New Haswell system up and running

[JimmiG]

Just finished my new build:

 

Gigabyte GA-Z87X-D3H, Intel i7 4770K, 8GB Corsair Vengeance LP. Also got a new case, the Fractal Design XL R2, a bunch of fans, new CPU cooler etc.

 

The rest I kept from my old system:

GTX 460 1GB, hard drives, SSD etc.

 

I'll replace the video card once the GTX 760 is announced and performance/price info is available - then I'll know whether to buy that, the GTX 770 or find a good price on an older GTX 670 or 660 TI. It doesn't really matter for P3D at 1680x1050, but for other games or when I get a bigger monitor, it makes a difference.

 

I've installed P3D 1.4, FTX PNW and the airports located in the "Bermuda Triangle of Frame Rates" (the area north of Seattle - Diamond Point, Anacortes, Skagit etc.) and done some initial testing.

 

Compared to my old system (AMD Phenom II X4 3.7 GHz), there's a big difference. The new system seems to be about three times faster. At Anacortes, with settings nearly maxed, I would get about 8-9 FPS on the AMD system, I'm now getting something in the mid 20's with small drops to ~21 FPS. This is excellent, since the system is still running at stock speeds, and this area has always been the heaviest on the FPS. So my new "worst case" FPS is now ~21+ FPS instead of 8 or 9 FPS.

 

I haven't switched to the FPS-friendly FTX Traffic yet, so that might buy me another several FPS.

 

Then I switched from the C337 to the Carenado 182T, and the FPS dropped to about 16 FPS (~5-6 FPS on the old system). I've said it before, there's clearly something wrong with the glass panel in this add-on. Still, once I've overclocked, I should be able to get just over 20 FPS with that too.

[utley]

I wouldnt waste money on a GTX770 card just yet. If you want a big increase without the wallet catching fire, get a GTX670 because its basically the same thing.

[flyinion]

I wouldnt waste money on a GTX770 card just yet. If you want a big increase without the wallet catching fire, get a GTX670 because its basically the same thing.

 

 

I don't think so.  I've seen benchmarks of the 770 running over the 680 and leaving a 670 in the dust.  For the price of the 670.  I was going to get a 670 until I saw those benchmarks and the pricing.

 

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6994/nvidia-geforce-gtx-770-review

 

http://lanoc.org/review/video-cards/6498-evga-gtx-770-acx?start=6

[utley]

I don't think so.  I've seen benchmarks of the 770 running over the 680 and leaving a 670 in the dust.  For the price of the 670.  I was going to get a 670 until I saw those benchmarks and the pricing.

 

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6994/nvidia-geforce-gtx-770-review

 

http://lanoc.org/review/video-cards/6498-evga-gtx-770-acx?start=6

Well if they are the same price, definitely get the 770! Otherwise, both of these cards carry the same exact chip, the exact same amount of processors, and the exact same number of transistors. The difference is the 770 is unlocked and overclocked 1ghz in memory speed.

[flyinion]

Well if they are the same price, definitely get the 770! Otherwise, both of these cards carry the same exact chip, the exact same amount of processors, and the exact same number of transistors. The difference is the 770 is unlocked and overclocked 1ghz in memory speed.

 

 

So, I just checked the EVGA website and it looks like they did start dropping the price of the 670 by about $40 for a comparable edition card vs. the 770.  However, if you read the first page of the Anandtech review, they are saying the 770 is a 680 on steroids, not a 670.  The 770 is still cheaper than a 680.  So, for the original selling price of a 670 you're getting a 680 on crack 

[utley]

I wonder what the 780s will be like...

[Ripcord]

I don't think so.  I've seen benchmarks of the 770 running over the 680 and leaving a 670 in the dust.  For the price of the 670.  I was going to get a 670 until I saw those benchmarks and the pricing.

 

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6994/nvidia-geforce-gtx-770-review

 

http://lanoc.org/review/video-cards/6498-evga-gtx-770-acx?start=6

 

Were they playing Crysis?  Because it won't help you that much with FSX.

