I am planning to build a new system without breaking the bank and arrived at this list to run the sim un Ultra. I am wondering if it will suffice for 4K at ultra or will it be better off supporting 1440p and perhaps VR sometime in future. Any siggesitons will be appreciated.
CPU: i9 11090K
GPU: RTX3070
RAM: 32Gb DDR5
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z690
SSD: 1 Tb m.2 NVMe
Power Supply: 650 W
I have an i7-9700k / 3070 that does 1440p moderately well with all aircraft and all sceneries. I would guess that this setup might reach 4k but you won’t like it as much.
GPU prices are coming down so what was the price of a 3070 is now squarely in 3080 or even 3080ti prices. This sim and the third party software it supports will only get more intensive so why not go with the 12th gen and a 3080 at least? In the grand scheme of a computer build there’s hardly any difference in price between an 11th gen and 12th gen.
Having said that, I’m loving both of my builds for 1440p rendered up a bit. The older i7-9700k has actually been the least maintenance and mostly trouble-free.
I would up the power supply so that you have enough and maybe more than enough if you ultimately upgrade gpu.
I would run two SSD. One boot drive and one for the sim or sim/games.
I’m not sold yet on DDR5 memory, happy with my 4 until prices are ok.
All in you’re probably around 2-3k easy with the case, fans, AIO, etc.
I have similar specs to you, same GPU but an i7 10700. I have tried various resolutions/monitors in the past and have settled with 1440p Ultrawide. My system handled 4K absolutely fine and yours definitely will too, especially with an i9. FPS is a bit lower in 4K but not much. It all depends on whether you want an Ultrawide monitor or not. 4K Ultrawide monitors are practically non existent so you will have to settle on 16:9 ratio if you go with 4K. Most Ultrawide monitors are 1440p and 21:9 ratio so will give you a wider field of view. The difference between 16:9 and 21:9 ratio is bigger than the difference in resolution (4K vs 1440p).
It also depends on what monitor size you’re planning on going with. If you want to go with 4K then a bigger monitor is better as you won’t see the benefit on say a 27inch.
It seems to be the general view that 1440p Ultrawide is the sweet spot for the sim at the moment. It really depends on your personal preference for visuals over performance.
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For VR at high/ultra settings and 4K ultra settings, both of which I do, I strongly recommend a 3080 or better.
Theres absolutely no reason to get an 11900K now 12th Gen is out. It’s not compatible with a Z690 motherboard anyway.
i7-12700+ decent B660 board is the best value combination right now. A 5600X/5800X and B550 also does very well.
i7-12700K + Z690 is fine but really buys you very little performance over the non K option.
I concur: at 4K you should bias spend heavily to the GPU: RTX 3080 (12GB) or RX 6800XT and up.
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Zero need to do this. Unneccessary cost for zero performance gain.
Zero performance but unbelievable maintenance gains.
I have had endless gratification on having my Windows/Games/TheSim/User Files all on separate drives.
My current Windows install is under a week old, took a couple of hours, didn’t have to reinstall any games, didn’t loose any files just point Windows and Steam to where it all is.
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You can use partitions if you want to manage things like that, and save the m.2 slot/sata slot for future meaningful upgrades. But, folders are a thing, and you can do everything you just mentioned within a single unpartitioned drive.
Anyway, discussion for another day. Just helping OP maximise their money since they’ll need all the GPU they can afford. a 1TB SSD will be fine as a start point, I’d just hate to see them waste money/slots on a second 500GB SSD for OS.
Nope, formatted drive over wiped partition every time for me.
Oh that and their lifespan makes for reuse.
I’m using the first M.2 I bought in 2017 as my MSFS cache.
Oh and as for slots M.2 PCIE expansion cards are dirt cheap.
I have a similar setup as yours and I really regretted my decision to take an RTX 3070 instead of 3080.
The RTX 3070 is perfect for 1440p gaming but for 4k I really recommend an RTX 3080, you gain so much more FPS in Flight simulator. I swapped my 3070 for an 3080 yesterday and the difference in framerates is huge.
The RTX 3070 is ok for 4k gaming but you have to lower many settings to get acceptable framerates in many games.
If you gonna buy the PMDG or Fenix I wouldn’t bother with a 3070, a 3080 is really required for a smooth experience on high settings. The default aircraft however are fine on a 3070,
In the games I have tried such as Flight Simulator, Tomb Raider, RE8 Village, Subnautica and even GTA5… it just felt the 3070 was slightly underpowered at 4k, like it missed that last 10-20% boost for a smooth experience.
A 650 w power supply is also a bit low… it should be enough for a 3070 I guess, but to be safe and never have to deal with black screens I recommend 750w.
I have an AMD cpu and I kinda regretted it, I fell for the hype. Next time I will go intel again.
Anyway, the general rule is : RTX 3070 is for 1440p and the RTX 3080 for 4k and it’s true in my experience.
The beast (this sim) is nasty, I found the 3060 to be so slow paired with a 9900k and now with a 3080 and a delightful OC to both my 5ghz i9 is at times in the corner screaming why like Nancy Kerrigan after being kneecapped.
I know this is an old topic but with Christmas sales going on, I’m in the market for a new GPU. Currently running a i7-9700K (OC’d to 5.0) and a GeForce GTX 1070 ti with 32GB DDR4 ram. I’m currently running at 2k graphics for FS2020 and see 20-40FPS average except lately the sim has been dropping FPS very badly at airports and during Finals.
I was looking for any GPU recommendations from fellow simmers that run a i7-9700k running 1440p. I’ve been looking at some PC bottleneck calculators and it says a RTX 3060 would work great with my card but wondering if 3070 would make much of a difference?
SU11 has some performance issues even on better hardware than yours. I won’t be too much in a rush to upgrade. My GPU is much faster than your 1070ti and I have the same issue during approach. My CPU just cannot keep so I lower the LOD and turn off AI traffic.
Outside of demanding areas I am getting 70+fps.
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Man do we love our 9th gens but don’t go chasing waterfalls or videocards and don’t upgrade your CPU either nothing is really handing out awesome bang for the buck unless you want to go the 5800X3D route but it’s WAY BETTER TO AN UNKNOWN BUT SUSPECT TO BE HUGE MARGIN replacement is finalizing box design.
I run a 9900k OC’ed I’ve done this and never found what I sought …
That’s 960/1070FTW’s, Gigabyte3060, and in the PC an Asus Tuf 3080 10gb … trust me.
Oh and what I’m saying long term, wait and see on these new gen extended cache AMD offerings, they sound like everything we want in a CPU.
Oh and for those who recognize the PC had a pump go bad back to slumming on air cooled for now.
yeah it must be SU11… All my flights have been great for months. Even 12-15 hour flights. Then the update and immediate issues.
so basically a GPU upgrade wouldn’t make any difference? Sounds like SU11 just screwed things up
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I saw this for the first time recently and my config is also more recent. Approaching Zurich my FPS dropped from 25+ to under 5. This when it has always been min 20+ with FSDT Zurich, Fenix and FSLTL together in action.