I’m currently in the process of planning out my my pc build and I’m not sure what CPU I should go for. I need something AMD as I want to make the switch over but there is so many options and comparison websites like nanoreview and actual benchmark sites are confusing me.
I was originally on the Ryzen 9 9950X but I was told by my uncle and one of my good friends that it was extremely overkill to pair with a 5070, my card. Now the Ryzen 7 9800X3D is what I’ve been told is the best but nanoreview, what I’ve been using for a lot of my comparisons is saying that it is pretty low end compared to the 13700K, which I wanted well before I planned on ever building a pc.
Although I’ve saw multiple benchmarks that clearly show it blows the 14900K out of the water nevermind the 13700K, but I’m gonna need some reassurance from some of my fellow flight simmers out there before I go ahead with this build.
I’m looking to spend around £500 on a chip, more on the B650 chipset, and if anybody has any better suggestions that would mean the world to me.
The short answer is, for gaming and especially flight sim, choose from the “X3D” variants, because they have large L3 cache, which makes a significant difference.
The latest Ryzen 9000 series have the 2nd generation of the “3D V-cache”. This improves on the previous generation with better physical placement of the V-cache for cooling. Also, I believe that with this generation, you don’t have to manually check which of the CCDs is using the V-cache, it’s automatic. (recommended to do a clean install of Windows if installing new CPU…) Probably the best value for money is the 9800X3D.
Ryzen 9 9950X3D
Ryzen 9 9900X3D
Ryzen 7 9800X3D
The Ryzen 7000 series have the 1st gen of the 3D V-cache (I believe)
Ryzen 9 7950X3D
Ryzen 9 7900X3D
Ryzen 7 7800X3D
Ryzen 7 7600X3D
https://www.amd.com/en/products/specifications/processors.html
https://www.amd.com/en/products/processors/technologies/3d-v-cache.html#technology
That’s the ticket!
It depends how you measure cost.
I look at depreciation cost, which is how much does each upgrade cost as time goes on.
Avoid the leading edge products and as the years go by we definitely spend less.
Given that I don’t want the life of my wife and myself to revolve around a PC, I won’t buy the “expensive today” PC products. But I might buy them at a reasonable cost in the future, and still be happy with the upgrade.
I searched this Forum and followed other’s build threads for about 3 months before I bought AMD. You might want to do the same, as there are several recent buy/build threads which already contain some/most of the answers you seek. As you probably know, the sim(s) are a little different than other PC games, so all those YT benchmark videos don’t always exactly apply to what works best here.
My recommendation is to get an X670E motherboard. The ‘X’ series is better than the ‘B’ series, and the ‘E’ suffix is, IMHO, highly desirable. You can get an X870E if you want, but to me it doesn’t offer anything that makes it worth the extra money (unless you need USB 4.0 for some reason.)
Whatever you decide on, make sure you spend the money on a high-quality 1000+W power supply.
The 9800X3D would be a great choice, paired with DDR5-6000/30 (or 28) RAM.
The 9950X3D isn’t necessarily ‘overkill,’ but its dual-chiplet design (vs. the 9800X3D’s single-chiplet) adds some configuration complexity you don’t need. If you are willing to tune your system, the 9950X3D is an awesome choice. But most people don’t want to spend the time setting it up properly.
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/price, Ryzen 7 9800X3D (the king of gaming) and Ryzen 7 7800X3D are the clear winners.
I had MSI MAG X670E Tomahawk WIFI – a very good motherboard and a great choice if you don’t need the X870E. If I hadn’t decided to give it to my son along with a Ryzen 7 7800X3D and 64GB of RAM, I would still be using the Tomahawk. Now, I have the X870E Carbon WIFI.
The choice of the chipset depends on the needed extension interfaces. My recommendation would be: choose the Chipset that gives you the amount of interfaces that you need.
X670E or X870E are a waste of money if you don‘t need their interfaces.
For a 9800X3D + 5070? Sorry, completely exaggerated. 9800X3D PPT ist 162W, 5070 is 250W. A few extra W for some fans and an SSD - 750W will be absolutely fine, 850W might be in a similar price range. 1000+W just unnecessarily doubles the price for the power supply in this case.
While a ‘B’ series is perfectly adequate, the ‘X’ series’ have added PCI lanes that can be helpful.
As far P/S wattage goes: I’d wager that more than one sim user experiences CTD’s and other instabilities because they bought a cheap power supply with ‘just enough’ wattage. Keep in mind that rated power draws don’t take into account instantaneous spikes.
Certainly it’s better to buy a high quality P/S that is closer to the total power draw than a cheap one with higher wattage - along wiith jitter, cruddy capacitors, and unstable transformers.
OP was looking at a 9950X3D, so he’s not looking for a low budget system.
High quality 1000W and X670E. That’s my story, and I’m sticking with it. 
That‘s for sure, only high quality power supply from known brands. They are capable of handling the peaks.