[flyinion]

Were they playing Crysis?  Because it won't help you that much with FSX.

 

A variety of stuff was benchmarked.  Yes I know it's not a huge difference where FSX is concerned, but in my case at least FSX is not the only thing that my computer is used for.  I assume that might be the case for many others as well.  I was just coming in from the angle that if someone was already considering a 670 why not go for the 770 which is in the same price range the 670 used to be in and blows it and the 680 out of the water for other non-fsx applications.

[JimmiG]

We'll see about the GPU. My only real requirement is at least 2GB of VRAM for Skyrim with third-party HD textures and X-Plane with maxed texture res. Also, under 160W TDP and $299 would be nice. The upcoming GTX 760 looks like it would fit the bill.

 

I'm in no hurry. The new CPU will be enough for me to spend a lot of time re-discovering P3D and OrbX scenery. Just making my first attempts at overclocking now. Currently at 4.3 GHz at 1.205V. Room temperature is 28C - not using AC since summer is considered a rare meteorological phenomena in Sweden. Just point a table fan at your face and wait 2 days and summer will be over

 

 

The temp really picks up when you start overclocking, but it's not too bad. Beyond 4.3 GHz it really starts heating up since I had to go higher on the voltage. 4.3 may be the "24/7" sweet-spot for quietness and reasonable efficiency. Those who don't mind 85C temps and fans blazing at 100% can probably push 4.6 GHz easily with a good CPU. Personally I'm not sure whether it's worth it for an extra .3 GHz.

[Dukester]

There's been many reports of excessive heat when OC'ing these Haswell chips at least compared to the previous Ivy & Sandy bridge CPU's. It seems it's a trait of the Haswell or at least the 1st batch releases. Be interesting to see if that changes as more batch runs are released.

But then when your getting 4+Ghz with little effort you can't really complain.

How's the smoothness of FSX from your initial test runs?

[JimmiG]

There's been many reports of excessive heat when OC'ing these Haswell chips at least compared to the previous Ivy & Sandy bridge CPU's. It seems it's a trait of the Haswell or at least the 1st batch releases. Be interesting to see if that changes as more batch runs are released.

But then when your getting 4+Ghz with little effort you can't really complain.

How's the smoothness of FSX from your initial test runs?

 

I'm quite happy with my current overclock. It can definitely go higher, but I'm not sure I would notice the difference between say 4.5 GHz and 4.3 GHz. The temp would be much higher for sure. It's a 4.6% difference - that's an increase from 21 to 22 FPS, assuming FPS scales 100% with clock speed. Haswell is supposedly faster than Sandy/Ivy Bridge, so you can get away with a lower overclock and lower power consumption, which is nice.

 

Haven't done too much testing yet. Re-installing all add-ons one by one, which is a painfully slow process. However compared to my old AMD system, the difference is huge. You can tell that OrbX designed their scenery with a 4+ GHz Intel system in mind. I did actually manage to push the FPS down to the high teens at S43 (with nearby W16 activated), autogen at Extremely Dense and every single option ticked in the W16 and S43 control panels. I don't even want to think about the frame rate my old system would have produced - I would have been lucky to break 5 FPS...

[JimmiG]

Well, the final piece arrived today in the form of the GTX 670 (KFA2 GeForce GTX 670 2GB EX OC). I didn't expect any miracles in Prepar3D, and true enough, there's no difference. Literally no more than a 0.3 FPS difference at most, in the case of Anacortes with the Carenado C337.

So if you're on a budget and you only play FSX/Prepar3D, save some money by getting a slower video card (as long as it has at least 1GB of VRAM) and put it towards a faster CPU instead.

 

What the video card will allow me to do is obviously play modern games like Skyrim with texture mods, Witcher 2 and the upcoming Witcher 3 at high settings etc. X-Plane 10 is another example where 1GB of VRAM is not enough at the highest settings, which causes the FPS to plummet in some situations (from 25+ to 5 FPS).