I am planning to build a PC that would be entirely dedicated to MSFS. I tried to inform myself as good as possible, but most of the posts/videos I stumbled upon seem to be only orientated towards achieving the best possible performance in 4K and VR. Combining a 9800X3D with a 7900XTX/RTX4090 would obviously be the best choice there is, but I do not want to spend that much money and it would probably be overkill given my personnal needs. Some context :
For the past 4 years, I have been āplayingā MSFS on Xbox. While it worked fine (I was very happy that Thrustmaster decided to create a XboX compatible version of the Airbus sidestick!), there are a lot of limitations. Especially the non-availability of some add-ons like the FBW A32X.
I am planning to immediately swith to 2024 when the PC is built. I fully understand that it is not know yet how 2024 will perform but I understood that it is widely assumed that it will run at least equally well if not better on the same specs than 2020. So, for simplification sake, letās assume that I am here talking about a PC able to run 2020 correctly.
I have read plenty of arguments about rather using AM5 instead of AM4. But : I am not planning to upgrade this PC at all, it will exclusively serve for MSFS 2024 and thatās about it + AM4 is very much cheaper than AM5.
I will ONLY be playing in 1440p on a single 60Hz monitor and I have no plans to ever try VR.
I know that I should probably wait for 2024 to come out and be extensively tested butā¦ black friday is around the corner and I am a sucker for good deals
So here are my questions:
Do you believe that the AMD 5700X3D is enough? The bang for the buck seems incredible for this processor. The 5800X3D is almost not available anymore and the 7800X3D has become very expensive over the past months. Or would you recommend other ānon-X3Dā processors intead (maybe even AM5? or Intel?)?
For the graphic card I based myself on the 1440p chart of this website. I am considering going towards the 7800XT as it sells at around 450ā¬ and has plenty of VRAM. However the 6750XT also caught my eye as it has 12 gigs of VRAM and sells at around 300ā¬.
RAM : no question, going for fast 64gigs. Only question remaining is DDR4 or DDR5, but that will probably depend on the processor choice. DDR4 ram is (much) cheaper than DDR5. Is there a reason for wanting DDR5 in my situation?
Thank you for your help! I am very much looking forward to test out 2024.
As long as you are happy playing in 1440p with some of your settings on āless than Ultraā I think a 5700X3D would be just fine. I would go for the 7800 XT. IF POSSIBLE get a monitor that supports HDR. It really is a game changer.
DDR4 is fine. I used DDR4-3600/CL14 in my 5800X3D / 3090 Ti system running 4K with pretty high graphics settings. In case you donāt know, CL is an important number - the lower the better for a given RAM frequency.
There are several good motherboards out there for not much money. This video from one of the most respected PC dudes out there can help choose the right one.
One caveatā¦ Donāt get a super cheap power supply. Look at this list and try to target something in Tier A if possible, but no lower than Tier B. Single rail is fine - and actually a bit better for gaming PCās, as long as you get one with enough power overhead. A Gold P/S is fine. Higher levels like platinum and titanium are more efficient, but arenāt really necessary.
I highly recommend getting a Thermalright CPU air cooler. Theyāre quite inexpensive, but work amazingly well. The dual-fan units are pretty large, so make sure you check your case specs to make sure it will fit.
Speaking of cases, you donāt have to spend a lot of money, but it should have at least two intake fans (preferably 3) on the front, and one exhaust fan on the back. Good airflow is critical. I wouldnāt go smaller than mid-tower. I love my Corsair 5000D, but itās a bit pricey. Hereās a video that can help guide you.
Your proposed specs are roughly in line with my current specs of 5600X / 3080 / 64GB - I play fs2020 on 60Hz 1200p without issues on Ultra. I expect similar performance for fs2024 and will likely not need to upgrade my CPU. Your proposed CPU spec exceeds mine, and so I cannot imagine that you will have issues.
For as long as flight sim continues to target XBox as a platform you will not need to exceed XBox spec by very much to get adequate performance.
