Advice on gaming PC purchase

User Support Hub Hardware & Peripherals
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Hi Neo4316 and other fellow Forum members

I have recently downloaded this Sim MSFS 2020, but my current PC is not able to run, therefore, I am to buy a sufficiently powerful Gaming PC, but some fellows from another Forum (Aerofly), advise me not to buy this PC with AMD components.

I ask the fellows of this MSFS 2020 Forum (much more extensive than the above mentioned) and with many more Gaming PCs to inform me of the following, especially related to AMD electronic components:

This is the list of PC components I wish to buy. Please (especially to you Neo4316 who has been very explicit in your previous reply, concerning the download of this Sim), give me your point of view, especially considering that, I want to buy also the “VR headset HP Reverb G2”, and according to what I was informed, there are some AMD components, with which, it is not possible to see correctly the flight with the VR headset mentioned .

These are the components of the Gaming PC I intend to buy: any objection to this purchase?

  • Cooler Master MasterBox MB520, RGB
  • AMD Ryzen 7 3700X, 8x 3.60 GHz
  • be quiet! Pure Rock Slim
  • Gigabyte B550M S2H, S. AM4 v2
  • NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB
  • 32GB DDR4-3200 | G.Skill RipJaws V
  • 750 Watt 80 PLUS GOLD | Corsair RMx Series
  • 3 x LĂźfter mit RGB LEDs, 120mm

I would be grateful for any information related to this matter answers

Kind regards: Delfin

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Personally I would cut out the RGB eye candy and put more towards a 3070. I don’t know what they are saying over at AeroFly but I don’t see any issues with this build. I’m guessing you are looking to run a 1440p display? I would think at 4k you are going to have to put the render scaling down a bit but really this seems pretty solid. Enjoy your new build.

Edit: I just reread what you mentioned about wanting to use VR. I am not sure about AMD components and compatibility issues with VR. I would think the video card would be more of a factor when it comes to compatibility and you are going with NVidia so you should be fine. I am sure there are others out there who have much more knowledge on that particular subject than I do, and also people who have Ryzen CPUs that also use VR that hopefully could chime in.

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If anyone has any evidence or information about AMD and VR please post links, that doesn’t make sense on the face of it. Maybe they mean AMD graphics cards? Some people are just brand fan boys. I have always been very hesitant to buy any CPU not made by Intel over the past 25 years since my first PC, but for me, someone addicted to MSFS and desperate for as much fps and visual quality I could get AND also a computer graphics artist who uses many well multithreaded pro apps, the 5900x was the best of both worlds. A 11900k would have been similar for MSFS, but the 5900x and it’s higher core count trounces the Intel chip at pro apps that use all cores efficiently. Several weeks in, I am nothing but impressed and delighted with the 5900x. Granted I was coming from a nearly 10 year old HEDT Intel CPU (I7-4820k), so anything new and high end would probably have been a huge improvement for me.

I suspect a 3700x would do great. I use a 3900x at work (NOT for games/sims) and I just got a 5900x at home and it’s improved my fps dramatically, really unlocked previously untapped performance my 3080 is capable of.

Particular models are going to make a bigger difference than AMD vs Intel CPUs. There’s tons of Intel CPUs that are faster than some AMDs and plenty of AMD CPUs faster than many Intel CPUs. At the cutting edge of the high end one company will lead the other depending on the product cycles. But right now I think the AMD 5900x/5950x and the Intel I9-11900k are pretty darn close on most games and sims. Differing software may favor one over the other by a bit, but not dramatically. The differences between those choices comes down to other factors mostly, things like, can you even buy one? Are you going to pay a lot more than retail? Do you need top notch multicore performance in productivity, content creation apps or is gaming/simming that’s mostly mainthread limited the only important factor?

Does seem 5900x availability is finally getting more solid. Many places were still sold out or charging large premiums, but there were several local shops with plentiful supplies of 5900x chips at right around suggested retail when I got mine several weeks ago. But maybe see if you can find/afford a 5700x, the 5000 series is a good bit faster than the 3000 series AMDs. The 3900x at work is quite fast (never run MSFS on it), but this 5900x is simply a beast!

And really, it seems like any nvidia RTX 30x0 you can get your hands on is going to do ok. VR, especially with a high res headset like the Reverb G2 will benefit from the best GPU you can afford and find for sale I think. But while you may have to lower some settings, I’m sure VR on a 3060 in MSFS will still be pretty great.

You don’t mention SSD? The fastest PCIe v 4.0 SSD you can afford will help load times and I think stutters. I got a WD Black for my Asus B550-Creator. Load times with all my add ons were pretty horrible on my last PC and Sata SSD. They are much better on the new system with nvme. A faster PCIe v3.0 is still going to be pretty great if v4.0 doesn’t fit the budget.

Good luck!

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I think many of the issues for AMD graphics cards revolved around driver compatibility and issues for the 5000 series. This probably ended up many people equating it to all around AMD issues with VR and other aspects. I’ve never seen any actual evidence the OP has described of issues with AMD platforms, other than driver issues that were completely random also. The newest generation of AMD chips don’t seem to have very many of these issues anymore so OP should feel very comfortable going with AMD CPU for his VR setup.

