Hello all flight simulator lovers,
There is much written about this topic in this forum and beyond, I have collected a lot of information and I have done some research (tests, videos and benchmarks) but I have a concrete question/request to you guys, because I have a lot of doubts.
My current system is 6 years old, I always build a reasonable to good system at once, I never upgrade components, since my first flight simulator (FSX) 12 years ago I have had Intel systems before that I also had AMD systems (no flight simulator).
Now I read that AMD also have a good product nowadays, but I have not had an AMD system in combination with flight simulator.
I hope through your opinions and advice the doubts melt away I want to make the right decision and get value for my money (it’s about a lot of money) I have put together the following systems for MSFS2020, so far I use P3D v5 and I want to continue using it next to MSFS.
System 1.
-Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Formula, ATX, 4xDDR4, AMD Ryzen 9-5950X
System 2.
-Asus ROG MAXIMUS XIII HERO, I9-11900K (11th generation coming out in March)
The rest of components for both systems are as follows:
be quiet! Silent Base 802 Window Black
Corsair HX1000 New, 1000W, 80+ Platinum
G.Skill Trident Z Neo 32GB(2x16GB) 3600MHz CL16 or
G.Skill Trident Z 32GB(2x16GB) 3200Mhz CL14 (please advice on the memory)
SSD 980 Pro 1TB, PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 or 2TB (I don’t know if 1TB is enough for MSFS and P3D)
Lian Li GALAHAD 360 AiO ARGB (watercooling)
For both systems I will use my current graphics card (1070Ti) temporarily until the end of this year (save money first) then I will buy a 6900X or 3080Ti (3080Ti will come out this year according to rumors) Please your advice on the graphics cards.
I thank everyone who helps me to get the lead over my doubts.
Kind regards and have fun flying.
Here is my 2 cents since I went down a similar path to build a great pc for flight simulator.
I chose AMD since they seem to be more on the cutting edge of processors geared for gaming than Intel. Most of the benchmarks seem to confirm that assumption. If you have not purchased anything yet and are leaning towards intel, then I would hold off until the 11900K processors are released.
Here are my components and the reasons I chose them.
AMD Ryzen 9-5900X. I did not see any reason for the extra cores in the 5950X and the price difference is around 200 (at least at Micro Center) when they have both of the processors in stock.
Motherboard. Asus Crosshair Hero VIII. Looked at the Forumula and it is great looking but unless you are considering building a custom water cooling system the specs of the Hero and Formula are very close. Hero was 275 less than the Formula.
For ram I used 3200 as opposed to 3600. Did not know about the faster Ram when I put the system together and thought about changing it out. Looked at alot of benchmarks and the difference is minimal and not worth the expense.
PCI-4 vs PCI-3 for SSD Drive. Again there is not a valid reason IMHO to spend more money and not get a good increase in results. Benchmarks are one thing. Saw a Youtube video that showed load times for most games are within 1 or 2 seconds of each other. I bought a Western DIgital 2 TB pci-3 drive and it has worked great.
My video card is the evga 3080 hybrid. I was lucky in finding one; they are very scarce.
Finally my setup is undervolted a small amount and the core curves have been modified as well by a small amount. I also have undervolted the video card and this also helps with cooling.
When I run FS2020 I run in 4K in high mode with a few small changes in the settings
I do have V-sync on. As a rule I get around 45 to 60 FPS wherever I fly including LA, London, and New York. Very little stuttering, but there is some.
Temps when Flying are:
CPU around 60 C
GPU around 55 C
Chipset around 60C (normally even at idol it is around 58 to 59
Have checked VRS and they stay very cool. At idol they are 23C; when running FS they do warm up but not much and cool off quickly
You don’t need a 5950X. All those extra cores are simply wasted on any game or sim (they will simply not be utilized). Even the 5900X is overkill.
Right now the 5600X is pretty much the sweet spot. Might want to step up to the 5800X if you want to maybe be a bit more future proof.
I have a 5800X myself (the 5600X was simply not available when I purchased it), and I normally see around 12-15% utilization, 25-35% in heavy photogrammetry areas. So you really won’t be needing more cores than the 5800X brings.
The Ryzen CPU’s have the benefit of having the best single core performance available right now.
Intel is promising a lot with their 11th gen, but I’ll wait for external benchmarks before I believe their marketing.
