Hello lovely people! I would sincerely appreciate your guidance with choosing between two (pre-built) desktop gaming systems, primarily for flight and racing sims.
One system - slightly cheaper - has an RTX 5080 paired with an AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D, and here are the other details specifications:
AMD AM5 Ryzen 7 9800X3D
NVIDIA MSI RTX 5080 16GB (Gaming Trio OC)
MSI Pro B650-S WIFI
Kingston NV3 Gen4 NVME SSD 2TB
DDR5 2x16GB 5200MHZ Kingston Fury Beast
Corsair ICUE H100I RGB Elite White CPU Cooler
Vida Heracles Black ATX 3.1 80+ Gold 850W PSU
Since I gave up building systems myself in the good old pre-Pentium days, I am not really qualified to make an intelligent assessment of whether the system above is well-balanced or features any obvious Achilles heel.
The other system would be a standard Dell/Alienware Aurora R16, with an Intel 14900KF and RTX 4090. This system is a little more expensive, but I would gladly pay the difference if it is regarded worthwhile. I do not expect to do any other particularly demanding work with whichever system gets chosen.
Realistically, I doubt that I will do any significant upgrades (beyond adding RAM or storage) myself during the expected lifetime of the machine.
I surrender to your vastly superior knowledge, and welcome with gratitude any advice or guidance as to which way to jump.
Thank you in advance, and I look forward to joining you soon in the virtual skies!
It is difficult. The 9800X3D is undoubtedly the better CPU. However you would not be able to get the best out of it using a 5080, because you will be VRAM limited with the 5080 in a way that that you wouldn’t with a 4090.
I would go for the 14900K and 4090, as the 4090 is the better GPU and you will need the 4090’s VRAM, to run ULTRA.
The best solution would be to get a custom build and have the 9800X3D and a 4090.
If you were to do this, try get 64GB RAM as well. My RAM usage is often well above 32GB in MSFS.
Yes, I agree that 9800X3D and a 4090 would be the best combination, but it doesn’t appear to be available… hence the dilemma!
I am not sure if DLSS4 will ride to the rescue and save the 5080 from what appear to be rather poor benchmarks in native rendering. A bit like the old saying with car engines: “there is no replacement for displacement”… and I regret waiting for the 50-series and losing out on a year of 4090 performance!
There is no shortage of horror stories about the 13th and 14th generation i9 chips, but I suppose I’m willing to give Intel the benefit of the doubt… and I am probably leaning that way until someone else convinces me otherwise!
I agree that 64GB is probably overkill at the moment, but it is actually cheaper to upgrade at build to 64GB than it would be to replace the installed RAM in either system.
The first system builders advised me against adding 2x16GB to the existing 2x16GB, as it would slow down to a noticeable degree.
In the case of Dell/Alienware, I believe their motherboards have only two RAM slots anyway. At least here in the UK, the upgrade from 32GB (5600) to 64 (5200) is less than the cost of buying the RAM myself and installing at a later date.
I’ve been surprised at the widespread early availability of 50-series cards in pre-builts in the UK, but I don’t think the 5090 systems make a good value proposition (especially if you don’t plan on using them for non-gaming purposes).
I wouldn’t go in the direction of Intel. I would recommend getting a PC with a Ryzen 7 9800X3D and an RTX 5080. Also, 16GB of VRAM in the RTX 5080 will be more than enough for a long time.
As for the RAM, 2x16GB is a bit on the small side - I’d suggest going with 2x32GB from G.Skill instead.
Gigabyte is known for their graphics cards having fewer issues with coil whine compared to MSI. You might want to check if it’s possible to choose the RTX 5080 from Gigabyte instead of MSI.
Thanks @TenPatrol! I have appreciated your suggestions for other board members, too - the community really benefits from your contributions, so thank you.
The great irony is that I’ve been sitting next to an unopened box containing the 9800X3D / 5080 system for a couple of weeks now… and I have resisted opening it! I’ve been awaiting for some thorough tests by the likes of SimHanger on YouTube to decide whether to go with 5080 or back to 4090.
The system builder has a good relationship with MSI, which is probably why the originally-intended Gigabyte motherboard was swapped for an MSI Pro B650-S WIFI. Hopefully my Arctis Pro headset will block out any coil whine from the MSI graphics card!
I was a bit concerned that some corners may have been cut with the other components of 9800X3D system listed above, to get the system built and out of the door for a reasonable price. But the company have been great with answering my questions, and everything was delivered within days of the 5080 launch, so I can’t really complain (especially with a 5-year warranty).
It’s 2:30am and I always go to bed thinking this is going to come down to a coin toss!
Do you really think this? I se VRAM above 16GB most of the time with third party airports and aircraft. But of course it depends on what people do in the sim.
@dworoberts Is there no way you would consider a custom build and then you can choose exactly what you want?
