Hardware spec - buying advice

ThomasJohansen said:
Thanks for all your advices, really helpful.
Bought following
  • Ryzen 5 5600X
  • MSI B550-a PRO
  • 32 GB G.skill DDR4 3200 C16
Around 530 euro.
GPU will be later on.

Dont think I'll be messing with overclocking etc.
Click to expand...


Let us (me) know your results. I think it is finally time for me to do an upgrade. Was thinking of a similar build but just want to know if your performance and loading times improved. My initial thoughts are going with:

AMD Ryzen 7 5800X
ASUS ROG Strix B550-F
Patriot Viper Steel DDR4 16GB

Like you, keeping my 1070ti around for a while yet until prices for GPUs settle a bit more.
 
@Chris Lesperance
I was planning to write about my result, but I have some "issues" I haven't resolved yet. But here is the status so far.

As mentioned I bought this:
  • Ryzen 5 5600X
  • MSI B550-a PRO
  • 32 GB G.skill DDR4 3200 C16
  • waiting with GPU and reused my gtx970
  • reused samsung evo850 ssd.

Install problems
I did'nt wanted to reinstall windows, so used 20 hours of backing up my drive to a NAS. When done, I tried to move the drive but for starters the B550-a pro motherboard have a weird way of configuring boot devices and uefi installs override my ashi drive windows. Result to disconnect all drives, then it boots up on correct drive but ofcourse BSOD as I feared, giving me an aoddriver2 error. Googled and found out it was the old AMD overdrive program conflicting with Ryzen cpus. Moving all back to old motherboard, boot up and uninstall AMD overdrive. Then move back to new and now windows could boot up flawless.
2 days used...

Getting to know the new hardware
I cheaped out and reused my water cooling system, but the pump is a bit noisy if not controlled correctly, and my good old CPUspeedfan program dont work on this board. Lucky MSI have made a program for this. I went with the Dragon center, and it can control most of it, though its a bit bloated and it have a flaw, but more on that later in this.
The Ryzen CPU is a 3.7ghz and can be overclocked to 4.6ghz. But apparently it supposed to run overclocked because it constantly moves between 3.6ghz to 4.6ghz when it gets some load, yet it manage to keep temps down pretty well so no problem with that.

rFactor 2
Im a Le Mans guy, and it have been a dream to go with full field. I started with 40 AI cars and initial I'm glad I bought 32gb ram. I used the first 19 GB of ram just for that. I also use simhub with 8-9 overlays and controlling steringwheel buttons, buttonbox, pedal rumble and a rpm LED. Roughly 4-5 arduinos connected to it. This CPU only runs about 37-50% load and max 70degres, very impressive.

But... now I experience minor "time warps" and not in the corners or when the field is closed up on you, no its on straits among few cars. I have experienced this on my old cpu, and it was a throttling problem, so started to look at cpu.
I tried to prioritize cpu cores to simhub, rfactor2 etc. but did'nt help.
I then tried to lower AI to 30, it helped a little but still a problem.
I tried to change AI graphics settings to medium, small inprovement in frames but still timewarps.

In MSI dragon center I tried to lower clocks but some how it could'nt control the cpu clocks, it kept overclocking.
I eventually found "AMD Ryzen master" program and it can make it work, when fixed the clock to 4.3ghz (1000x43 at 1.3125 volts) I could minimize the time warps in rFactor2 to almost not existing.
Only downside is I have to open this program every time to fix it to 4.3ghz.

I do suspect it have some thing to do with my old GTX 970 which probably cant keep up with the cpu?

Other rFactor 2 problems vanished
Loading times have in proved a little. I can now resume a replay. My UI is more responsive, (mostly) I dont have to wait for a button to be highlighted until I can press it. Going back and forth in sessions works more smooth. I dont have direct drive wheel detail loss anymore.
So overall works great despite the small timewarp issues.

Screen recording
I also wanted to record my races and post the good ones, and what better to do so than to stream directly to youtube (hidden) and then public the good ones and delete the bad ones.
But found out even though this cpu only works 50% load with with rfactor etc. and there should be enough room for stream and I have a 300mpbs internet connection, I somehow can't deliver a good enough stream quality to make anything good. My conclusion is that I have to wait for a new graphic card since it can convert the stream by hardware.


