Hey everyone, thanks for taking the time to read through my post!
I’ve been playing MSFS for over 2 years now, most of the time in VR.
Currently my build consists out of (and yes, I know) a pre-build from Lenovo:
CPU: Intel 10700
GPU: Nvidia’s RTX 3070
RAM: 32GB DDR4 3200
HP Reverb G2 (V2 cable)
Due to my eyesight, and the limitations of my PC, I’ve been having some issues reading instrument panels and seeing the overal beauty of the sim.
To tackle this, I’ve ordered special-made prescription lens covers (which will arrive tomorrow), but I’m also looking into some new hardware.
While browsing, I did come across many configurations (mostly AMD CPU paired with a Nvidia GPU).
I was wondering what would be a decent (it does not need to be overkill) combination?
Should I go for the Ryzen 5800X3D, or would I need a 7800X3D? Which GPU would suit each CPU etc?
Additionally, as AMD has provided fixes for the issues their GPUs had, how does AMD’s 7900 XTX stack up against Nvidia’s GPUs in the (MSFS) VR space?
And again, thank you for taking your time to go through my post!
What matters most for VR is the GPU. Go for 4080 or (if you can afford it) 4090. Calculate the biggest budget you can spend on the GPU, increase by 25% and buy the best GPU possible. It will allow you super sampling so you will be able to squeeze more clarity from the G2.
If you still have plenty of budget go for better headset with bigger sweet spot: Varjo Aero or Pimax Crystal. This is what I did - upgraded from G2, and the FoV, sweet spot and image clarity is amazing. But the price is steep and G2 is still good headset, especially in the centre of the sweet spot.
Finally you may consider better CPU - if you decide to switch to AMD you will need to replace the motherboard and the memory. In fact you will be building a new PC. Given the total cost I would go for 7800x3D and AM5 motherboard to have the CPU upgrade path open.
But I strongly recommend starting with the GPU, I also went through the path 3070->4070Ti->4090 and only with the last step I’m at the point where I don’t need to tinker, I just fly with nearly all at Ultra, LOD 300, and Pimax Crystal running above the huge native resolution (super sampling) with DLSS Quality and FPS in 40-50 range, very smooth indeed.
Thank you for the insight! How did you like the 4070 Ti? It did show up as a recommendation but has the issue of “only” having 12GB of GDDR6X RAM. I’ve already taken into a count that I’d probably have to upgrade my CPU anyway and factored those costs into my calculations.
If you want to have real jump up from 3070, go for at least 4080. Devote the biggest share of your budget to the best possible GPU. VR on high resolution headset (like the G2) requires processing massive amounts of pixels, dwarfing any 4k or triple 4K setup, so this is the area of the super strong GPUs with a lot of VRAM.
I would start with just the strong GPU, see the result and only then I would consider upgrading the mobo, CPU and RAM (assuming you have big enough budget).
so many people taking cpu… i bet a 12600 is more than enough for a 4090… everything.max in msfs settings and vr and at 200% wmr
Buy a 4090, a 5800x3d or 13600k, good aircooler (67mm min, 57mm not enough), cheap mobo and ddr4 or 5 able to manage gear 1 at cl16, 3600 (this avoids stutters)
Ddr4 vs fancy expensive ddr5, not important
Pci 3 vs pci 4, not important
liquid cooling and overclocking, not necessary
750w power supply more than enough, a 4090 should not work over 375-400w.at full load if properly undervolted
I run 13600k undervolted at -.125, never goes over 85W. I could even undervolt it more, as cpu is not the bottleneck for my system. Hyperthreat disabled.
4090 undervolted overclocked, 950mW 2775-2790Mhz, and memory +1500, never over 375W.
Rest system I guess adds up to 550W max. It is a Fractal Ridge with z690i, 2xNVME (Samsung 970 evo Plus 1TB and 2TB), one more SSD (Samsung 860 1TB), is-67-xt air cooler, 2x16GB dirty cheap ddr4 modules standard @1.35v (3200 cl16 overclocked to 3600 cl16, 18-18-38 gear 1) and a Noctua NF-A6x25 60mm. I run hp reverb g2.
Gear 1 is a must, zero stutters and perfect fluency. My dram is crap I had to add the noctua to avoid dram instability at full load. I had no stability issues at gear 2.
All powered by Corsair 750W platinum (tiny). This 750W Corsair never, never gave me a problem even with 13600k not undervolted and draining 150-180W.
Of course, the bigger the PSU the better, but at least for me and my system, 750 PLATINUM has worked like a charm, as low temps and efficiency are a must. Cpu never over 70-75C, gpu never over 65-70C.
5800X3D (water-cooled,) 3090 Ti (air-cooled,) 2 x NVMe, 2 x SSD, 8 x case fans, misc. other.
During flight I see 650W (metered on my 1500W UPS) draw on 850W Gold P/S.
I’m not familiar with ‘Gear 1’ and ‘Gear 2’ either.
Are you maybe referring to XMP and EXPO, which can be set in BIOS to optimize memory speed/timings?
XMP is typically used with Intel, EXPO with AMD.
But I have an AMD CPU on an AM4 socket motherboard, and my BIOS has XMP options.
XMP 1 pulls most of the timing info from the motherboard chipset, whereas XMP 2 gets it from DRAM modules that support it. I use XMP 2 because my RAM does.
If ‘Gear’ refers to something else, then ignore what I just said…
CPU and GPU? They are saying now that you can’t air cool the new Intel CPUs. I am personally tired of fan noise. How do you find the decibel level of your build?
I have Ryzen 7800x3D which is very power efficient compared to Intel. And it’s the fastest CPU for MSFS (you can debate if 7950x3D is even faster). When simming I can hear no noise from the CPU fans over the engine sound. When not simming, my super quiet Noctua fans rarely go on high RPM, only when I launch some video processing or similar high-CPU-hungry productivity apps.
Air-cooling is simple, reliable, relatively cheap and perfectly adequate for Ryzen CPU.
Water coolers also have fans, so they are also noisy. And contrary to air cooling, the pump noise is always present, even if relatively quiet
Power draw of Intel Raptor Lake is no where near as bad as people make out LOL! My 13700K is overclocked to the same frequencies as a 13900K and it’s undervolted - running a Noctua D15 air cooler. It pulls around 30W if I run MSFS on my triples and 60-75W while running in VR (with a 4090). Oh, and that’s running 32GB of DDR-4000 in Gear 1 as well (if I remember rightly, Gear 1 runs the RAM at a 1:1 ratio with the CPU, whereas Gear 2 runs the RAM at a 1:2 ratio with the CPU - Gear 1 is far better for latencies but it’s harder on the CPU’s memory controller).