I decided against a “full custom” build for three reasons:
I didn’t feel confident that my choices would be any better than those of professionals who knock these things together all day and night. Try as I might, not sure if I know one motherboard from another these days!
At the time (about three weeks ago), there was absolutely no stock of 4090s anywhere, and then Dell popped up with the option of an Alienware R16 with a 14900KF and the 4090. The system was actually greyed out because the base 4080 Super is properly unavailable, but you can still build the system if you choose a 4090.
I got a stonking deal on the 9800X3D and 5080 system. Even choosing those exact components again in my own build from the same company would cost at least 30% more.
If I stick with the first system, I would have enough change for a nice new OLED (32” or ultrawide) monitor before hitting the price of the 4090 Dell system. I don’t want price to determine the decision, but it does put the difference between the two systems into perspective!
I run an RTX 4090 / i9-14900KF for MSFS / MSFS 2024, DCS, XP 12, IL-2 Sturmovik: Great Battles, Asseto Corsa, Assetto Corsa Competizione, Forza Horizon 5, Forza Motosport, and some others I’m sure I’ve forgot and every single one of the runs very good fully maxed out. I wouldn’t recommended and i9-14900KF due to serious issues with these chips. I was very lucky because I was able to get an RMA for the CPU, updated my BIOS to the latest version did a few tweaks with it and it’s been running like an absolute champ.
EDIT: I would like to mentinon that I play at 1440p which I’m sure is helping with performance as the RTX 4090 is a 4K card.
It has to be the AMD cpu every time. Steer clear of the current Intel offerings. As for the GPU well of course the best you can get. But advice that basically suggests that only a card with 90 in its name is suitable is just wrong. If that were the case anyone else with a lower spec card couldn’t play and that’s clearly not the case. As mentioned also the VRAM thing is an acknowledged bug and will hopefully be improved with updates.
As long as the bios is updated the serious issues with these chips go away and the i9-14900KF ends up being a beast at whatever is thrown at it.
I bought a Dell Alienware R16 with the i9-14900KF and 4080 Super with 32gb RAM and a 1tb SSD for a little less than $2200.00. I added 1 year premium warranty and the total including tax was $2400.00. I used my Dell rewards from the purchase to get a gaming keyboard and mouse for which I paid nothing. Retail they go for $280.00. It was too good of a deal to pass up.
At the time Dell had it on sale with a 4090 for $2800.00. I didn’t want to spend that much even though that was a good deal and I have no regrets with my purchase and have zero problems with my i9-14900KF.
Well, let’s see if it gets fixed. And even so, whether things will still go over 16GB VRAM.
I am not saying that people without a 4090 can’t play. I am saying it would be a shame to waste to have the best CPU and not be able to run ULTRA because of a lack of VRAM.
9800x3d, no doubt about that. Would not opt for a 5080. Not enough vram. On my system vram creeps to 15gb. No addons or thrids party mfsf apps
5090 or 4090 is better. Or wait for and 5080 super or ti.
I just built a system with the 9800x3d, rtx 5080 FE, and 64GB of Ram. My Monitor is 1440p 240hz.
I went with the 5080 instead of the 5090 because of the extreme cost of the 5090. I also feel the Sim has yet to be optimized, and it’s got issues with extreme VRAM usage.
Those issues will eventually be ironed out, and the 5090 will likely be overkill.
I run textures at high instead of ultra and this is the compromise to account for the excessive use of VRAM currently.
I use Multi Frame Gen x3 which gives a very smooth sim experience.
I am extremely happy with my new build. No regrets whatsoever.
Ohh and I almost forgot…My RTX 5080 FE has a very nice overclock which puts the speed of the card at the same level of a 4090.
I didn’t trust Intel and decided to return my i9-13900K to them. They refunded me, even though I never actually had any issues with it. They deceived us all, so I no longer believe their promises. After over 30 years of being loyal to Intel, I’ve switched to AMD and bought a Ryzen 7 9800X3D. I started with the MSI X670E Tomahawk WIFI motherboard and now use the MSI X870E Carbon WIFI.
I hope your i9-14900KF serves you well for many years to come!
edit
Just to clarify, before upgrading to the Ryzen 7 9800X3D, I initially bought a Ryzen 7 7800X3D along with the MSI X670E Tomahawk WIFI motherboard. After moving to the 9800X3D, I passed that entire setup down to my son (Ryzen 7 7800X3D, MSI X670E Tomahawk WIFI, 32GB RAM DDR5) - who also ditched Intel as a result.
If it was me I’d also favour the 9800X3D with 4090 combo for MSFS.
Don’t think you will get enough out of the 5090 and I prefer the higher VRam of the 4090 over the 5080.
It’s really difficult to find a new RTX 4090 these days. I recall that about a month or two ago, I managed to find one for a forum user on an Italian online store and he ended up buying Gigabyte RTX 4090 Gaming OC. Unfortunately, I can’t remember the name of the store.