If anyone have inputs on the timewarps I would like to hear more on that. for now I live with 35-70 fps on le mans with 30 cars and minimal timewarps.
 
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This is a bit of semantics, but that increase in frequency (to 4.6) is not considered overclocking, it is Ryzen's Precision Boost algorithm (equivalent to intel's turbo). It is how these chips are designed to optimize performance. No need to worry about it, or attempt to 'fix' it. Essentially, under load, if there is thermal headroom and voltage is safe, your cpu is going to boost (up to 4.6 Ghz frequency) until it hits predefined limits. See more here: https://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/3491-explaining-precision-boost-overdrive-benchmarks-auto-oc

Typically what is referred to as overclocking would either be setting an all core higher base frequency to run at all times, or use of Precision Boost Overdrive 2 to shift the frequency vs voltage curves with core optimizer. Your use of Ryzen Master was overclocking.

If you have fTPM enabled or a TPM device there is a known issue with 5000 chips causing cpu frequency spike and audio stutter. It is due to be addressed with an AGESA update.

If you haven't turned on the CPU/GPU latency bars in rf2, you should and pay attention to them. They will let you know whether the 'time warp' is gpu or cpu related. Even at base cpu settings, I doubt cpu is your issue (especially if only seeing 35-50% load). 970's had 4GB of Memory, not sure that would be enough for a big track and 40 cars. Doubt it will handle an additional load of encoding a stream. Long green bar good, short purple bar good. Smaller histograms better for each.

You are using a bunch of system ram. I just pulled up 42 cars at Sebring and only added like 4GB to my typical windows usage (maxed at about 13GB). "8-9 overlays" might be your 'time warp' issue.
 
@lordpantsington
Thx for your feedback. will activate the bars and check them, next time I race tonight.

Dont think I have fTPM activated. Will check.
With my old pc, also used 8-9 overlays. And same graphics settings.
So only change is number of AI's
 
ThomasJohansen said:
ctrl-c (purple bar) dont work. only ctrl-f (green bar)

cant see anywhere to configure this.
Click to expand...
Maybe check your mapping?
9cH5780
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This is where the bar should be.
NjlCOZt.jpg

Have you tried without any add-ons/overlay? Perhaps your install has something interfering?

I'd look into what the white bar means. (IIRC: not enough texture memory. If you can drop texture detail and get less white, that is definitely it.)
 
finally found it behind my simhub overlay.
Thought it should be under the left top green bar, and not in the right top....
now I can test :-)
GRAB_051.PNG
 
If by time warps you mean the whole simulation actually slows down for a brief moment, as if the sim is running on 1/10th of speed for 0.2 seconds, then that is in my experience due to CPU physics thread getting overloaded. I've had this happen on some poorly modded tracks with lots of AI cars. I don't think it should happen with official content though.

My best guess is there could be some background software interfering and consuming CPU, which cause the sim to run out of resources momentarily. I don't think overclocking makes much of a difference on modern Ryzens. I'm also not sure the in-game CPU bar will catch those short warps, but it's certainly worth checking out.
 
In this week I have updated the motherboard version, and the nvidia driver. I also lowered texture detail and changed from borderless to windowed. Even without overclocking/locking cpu clock, I think I have minimized the timewarp to almost nothing.

20220409105004_1.jpg


Did a 3 hour race last night at Le mans with 30 AI (lmp2/GTE). All the time with the green and purple bar visible. And not once did the purple bar move much. It kept like the picture below. I had a framerate between 35-65.
20220409001843_1.jpg

Sometimes the spikes got bigger and reached the edge but that's that.
What does those spikes represent?