So yeh, don’t overspend on overkill CPU’s you won’t be utilizing, unless you’re also going to be doing heavy productivity workloads (like 3D modeling, rendering and / or video editing etc).
Regarding RAM; I would go with the 3600MHz CL16 kits to go with Ryzen. They really like fast RAM.
Regarding the GPU’s; I would consider both the RX6900XT and RTX3090 way too expensive for what they bring over the RX6800XT and RTX3080.
Both of those perform around equal in this sim, so if you’re not interested in the NVidia raytracing solution and/or DLSS for other games, then just go with whatever is available.
Can’t advise you on unreleased GPU’s (like the 3080ti) since we simply don’t know enough about them yet. There too; wait for independent benchmarks.
I would wait a couple of weeks for the performance/price numbers for the new 11th generation CPU’s from Intel. The internet will be saturated with detailed product reviews.
Speculation has it, we may have a new single thread champion.
Yes, wait and see 11th gen performance/price. I have 5800x as that was the best option for MSFS in December 2020 and I was able to get one for a retail price.
Actually right now it does not matter if you get 5600x or 5950x or 11th gen intel as your limitation will be your GPU anyway. And even if you get the latest 3090 or 3080ti when it comes out, MSFS and pretty much all videogames will still be limited by GPU, not CPU, unless you play at 1080p. So if you plan to get this gen GPU, then go for any of the processor that you can get (5600x, 5800x, or 11th gen Intel). As others pointed out, unless you do a lot of other professional work (video rendering, graphic rendering), 5950x is just a waste of money.
I have 5800x and 3080, and play at 1600p ultrawide and MSFS is ALWAYS GPU limited for me. I have read that for people with 3090 who play at 1440p or 4k, MSFS is also GPU limited at the moment (before in heavy photogrammetry areas we were CPU limited but ASOBO improved the usage of cores and now it is all GPU).
I have a reverb g2 and haven’t been able to use it yet due to usb issues. If you have a PCI-4 slot then there are many $30 cards on amazon that allow a great connection for the g2.
For home/gaming use basically choose the price point you are happy with and then look at reviews of whatever is around at that price point. Buying a mid range CPU for example because the top tier CPUs in the same brand have an edge is stupid if at your price point the other brand is better.
Ignore the AMD/Intel fans as most of them will tell you the other brand of CPU will burn down your house, kill your dog, steal your credit card and get your teenage daughter pregnant. They are no different to football fans or religious nutters in that regard. Base your decision on actual facts and reviews from respected sources.
Decisions for Corporate/Enterprise use where half a day of downtime due to driver issues can cost tens of thousands of dollars or more is different - but we need not go into that here.
Honestly I am not worried about MSFS2020 (directx12) I ran P3D v4 (directx11) on I7490 and 1070Ti and then switched to P3d v5 (directx12) I noticed little degradation in performance, a few fps less in crowded areas. So with current hardware I don’t expect any major problems in MSFS2020 (directx12)
Nope. The developers already stated that we shouldn’t expect any significant performance boost (if any at all) from DirectX12. It’ll mostly bring some more visual fidelity.
MSFS has already been programmed with multithreading in mind.
They did however find some nice optimizations while working on the XBox version, which will bring some more performance to the PC as well. Expect that around the XBox launch this summer.
Yeah thing is I am not surprised the 10series cards doesn’t really have proper DX12 support.I have a feeling only the Nvidia 30series and latest AMD cards will seem some benefit but with rtx.I am on a 2060super and DX12 actually lowers my performance but you actually win more consistent framerates.
IMO DX12 is not worth the hype.
Well, seems intel has messed up, and a german retailer already started selling 11700K’s (3 weeks before the press release even). AnandTech got their hands on one and did a review.
It’s not looking good tbh (on average around 1.3% faster than the 10700K in gaming workloads), and still behind AMD. Guess it all depends on final pricing (especially if you include the price of the Motherboards).
Interesting article, but I’m still going to wait for the official launch, before I take the plunge.
Drivers and pricing need to be finalized.
Numerous Z590 motherboards need to be thoroughly reviewed, with MSFS load times on PCIe 4.0 M.2.
AMD’s USB connectivity issues need to be resolved. Will the flightpath of the CCP and Taiwan ever leave virtual IMC…etc…etc.
…and I refuse to buy from scalpers.