Having said that, my build is 4 years old at this point, if I were building today I would base it around 9700X and hold off until 5060 / 5070 are out, with a view to upgrade both whenever the next gen of XBox comes out. Your financial constraints and desire to get onto fs2024 early may not allow for that though.
Iāll sell you my old simmer, Crosshair Hero VIII, 5950X, 128GB DDR4 GSkill, Firecuda x2 1TB 530 NVME, Tuf RTX3090. All NEW LIAN-LI O11 VISION case, RGB fans, controllers and 1300W ATX 3.0 PSU. $3000. Is that cheap?
I upgraded to 9800X3D, ASUS X670E Extreme and RTX4090.
As others above have said, the 5700x3d should be fine for the sim in1440p. The key reason is the x3d cache so I wouldnāt recommend a non-x3d cache processor.
I think the 7800XT would be the best choice for the sim with 16gig of vram. If you wanted to save some money I would definitely look at the RX 7700XT GPU instead of the 6750XT (maybe get a good Black Friday sale priceā¦). The 7700XT is almost on the level of a 4070 with 12gig vram and it is better than the 6750xt and will run cooler and less noisy. I have one on a secondary PC that I bought open box and was very impressed. It can run 1440p no problem and can even run 4k on medium/high settings but the 12gig vram holds it back and youāll get some stuttering when the vram fills up. Itās price point is between the 6750xt and the 7800xt.
If you wanted to save a little money in order to purchase a better gpu (7800xt) I would definitely consider going with 32gig of fast memory. Unless you really need 64gig for something specific, the sim will run great with 32gig.
Iām running with a 5800x3d, 7800XT, and 32 GB 3600MTs RAM (manually OCāed to 4000) at native 4k and no frame generation with a mix of medium to ultra settings. It took a bit of tuning, but it can run 45+ fps in most situations, and usually close to my monitorās 60Hz cap. At 1440p, the 7800xt would have no problem at all and with higher settings than Iām using. The 5700x3d may result in you having to keep traffic and/or LOD settings turned down, but those are not really deal breakers when looking at a budget minded system like this.
I will second the suggestion of 32 GB of RAM instead of 64 GB. You will be more than fine with 32 GB, and you can use that savings elsewhere. Maybe get faster RAM instead or spring for a used 5800x3d. DDR5 is obviously better, but that means a 7000 or 9000 series AMD CPU, plus more modern motherboard, and more expensive memory. In other words, youāll be paying a large premium for it for the full system price. DDR4 is still plenty fine, especially the faster options.
Thank you for the very helpful reply. I think I will rather go for the 7800XT then.
I am still pondering over the CPU. Letās see what black friday brings. Maybe I will find a reasonably priced 7800X3D.
Concerning the case I am considering going with the NR200P MAX from Cooler Master. I found it quite cheap (220ā¬) and it includes a 850w gold power supply as well as a watercooler for the CPU. I imagine that I could shave off a few euros by choosing something more budget-range but I quite like the form factor (mini-itx) and the design.
My monitor is already HDR so thatās great!
Too bad that selling is not allowed on here. But as you and @EnjonUK said, itās probably for the best. Maybe I will find a nice deal on my side
Thank you for the first hand impressions on the 7700XT. I will see if their are any deals on both cards (the 7700 and the 7800) and decide accordingly!
The 64gigs come from the MSFS 2024 requirements sheet. But itās true that the ārecommended requirementsā include 32. So probably going for 32 then, thanks
Sadly I do not find many used 5800x3ds, I would prefer that one over the 5700 but the only ones I find are at around 350-400ā¬ which is quite the increase over the 200ā¬ 5700.
Budget-wise I would like to keep it below 1400ā¬. Currently with the 5700, the 7800 and the 64gigs I am sitting at around 1300ā¬ (with no deals whatsoever).