But at Le mans I often get these artifacs around the start finish line, and always on the same 3 spots.
I always thought its was because my graphic card was maxed out but since the purple line doesnt react on this, I dont know anymore.
This picture is taken from an earlier session, but happened every time, in the "evening/night" hours.
vlcsnap-2022-01-27-23h06m44s522.png



My simhub overlays do sometimes begin to "slow down" whether its cpu or graphics I dont know. I have tried all sorts of ways to overcome this like locking cores to its process etc. but havent found the best solution yet. Also my direct wheel can loose connection at a start with 30 AI at lemans, i know this is CPU specific, since it happened alot with my old cpu if too many AI on Le mans.

@Chris Lesperance to sum up everything.
Maybe I would have benefited to buy a faster cpu with more cores?
or perhaps my GTX970 is a huge bottleneck?
But I can say that 32gb ram is worth it. rfactor2 process uses 11-13gb.
Screen recording will have to wait for new graphics. I thought the extra cpu could do the work but streaming is ruled out for now, it has to be hardware compressed by the graphicscard.
 
ThomasJohansen said:
But at Le mans I often get these artifacs around the start finish line, and always on the same 3 spots.
I always thought its was because my graphic card was maxed out but since the purple line doesnt react on this, I dont know anymore.
Click to expand...

The purple bar and histogram is CPU physics time. Nothing at all do with graphics and your strange artifacts there.
 
Another possibility is a VRAM maxed out problem. rF2 is a bit delicate with VRAM. As soon as you run out, you may start to see FPS drop by half.

GTX 970 has 4 GB VRAM, but only 3.5 GB is fast VRAM, the last 500 MB is slow due to some tricks Nvidia did (source). I noticed that a modern large track can easily use above 3 GB on maxed settings and that is with zero AI cars. Add around 50-60 MB per each AI car and you quickly get to a point where a 4 GB GPU, especially one with only 3.5 GB fast VRAM, becomes limiting.

I would not buy extra CPU cores. 5600X is the best AMD gaming CPU available and only Intel 12th gen can offer slightly more on single core performance, but the difference is small.
 
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Hi,

seems to be the right place to post my question.

At the moment, i´m using a 3700x, 32GB of RAM (3200) and 6900xt. I´m not really statisfied with the performance in rF2. The resolution of my monitor is UWQHD. The card is not fully occupied and friends got way more and more stable fps - but mostly with nvidia cards. Settings of the game is "high" in average / 14 visible cars

I don´t want to upgrade my mainboard (next gen - ryzen) - because it´s simply much money at the moment. So i decide to upgrade the AM4 board for the future with the most up to date cpu. At least i´m thinking about that.

Does anybody know, if the game benefits from a 5900x in this solution? (More cores - primarily for other softwares - not for gaming) or especially the new 5800x3d?

My aim-fps are about 100(+) in average, so i can cut the frames at 100. At the moment - especially at the start of the race - the game gets laggy sometimes and drops to 60fps. If it rains at dawn at the Nordschleife - game over. The problem is the lags - it seems, that - probably the cpu (?) - cannot handle the start. The GPU is - how i said - not fully occupied.
 
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Darwin Jones said:
Hi,

seems to be the right place to post my question.

At the moment, i´m using a 3700x, 32GB of RAM (3200) and 6900xt. I´m not really statisfied with the performance in rF2. The resolution of my monitor is UWQHD. The card is not fully occupied and friends got way more and more stable fps - but mostly with nvidia cards. Settings of the game is "high" in average / 14 visible cars

I don´t want to upgrade my mainboard (next gen - ryzen) - because it´s simply much money at the moment. So i decide to upgrade the AM4 board for the future with the most up to date cpu. At least i´m thinking about that.

Does anybody know, if the game benefits from a 5900x in this solution? (More cores - primarily for other softwares - not for gaming) or especially the new 5800x3d?

My aim-fps are about 100(+) in average, so i can cut the frames at 100. At the moment - especially at the start of the race - the game gets laggy sometimes and drops to 60fps. If it rains at dawn at the Nordschleife - game over. The problem is the lags - it seems, that - probably the cpu (?) - cannot handle the start. The GPU is - how i said - not fully occupied.
Click to expand...
Yeah you would definatley benefit from even a 5600X/5800X, the single core performance increase is noticable from last gen.
 
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