Welp, big reviews from big YouTubers showing the i9 12900K being a huge performance booster. So much as taking some games up 30-40 fps compared to the i9 10900K.
So I wonder if MSFS will have any BIG benefits from this.
My specs:
i9 10900KF
EVGA 3080 FTW3 Ultra
32GB RAM
1TB SSD
48 inch LG CX 4K
Buy it and let us know. 
… this thing is not plug and play, it will require a new motherboard as well. But it breaks all records atm
Here’s on 12600K. Looks like a winner
In LinusTechTips review it lost to the Ryzen 5900X, but the numbers were weird (as the 5950X lost big to the 5900X).
In Eurogamer’s test it was about 10% faster than 11000/Ryzen 5000 series.
Both used DDR5 by the way.
There’s one comparing the product line
MSFS is at the end
That’s crazy
8 GHz
I’m guessing you didn’t read the article (recently)? It’s about how it’s likely a hardware bug that allows fake overclocks to validate.
Close to 8 GHz isn’t unheard of on liquid nitrogen cooling though as mentioned in the article.
You will not get that type of performance uplift from MSFS, especially at anything near 4k resolution. I think it’s reasonable to assume a 15-20% performance uplift of the 12900k over the 10900k. However, this is largely controlled by resolution. 1080p will definitely benefit the most from this.
In theory there are a performance improvements from Alder Lake, scheduling optimization in W11 and DDR5.
The question is what does that mean in terms of gaming experience?
For MSFS, it will materialize on large airport tarmacs with airliners for instance. Or flying low over PG cities in glass cockpit aircraft.
So if you’re struggling to reach a decent frame rate at JFK in your favorite plane with your current chip, an upgrade will help increase FPS and resolve stutters.
If not then 10900KF is a keeper 
Then there’s the matter of cost. If money is no object, why not?
I wouldn’t run out and pay top dollar for a cutting edge system until they optimize the software. If you got money to burn go for it, but I’d wait until it actually uses all the core in existing system. I have a 3800x 32G ram and FS2020 doesn’t even come close to using all my resources.
In MSFS in 1440p and especially in 4k there is almost no difference compared to Ryzen. Strange though, I keep seeing “limited by main thread” in MSFS, but a faster main thread does not really improve the performance. I have 5800x. Totally not worth the upgrade right now. Will wait for Zen 4 with an upgrade or 13th gen Intel (whichever processor will be faster) or skip the upgrade if it does not make much of a difference.
The problem with the above benchmarks is that the scenarios they show are not CPU intensive at all. They’d need to be in the Aerosoft CRJ, FBW A320, or PMDG DC6 at JFK with thunderstorms and photogramatry on in order to see and compare if there is a marked difference. Until actual flight simmers post actual benchmarks, don’t take the numbers above too seriously. Flight Sims are very CPU heavy under most situations. Flying the DA42 in spot plane, over the ocean, showing 162 FPS doesn’t really tell us anything of value.
Whether its worth it really depends on what you’re upgrading from. I have a 10850K and wouldn’t dream of upgrading to this, but someone who has say an 8700k it would make a great upgrade.
Remember large FPS gains only come at 1080p. If you’re running at 4K or in VR like me then you’re GPU limited not CPU so the gains are likely to be minimal, around the same as a solid Asobo sim update or even a solid OpenXR software update.
It will cost well over £1000 to upgrade the motherboard, CPU and ram (I presume you’ll want DDR5) and the performance improvement will be minimal.
Besides Intel are releasing Raptor lake, which will be their second gen on this nanometre chipset in Quarter 3 2022 and then the 7 nanometre Meteor Lake in 2023, where we’ll see 32 core CPU’s.
If you have a 10th gen intel, skip this and wait for Raptor, or if you can hold out a bit longer, Meteor.
I can’t help feeling a little disappointed. Only 10% and that’s WITH DDD5?
Based on some of the benchmarks of DDR4 vs DDR5 released today, it also possible that some of that performance uplift is coming from DDR5 alone.
Best DDR4 vs DDR5 gaming benchmarks I’ve seen today:
Gaming Performance: DDR5 vs DDR4 - The Intel 12th Gen Core i9-12900K Review: Hybrid Performance Brings Hybrid Complexity (anandtech.com)
I would be curious, but its just not likely in my best estimation as 3090 GtX on 9900k is balanced well at 4k such that only every 1-5 seconds does it say cpu limited and only for a small minor blip of a frame in the dev mode. In lower resolutions I believe it would help yes, but at 4k I think it may not help much and certainly not 30-40 fps. No evidence other than that and 30 years of toying with pc performance so I may stand corrected. It would be a good youtube vid if at 4k and all settings ultra with direct compare to another gpu with dev mode on…got a link to it?
And it never will use all your resources in the sim because effectively ten cores are doing nothing … the thing that matters most above six cores is clockspeed and after overclocking my rtx3060 gpu I now find my 3800X is going to need an overclock if I want to get 60fps everything maxed at 1440p. BTW a limited mainthread is a sure cause for stutters and freezes if you have them and lowering LOD the easiest cure.
