Time to retire I7 3820?

[TheSNAFU]

What are opinions on whether it's time to retire my aged base components for a rig based on a 9700K 3200 cas14 RAM? Currently I'm still on a I7 3820 overclocked to 4.625 (See sig). I would likely keep my 1080 for now. Would appreciate some thoughts on whether IL2 performance at 1440 would be improved significantly. I currently run the game at Ultra with SSAO and HDR off and distance at 70k. In PWCG I have to reduce the number of planes to 8 or 9 a side and no random ground activity to keep things relatively smooth. Kuban and Bodenplatte don't run as well as Stalingrad and Moscow. In the game career I have to reduce to scattered and it still doesn't run smoothly when things get busy. FPS is constant at 60.

 

So would I benefit a lot from a 9700k set up?

 

Thanks in advance for opinions 

[ATAG_SKUD]

I upgraded from my i7-2600K@4.1 GHZ to a 9900K at 5.2 GHZ. I found that it was still my graphics card (same Titan Xp in both) that was holding things back due to thermal clipping. I got much more bang as far as FPS goes when I installed an Arctic Extreme air cooler on the Titan. Now I can overclock it to 2150 MHZ and its never gets hotter than 63 deg C. It power clips long before it thermal clips. This Arctic aircooler is amazing.

Run GPU-Z while you are flying and see what's holding you back. I think I could have stayed with the 2600K and saved several grand with this air cooler -its only $60.

skud

Edited November 23, 2019 by ATAG_SKUD
spell check

[TheSNAFU]

Would greatly appreciate other opinions on this. 

 

I have seen somewhat conflicting views on this with some testing suggesting an upgrade as I outlined in the OP would not do much since CPU's havent advanced enough to warrant the change. Others have said the 7 year old CPU is no longer up to the task and while it can maintain good fps particularly at 1080p a 9700k is far more powerful and would help a lot when things get busy and for VR which I may want to try at some point. 

 

Thanks! 

[WallysWorld]

I got rid of my almost 10 year old i7-920 which was overclocked to 4 Ghz and had a GTX 970. It ran IL2 easily at almost the highest settings, but struggled on some of the newer games especially the new Total War series.

 

So I figured it was time to build a new machine and I got an i9-9900k (overclocked to 5 Ghz) paired with a RTX 2070 Super and absolutely have no regrets. It runs the newest games at the highest level very easily. Very expensive, but after almost 10 years, it was time to move on from the old machine.

 

It all depends on well your current machine plays the games you like and how high in details can you run with good frame rates.

[TheSNAFU]

2 hours ago, WallysWorld said:

I got rid of my almost 10 year old i7-920 which was overclocked to 4 Ghz and had a GTX 970. It ran IL2 easily at almost the highest settings, but struggled on some of the newer games especially the new Total War series.

 

So I figured it was time to build a new machine and I got an i9-9900k (overclocked to 5 Ghz) paired with a RTX 2070 Super and absolutely have no regrets. It runs the newest games at the highest level very easily. Very expensive, but after almost 10 years, it was time to move on from the old machine.

 

It all depends on well your current machine plays the games you like and how high in details can you run with good frame rates.

Thx WW. Interesting that your old rig ran IL2 easily. But that seems to support the view that these older overclocked I7’s are still powerful enough. 
 

My interest is mostly with IL2 and CLOD. I run IL2 at Ultra with a few things at lower settings. I’m on a 60hz hdtv and per the game counter it runs at a solid 60 FPS with vsync on. But when there’s a lot of aircraft and ground activity it slows down and is noticeably less smooth still at 60 FPS. I take that as due to CPU/RAM. As I understand it the 1080 isn’t fully pushed by my CPU. Those issues are what I’m trying to address with the upgrades. I may also venture into VR one day but that is not a prime reason for looking at an upgrade. 

Just not sure if the upgrade is worth it. If it is I’m definitely doing it. 

Edited November 24, 2019 by TheSNAFU

[WallysWorld]

One IL2 area that my old machine did struggle somewhat with was exactly as you wrote when flying low with lots of ground activity and aircraft around. That was where my fps went from 60 down to the 30's on the old system. On the new system, everything is set to maximum and I get 60 fps almost all of the time. Though I must admit I haven't played a lot of IL2 on my new system yet.

[ATAG_SKUD]

Snafu

Download GPU-Z and stretch out the sensor timeline before you start flying. When you finish your run go look at the data. You will be able to see if your CPU is bottlenecking or your GPU when you fly over cities etc. If your GPU is never hitting 100% on temps a, power etc, then its your CPU

skud

 

[TheSNAFU]

Thanks Skud, I’ll do that and see what I can learn from it. Much appreciate your thoughts. 
 

Thanks also WW. Odd thing is when things aren’t smooth and seem to slow down the FPS per the game FPS counter remains solidly at 60. My rig may be having brief frame time and FPS drops that the game counter isn’t showing. 

Edited November 26, 2019 by TheSNAFU

[ATAG_SKUD]

sounds like you have picked up a dose of the microstutters. Everybody is having that issue since last update.

skud