New PC build for Microsoft Flight Simulator

When people suggest 3000-series cards for MSFS, they’re ignoring the 4000 series frame doubling, which is a game-changer. I flat out never worry about FPS anymore.

I’m pretty sure folks saying 3080/3090 is plenty… have a 3080/3090. :slight_smile: I went from a 3080 to a 4090 and it’s pretty amazing. (I’d have gone 4080 now, but I bought last year.)

Congrats on the new build, @Rivanov! FWIW, the one addition I’d make is to get a 1TB SSD and throw that into another m.2 slot for your OS and other apps, so you can dedicate the entire 2TB to MSFS. Unless this is a dedicated MSFS rig. I have a bad habit of collecting scenery worldwide, but I have nearly 2TB filled on an m.2 that’s dedicated purely to MSFS and its content.

Was going to suggest a 2nd NVMe just for MSFS packages. B550 does not support two PCIe4 drives so I have a 500GB PCIe4 980pro for system, apps, MSFS install, page file etc. and a PCIe3 NVMe just for the Community and Official folders, my 8GB rolling cache is on a ram disk. I can only recommend this set up.

I know it’s maybe overkill. BUt when you are shopping in this price range, I believe you can better futureproof yourself with a decent GPU.

You’d be much more future proof with an AMD5 mobo and cpu e.g. a 7xxxX3D

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I have 1 Tb with Fenix and at least 12+ payware airports including large ones like EGLL, EDDM, EBBR and still have more than half the space left. Unless of course, one intends getting a majority of the payware airports out there.

Good for you, you haven’t got my “AA” problem (addon addiction) :rofl:

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Ofcourse. But prices aren’t available of the 7xxxX3D. And I guess they will be pretty expensive. :wink:

Got my parts this morning and immediately started assembling. It was my very first PC build I did my own… it took me 3 hours. But everything worked the first time! Hooray!

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I would go with 64GB of RAM. Although FS runs fine on 32 GB, but once you start opening other stuff like Discord, LittleNavMap, Navigraph, a Browser, etc, you will easily fill up the 32 GB and start paging which will induce stutters.

Where do you get that from? … I doubt those other apps use more than about 4GB even when added together. Now I don’t use all that stuff or any major addons but personally I have rarely seen MSFS use more than 16 of my 32GB and usually a lot less.

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Just did some test flights.

2560x1440
DLSS Quality
Frame Generation
Ultra

Just after T/O KLAX

Drone mode

Cockpit

Is it normal that the CPU % is so low?

But the fans are seriously blowing! Even in the main menu. Is that normal?

The Gforce overlay is buggy … use something else

Will install MSI Afterburner tomorrow. Or do you have other recommendations?

HWinfo, HWMonitor or even just the windows task manager will be more accurate than you have now. With such a ridiculous frame rate I would suggest DLSS+DLAA will give you better detail

DLSS on Quality you mean? Like I have right now?

Now I don’t have DLSS3 with my rtx3060 so it might be different for you


Using this the gpu renders internally at a higher resolution and then downscales to post at native.

That’s the better than the Quality setting? Because all the YouTube videos where they benchmark the settings are using Quality.

This one for instance.

Congrats on your upcoming build. Literally, just this past Saturday I picked my built from a local shop with similar specs:

Ryzen 7 5800x3D
Asus 4070ti
MSI B550M Pro VDH
Kingston Fury 32GB DDR4 RAM
Kingston nv2 1 TB SSD
1000 Thermal Take G3
Fractal Design Torrent Case

“Monitor” is a new 55” LG C2 OLED - 4k 120hz.

I’ll preface my comments that I know next to nothing about PCs. Based on my research, questions, and wants, I think I got a good unit for a decent price and help from the shop.

Admittedly, however, after getting the sim downloaded and up and running, I am very disappointed in some of the performance. Not all my settings are ultra. LOD at 200-220 and object detail at 170. TAA antialiasing is the most clear. While the Nvidia DLSS Quality results in a significant FPS gain, the clarity is just not there especially with the glass cockpits.

A LOT of stutters at a few of my favorite airports with local photogrammetry. Yes, with one of them I’m using a 3rd party Airport but even uninstalling the mod, flying to the airport is very unstable and annoying.

I’m getting a consistent 50-60 fps in good weather and multiplayer and most other airports (non PG) down to the mid-30s and low 40s in bad weather with some traffic.

For those of you who are experts with these systems and settings, perhaps you can share best tips of do’s and dont’s with Nvidia and MSFS settings for me and the OP to get the most out of it?

Seems some of the issues are in the game itself based on feedback from other users with higher end units?

Thank you.

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This is general advice but should still be good even for lofty setups such as yours.

Regardless of resolution, regardless of what you fly in, enable the fps counter in devmode, pick your usual aircraft and head for the most difficult scenery you would usually fly over. … at 1000ft agl pause the sim and adjust settings so that mainthread and gpu limited timings approximately match. This should give a smooth performance throughout although depending on specs fps might not match your expectations, the obvious candidates to improve them is clouds down a notch and/or using DLSS. If stutters start to reappear then simply drop LOD a notch or two and you should still be good. High traffic settings can also kill performance so be careful with them.

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I too am planning on doing a complete new build, but not only for MSFS but also some other games.

Currently I am running a 6 year old 1070 and a 8 year old 4770k. Screen res. is 3440x1440p. Performance is pretty bad as you can imagine… So I thought of going with a 4080 paired with a 7800/7900X3D, but waiting for reviews first on those ones.

I don’t swap my parts every 1-2 years or so and therefore I want the setup to last for at least 5-6 years.

What do you think? Would a 4080 be largely sufficient or better go all in and buy a 4090?

Tbh I get what I consider great performance with just a 5800X and an rtx3060. Beauty really is in the eye of the beholder (and naturally his budget). Don’t spend more than you can afford.

I’ll just add that if you are going to go large then go large on the CPU, imo a 4090 is complete overkill and a balanced system would be nigh on impossible