Help in choosing the new pc specs for msfs

User Support Hub Hardware & Peripherals
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Hi,

I was thinking of getting a new pc because the one that I’m using now is kinda old and it doesn’t run msfs really well.
My objective would be to being able to play msfs with ultra settings.

Here are the specs of the pc that I was thinking of buying:

  • CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X CPU, 8 Cores / 16 Threads, 3.8 - 4.7GHz
  • POWER SUPPLY: Corsair RM850X 80 PLUS Gold 850W PSU
  • GRAPHIC CARD: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 10GB GDDR6X
  • COOLER: Noctua NH-U12S Chromax Black CPU Cooler
  • MEMORY: 32GB DDR4 3200MHz Memory (2 x 16GB Sticks)
  • OS DRIVE: 500GB Samsung 980 M.2 PCIe Gen 3 Solid State Drive
  • MONITOR: 28" Chillblast 284K60V1 4K IPS Office/Creativity Monitor (4ms)

Actually for the monitor I was also thinking of getting or a 28" AOC U2879VF TN 1ms 4K Monitor or a 27" Asus TUF VG27VQ Curved LED Gaming Monitor, which one is the best one of the three?

Do you think I will be able to run msfs with ULTRA setting with this specs?
If you think that I should upgrade something let me know
And also another question, is it better an Nvidia CPU or the AMD above?

Thanks!

PS: sorry for my bad english

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I would go with the 5800X3D. It’s slightly more expensive than the 5800x, but with significant performance uplift.

Go with a quality DDR4 3600 CL16 kit for RAM. The Ryzen 5800x can easily handle 3600 Mhz, and the price difference between 3200 vs 3600 is quite small. I would stay away from a DDR4 3600 CL14 kit unless you want to overclock, since this is Samsung B-Die that comes at a high premium cost compared to the cheaper Hynix die.

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I would for sure look at the 5800X3D per ncbartschi’s good advice above.
Also I would consider an nvidia 4070ti or 4080 rather than the 3080. Frame Generation with the 4070/4080 is a big difference.

500GB you mention for the OS drive, but you don’t mention a data drive or sim drive. If everything is going on that one 500GB drive, depending on how many add-ons you install, 500GB may get a little tight with the OS + sim + add-ons. By comparison I have a 1TB drive devoted to MSFS and it is over half full, and I don’t even have that many add-ons compared to some people.

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As is, I think you would do ok even if not running all ultra settings, assuming this is a complete system you are buying and not picking parts to build your own, and price is reasonable for what you are getting. I’ll toss my thoughts out there anyway in case you are looking at picking parts.

5800x would be the last generation on the AM4 platform, meaning upgrading that at a later date would mean also upgrading the motherboard and DDR5 ram (if sticking with AMD, and possibly Intel). The newer 7000 series chips are out, with the X3D versions announced for release in a month or so. I’m currently looking and will go with the 7700x at least, which is about the same price as the 5800X3D and does well against it in benchmarks (even beating it in several). I’ll go with the 7800x3d if I can stretch the budget. There is the higher upfront cost of the mobo and RAM, but you’ll get great performance that will last much longer by having the option of a drop in CPU upgrade.

For the graphics card, I would try to go with the 12 GB version of the 3080 or better. Watching videos of it, the 10 GB version seems to struggle a bit at 4k unless you want to run at 30-45fps (which I personally don’t like due to fast panning jitters). The 12 GB version has more processing power on top of the added memory, and is the lowest I’d go. Ideally, a 3080ti or better would be needed if aiming for smooth 4k60.

I would also second the larger storage suggestion. I have a 1TB NVMe drive for everything but photos, and the sim is eating tons of space on it without having many add-ons. Thankfully it’s fairly easy to add storage.

For monitors, I wouldn’t specifically look for a gaming monitor for this sim unless you have other high refresh games you play. I’m running a 4k60 IPS monitor from LG and it’s been great so far (I got it primarily for photo editing).

This is perplexing. Do you mean Intel CPU vs AMD? If so, they tend to trade blows on which performs best. After the 5800X3D, the i5-13600k was the go to gaming cpu and was on my short wishlist of upgrades. Now AMD is matching that and the 7000 series X3D chips will likely blow them away again, so I’ve changed my mind. I’m sure Intel will come out and beat them with something else later. AMD does seem to be more efficient most of the time, but not always. I have an i5-8400 now but switching to AMD in part just for something different.

But all this doesn’t take into account your budget. If you are on a limited budget, I would say just buy the best you can afford, especially with the cpu. This sim is so resource intensive, anything less than some of the top tier parts will mean cutting back graphics settings to compensate.

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5800X3D in place of 5800X for better performance and much better smoothness

4070Ti in place of 3080 for much better performance at 4K ultra, especially as you can use frame generation to double your FPS.

1TB OS drive in place of 500GB as MSFS with addons and world updates could fill up the latter in no time.

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just updated my pc, 5800xrd, 3600 cl16 ram, rtx4080, excellent combo, 80 fps in 4k, airliner, big airport, high plus cloud ultra

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I agree with what others have said and to echo what @ResetXPDR said, go with a 40xx series card! You want the frame generation.

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Yeah I forgot to mention that I already have a 2tb external hard disk so I will probably use it but you’re right I should probably put 1TB in the pc.
Thanks

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  1. actually I’m building my pc from a site so I can change stuff
  2. yes I meant the Intel CPU but I was a little bit tired when I wrote it and I messed up :joy:
    Thank you so much for your help
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Thank you so much guys for all your answers!

