I’m planning to build a new PC for MSFS 2024, but I have a limited budget. However, I’m trying to get the best value for my money, which is about 1,500 Euros. I need some advice regarding the graphics card.
I have a 4K monitor and am unsure whether to choose the RTX 4070 Super or the RX 7800 XT. Is the AMD card worth it because of its 16GB VRAM? From what I understand, I could use DLSS and Frame Generation with the NVIDIA card, which would significantly boost frame rates.
I have my doubts with 16GB of VRAM nevermind 12GB of VRAM. My primary PC has a 4090 with 24GB of VRAM and I never worry when it comes to VRAM usage. My secondary PC however has a 4080 Super with 16GB of VRAM and sometimes I get close to running out of VRAM and I’m only playing at 2560x1440p (although I play MSFS virtually maxed out). I’m sure if you lower the settings with a card that has 16GB of VRAM you will be fine at 4K. I really don’t know why Nvidia decided to give the 4070 Super 12GB of VRAM. The 1080 Ti from 2017 had 11GB of VRAM. It’s worth noting that some addons will be more taxing on VRAM than others and with some lower resolution textures is an option.
You can use the equivalent FSR scaling and AFMF frame generation on the AMD card if you like.
Personally I picked up the 7900XTX last year and it has been wonderful. I don’t use FSR or AFMF, I just run regular pixels on a 4K monitor at native resolution.
Probably something with at least 24gb VRAM. Buy the best card you can afford, also look at your storage, you may need more at some point.
I would also get another 32gb RAM (matched).
I have Radeon 6900xt with an 5800x3d. Obviously I was main thread limited in msfs20 @1440p (thanks to I fly only airliners). In msfs24 stripped down Alfa I was gpu limited -16Gb was enough, used 12-14Gb, but had to work hard. while I used automatic settings from the sim (ultra). It may flip over again when I go back into airlines, however I will jump on AM5 as well. I can’t complain against AMD GPUs, their frame generation woks good also FSR 3 will be supported in 24.
Regarding ram, in the latest dev stream Seb claimed 32Gb should be enough, unless you run a LOT of side apps. Don’t spend your money on that (yet). Be careful with the 7800x3d, it had inflated price, just getting some reductions as 9800x3d will be available from 7th Nov
I am buying a new build when the 9800x3d comes out and thinking about buying this as a temp fix (I have an old rtx2070s now) until the rtx 5080s or maybe (?) 5090s become widely available. I have a budget of about £1750 available for a gpu now similar to the OP.
What concerns me are reported crashes/black screens with AMD Gpus, ‘not great’ driver updates and inferior build quality compared with Nvidia GPUs. Not bothered about ray tracing so this is not a concern. Neither is the increased power draw from the AMD gpus.
I can get one now for about £685 (inc VAT) so … pretty cheap I think.
Am I over thinking the above so called issues in your opinion?
You wont get a 5090 for that. Why not a 4090? I have one and it doesnt break a sweat with 2020. Ms2024 is apparently even easier on GPUs so forget about needing a 5090 at the ridiculous price they will retail at.
Like the OP (who has a similar budget for a GPU), I am honestly not sure which way to go and that is the truth.
I could afford a 4090 but with the 5000 series being announced (probably Jan 6, I think) does it make sense? I think a 5090 will be too expensive for me so the choice maybe is between a 4090 or a 5080 with the new tech, better GDDR7 VRAM but with (possibly) only 16 gb VRAM, and the new display port 2.1.
Not a clue which is the best way forward tbh at the moment.
@blackwizard154 Not intending to derail your thread here by the way. I just think we both have similar amounts to spend on a GPU and can’t decide on the best option
With the 5000 series likely to be announced/released in early January, it might not be a bad idea to wait until that happens, if you can, as that could quite easily have a knock on affect for the pricing of the 4000 series cards.
As the price of the 5000 cards probably won’t be decided, by the Nvidia CEO, until very late in the day, there might even be a surprise. I’m fairly sure that there won’t be, but as even he probably doesn’t know yet, it’d probably still be worth it to wait and see.
I happily used a Sapphire Pulse RX 6800XT for a couple years and it was solid. Build quality was great, driver updates were fine (although it always annoys me how often updates are pushed), and I never noticed any stability issues.
I recently upgraded (slightly) to an RTX 3090 mostly in anticipation of the ray-traced shadows coming in 2024. I know AMD is still well behind in ray tracing performance, so I decided to take this step. I guess 24GB of VRAM won’t hurt either.
The only hurdle left is that I’m still not even sure I’ll pick up 2024 yet
Considering the GPU’s you suggested, I’m guessing this is your total budget, but it sounds like most people read this to be your GPU specific budget.
Not only that, but 24 GB VRAM is by no means necessary at 4k. The people suggesting that are assuming the sim has to be ran at the ultra default setting, which is far from the truth and unreasonable when you consider there are many settings with no visual difference between ultra and high. On other settings, even medium has very little visual difference.
I’m running a 7800xt and 5800x3d on a 4k monitor at native resolution and frame rates (I don’t like to use upscaling and frame gen) with a mix of medium to ultra settings and can maintain 45+ in virtually all scenarios. I also run FSLTL for traffic, with those textures reduced from 4k to 2k.
I plan to keep running it in 2024 and don’t expect any issues. There is the question of ray tracing performance, but I’m still not that worried. Ray tracing isn’t a make or break deal for me and I’ll be fine going without if the performance hit is too much.
If you can stretch the budget a bit, give the 7900 GRE a look. It’s been proven to be an insane value, especially if you get into undervolting and overclocking now that AMD fixed an artificial restriction on that front. It wouldn’t surprise me if it becomes known as AMD’s “1080 ti” in reputation.
Where msfs2020 is concerned Most people are aware that overclocking is definitely not the way to go if you dont want ctd`s or black screens. Buy an adequate GPU for the task as we dont know yet whether msfs2024 will suffer from the same situation vis a vis overclocking.
Like @Vibstronium indicated, never heard of such problems nor encountered them either. I started out with the sim with an AMD RX 5700xt → RX 6800 → RX 7900xtx.
What many don’t realize with AMD gpu’s and the sim is what I call “home field advantage”. Given that the Xbox’s have an integrated AMD gpu, you’ll find the sim is very well tuned for the AMD discreet gpu’s also.
Just because they announced a ‘5000 series’, does that even mean the 5090 would be an initial release? I imagine AI folk will jump on those immediately as they’re still cheaper than $6K plus ‘real’ professional cards. They just recently released the 4070ti super, we’re going to have to wait out the initial cards, the ti versions, the super versions, and the super ti versions…
