I'm considering upgrading my AMD HD6900 card for a GTX1060. Will it socket?!

[FlyingNutcase]

Maybe a silly question but I have an ancient HD6900 series graphics card. I'm considering replacing it with a GTX1060 6GB. Would there likely be any issue with the socket or size or compatibility?

 

Tired of like 30 FPS, lol.

 

Cheers.

[-332FG-Gordon200]

Yep, it will fit. Same form factor.

[Dutch2]

Only keep in your mind there are a few GTX1060 versions, slow/fast Vram, 3, 5 & 6Gb Vram and now while competing the RX590 a complete new GTX1060 version, will be released. 

Only I would wait for an black friday and get an GTX1070, now the RTX2070 has been released, this GTX1070 Vcard must be in a Black friday deal. 

 

BTW, what is your CPU? 

 

 

Edited November 18, 2018 by Dutch2

[FlyingNutcase]

6 hours ago, Dutch2 said:

Only keep in your mind there are a few GTX1060 versions, slow/fast Vram, 3, 5 & 6Gb Vram and now while competing the RX590 a complete new GTX1060 version, will be released. 

Only I would wait for an black friday and get an GTX1070, now the RTX2070 has been released, this GTX1070 Vcard must be in a Black friday deal. 

 

BTW, what is your CPU? 

 

 

 

CPU is another ancient item, i7-2600K@3.4GHz.

8GB of ~667 MHz(!) RAM

 

I assume the graphics card of the overall bottleneck.

 

I've been fantasising about doing buying a completely new rig but it's better to wait until HD VR gets here which I hear should be around the end of next year. I don't expect to make much time to fly until then so it's just about seeing it through until then.

 

In New Zealand, we now have Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but they're on different weeekends depending on the retailer. The best electronics store here is www.pbtech.co.nz and "funnily" I though I'd check their website on Friday night, assuming Black Friday was this coming Friday like I think it is in the US, and it was actually that same day and I had just missed it, lol.

 

Luckily I get a second chance with Cyber Monday, online only 6-10pm tonight. It's Monday morning now, so decision time awaits. ?

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

31 minutes ago, FlyingNutcase said:

CPU is another ancient item, i7-2600K@3.4GHz.

8GB of ~667 MHz(!) RAM

 

I assume the graphics card of the overall bottleneck.

Yes, you'd be GPU-limited even with the best of the 6900 cards.

 

Although your CPU is ancient, it's actually not bad at all in terms of single thread performance, which is what matters for Il-2. Just make sure that the Turbo Boost to 3.8 GHz is enabled and working. Better yet, try overclocking if your system allows it. That'll bring the 2600K quite close to the most recent processors.

 

Also note that DDR3 with a clock of 667 MHz would typically be described as "1333 MHz", which makes it seem far less bad.

[FlyingNutcase]

2 minutes ago, Mitthrawnuruodo said:

Yes, you'd be GPU-limited even with the best of the 6900 cards.

 

Although your CPU is ancient, it's actually not bad at all in terms of single thread performance, which is what matters for Il-2. Just make sure that the Turbo Boost to 3.8 GHz is enabled and working. Better yet, try overclocking if your system allows it. That'll bring the 2600K quite close to the most recent processors.

 

Also note that DDR3 with a clock of 667 MHz would typically be described as "1333 MHz", which makes it seem far less bad.

 

This is encouraging - I didn't know about Turbo Boost and I've never had the melons to try overclocking but I may look into it. It's nice to know that about the RAM being better than I had assumed. So indeed it looks like just a graphics card replacement will suffice. ?

 

By the way it's attached to a 22" 1920 x 1080 monitor, 60Hz refresh rate. It'll do for another year. ?

 

And ASUS P8 P67 Pro mobo.

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

For 1920x1080 resolution, the 1060 6GB will perform really well at the highest settings. You could compare prices with the RX580; it's in the same performance class. 

 

54 minutes ago, FlyingNutcase said:

And ASUS P8 P67 Pro mobo.

That's a good board. If you want to try overclocking, just search for "P8P67 overclocking guide" or similar. You'll find plenty of videos and articles with explanations. 

[FlyingNutcase]

By the way, any thoughts as to what monitor may be driveable with my rig with say a GTX1060 6GB or maybe a GTX1070 (and some overclocking)? I've been eyeing up a 27" 1440p 144Hz or even (fantasy?) a 31.5" 1440p 144Hz.

 

Otherwise I'll leave it until next year with the new build + VR.

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

1 hour ago, FlyingNutcase said:

By the way, any thoughts as to what monitor may be driveable with my rig with say a GTX1060 6GB or maybe a GTX1070 (and some overclocking)? I've been eyeing up a 27" 1440p 144Hz or even (fantasy?) a 31.5" 1440p 144Hz.

 

Otherwise I'll leave it until next year with the new build + VR.

With a GTX 1060, you can expect good results at 1440p with the expectation of 60 fps if you’re willing to lower some settings that kill performance, e.g., antialiasing, shadows. Overall, it would still be a great experience.

 

A 1070 will achieve 60 fps at anything less than 4K. It’s a very powerful card (some 40% faster).

 

Be prepared for a major challenge to maintain 144 fps. You’ll certainly encounter CPU bottlenecks at times. Besides, even a GTX 1070 will struggle. However, a 144 Hz gaming monitor will still be very beneficial even if you can’t maintain 144 fps.

 

I don’t know the specs of upcoming VR devices, so I can only speculate. However, it’s quite likely that their higher resolutions will make 1070-class GPUs inadequate. Therefore, it may make sense to do a relatively inexpensive upgrade to a 1060 now and make a new rig when the time comes.

[FlyingNutcase]

Advice & thoughts very much appreciated!  I'll see how the pricing is in the sale. ?

 

Update: I ended up getting this puppy:

https://www.pbtech.co.nz/product/VGAAS11060/ASUS-Strix-GeForce-GTX1060-Graphics-Card-6GB-GDDR5

 

Waiting for delivery. I'll do some testing received and report back...

 

 

Edited November 20, 2018 by FlyingNutcase