As always, I’m on the hunt for the best possible experience both when it comes to visual quality as well as smooth performance.
Today, I’m running a 13900K/4090 setup with 32 GB DDR4-3200 RAM on an MSI Z690 motherboard with a Varjo Aero. Looking at my settings in MSFS2020, most of them have been on High or Ultra and with 39 PPT in Varjo Base. Doing all my flying in VR and the PMDG 737 online on Vatsim.
After measuring my FPS for a couple of weeks, I realized my FPS wasn’t as good as I was thinking. At complex airports and especially at dawn/dusk which seems to stress your system the most, I often saw 25-30 FPS. Not that bad but still results in some annoying micro stuttering ever now and then. Especially when on the ground.
Based on this, I decided to try start decreasing some of the previously High and Ultra settings in MSFS to Medium instead. Doing so, I was able to increase my FPS by some 10-15 which is great. This clearly is the cheap way to get some extra FPS but now I’m thinking to myself, could replacing my 13900K with a 14900K possibly give me an additional 10-15 FPS? Meaning I would be able to choose from very good performance or switch some of the settings in MSFS now at Medium back to High and Ultra and still have around the same FPS I see now.
What also made me consider this is a YouTube clip I watched where they were comparing the 13900K to the 14900K in various titles. Where MSFS was one of them and I did see this 10-15 FPS increase which was way more than I expected. If that is the kind of FPS increase you’ll see replacing your 13900K with a 14900K, I might find it worthwhile. Especially if I will be able to just replace the CPU without having to bother with replacing other components as well such as the motherboard, RAM etc. Both to keep the cost down but equally much to avoid having to do a complete rebuild of my system including reinstalling Windows, MSFS and everything else. Just the thought of it makes me tired
Anyone in here tried this already and if so, what improvement did you see with the new CPU?
Both 13th and 14th Gen i9 suffer from the Intel stability and failure issues so you are swapping one risky chip for another.
Assuming you want to stay with Intel - I would wait for Intel 15th gen Arrowlake expected to be out in about 6 to 8 weeks. It will need a rebuild though.
Wasn’t aware the 15th gen was that close. Let’s see though if that will still be the case now after all Intel stability issues etc. Luckily, I have been running my 13900K on a daily basis since it was released with not a single issue. Maybe that is because I haven’t bothered trying to manually overclock it but have been happy with the default speeds. I was also able to lower the stock voltage a bit and still keep it stable. Which I suppose can also have been part of not seeing any issues.
However, based on what you say, I’ll hold off for the time being and see what will happen in CPU land in the near future. Thinking about it, I supposed it also makes sense to wait for MSFS2024 and see how that will change performance. My hope of course it will be able to use modern hardware more efficiently vs MSFS2020. Possibly making my current setup more than enough to have really good performance combined with good visual quality.
Before deciding if investing in new CPU makes sense you must determine if you are GPU or CPU limited. In VR, due to huge resolutions involved we are most often GPU limited (even with 4090), if this is the case the only difference you will see with faster CPU will be visible on your bank account.
When looking at benchmarks you should disregard 2D benchmarks and focus on VR only.
i9-13900K / RTX 4080 Super / 64GB DDR5 RAM @ 5600
i9-14900KF / RTX 4090 / 64GB DDR5 RAM @ 6000
Both have MSFS installed on their own very fast NVMe M.2 SSD
Both have been doing good running MSFS for hours on end fully maxed out. I got an RMA on both CPUs and after that I set the short duration power package limit to 253 and long duration power package limit to 125. I also set SVID behavior to auto and have been updating the BIOS of each (ASUS in my case) to address this.
Now as for jumping from a i9-13900K to a i9-14900K? I don’t think it’s worth it. From what I have heard an i9-14900K is more or less just a rebranded i9-13900KS.
I also have a similar i913900k/rtx4090 with a z790mb and I think your most cost effective upgrade would be to replace your current 32Gb ddr4-3200ram with 32Gb ddr5-6400ram. I originally had 32Gb ddr5-5400ram and upgrading it to 6400 got me about 5-10% fps performance improvement. Much more than I think I would have gotten upgrading my CPU, and a lot less expensive.
While this YT vid is regarding xp12 (which I also have, plus xp11), I think it’s applicable to msfs2020.