Other then that, spend the money on parts that get you more fps. If you can save 70€/$ on a „cheaper“ power supply that is well dimensioned and not over-dimensioned, it‘s better invested in another plane addon or periphery from my perspective 
If B650 gives you your necessary interfaces, for the saved money from the right power supply and mainboard instead of just reaching for the top shelf you could get a Winwing FCU or sth like that. Much more benefit than PCI lanes that a lot of users will never use 
But: If money is not a factor, just buy the best you can afford. At the end it‘s a hobby 
No need to be mean with the money.
I can’t argue with the philosophy, “Set a budget, and budget that money on the things that will make the most difference in your enjoyment of the sim.”
It’s sometimes tricky with computer parts, and budgets are often exceeded.
I know mine was! 
Lots of input from the pilots; what say @Flint2346 ?
Yeah I was looking at the 1000w funny there. I’m going with a good 850w psu that my uncle has reccomended to me. He runs a server 24/7 and is over from Australia for a few weeks, he’s even using it from across the world!
Yep, mines was 1500, I’m alot closer to 1600 now. It’s extra money to prevent buyers remorse!
I’m sticking with the B650 first of all, I’m not planning on overclocking at all anyway, and I think that mabye in the future, mabye, i might upgrade the mobo.
Other than that, I’m perfectly reassured and I’m looking forward to start my first build!
A budget is a budget! When I went to the computer store I asked for a B650. There was some reason I don’t recall off the top of my head that the X670E was recommended to go with the 5070Ti. Perhaps it was the “E” bit? Is there a B650E?
The different is the E has PCIe 5.0 compared to non-E 4.0. But only buy the E if the price difference is very low.
PCIe 5.0 has no advantage for normal users for the m.2, esp. not for Gaming. If you copy hundrets of GB every day and earn your money with that it might be for you, otherwise PCIe5.0 SSDs are just hot and too expensive.
And PCIe 5.0 makes no or nearly no difference for the GPU. There‘s a test by Gamers Nexus for the 5090 with 5.0, 4.0 and 3.0. Short: 5.0 and 4.0 is no difference (just measuring tolerance, sometimes 4.0 is even 1fps ahead), with 3.0 you lose 1-4% with the 5090. This topic will not have any influence on a 5070(TI).
That‘s why I say choose by the number of interfaces that you need. Expensive Mainboards are just very expensive USB hubs 
You’ve already convinced him. And you won’t convince me that the X670E (if budget allows) is not the correct board for this sim, especially for the near future. Direct Storage?
Maybe I got oversold at the store, but I could have sworn that the reason for the “E” MB was the 5070Ti. Something about PCIe5 for the 5 series Nvidia GPUs? Or am I mistaken?
The ‘E’ has nothing to do with specific GPU models. It’s just that it has more PCI 5.0 lanes, which translates to more components being able to use direct PCI 5.0 connections to the chipset.
As @WonkierBadge58 correctly pointed out, today’s graphics cards don’t really benefit from the 2X speed of that 5.0 data bus, and most users will never come close to saturating a B650 board’s PCI bus. Unless like me you have multiple M.2 drives you want connected directly to the chipset (as opposed to the secondary Southbridge controller, where they might interfere or disable other components,) or need multiple SATA drives (like I have for my backups,) or want a WiFi 7 controller (like I do,) the ‘E’ motherboard is not all that beneficial relative to the non-‘E’ model. For me it was a no-brainer.
There are differences that do matter, but those are more related to the ‘X’ vs. ‘B’ designation. The ‘X’ models tend to have higher quality VRM (Voltage Regulation Modules) sections. The VRM is very important to overall stability, and one of the first things one should consider when choosing a motherboard. You want quality capacitors, and enough of them. The cheap AM4 motherboard (MSI B550) I last owned was renowed for an excellent VRM section, and I’m convinced that was a major contributor to not having stability issues with FS2020. It was missing a lot of the capabilities of higher-end boards, though. At the time, budget was a major concern.
This whole discussion really comes down to budget and value.
B650, X670, X670E, X870E? What can you budget for, and what will provide both current and future value as you choose (and later upgrade) the components that you attach to it? The X670E represents the best value to me. Others might not agee, and that’s fine. It’s their money.
It’s exactly the same discussion when one chooses a CPU or a GPU.
7600X, 7800X3D, 7950X3D, 9900X, 9800X3D, 9950X3D, or any of a number of Intel CPUs?
What is your budget, and are the more expensive models worth the incremental performance increase? A lot of factors go into ‘needs.’
I think GPU’s are a witch’s brew right now. Pricing is artificially stupid, and budget becomes an exercise in futility as we try to find a card that will give us the performance we seek (1080p, 2K, 4K?) at a price we can afford. My current GPU is outclassed these days. Is it worth it to upgrade? Not at these prices. Will those prices ever be reasonable again? Only if people stop paying what they are today.