Interesting topic. It made me ask myself what I would do if I were to build a PC now. As background, I currently have:
- AMD Ryzen 7 3700X with stock cooler
- RTX3080 10GB
- 32GB DDR4 3200
- WD Black SN750 NVM2 250GB (OS)
- WD Black SN750 NVMe 500GB (MSFS)
- Assorted other SSDs for other data
I run it 2D only on a 32" 4K monitor at mostly Ultra and typically get around 40FPS. A heavy custom airport like FSimStudios CYVR plus FSLTL can drop it below 30FPS briefly on occasion, depending on what I am doing. This is what it looks like over New York for instance, showing 41FPS at 4K:
I am completely satisfied with this performance and have no desire or intention to upgrade. But if? I looked at two options:
- Going all out
- What I would consider a good price/performance balance at tis stage
I just did a very “quick and dirty” budget look, using one website only (Newegg in Canada) and without my normal rather rigorous comparison of specific components before making a choice. These are two of an infinite number of options that I quickly slapped together:
I did not include shipping, nor build costs, as I have always built my own PCs. Which option appeals to you is obviously a very personal choice kind of thing. But for me, absolutely no question: I would go for the “balanced” option. I believe this would give performance that is not miles worse than the more expensive option at less than 2/3 of the cost.
For the Euro comparison: the equivalent Euro price should be all but the same number as the US$ price if you factor in 20%VAT vs 12% GST/PST and the 0.92 Euro/US$ exchange rate.
Academic exercise only but interesting for me nonetheless.