Agreed on both Intel and AMD being a solid choice. As for AMD being “superior” for gaming, for graphics intensive games like MSFS, unless your CPU is outside the generations that the MSFS team recommends, your game will be GPU limited, not CPU limited. Unless you are running those games at a resolution of 1080p or less, the CPU will likely never be a limiting factor.
Don’t get me wrong, your overall system performance will improve with better components, including the CPU. But don’t get too tied up in knots about your choice of CPU as long as its a mid-range desktop CPU or better.
My 9900K is six years old and my 3080TI is 3 1/2 years old. It’s probably time to make a change and I assume the new components will again last some years (before I got the 9900K I had a 7700K and a GTX980).
Well, actually I could even wait another year as my setup works fine for what I do in FS2020 and FS2024 will not be ready until early 2026.
I agree with this, but it also depends on the resolution. I know that few people fly @ 1080p, but for them, and to a lesser extent 2K (and especially 4K) the CPU can play a pretty big role.
You’re right, though. With my system (7950X3D, 3090 Ti, 64GB RAM) running @ 4K I am definitely GPU-bottlenecked.
If I set things up to favor a CPU bottleneck (1080p with CPU intensive settings) there’s a massive difference when I assign the sim to the vCache cores, compared to the non-Vcache cores. Basically,
Median: 161 FPS/ 6.2ms on the Vcache cores.
Median: 122 FPS/ 8.2ms on non-Vcache cores.
So the sim is definitely using the X3D technology. How much depends on a lot of things.
Alot of your base component decisions depend on your needs other than gaming and financial bandwidth. If money were no object, I would probably do a new system build every 2-3 years. Historically, though, my builds carry me for at least 5 years. Prior to jumping on the DDR5 bandwagon with a 12th gen Intel processor, I had a build that lasted me 8 years.
Only buy AMD X3D CPUs for gaming nowadays. The best CPUs currently are 9800X3D and 7800X3D. Intel is complete garbage and it will take some time until they catch up again.
When you buy AMD X3D CPUs the RAM speed doesn’t really matter since the super large 3D cache of the CPU is designed to minimize RAM operations. Anyway, if you plan to play in 4K, RAM speed and timings will matter even less since you are completely bottlenecked by the GPU, even running on a 4090.
32 GB RAM is plenty enough for 99% of all games, but games like SIMs are different beasts and you can benefit from 48 or 64 GB in edge cases which would lead to smoother gameplay (less stutter).
If you go for AMD CPUs the mainboard serie to go is actually B650e since it is the best value for money option while still offering future proof high-end features like PCI 5.0 for both GPU and M2 NVME SSD. A VERY good option is the Asus Rog Strix B650e-f WIFI (with PCI5 for GPU and 1st SSD plus 2 more PCI4 SSD slots.) Anyway, make sure to get an e-series board, to avoid too much PCI lane sharing.
I am running a rig with 4090, 7800X3D and above mentioned mainboard with 32 GB of RAM and i play MSFS2024 maxed out on Ultra (TLOD 400, OLOD 170) in native(!) 4K with RT and no frame generation. FPS usually between 50-90. GPU and CPU are undervolted and therefore clocking to the moon, running cool and quiet on air coolers. As a normal gamer do not overclock, nowadays you benfit more from undervolting.
Thx for the test results - it looks like the performance gain on the Vcores only still holds up in 4k. While I haven’t run any scientific tests yet, by just looking at the fps counter I cannot see any difference from running just on the Vcores (balanced power plan) versus running on Vcores + non-Vcores (ultimate power plan) on my 7900x3d.
Interestingly enough, on my 7900x3d with PBO I set my max boost override (MBO) to -100 (negative 100) and have each core undervolted. With both MBO and undervolting keeping the heat down it allows my cores to maintain a higher boost.
Nothing wrong with the B650E for gaming, assuming you aren’t trying to do extreme overclocking. The X670E typically has superior VRM’s but in reality, when undervolting, you will stress the VRM’s less anyway.
That being said, I’m personally a fan of getting the best, most stable power delivery one can afford. That one of the reasons I went with the X670E motherboard I bought. Budget also played a part, since I couldn’t justify spending $$$ for a top of the line X870E board.
I do like the X670E advantage of 44 PCIe lanes versus 36 lanes for the B650E. Again, for this sim, that won’t matter that much, unless you are putting a lot of drives in the box.
On a budget, a quality B650E board is a fine choice.
As you said, it’s important to get the ‘E’ board. There’s a big difference between the B650 and the B650E.
The Passmark Benchmark score for the 7800X3D at $449 is 34,263.
The Passmark Benchmark score for the 9800X3D at $479 is 40,082.
The Passmark Benchmark score for my 14900K at $409 is 66,500.
As I’ve said before, both AMD and Intel make solid chips. Neither is “garbage.” But yes, please continue to enjoy about 1/2 the performance of my Intel CPU on your system at $40 more and consider my system “garbage.”
Agreed. Two more excellent choices hitting the market. Competition is good and I love having a plethora of quality options when doing a system build. The new Intel line-up also scores well.
Passmark Benchmark for the 9950X is 66,500 at $569
Passmark Benchmark for the 7950X3D is 62,500 at $499
Passmark Benchmark for the Ultra 9 285K is 68,000 at $569
Passmark Benchmark for the Ultra 7 265K is 58,800 at $299
Choices, choices, choices. For bargain builders, it’s looking like the Ultra 7 265K is claiming the sweetspot.
I was stricktly speaking gaming here.
As for real life performance in gaming, there is nothing that comes close to the X3D chips from AMD in terms of fps per watt, fps per dollar, stability and reliability. Anyone who argues against this is simply uninformed.
In a productive scenario tables are turning and only the x950 of the AMD X3D chips remain somewhat competetive compared to the older Intel chips (the new Ultra series is simply garbage), but still Intel suffers from degradation which is a well known issue that will lead to the death of your CPU at some point.
Interestingly enough, in MSFS24 the regular X3D chips aren’t quite that superior as in other games, which is a result of the way the SIM is implemented and its specific demands regarding CPU processing.
I personally am not a fan of any brand. I simply use what is best for my personal usecases. I actually had an Intel 2500K CPU which was a legendary CPU for many years. Since I mainly focus on gaming i run what is best for gaming and what is the best value for money, in this case RTX 4090 and 7800X3D on a B650e board. All of these were bought for their regular prices.
Comparing AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D and Ryzen 7 7800X3D processors with Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, i9 14900K and 13900K using benchmarking programs like Passmark or Cinebench makes no sense because these CPUs are fundamentally different. For gaming, there are currently no better CPUs than Ryzen 7 9800X3D and Ryzen 7 7800X3D. As gamers, we care about FPS not scores in Passmark or Cinebench.
At the moment, in terms of FPS, Ryzen 7 9800X3D (the king of gaming) and Ryzen 7 7800X3D are the clear winners and that’s the brutal truth.