Thanks for sharing your exprience! I would prefer ging with a āx3dā processor as everybody seem to confirm that they are much better for MSFS. Then again not sure if a 5700x3d would be better than a 9700X as they are 2 generations apart.
It looks like you may need to mount the GPU vertically. Iām not a big fan of that configuration. But plenty of people have done it. Keep in mind though that the sim works GPUās quite hard, and unrestricted airflow is important to keep temps down.
Also, what ITX motherboard are you looking at?
You need to be very careful with component dimensions in a case that small.
Maybe take a look at the Lian Li O11 Air Mini ATX Mid Tower Case (about US$100.) Includes 3 fans. Add a Corsair RM850e (2023) 850 W 80+ Gold power supply (about US$114.00.)
Having a little bigger case gives you flexibility, and more importantly, better airflow.
That motherboard has an 802.11ac (WiFi 5) chipset, which isnāt terrible.
If you donāt have a router that supports WiFi 6 itās OK. But I definitely prefer the bandwidth of WiFi 6, especially considering that FS24 will rely so much on streaming.
I managed to buy mine at a huge discount sell from a website doing prebuild systems (you can change parts as you wish you want in prebuild systems there)
It costed me just over 1200$. Normaly it was near 1800-1900$ range those days, thanks to scalpers and other things! I couldnāt afford a better gpu and ram sadly, prices were crazy high. Black friday near i think? If you are not in a hurry, you can grab some great deals and build your pc, or can find a great prebuild system cheap. I am happy with mine so far at 1440p with DLSS Q. msfs2024 alpha test was also great. I also switched from Xbox Series X, memory issues was crazy. Have LG C1 120hz. AMD Gpus also have FSR so dont worry about dlss framegen etc go for AMD gpus. I hope you can find some good deals. Wait for msfs2024 user tests on this forum.
Thank you for all your precious advice. I started buying my components and this is what I settled for :
Case/PSU/CPU cooler : Cooler Master NR200P MAX
Motherboard : Gygabyte B550I Aorus Pro
RAM : Corsair Vengeance LPX 64gb (DDR4, 4000Mhz C19) ā I chose this one because of an extremely good deal
CPU : AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D
SSD : WD_Black SN770 NVME m.2 1To
2 x Corsair 120 slim fans
In total I have spent 806ā¬ (~850$)
The only thing that I still need is the GPU. But as I managed to stay quite cheap with the rest of the built, I am thinking about getting something more high-end.
I am hesitating between the 7800XT, 7900XT, RTX 4070 super or RTX 4070 Ti super.
My choice will probably depend on the existance or not of black friday deals on the 7900XT and the 4070 Ti.
I will keep you posted, and give you some insight on performance in MSFS 2024 once the system is built.
Iāve only been able to tinker with 2024 a little bit and am FAR from having my settings dialed in. Hereās my initial impression with my 7800XT.
Itās not been hard to keep frame rates above 45FPS at 4k native. If I kick the render resolution down one notch in the sim to ???x1800 (not using AMDās FSR upscaling, but the regular one in the sim settings), itāll lock at my monitorās maximum 60fps, and I canāt really notice a quality difference compared to 4k on my 27"screen.
The biggest change Iāve seen so far is the new ray tracing, which Nvidia is generally better at. There is a noticable performance hit, but Iāve yet to determine if the juice is worth the squeeze. The shadows actually look too sharp, and prop shadows are extremely distracting with how much they flicker. It is not a smooth effect at all, but maybe that will be addressed in an update. In the end, I could still be plenty happy not using RT even if I had a 4090 in my machine.
Based on that, I would go for the 7900XT for even better performance, which likely outperforms the 4070 TI if you donāt use ray tracing and do so cheaper.
I have ray traced shadows turned off with my 3090 Ti (which supports ray tracing) and the prop shadows were horrific in the first plane I loaded into (DA40 NG.) I havenāt played around with the graphics settings much, because I ran into a hardware problem that is forcing me to abandon the sim until I get it fixed.
