: I see in your op its down as an 8gb kit so i presume its 2 x 4gb set up. You should be able to use 2 x 8gb in the other two slots as long as they are the same speed and timings as your existing ram. Alternatively sell the 2 4gb sticks and get 3 x 8gb and run in triple channel mode.

Tropheus

Yes, they're 2x4gb. I checked and I can get two much the same in 2x8gb

EoinHef

Tropheus wrote: »

Yes, they're 2x4gb. I checked and I can get two much the same in 2x8gb

Ye stick to the same brand,timings and speed and you should be fine. I wouldnt mix and match.