GTX 1660 (Ti?) or RTX 2070 Super

[FlyingsCool]

My son just gave me one of his old computers and I need to choose a graphics card to purchase for it.

I'll be using the computer mostly for flight simulation and and amateur music recording (I currently use Mixcraft Pro Studio and will probably get Pro Tools someday). I'm a heavy FSX user, just started using XP11 a little (but have ended up back at FSX lately), and am thinking of upgrading to P3Dv4.5, and, given my investment in FSX, will likely use all three (maybe not if I can get P3D up to speed quickly, but I have thousands of dollars invested in FSX).

The computer is a blank Win10 i7-4790K, MSI Gaming 5 MB, 16 GB of memory, 2x 1TB SSD's plus I'll add a probably a 5TB (or more?) 7200 RPM Disk drive to it for storage, and that's probably where I'll record music to.

So I'm thinking as noted either an nVidia GTX 1660 (~$200 - $270)(likely either an XC Ultra or Ti) or the just released RTX 2070 Super ($500). I was originally just going with the 1660 because I figure it's good enough for FSX. But then MSFS2020 was announced with Ray Tracing and I figured I'd go for the 2070 Super. I'd rather go cheaper, but if I thought it was worth it, I'd go for the bigger (, except nobody is selling any yet...).

But now, after some thought, I'm thinking maybe the 1660 is still the better choice. I'm thinking it's still great for the simulators and will be fine for the next year or so, and by the time MSFS2020 is actually released, a new and better generation of graphics cards will have been released and I'll upgrade to what I need then and save some pretty serious to me cash now.

What do y'all think?

[jeansy]

Trying to build a pc based on speculation on a program that has no definitive min or rec specs will lead you down a rabbit warren

Even if you go the biggest card, will your motherboard support it,

have you enough power

Will your current be ram fast enough

Do you have enough space (me im already at 1.8tb with p3d)

Noting your cpu is already dated and slow my current means will it be enough

Again for a program thats many moons away from release with next to no hardware requirements and only internet user speculation you might be looking in the wrong direction just like the people who did the same before fsx was released only to find they built the wrong PCs

Short answer, knock your socks off but personally you should be focusing on what you are using now and what are your current bottlenecks for the software your using now

You may well find by the release ratheon cards might be the prefered cards or amd chipsets could be the preference

There very well could be a new 3000 series that ****s on the 2000 series of gtx cards

A lot can change from now until the release and even the first patch of MSFS2020

Theres a lot of hype for something we know very little of

[FlyingsCool]

Yeah, it's a relatively old computer, but better than my current...

(so I think you're saying go with the 1660 and build up again when I need it... I'm pretty sure I agree with you)
(4 GHz is slow?)

Hmm, I'm pretty sure the MB can handle the 2070, it's got two PCI 3.0 x16 slots, and I'll only need one of them (I'll use the other for another 1TB SSD).

Given it's too early to worry about ray tracing at this point, the next question is, will I see a noticeable improvement with the 2070 in FSX/P3D4/XP11, or is the 1660 already fast enough for these?

Given I'm happy enough with overclocked 3.8GHz system with a 1550 (but which gets too hot in the summer), I'm pretty sure I'll be happy with the 1660, but I'm looking for others with experience with the cards.

Thanks

[jeansy]

Yeah, it's a relatively old computer, but better than my current...

(so I think you're saying go with the 1660 and build up again when I need it... I'm pretty sure I agree with you)
(4 GHz is slow?)

Hmm, I'm pretty sure the MB can handle the 2070, it's got two PCI 3.0 x16 slots, and I'll only need one of them (I'll use the other for another 1TB SSD).

Given it's too early to worry about ray tracing at this point, the next question is, will I see a noticeable improvement with the 2070 in FSX/P3D4/XP11, or is the 1660 already fast enough for these?

Given I'm happy enough with overclocked 3.8GHz system with a 1550 (but which gets too hot in the summer), I'm pretty sure I'll be happy with the 1660, but I'm looking for others with experience with the cards.

Thanks

it all depends on what addons you have and what settings you set, there is no set PC as everything has a impact in some shape or form, running the sim, at 4096 with max autogen and HD AI maxed out with lots of heavy payware airports with all the features turned on, and flying a aircraft that has trillions of polys, in UHD multilayered cloud formations will grind most PCs to a slow stutter

as for the 2070, theres mixed results as some people expected a sliver bullet, again if you plan to have everything maxed out and all the latest greatest addons, yes, you will struggle regardless what you have

me personally the 2000s cards are a bit of a overkill for the current systems as it doesnt enable you to use many of the features that come with the tech, reason behind the current sims dont have that ability, so you buying something that only provides you partial capability for what you paid for . (i could be wrong but I havent seen any posts here or on facebook stating otherwise)

I run a 1080 card with a 6700K OC at 4.5hz and even today its a dated system but its more than plenty for the P3D engine at 60-80% max settings and other games, I have the option of VR if i want to spend the money on a set.