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Yeah, I think there’s possibly some conflating of AMD graphics cards with any and all things AMD. I’ve had my 5900x with 3080 for a few weeks now and it’s all working pretty flawlessly. Haven’t tried VR, but everything from games and sim to professional graphics apps and tons of other general stuff all works flawlessly. It’s not like the old days where anything but Intel was asking for tons of random incompatibilities and driver hell. That said, I’m sticking with nvidia graphics cards until AMD is soundly beating them in most ways. As it is, there’s a few things some AMD graphics cards may do faster than nvidia, but overall, nvidia is faster and certainly better tested with very stable drivers.

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Currently the sim kicks my 3060 in the plums fair well.

All ultra with triple monitors 100% used.

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Keep the 3060.It will do 1080p and 1440p just fine on high settings. Get a CPU with higher IPC.AMD 5000 or 11th gen Intel.Even the 10th gen Intel CPUS have higher IPC over 3rd gen.

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It’s great time to get the 3070ti for near 3060 prices, BTW I have a 3060 with mild buyers regret.

Edit: Also the 3060 has a 192 bit interface with more memory, the 3070 and up a much speedier 256 bit interface. That turns out to me is the sore ankle holding back the 3060, otherwise it’s brilliant.

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Hi there,
I have moved your post to the PC & Hardware category. This is where discussions of PC specs takes place.

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The bus won’t do much if the vram is 8gb.The 2060super I have has a 8gb 256 bit and it doesn’t make it faster.It still falls a bit below the 3060 although it has lower bus its one gen newer.
The main driving factor to how fast a card will run is the cores/shader units. Everything else secondary.

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The 2060S is slower than the 3060 and the 2070S beats it all round.

He’s asking for advice on a new build, I’d prefer my new card be better than the mid range last release.

Edit: OK the 2070S barely beats the 3060 but … it does.

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If you need to ping me, you need to use the @ symbol in your post. Otherwise, I won’t get notified if you need my help. Thankfully I was randomly came across this topic. I wouldn’t know otherwise.

Now with that out of the way, I think it would help if you state your budget in your currency and which store you’re planning on getting. That way we can know how much that you’re willing to spend, so we can give you better advice on which components to change, but we can stay within your budget.

But… RGB Adds FPS… Hahaha, just kidding… joking aside I agree with this, it’s better to save money on non-RGB components and actually get a better component. Don’t worry about tempered glass casing. With MSFS being such a powerhouse, it’s better to invest more on silent solid cases which has decent airflow but packed with noise-dampening materials that would help you with noise issues.

For the purpose of this post, I assumed that you’re on USD coming from Newegg store, so my recommendation are coming from that store.

  • Cooler Master MasterBox MB520, RGB

Instead of paying $117 on it, I would go for the be quiet BG036 Pure Base 500 ATX case. It’s non RGB, it’s of the same form factor and size, and Bequiet is good at making silent cases. And it’s only $74. So you’ve saved $43 on that front.

  • AMD Ryzen 7 3700X, 8x 3.60 GHz

I’m not too familiar with AMD processors, I’ve always been an Intel user and my current one is i9-9900K that I built almost 3 years ago now. So I can’t give any feedback on this, I’m sure someone else familiar with the AMD CPU could pitch in.

  • be quiet! Pure Rock Slim

It’s a bit small, I’m afraid. while I may be wrong, but the last time I know about AMD CPUs is that they run hotter than Intel (or maybe that’s just because of my Athlon 64 mind telling me). MSFS is CPU intensive, so you might need to go for a larger CPU cooler to keep your CPU within normal operating temperature and not overheating it. I advice to go a little bit up to a Noctua cooler like the Noctua NH-U12A.

  • Gigabyte B550M S2H, S. AM4 v2

I think this is okay.

  • NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB

I’d go for the RTX 3070 or 3070 Ti if the saved budget allows you to get them. Otherwise, a 3070 is good enough for a 1440p. But you want to use VR… That I can’t answer. I never have VR, and I’m not sure I’m planning to have one. So I can’t give you any advice on how viable these setups for VR.

  • 32GB DDR4-3200 | G.Skill RipJaws V

I would pick CORSAIR Vengeance LPX 32GB DDR4-3200. The reason being Corsair has a better brand image, and the memory is low-profile, meaning you can have more space for CPU cooler clearance and airflow. And they’re similarly priced.

  • 750 Watt 80 PLUS GOLD | Corsair RMx Series

This is okay, but if you can, get a slightly more power and higher efficiency which will help you save electricity bill as well as delivering good power. Maybe Corsair HX850, that extra 100 watt with 80 Plus Platinum would help you with better efficiency while also keeping a nice constant power to your PC. MSFS is a power hungry app. So you don’t want constant crash to reboot because it’s not getting enough power from the PSU.

