Wanting to get a new gaming PC to play MSFS 2024 in 4K Ultra. Ideally would like to get 60 fps but will accept 30 smooth fps. Have 43" 4K monitor with G-Sync. Want to play in mostly Ultra settings.
Current choices are AMD 9800x3d CPU and RTX 5080 GPU or Intel 285k CPU and RTX 5090 GPU. The 5090 combo would be considerably more expensive, as the only practical means to get a 5090 is prebuilts which all that have 5090s seems to come with intel CPUs.
The 9800x3d CPU / 5090 GPU would be prohibitively expensive and the delta would be far more than its worth so not presently in the cards.
CPU is still king in MSFS, although slightly less in 24 than 20.
The 5080 will be great with a 4k screen, so go for the AMD cpu option. The intel 285k performance in MSFS is worse or at least no better than the preceding 13900 / 14900.
Have a new PC with the Ryzen 7 9800X3d, 64 GB and a 5070TI driving a 4k tv. I’m getting 58-60 FPS in TAA with most settings on HIGH. Add in a few ultras and still getting 30-50 FPS, so it stands to reason that if you want all ULTRA, you may need the 5090 as you suggest and may still be CPU limited like the rest of us. Maybe check out the Ryzen 9 9900 and 9950 reviews? Just a thought. All that said, I am thrilled with my new PC and the 5070Ti for mixed high/ultra.
Definitely the 9800X3D
As for the GPU, it’s a minefield right now.
The 5090 is just too darned expensive.
The 5080 is a strong option, but 16GB VRAM is not ideal, even though it’s DDR7. The question is whether Microsobo will ever truly solve their DX12 memory allocation problems.
The AMD 7900 XTX with its 20GB VRAM is another good card for this sim, but not being capable of FSR4 holds it back. Plus, there’s the question of whether the sim will fully implement ray tracing in the future. In that scenario, nVidia is still king.
I have a 3090 Ti 24GB, and I’m waiting another year or so to upgrade.
With the 7950X3D I have, I’m definitely GPU-limited @ 4K ultra.
If I had unlimited funds I’d bite the bullet and get a 5090. But I don’t, so I need to wait for the market prices to settle down.
And any GPU at all, new or used, is just hard to impossible to get. One day I saw the PC I wanted on line at a store about an hour away but they had only one. So I made the drive and by the time I got there it was sold. The parts department had one 5070Ti and could build me the rest, so I just bought it. Any time lost over debating 5070Ti vs 5080 would have resulted in not having a new PC at all. So at some point, one just has to jump when something becomes available or wait indefinitely for whatever. Chance favors the prepared, uh, GPU shopper today!
HI, wow. That’s crazy. I didn’t know MSFS2024 would be so hard to drive. The prices are insane. The 9800x3d / 5080 combo is easier to get. I’m still looking at pre-builts to avoid scalpers, but those combos can be had, with some more reasonable than others, and more than $2k less than the 5090/285 prebuilt combos. The 5090 I can get but only with 285k - the prebuilt is eclipsing $5k (still FAR less than self-build with a 9800x3d / 5090 combo).
I guess another feather for the 9800x3D / 5080 combo is that since the cost is less, I wouldn’t feel bad upgrading from that sooner. I may wait a few more sim updates to pull the trigger.
I can wait until early Fall but want to have the machine in hand no later than 2025 Holiday Season. I don’t see AMD or Nvidia releasing anything meaningful by then. Intel “may” release a 385, and if they improve the gaming aspect, that could unlock a 5090 pairing in a prebuilt, but still very expensive.
I wish AMD developed a true successor to the 7900 XTX. Sure, they couldn’t compete with 5090, but they don’t need to. They could’ve competed at the x080 level, and we’d be looking at 24GB 5080 if AMD still played in that space offering Nvidia true competition.
For actual performance, I want to max Ultra for everything external scenery related, water, and clouds. I’m OK using High for cockpit related items if that helps with the flame rate. I’m also OK with using DLSS Quality if that helps and some form of dynamic LOD, as long as that doesn’t really shorten draw distances while they are noticeable.
When I go to price what it actually takes to get a 9800x3 / 5090 combo (either build obtain myself or a custom prebuilt), it is more than double than what it is to get a 9800x3d / 5080 combo. Going from 5080 to 5090 is NOT worth $3-4k more. That is insane.
Hmmm, who said a 5080 is bad? And about pricing, a price is only as valid as availability. You can window shop till you drop for price, but if the unit is not available to purchase, the price is meaningless.
Thank you for the comments. I’m wondering if I’d be better off just getting a 14900kf / RTX 4090 system? That has the VRAM and the price is negligibly more expensive than a 9800x3d / 5080 combo? I would purchase a 3-year comprehensive warranty for the 14900kf issues. The warranty is a drop in the bucket compared to the extreme premiums for the 5090 builds. I simply cannot afford a 9800x3d / 5090 combo and the 285k / 5090 combo is pushing it. That is $6-7k street price. The 14900kf doesn’t seem “that much” worse than the 9800x3d in 4K with a 4090. I can only get the 4090 in a prebuild and the availability won’t last forever, but that I can actually afford. I cannot afford the 5090s in their presently available form.
In MSFS 2024, the better use of CPU threads and speed means there is a strong case still to be made for the 13900 / 14900 K CPU’s, and they work very well with the RTX 4090.
