Help building a new PC: CPU & GPU tradeoffs

Hello!

Building a PC for VR & flight sims, upgrading from an 17-7700/1070 and weighing a few options:

A) 12th gen i9-12900, RTX 3080
B) 12th i7-12700 with a RTX 3080 Ti
C) 10th or 11th gen i9 with an RTX 3080 Ti

For all would use DDR4 ram. Leaning towards B as a good balance between price and performance, but wondering how much of a difference the 12th gen i7 would make for VR performance. For headsets I have a Valve Index and an Oculus Quest 2.

Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

Hi,

definately b) or c) because of the gpu. The gpu is the borttleneck.

The three CPUs of b and c are ok, I guess.

But the socket of the b) mainboard is a newer generation. Also the chipset and so on …

So b) is the best choice, I guess.

Warm regards

Dirk

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Ideally B. Supposedly 12700 is more or less the same as 12900 for gaming purposes

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And ddr5 ram to reach their full potential although ddr4 boards do exist

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Thank you everyone for the advice!

Good call on DDR5 - it’s expensive (and probably harder to find than the GPU!) - but probably worth it to not sweat updating for a while

I am running with an HP omen 11700k with an 3080. Was the best buy, paid 2250 euros.
Runs excellent in VR!!

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I would go with B for the better GPU, and the 12700k is excellent. Get a ddr4 mobo as the ddr4 ram is far cheaper, available in good timings and speed (3200/16 or 3600/18) and as of now ddr5 even if you could get it is very expensive and timings are poor so it won’t help in gaming at all from the videos I’ve seen.

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B.

Mid-high range latest CPU + affordable top range GPU = great VR experience.

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Hmm wouldn’t even describe the 12700K as mid-range - it’s the second best you can buy for gaming, right?
Or does the 5800X or 5950X beat it in any meaningful way in FS?

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Option c is what I have for vr. Its a great sweet spot and butter on vr flights using fbw airbus a handful of settings on ultra.

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DDR4 would be your best bet but you would want to push more bits for excellent textures in FS so maybe DDR5.

my 3070 is doing well with all the driver updates

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So how did it all work out for you guys?
I just purchased A) option i9 12th gen 12900 (with my 3080).
Needed a new mb (Z690P), new cooler and larger case. Ouch$. I just couldn’t tolerate the poor performance with my old i7 10700. This should kick it up a few notches.

Sounds good. Let us know how much of an improvement you get.

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Will do :+1: My friend who’s a retired computer expert will help me today. Issue will be Windows, and trying not to have to reinstall everything.
Will let you know later today…

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After about 9 hours of working on what is pretty much a new rebuild, with a new case, new i9 12th gen12900, new Castle 360EX cooler and new Z690-P MB, its completed. Windows recognized my account and it was very easy and fast authentication.
From my old build (16 month ago), I used the 1050 Power supply, 32G Ram, DVMe M.2 and RTX 3080.
Usual stress Test from KJFK around Manhattan area to KLGA. Last night (final test) in my old rig (i7 10700, 3080) as usual was a jitter-fest and low fps, pretty much unplayable.
Tonight in new build, WOW WOW WOW!! No jaggies in my G2 whatsoever! Smooth as cream around Manhattan with NO stutters. It seems to have opened-up so many more things like lights, and animations. The handling of the C152 was so realistically smooth and better reaction times etc…
Now I’m finally flying VR in MSFS!! :blush:

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Just when I thought it couldn’t get any better, until today. I upgraded to Windows 11, which apparently is designed for the 12th gen chipset. Wow! It took everything to a whole new level! Much clearer view in G2, even more stable and perspective is much better too as I can see buildings and airports for like 25 miles out now.
Night lighting is so incredibly fine in detail and very realistic now. No more anti-aliasing shimmers on land edges and water etc… Looks like a real live view now. Windows 11 and an i9 12th generation CPU was the winning combo that turned everything around 180*

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Glad to hear it’s working out well for you. But, your improvement may not have anything to do with hardware, but perhaps how your system was running with the previous rig. I have done some testing and with 3080 (6800XT in my case), you should see little gain by going from 10th to 12th gen. If the system is healthy, you should have been gpu bound and the 10700 should have been plenty powerful not to bottleneck your system.

It is a great upgrade though and you should enjoy it. I don’t want people to think that upgrading their 10th gen to the 12th will somehow magically give any significant upgrade.

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Boy, I humbly disagree!
Thanks, it is a massive improvement thats undoubtably due to upgrades in my case.
Just trying to perhaps help others like me who did virtually every tweak, guide and suggestions known to MSFS, Windows, nvidia and dozens others for almost two years, to no avail. Im not here to fish for doubters, cause the fishin is good lol!

I started building a PC a few months ago but the project stopped dead in its tracks as soon as I read the literature on these new Intel Alder Lake CPU’s. So now I have a AORUS Master Z590 collecting dust in it’s new box. :smiley:

I think you made a great choice and should keep you happy for quite a few years. I’m right behind you in a couple of months.

I still think that your old PC is still a beast though. I run a 10 year old i7 2600 with a 1080 and I am smooth as butter on VR, w/o MR, at 30fps on MSFS. So, I believe that most healthy PC’s can be configured to run well with MSFS as long as you have a decent enough PC. However, HDD/SSD/OS etc needs to be healthy and of course, with proper tuning and tweaking of MSFS.

Good luck n keep us posted!

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Thanks! You’re the first here to not be a doubter lol! Seems people don’t like to hear of success.
Perhaps it’s human nature to sew doubt and disbelief.
My teenage son wants my old cpu and mb. He’ll do something with it, or sell it lol! :+1:

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