  • 3 x LĂźfter mit RGB LEDs, 120mm

Discard this, you don’t need it, the money you saved here can go back to your budget for the other recommendations I say above. And with an enclosed case, you won’t need it anyway.

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The 5600x is faster than the 3700x in Flight Simulator and about the same price. Don’t get a processor that’s a generation behind. The extra cores on the 3700x don’t help.

It was the AMD chipsets that gave a lot of grief with the Reverb G2. The motherboards had USB 3.0 connectivity problems. I had to return my headset because of it. This may have been alleviated in some cases with firmware and bios updates, but I’m still seeing folks reporting problems getting the headset to connect.

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@ Neo4316
Thank you Neo for that clarification, I had never used it, I hope that the syntax is correct as I have written it, otherwise, please inform me how exactly that symbol is written ( (@ ), I suppose followed by your nick.
Well, I will be a little more explicit, in view of your request:
I have for the PC a budget of approximately 2.000 € (euros) and the components initially selected are these (the above + 1 TB SSD + S.O. Windowa 10 home). this practically already totals = 1.944 €. In other words, this is the complete list of the components selected for this PC.
• Windows 10 Home
• Cooler Master MasterBox MB520, RGB
• AMD Ryzen 7 3700X, 8x 3.60 GHz
• be quiet! Pure Rock Slim
• Gigabyte B450 Gaming X, S. AM4 v2
• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB
• 32GB DDR4-3200 | G.Skill RipJaws V
• 1TB | Crucial P1 SSD
• 750 Watt 80 PLUS GOLD | Corsair RMx Series
• 3 x Lüfter mit RGB LEDs, 120mm
Then I will surely buy a HP Reverb 2G headset, but not right away, as I think the VR doesn’t work properly on this Sim, although it does work very well, on Aerofly FS2.
Again, thank you very much for your special help.
Kind regards: Delfin

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Just type @ followed with the username without space in between. So in your case it’s @SpottedAxis7643 ← see how it changed into a mentioning tag. Me, it’s @Neo4316.

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16

Amd 3700x is not the chip to obtain at the moment. Please no not purchase this CPU for flightsim purposes. If you are staying with AMD you should be looking for a 5600x with air cooling or a 5800x with an AIO.
For optimal performance (on AMD Builds) memory should be DDR4-3600 (CAS 16) for the optimal infinity fabric ratio.
RTX 3060 is a rough equivalent to a 2070 Super so you should be able to run 1080 to 1440p after fiddling with some settings.
VR is going to require a lot more GPU power so i cannot recommend an RTX 3060 for VR. (You can try it but that’s up to you)

Gigabyte B550M Why an ITX board ? (Lack of modern ports and connectivity)
Gigabyte B450 … Last gen Chipset. (Recommend getting a proper B550 ATX board)

I understand that you are operating within a budget and we are talking Euros but on the US side i was able to build everything (without the Graphics card for around 1000.00) leaving approx 1000.00 to find a decent graphics card.
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/jcmQHz
These parts are actually ordered for a friend and im building his pc over the weekend.

If there are budget constraints and you have to go last gen then i would recommend an intel 10th gen build instead.

Have a good one.

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17

When you try the G2 on this PC you will develop feelings for a more powerful GPU very soon.

I switched from my well overclocked 2080ti (Port Royal score of over 10.000) to an insane expansive 3090 right now. I think 2080ti/3080 is minimum for VR with G2 but only 3090 give you the real feeling. 3070(ti) is poor because of crippled VRAM size.

I also think 3700x is not the best CPU choice. MSFS is bound to single core IPC so 5900x/5950x will be right if you decide to stay on AMD. Or i9 11900k

Always buy the best you can pay, even if that hurts for the moment. If you use MSFS regulary the $/h ratio is soon much lower than on other hobby’s.

Good luck!

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18

a lot of the advice may change with the dx12 version, so ,a advice wait it out until after
that change, me thinks more cores is then going to be better.

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Very good advice here, other than picking your video card, which like others have said I would shoot for a 3070 at minimum especially if you are considering running in VR, it would be a good idea to wait until DirectX 12 update has been released. May have a few more options by the end of next month due to potentially having more products in-stock. Potentially! Also could be even less stock by then and no one should be trying to predict what will and won’t be in stock. :slight_smile:

If this build is mainly going to be a flight sim rig then currently a 5600X would be a good option, but if D12 release does bring a significant increase in multicore utilization then you may want to consider bumping that up to a 5800X.

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Wouldn’t let me select a case, but you can get a good one for $80-100 that comes with RGB fans. This should keep you under budget, and building a PC can be fun even if you’ve never done it before. Plenty of tutorials on youtube. The hardest part is finding a GPU. If this PC is primarily for flight simulators, INTEL is the way to go. the 11 series is currently the best CPU out for MSFS.

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If you’re planning on overclocking the CPU or RAM, go for a better Motherboard - Specifically the ASUS ROG type. It’s the #1 overlooked item when PC building. You want a good MOBO to help with stable Overclocking. If not, this one will do.

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