Honestly if you look for significant improvements, you will have to get a 15th Gen Intel (or even better a 9800X3D). And because of VR a 5090. All these 3 products are to be released in the next months.
Probably best to wait for msfs2024 to come out Nov/2024 and see how much better things are with your current CPU (and rtx4090). I still think that upgrading your ddr4-3200ram to ddr5-6400 ram would be the best option for now.
Edit; since the OP is already using ddr4 ram, his MB probably will not support ddr5. So, only option may be to use faster ddr4 ram I guess.
Many thanks for all the good advice guys, much appreciated!
For now and for all the reasons given, I’ll hold off with any HW upgrades. Then if I still think performance could be better after MSFS2024 is out, I guess I will still hold off until both the next gen CPU:s and GPU:s are available and build myself a completely new system.
Interesting what you mention about RAM and how the speed has that big impact. In the past, I always heard how RAM speed rarely is the limiting factor. As long as you have RAM running at least at 3200 MHz or above. However, that was a couple of years ago at least and I guess things are changing also when it comes to the importance of RAM speed
Edited to add about what actually is the bottleneck looking at the CPU vs the GPU, in my experience even when running my Varjo Aero at 39 PPD, mostly the CPU is the bottleneck when the performance drops at complex airports etc. Looking at the GPU utilization, I rarely see that maxed out but usually stays around 75% and occasionally hits 90%.
How the CPU has been the bottleneck and mostly due to not being utilized efficiently is something which seems to have been the case for as long as I can remember in various flight simulators. Something I hope will change with MSFS 2024.
OP has a motherboard that supports DDR4.
If he buy DDR5, OP have to purchase a new motherboard as well, which doesn’t make much sense because the upcoming Intel 15th-gen CPU will use a new LGA 1851 socket not LGA 1700.
So, it’s best to be patient for now.
As mentioned earlier, upgrading from an Intel 13th-gen to a 14th-gen CPU doesn’t make much sense right now.
I recommend that you update your BIOS to the latest version.
It’s important that MSI includes the microcode update 0x129 in this BIOS update.
I noticed that you have or had issues with CTD so be sure to update your BIOS.
When you’re ready to upgrade to Intel 15th-gen CPU, start RMA through Intel’s support website.
If you have proof of purchase for your current CPU, Intel should refund you for it.
You’re probably right mate. I’m not aware of any z690 mb’s with LGA1700 Socket that isn’t compatible with DDR5. However, it may depend on which MB version he purchased. If he already has ddr4 ram then, like you said, he probably cannot use ddr5 ram. His only othe option right now might be to use faster ddr4 ram, with XMP overclock.
I agree that if this doesn’t support DDR5 ram, then it wouldn’t make a lot of sense to upgrade his MB right now. In that case it would make more sense to do what you said, and just be patient for now. Cheers.
Ya, got that mate, thanks for clarifying this. Those z690 MB’s either came with ddr4 or ddr5, not both. With his current MB his only option might be to get faster ddr4-4400 ram, using XPM. I’m not sure if this would make much difference though.
BTW, I have a z790 mb and it only supports ddr5. Cheers.
Sorry for not providing more detail but like you already concluded, I have the DDR4 version of the motherboard.
Haven’t had any CTD in a long time now (knock on wood) but did have lots of them in the past. That however I’m pretty sure was caused by MSFS rather than my CPU. Even more so since I haven’t had any of them lately, still using the same CPU but with a MSFS which has had lots of updates since I had my CTD:s.
But what do I know, maybe the CPU still was involved one way or the other and if I could get a refund from Intel, that of course would be nice and especially when planning to invest in a new CPU from them.
For now though, I will continue to enjoy what I already have and that isn’t bad either. What we have today is nothing short of amazing when looking back. Been enjoying this hobby for the last 30+ years and what we have today and especially with a good VR setup is like a dream come true!
Hmm…I just updated the BIOS only a couple of days ago but now when checking, it doesn’t match what is seen on your screen but instead it says 0x125. Since this is the latest BIOS version available for my MB, I guess I can’t do much about it at this time and again, I’ve had zero issues (or so I think) since I got the CPU. So hopefully, it will last for the time left until it will be replaced in a not too distant future.
This is what I see on the BIOS download page for my MSI MAG Z690 TOMAHAWK WIFI DDR4 MB.