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Hi I have similar specs but with a 3090 graphics card. Only comment I would make is to hold off for a few weeks and see if there’s a worthwhile performance increase on the new amd 3d cpus.

Going with the latest amd chips and boards should future proof you for a few years to come given amd tend to stick with the same socket so cpu upgrade is realtively inexpensive in the future.

Price will be higher in short term but it allows you to further upgrade in the future without major outlay.

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And how does msfs work with your specs?

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And talking about the monitor which one of the three do you recommend me?

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Upgraded from 5800x to 5800x3d made a difference, more noticeably smoother with less drops in fps. Msfs20 benefits from the 3d cpus

It was a net cost upgrading to the 3d chip of c £200 so made sense

I fly VR so can’t comment on the monitors.

Happy with the system, on a monitor even at 4k I think you will be fine.

I upgraded to a 3090 recently, took advantage of price drops and couldn’t afford 4090 so other option was to buy a 4080 once it came out, hindsight might have waited for a 4080.

Reading the forums I would say at the moment the new Gpus are ahead of current cpus so I only mentioned waiting for the new 3d chips and using the new amd board as it offers an upgrade route over the next few years. If you get the 5800x or 3d there’s no further upgrade route for cpu it’s the end of the line.

If you do go for a 5800x , make sure you have adequate space for fans and cooling as the chips can run hot. Not sure if the 5800x 3d runs hot as I only bought it a few months ago.

Hope this helps

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I personally wouldn’t want any of them. I don’t trust electronics that come from unknown brands, so the Chillblast and AOC monitors would be out regardless of the specs. Too much counterfeiting and bogus claims out there for me to give them the time of day. I’m not a fan of curved screens, so the Asus one would be out as well. If you are really set on one of those brands, I would stick with Asus, but personally pick a different model.

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Totally agree on the ram, but even 32 gb is low - this is the Windows platform - it can use all the help (and RAM) you can throw at it, and 128 gb is cheap compared to last year.

As for the video card, you can get 2 x Arc 770LE (32 gb total ram, and
a total bus width of 512 bits, instead of 320 bits - both of which make a big difference) for the same price or a bit less.

As for the SSD - if you’re using it as your system drive, it won’t really make a difference on game performance. So what if you can launch a bit faster - you won’t see that benefit during actual runtime. Put the money to upgrades that improve runtime performance. And 500 gb is going to be FULL as the host drive for the OS really really quickly nowadays. Those drives are so obsolete it’s not funny.

As for screen, forget all the marketing trash and the curved screens. 27" at 4k is really not impressive any more. And absolutely NOT immersive. The bigger the better - save your money for a 50"-65" smart TV or two. The quoted refresh rates on gaming screens are total marketspeak propaganda. If a pixel is set at one point in time, and still set at the other point, it’s never needing to be “refreshed”. They achieve higher quoted refresh rates by doing things like “black frame insertion” which is a total waste of time, to game the specs. That’s why you’ll see panels that are actually 60hz being marketed as 120 - 240 hz “effective refresh rate.” LCDs don’t scan like CRTs, so “refresh rate” is a total fail in terms of meaning. What’s interesting is how quickly the screen responds to a pixel change WHEN IT CCHANGES, and there just isn’t that much change every 1/60 of a second. And when toggling from front to side or whatever view, refresh rate is still irrelevant - 1/60 of a second is fast enough.

Also, some of the settings can be dropped at 4k - they’re there to make lesser resolutions like 1080 and 1440 “look better.” (IOW, more like 4k).

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Thank you so much guys for all the advices, I’m new to the world of “pc building” so any advice is really important for me.
I have another question, can you tell me some good sites from which I can build PCs? because the one i’m using now doesn’t allow me to put parts like a 3080 or a 5800x 3d

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As I said…I think you’ll be disappointed if you get a 3080. Frame Gen is where it’s at…4070ti or 4080.

Places like PCParkpicker.com etc. etc. although I have to say I don’t bother with those sites that often.

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Ok thank you so much, and yeah I think I will try going for a 4070

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From what I’ve been hearing, frame generation has artifacting issues the lower the base frame rate goes. A higher base frame rate still has artifact issues, but they happen quicker and not as noticeable to the human eye. My advice here is to do some research on that before pulling the trigger if planning to go with a 4000 series card and relying on that tech. I understand the idea, but I prefer to not rely on AI as a crutch.

That said, the raw performance of the current gen cards are about the same or better than last gen for about the same price, even without frame generation, so I’m not saying to immediately write off the 4070ti. If looking at the 4080, then I would strongly consider the AMD 7900xtx cards (though not the reference cooler design due to some product defects). It seems to beat the 4080 in MSFS in raw performance for cheaper.

The PC part picker site is great for getting started with planning a build. It helps by altering you to possible conflicts between parts, and also tracks prices from some of the major retailers. It’s not full proof, but gets you about 90% there. When it comes to RAM specifically, it doesn’t differentiate between RAM optimized for Intel vs AMD. For that, you should check the motherboard, cpu, and/or memory manufacturers QVL lists for proper compatibility. RAM not on the list for your chipset will likely work, but at the risk of not getting full performance and stability from it. PC Part Picker also doesn’t check every retailer or show combo kit discounts. I use it mostly to check compatibility and estimated wattage, then do some extra googling for other pricing options that sometimes beat what PC Part Picker shows as the best. You can also save your list and link to it, so you could share here for us to have a look at.

Fyi, a lot of the best prices will show as coming from New Egg. I never dealt with them, but their reputation seems to have gone downhill big time since they were bought out, and Gamers Nexus on YouTube did some deep dives on their shady practices. Just because a place is the cheapest doesn’t mean they are worth it.

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