The much publicised CPU issues should not be an issue at all if you use the correct BIOS setting in your motherboard from the start, which do not allow the original and ridiculous 4,000 watt peak power draw. Combined with a good quality liquid cooling solution, temperatures can be easily managed and they work well.
However you will still be CPU limited in MSFS, and because of the 3D cache the 9800X3D is the better option, or maybe even the 9900 / 9950 X3D if you can find one.
In the absence of a reasonably priced and available 5090, is there a way you can put together one of the top X3D CPU’s mentioned above with an RTX 4090, either new or slightly used? This combo would give excellent performance, and you have the 24GB VRAM as a step up over the 5080.
If you’re considering buying the Intel i9-14900KF, you should be aware of a serious issue Intel has been facing—oxidation and voltage spikes (Vcore), which can lead to CPU degradation over time.
Intel claims to have fixed the Vcore spike issue through BIOS updates, but that only addresses part of the problem. What they can’t fix is the underlying hardware defect - something they kept hidden for a long time.
If they covered this up for so long, how can you trust them now …
If you want high performance without the risk of degradation and shady business practices, Ryzen 7 9800X3D is CPU you need.
My new PC is barely 2 months old and I am happy with my 16GB 5070Ti for 4k on a single 60Hz HDTV. That said, if I were GPU shopping now (and who isn’t window shopping just for fun), I would see if AMD comes out with another high end card. THAT SAID, the 50xx GPUs sport faster next generation VRAM and are the only GPUs that do so. AMD is still using last generation memory spec, read slower. This is probably not trivial given MSFS’s appetite for fast/abundant VRAM. What we don’t know is if the faster VRAM makes up for a little less VRAM, i.e., 16 vs 24. Could be why they didn’t (haven’t yet) offered a 24GB 50xx card? Just speculating here, cheers!
It seems to me that the sim is biased towards GPU usage. Yes, the CPU is important, since it feeds data to the GPU. But as you said, it’s all about core frequency and threads. I think it’s proven that the L3 X3D cache is a big help as well, but an Intel 13th or 14th generation CPU can certainly get the job done when paired with a good GPU.
Agreed that the GPU is much more important now than it was with MSFS 2020.
WRT the previous intel CPU’s, I really meant that there was a strong case to be made for them particularly in comparison to the new 285k, and also specifically for MSFS.
Although my 13900 KSS still does a very good job, if I was shopping for CPU components today with an eye to MSFS, I’d absolutely be banging a path to AMD’s door for a 9800X3D or better.
It may be that case that the top X3D chips retain the advantage in this title for a good while, although if the stories about intel’s 2026 Nova Lake CPU’s are correct about 16P cores + 32+4 E cores and 144MB L3 cache, they might regain some ground, depending how AMD also develop of course.
I’m still on the fence about what to do. I’ve ruled out the 285k, as it really seems to be a dog for gaming.
I’ve watched a lot of YouTube videos and have read reviews and I’m convinced the RTX 5080 will not meet my needs. It’s a very capable card and would very much meet my needs if it simply had at least 20 GB VRAM (Not even 24 GB).
My budget is $3-4k.
I may have a few days left at best to nab a 14900 / 4090 combo at a price I can actually afford. If not, with everything going on, I’m likely waiting til Black Friday at the earliest.
By then maybe we’ll know: 1) Intel releasing 385K - maybe improved latency to have possible gaming. 2) Nvidia announcing an RTX 5080 S/Ti with 20 or 24 GB VRAM (given the gap between 5080 and 5090 - there is space and demand for both. 3) MSFS 2024 fixing VRAM issue such that RTX 5080 can play it Ultra in 4K (with DLSS or 1x frame gen)
In other words, if I wait until end of year, is it likely I will get something that can play MSFS 2024 in 4K Ultra in my price range, or should I pull the trigger on 14900 / 4090 now?
I’m fine using DLSS and/or 1x fram gen - the RTX 5080 would be good enough, save for VRAM alone.
Global Flyer2020:
Thank you!
I have fooled around with computers for years and got the bug to build a new rig even though I have a few pretty decent ones.
I have purchased from Newegg in the past but where I live in central PA, I am @1.25 hrs from the St. Davids Microcenter and 1.6 hrs from the Parkville, MD Microcenter.
I really got the bug for the 9950x3d cpu and only the Parkville, MD store had them in stock so off I traveled.
Had great help from the Parts Mgr for picking parts.
CPU: AMD 9950x3D
Ram: Gskill FlareX DDR5-6000 (cl30) 2x32 64gig
Cooler: LianLi AIO 360
MB: MSI Mag 870E Tomahawk WIfi
SSD: Samsung 990Pro 4tb NvME
GPU: Zotac RTX 5090 Solid (actually had one in stock!)
Case: Montech Air 905
PSU: MSI 1200W
Was it expensive? YEP! With Tax and a 2 yr warranty on the video card @$5300.
Frankly the card was $2699 so that’s what really drove up the price.
Was fun assembling it.
I have a flight panel with my other rig but on this one, I coupled a Samsung CR9 49" widescreen monitor 5120x1440 120Mhz together with a TurtleBeach Velocity One yoke throttle and a TurtleBeach Rudder pedals.
System is very smooth. I also have a Quest 3 VR set do I’m in the early stages of VR flying.
If you have other questions just post them
Best regards.