I’m nearing retirement, and I have an opportunity to update my system before funds become reduced. I have about $2500-$3000 Canadian to spend on what ideally will be the last system I invest heavily in before I can’t function any longer.
This is my goal:
MSFS Premium, all ultra settings, with a minimum 30 FPS in dense scenery (Manhattan is always a good benchmark), over 3 4k monitors (I currently have 1 Samsung 32" 4K 60Hz 4ms GTG VA LED FreeSync Monitor and I’d prefer to expand another 2). Wouyld also like to have room to possible extend to supporting displays for perhaps touch EFB and FMS, flight tracking etc.
This is what I have now. The GPU is the bottleneck. It’s playable with just under 30 FPS with mostly ultra settings, low to mid traffic, but it low intensity scenery.
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64-bit
CPU
Intel Core i7 @ 4.00GHz 35 °C
Coffee Lake 14nm Technology
RAM
32.0GB Dual-Channel Unknown @ 1500MHz (15-16-16-35)
Motherboard
ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. PRIME Z370-A (LGA1151) 34 °C
Graphics
U32J59x (3840x2160@30Hz)
Acer A231H (1920x1080@60Hz)
4095MB NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 (EVGA) 47 °C
Storage
931GB Samsung SSD 970 EVO Plus 1TB (Unknown (SSD))
2794GB Western Digital WDC WD30EZRZ-00GXCB0 (SATA ) 39 °C
3726GB Western Digital WDC WD40EZRZ-00GXCB0 (SATA ) 46 °C
Optical Drives
No optical disk drives detected
Audio
Realtek High Definition Audio
I’m considering an upgrade to
Intel Core i9-13900K Desktop Processor 24 (8P+16E )Cores36M Cache, up to 5.8 GHz, 125W, unlocked, LGA1700 700 & 600 chipset, PCIe 5&4, DDR5&4, 13th Gen Boxed BX8071513900K
and either a
ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 4070 Ti OC Edition Gaming Graphics Card (PCIe 4.0, 12GB GDDR6X, HDMI 2.1a, DisplayPort 1.4a) TUF-RTX4070TI-O12G-GAMING, or
Of course, if I can get away with the 4070 over the 4090, that would be better for me from a budget perspective, but if it’s the difference of whether I’m meet my goal or not, I can sell a kidney for the extra $$$.
Is there anything in my existing system that I can salvage? If I were considering the upgrades above, what would I have to ditch to replace in my existing system, and what would you recommend?
From you current system you can keep SSD for storing archival data (like videos or photos) or even HDD (for backups if you don’t backup to external NAS).
If you have 800W power supply, it will be enough for 4070 but may be not sufficient if you aim at 4090 and Intel CPU.
For the new system you will want NVMe drives, at least 10x faster than SATA SSD.
You may also consider Ryzen 7800x3D CPU which works great in MSFS with 3D cache (no Intel CPU can compete in MSFS) - but it requires a bit more expensive DDR5 memory. You may also consider any older x3D Ryzen, but then your upgrade patch will be blocked (old AM4 mobo).
If you can buy from reputable seller allowing return/exchange you can start with GPU cheaper than 4090, it you wan’t be satisfied you can indeed sell your kidney and buy 4090. You may need 1000W power supply for 4090 and especially Intel CPU.
Don’t overspend on extreme expert overclockers mobo, aim at middle class. Unless you are really knowledgeabke in undervolting and the other OC magic.
If you plan 3 4K displays you will be probably limited by the GPU, so you can save a bit on CPU and buy stronger GPU instead.
Personally I would recommend VR instead of 3 flat displays but this is completely different story and requires a hefty budget for a premium experience, especially if you prefer VFR GA freedom of flying.
I don´t think you can build a complete high-end new system with that budget and recycling the older makes no sense in my opinion. Anyway it depends on what you are expecting to do. If you don´t play so much don´t waste money. If you still enjoy gaming and you play frequently then take one PC already built and tested and don´t bother searching components alone and checking their compatibility. Built ones already come with the components and psu you need for the CPU+GPU combo.
13900 + 4090 is the clear way to go for 4K and so many screens at max settings. Even a 12900 + 4090 could be fine. I come from a 12900ks + 3080Ti and that´s not enough for MSFS on max settings. On dense areas GPU started to suffer and its memory was full. Replacing GPU by the 4090 works really well now, but I render at 1 screen only, with 3840x1600 resolution and using just TLOD 200, so 3 screens on 4K may be too much for the system.
Anyway I wouldn´t take any 4000 series card except the 4090 to be honest, but that´s just my opinion. The difference with the lower series cards is really significant, including the 3090. That´s why they are the top of the line now. The release of next gen 5000 cards is still some years ahead anyway, so 4090 is the option for the next 2-3 years I would say. If you are lucky you can find 25% temporary discounts at some stores due to season sales, what puts the 4090 closer to the price of the 4080 for instance. Anyway GPUs market is overpriced in general. I´m not an expert on AMD but sure their latest gen CPUs are also fine. Same advice as above: SSDs are already obsolete and are much slower, so be sure your new PC uses NVMe disks instead.
Get a 7800X3D instead of the 13900K, it’s faster and cheaper.
Then… if you’re retiring just now you are still young enough to enjoy several upgrades and at least 3 iterations of MSFS Happy flying!
Thank you all for some very enlightening information. It looks like I’ll have to negotiate a bit higher retirement bonus. It appears it’ll be a bit more of an investment than in just a upgraded CPU and GPU. Looking at The 7800X3D, but with new MB and RAM, powers upply and a NVMe drive for good measure.
Happy flying!