Great news, @Cib!
Two words;
I
NEED
1 Like
Your RAM score pleases me. 
2 Likes
I’m sure this is a ‘how long is a piece of string’ question, so take it for what it is - however:
If one was to consider upgrading their system in this day and age with DCS 2.5 and X-Plane 11 as the primary consideration, are there any obvious pitfalls / bottlenecks one can fall into? Anything in particular I should know or am I just good with upgrading CPU / GPU / RAM as my budget allows and taking it from there?
Not knowing where you are starting from rig wise I can only offer that Intel will be releasing a new chip before the summer in all probability which will possibly address the meltdown problem and will be on a newer architecture. This will be one option. AMD have started taking some of the market share with their Ryzen chips and have good reports.
Any CPU upgrade will have associated cost of new Mobo and DDR4 Ram.
Personally I have just built my new system with coffeelake and z370 motherboard. Love it I would highly recommend it.
Run the benchmark from Userbenchmarks http://www.userbenchmark.com/ and we can see where your starting from
Sorry, I should have referenced the above. I’ve just started to see some peculiar sudden restarts when running DCS - the weather has been really hot so I’ll open up the casing and check if I need to run through the parts with some compressed air…but it might just be universe telling me that I need to get on with upgrading things. 
Per Linebacker’s feedback I was thinking of water cooling the CPU and looking at replacement GPU’s but if I can keep the rest of the rig going for the time being, that’s a good thing.
Quick and easy way to get better performance is a 1080 or similar. Have you a stock cooler on your cpu at present ? Your cpu should overclock to 4+ Ghz with good cooling
Just the stock cooler, yes. I’ll need to check if the gpu dimensions have changed also - I was just able to fit the 760 in the case, heh.
Well there you go. Upgrade path sorted now you just have to splash the cash on yourself. Happy shopping also iirc the twin fan 1080s are same length as previous cards. My 1080 is smaller than my old 580 and on par with the 970 it replaced
1 Like
New PC
UserBenchmarks: Game 134%, Desk 101%, Work 83%
CPU: Intel Core i7-7700K - 105.1%
GPU: Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti - 176.6%
SSD: SanDisk Ultra II 240GB - 79.7%
SSD: SanDisk SSD Plus 240GB - 55.4%
HDD: Seagate Desktop SSHD 1TB - 79.8%
RAM: Unknown TEAMGROUP-UD4-3200 2x8GB - 104.5%
MBD: MSI Z270 SLI PLUS (MS-7A59)
3 Likes
Mmmmmmmmmm
1 Like
Updated… 
UserBenchmarks: Game 94%, Desk 82%, Work 56%
CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K - 78.6%
GPU: Nvidia GTX 980 Ti - 104.9%
SSD: Samsung 850 Pro 512GB - 113%
HDD: WD Black 1TB (2010) - 57.2%
HDD: Seagate Desktop 1TB - 23.8%
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 1TB (2016) - 82.2%
RAM: Corsair Vengeance Pro DDR3 1600 C9 2x4GB - 49.2%
MBD: Asus Z87-PLUS
So at first glance, you should be overclocking your CPU … very easy to do on air. Also, get some good DDR3 RAM because your mobo looks like it can run it close to 3000 (O.C.).
Here’s my current specs …
UserBenchmarks: Game 103%, Desk 88%, Work 68%
CPU: Intel Core i7-3770K - 92.7%
GPU: Nvidia GTX 1070 - 113.3%
SSD: Adata Ultimate SU800 256GB - 88.3%
SSD: Adata Ultimate SU800 256GB - 86.4%
HDD: WD Black 2TB (2010) - 74.9%
RAM: Unknown F3-2400C10-4GTX 04CD F3-2400C10-8GTX 04CD F3-2400C10-4GTX 04CD F3-2400C10-8GTX 24GB - 83.9%
MBD: Asus P8Z77-V
That would actually be one of the next items…
I’m conflictual only because I’d really really love to finally get some MFG Crosswind rudders but…
1 Like
After motherboard, CPU, and memory upgrades. Gaming score went down slightly, but I suppose that the benchmarks have risen since my last run, Sept '16.
UserBenchmarks: Game 120%, Desk 97%, Work 97%
CPU: Intel Core i7-8700K - 119.9%
GPU: Nvidia GTX 1080 - 140%
SSD: Micron_M600_MTFDDAK1T0MBF 1TB - 63.9%
SSD: Crucial MX300 1TB - 79.4%
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws V DDR4 3200 C14 2x8GB - 102.3%
MBD: Asus ROG STRIX Z370-G GAMING (WI-FI AC)
2 Likes
My five year old computer with a 1080 Ti …
UserBenchmarks: Game 130%, Desk 90%, Work 74%
CPU: Intel Core i7-3770K - 87.7%
GPU: Nvidia GTX 1080-Ti - 177.6%
SSD: HP S700 500GB - 74.7%
SSD: Adata Ultimate SU800 256GB - 65.5%
SSD: Adata Ultimate SU800 256GB - 88.1%
HDD: WD Black 2TB (2010) - 74%
RAM: Unknown F3-2400C10-4GTX 04CD F3-2400C10-8GTX 04CD F3-2400C10-4GTX 04CD F3-2400C10-8GTX 24GB - 83.9%
MBD: Asus P8Z77-V
Not bad!
Ya, I finally got fed up of waiting and picked a 1080 Ti up today … ugh. My wallet is screaming in pain.
5 Likes
That Ti should last a looong time.
1 Like
Thanks bro … can you spare some change?
2 Likes
UserBenchmarks: Game 121%, Desk 86%, Work 60%
CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K - 82.9%
GPU: Nvidia GTX 1080-Ti - 160.5%
SSD: Samsung 840 Evo 250GB - 100%
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.14 2TB - 89.9%
RAM: G.SKILL RipjawsX DDR3 1600 C10 2x8GB - 51.1%
MBD: Gigabyte GA-Z97-HD3
Well - that 1080Ti makes a difference for sure! According to the site, it’s performing at 47th percentile, which I guess is what you take - it’s average for it’s class.
Now I need to find the time to learn to OC the CPU - it already has the watercooling installed so it’s just a question of testing what it can do.
You’re watercooling and you’re not overclocking yet?!!! Dude.
I personally found out how to overclock my 3770K to 4.5GHz on air (!) from a great little youtube video I found … the guy had my exact cpu and mobo.
Anyway, if you’re planning to keep that PC for a while you should find some faster memory … your mobo specs say up to 3100MHz DDR3. I would go with at least 2400 CL10 and to keep costs down, maybe go with 24GB (I think 16GB systems are old news). I think you have to install memory in pairs so two 8GB and and two 4GB if you can find the same type of memory for all four. I’m saying all this because that’s exactly what I did a few years ago. I had two 4GB and I found out I could get two 8GB of the exact same memory.
Haha yeah - I put in the cooler a month or so ago, which was purely a mechanical task…whereas overclocking is obviously equal to learning dark magic, so I’ve been putting it off.
Do you reckon the memory speed makes a big difference?