PC died making a new one

[jtalton]

hey all,

My old computer took a shit and now i am going to build a new rig.  I have the Vive and plan on using VR for il2 and would like to max out the graphics as much as possible.  My one question is should i go for a i7 or i5.  Would the i7 make any difference at all for il2.  thanks

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/user/jtalton/saved/jr6Hxr

 

[Jade_Monkey]

It used to be that the i5 was equal in gaming but recently there are more advantages to having more virtual threads. If your budget permits, go for the i7.

[Guest deleted@83466]

It used to be that the i5 was equal in gaming but recently there are more advantages to having more virtual threads. If your budget permits, go for the i7.

 

I was reading some old post from years ago, that I would never be able to find again, and Han or somebody describes the game as multi-threaded, so that's probably good advice

[jtalton]

any of you guys running AMD stuff?  i have always had intel stuff so am a little hesitant to go AMD

[ShamrockOneFive]

The new Ryzen chips are worth looking at. Lots of benchmarks out now. Probably look at the most recent benchmarks as the chips and their architecture are new and performance has increased since the initial benches came out - or at least that's what I've been told. I've had AMD and Intel chips in the past and they can both be good performers.

 

I built my "new" system over a year and a half ago now. When I was looking at the benches for the Skylake series I decided to go with the Core i5 6600 rather than the Core i7 6700 because in every game benchmark both systems performed identically. Within 1fps of each other (well within the error percentage) in practical gameplay. I'm not sure if there is any advantage, even in multithreaded games, to going with the Core i7 and its eight theoretical cores (and 4 physical ones) over the non-hyperthreaded i5 and its four physical cores.

 

If its a question of money and you want to move your budget around. Spend on a better GPU and pair it with the best Core i5. If money isn't as much of an issue... maybe there will be some advantage to having the hyperthreading of the i7.

[A_radek]

Over in hardware/VR section of this forum are a few threads with the info your after. il2 benchmark runs and results on different hardware.

 

Long story short, at the moment a i7 7700k @5.2ghz is winning the fps game in VR.

[Gambit21]

any of you guys running AMD stuff?  i have always had intel stuff so am a little hesitant to go AMD

Yep - 1700, after Intel only builds for the last dozen years.

It was a wise move - but like I keep saying when this subject comes up, I do lots of multi-threaded stuff...3D rendering especially.

IL2 it hardly notices.

[JG13_opcode]

any of you guys running AMD stuff?  i have always had intel stuff so am a little hesitant to go AMD

 

The new Ryzen benchmarks are awesome.  If I was buying today I'd go AMD.  I have an AMD GPU and it's been great.

[jtalton]

thanks for all the responses, i think no matter what i buy it is going to be better then the 780ti i was running off in the past.  very helpful info though

[=EXPEND=Tripwire]

I went 7700k after looking at the games I was interested in and finding benchmarks that still pointed at clock speed being key for FPS. Just pushing my CPU from stock to 4.8GHz made a difference in VR for me. I'll push it further in due time. I still don't think all 4 cores are being pushed to the limit yet, I'd guess just one core is maxed and a small amount of work on other cores.

[coconut]

The thing is that i7 with hyperthreading disabled can be better than an identically frequenced i5 because of the additional resources (cache, registers). Sometimes these extra resources make a difference, sometimes not. For this game, it seems they do. But be sure to disable hyperthreading. It's easily done in the BIOS, a risk-free operation. If you leave hyperthreading on you might not see any substantial gains.

 

EDIT: good think I went looking back for that post: https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/29322-measuring-rig-performance-common-baseline/?p=478113

Disabling hyperthreading provides no gains.

Edited June 25, 2017 by coconut

[ZachariasX]

...

 

EDIT: good think I went looking back for that post: https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/29322-measuring-rig-performance-common-baseline/?p=478113

Disabling hyperthreading provides no gains.

Maybe for IL2. Turning off HT makes your CPU produce less heat under load. Usually you can OC it more like that. If a program is not written to use HT, you will have no gain by turning it on. Certain programs (like FSX or P3D) check for the numbers of cores when you start them. having 8 cores of which 4 are nonexistent to the program makes it run the programs on 8 threads. So, 4 threads for nothing that have to be handled by the system.

 

In either case, if you are really CPU bound (you shouldn't in IL2 on either the i5 or i7) turn off HT ond see if you can OC more.

 

And generally speaking: Always create a balanced system. Best GPU goes with best CPU. For games, highest clocked quad core will do the job. At least until game developers get used to having octo cores.

 

If you *really* need CPU power, there is no alternative to AMD Ryzen currently. Intel just doesn't have a product to match it in that same price bracket.

[BeastyBaiter]

My 1600X runs BoX just fine, solidly GPU bound with an RX480 at around 80-90 fps on max detail at 1440p. In any case, I can't recommend an I5 at this point. 3 years ago it made sense but today 4 threads just isn't enough. Nearly every game made in the last few years will use 4+ threads (including BoS) and while that may seem fine, you have to remember Windows 10 runs about 50 additional processes in the background at all times. Individually they use little CPU, but it matters if you're playing a game that has all 4 of your threads pegged already (which a 1080TI in BoS will do). For that reason, I can't recommend anything with less than 8 threads even if you are mostly playing 2-4 thread games.

 

For your proposed system, I recommend either the I7-7700k or R5 1600X. The I7 will give better results in DCS and other single threaded games as it's a little faster on a per core basis. The 1600X should offer better longevity due to being a substantially more capable CPU overall. On an unrelated note, I have the Samsung 960 EVO 500GB in my Ryzen system, the difference between it and a traditional SSD is marginal. If I were redoing it, I think I'd go for a bigger SSD instead.

[ZachariasX]

Another reason why it may be a good idea to turn off Hyperthreading in some Intel CPUs can be found here.