hi all, im currently running a 14900ks and 4090 solely in VR.
i was generally GPU bound so never really considered upgrading my cpu before GPU but have noticed that with the implementation of FR / quad views in SU2 beta, there seems to be much more load on the CPU. Furthermore, dense airports, complex aircraft and vatsim traffic all seem to put a load on that cpu usage quite a bit and that is mostly the situations that i fly in.
anyone here have experience on the kind of gain i can expect going from the 14900ks to 9950x3d in VR using SU2 in MSFS 2024. i understand that i shouldnt really expect massive gains but would they be at least be helpful in reducing stutters, and utilizing the 3d cache that these amd processors have? (ive never used an AMD processor before)
A few forum users including @TenPatrol have made the change from Intel to AMD X3D cpu’s and reported good results. Some posters use the 9950 or 9900, but I think you will find that for MSFS the 9800X3D is considered the sweet spot.
Hopefully plenty of users who have made the switch can advise.
Following this with interest, as I currently use the 13900 KSS but will switch to AMD X3D later this year or early next year.
You will be pleasantly surprised with the 9950X3D as it will be a lot faster than the latest intel chips due to the X3D cache.
The default behaviour is when MSFS is in focus, the slower cores will be disabled to force the game on the fast cores with X3D cache. It essentially acts as a 9800X3D.
I do advice you use process lasso instead to force MSFS to cores 0-7 and all other programs to 8-15 and prevent those non gaming cores to be disabled. This way background processes and programs like GSX, Fenix, Volanta, Firefox, whatever will run on the other cores and free the faster cores for MSFS only.
The 9950X3D has 0.5Ghz more, in the past if I remember well in the FSX times, each 0.1Ghz was an around 2.5% more in performance when CPU main thread limited and the same IPC.
Nowadays is it still needed Lasso?, not enough the Windows Balance power option?. I have the 9800X3D, and thinking to upgrade to the 9950X3D with better prices now.
I went from a two years 13900KS to a 7800X3D, and a week after having the 7800X3D I swap it to a 9800X3D, and in smoothness (no stutters) the 9800X3D was clear superior to the 7800X3D, the 7800X3D was a worrying step behind, though the 9800X3D was in pair with the 13900KS more or less in performance.
I think that being stuck in a streamed sim FS is giving up tons of it’s original ground in graphics enhancements trying to force feed it streaming. I’d bet it’s an unoptimized pig now because 100gb. In theory it should be running leaps and bounds better than 2020 on any upper tier last-gen hardware. Kind of tough to chase it with hardware in it’s current cluster state.
No, for gaming only, no, even core vs core when not gaming and X3D not needed, the 14900KS P-Core is the winner. If you have temp throttling problems (and then worse performance by that) maybe better to try for FS20/24 could be to disable all the 16 e-Cores in BIOS, than buying a fresher CPU.
Better maybe would be spend that MOBO-CPU money in an RTX 5090 at MSRP, and maybe a new 1200W ATX 3.1 if needed also, and sell the 4090, possibly would be more or less in the same investment, and 5090 is around 30% faster and with DLSS4 is 40% faster.
Or maybe, buy it, test it yourself, tell us how it went, and return it if not convince you haha.
I proved (to myself at least) that FS24 utilizes the X3D cores.
How, you ask?
I tested my 7950X3D / 3090 Ti (so, no frame gen) in three different scenarios, using 1080p CPU-bottleneck settings, flying the Bonanza over the Sahara.
For the three tests I simply changed the CPU Affinity using Process Lasso.
Hyperthreading enabled, Bitsum Ultimate Power Plan, Bitsum Core Parking, HAGS OFF, Game Mode OFF.
The sim assigned to cores 0-7 only. Everything else (except core Windows processes) on cores 8-15.
Median 160.9 FPS
The sim assigned to cores 8-15 only. Everything else on cores 0-7.
Median 122.2 FPS
The sim assigned to cores 0-15. Everything else on cores 0-15.
Median 105.8
The 9800X3D has a frequency advantage over the 9950X3D. But Process Lasso can unlock the dual-chiplet CCD for an advantage. Without PL it probably doesn’t matter to the sim.
And don´t forget disable in BIOS intel CPU virtualisation, for to have better results in intels, in my AMD now isn´t noticeable the improvement like with the 13900 was.
I went a bit different route with my 9950X3D. It has been a month long roller coaster. But I am definitely happy with the 9950X3D in terms of smoothness. I have CPPC set to frequency and use PL to move the games to CCD0 only. I get on average 85-90 fps natively and when I lock it to 60 and FG boost to 120 (my monitor refresh rate). I stay at a constant 120 fps. It truly has been a game changer in terms of not having to worry about which setting to tweak here, make it halfway to NYC and then have to reduce TLOD to make sure it doesn’t crash on me (Like I had to with my 7900X3D).
Is there a review of the 9950X3D vs 9800X3D disabling the non X3D CCD of the 9950X3D?
Edit: Here there is a review in Korean that we can translate the page, around a 1.5% at 4
k in performance, and even a 14900 comparison, and… at 4K the 9950X3D is worse than the 14900 by the minimal even in lows fps, 1080p a minimal higher, if I am correct understanding the graphs. https://quasarzone.com/bbs/qc_bench/views/94164
Definitive it not worth for gaming to swap from a 9800X3D, and not from a 14900, if you haven´t got spare money and you don´t use it with a lot of other programs or MSFS other programs related etc..
I miss also with the no X3D CCD activated the wattage consume compared with the 9800X3D, but their will be in pair sure.
In March 2025, I wrote:
I have Ryzen 7 9800X3D and I’m not even considering switching to the 9950X3D. The 9800X3D is so good that I’m waiting for its true successor, which the 9950X3D definitely isn’t.
Much easier from within PL, and you can also control CPU Priorities. Are changes you make in Task Manager carried over after a reboot? With PL they get loaded as a profile when Windows starts.
