I’m one of the ones that is actually happy with SU5. My PC is 7th gen i7 7700 and GTX 1070 8GB with 16GB RAM. Before SU5, the sim was hardly playable for me - very low fps and stutters.
Post SU5, everything ultra 1080p, at least 30 fps (I don’t know what it actually is), but it’s smooth and very playable. I did not notice a visual downgrade, but I’m not sure my system was ever able to display the best MSFS had to offer. I have a 10GB rolling cache, so looking around, any popping is minimal. The only “downgrade” I notice is that at higher altitudes, the LOD may not be drawn out quite as far, but my performance is much better and the sim is playable.
Back to the reason for my post. My PC is almost 5 years old and will not be Win 11 compatible, so looking to upgrade in the next year or two. I want to get something that will be capable of playing MSFS in its full detail, glory, and splendor after MSFS upgrades it. Is the current hardware available today good enough for this (e.g. 11700 and RTX 3080 or even 11900 and RTX 3090), or is the next year or two supposed to offer a lot of PC performance improvements that MSFS should be able to take advantage of and I should wait. Also, is it better to get 64GB RAM vs 32GB RAM for MSFS to allow for a larger rolling cache?
I second the above and my machine is a good five years older than yours. I was ready to splurge the Magic fortune on a new machine and SU5 made me realise that I had dodged the bullet once more and that there was a lot of life in the old one yet.
There is never a good time to buy a new PC as there is always, always, something better around the next corner. New processors, operating systems, RAM and maybe even one day, a good graphics card that you can not only afford, but be able to find as well.
All this leads me to close with the Words of Wieldychunk. If it ain’t broke…
Here’s my build, post-SU5 this gets me 35FPS +/-15FPS (worst case being just above JFK with live traffic moving my camera around). Typical FPS is 45. Playing at 3440x1440, HDR10, 70% render scaling.
Long story short if you want 60fps max settings above 1080p - wait another CPU generation and possibly another GPU generation.
That’s not really a fair assessment since your CPU is one generation old, and the GPU is also one generation old (and mid-range).
I’m almost always above 60 fps at 1440p Ultra with current hardware (Ryzen 5800X, RTX 3080). There are times when I go down to 45-ish (heavy airports), but 60-80 fps is the norm.
OP, are you aiming at 1080p with the new computer, or higher? Because a 3080-3090 will be overkill for that resolution. Might as well save money and go for something like a 3060 Ti or at most a 3070.
I’m more or less happy with my current rig for 1080p post SU5. It’s not “perfect”, but it’s certainly playable and “good enough”. I want at least 2K and possibly 4K on a 27" screen on max Ultra settings (including the future beyond Ultra settings). I’m not looking to purchase anything until Windows 11 is out, as I want Windows 11 to be the only OS on the new PC.
Was just wondering if 11700 and 3080 is good enough. If not, is the 11900 and 3090 good enough? If not, would new 12700/12900 and 3090 be good enough, as that should be available next year with Windows 11? Sometime in very late 2021 or anytime in 2022 would be my ideal timing, but if RTX 4080/4090 makes a meaningful difference in MSFS, then I could wait for that if my current rig lasts. So far so good, but you never know.
I know many here are advocates of build your own, but given the chip and GPU shortage, I’m leaning toward getting an HP Omen or Alienware Aurora post Windows 11 release. At the moment, I can comfortably afford the 11700, RTX 3080, 32GB configs. I can also afford the higher specs if needed, but not sure if that is worth it or overkill.
I have a 27" 4K 60 hz monitor that I use for productivity. I’m not currently using that for MSFS, as I don’t like the look of 1080p close up on a 27". I’m guessing 2K equivalent would be running at 4K resolution with 70% render scale.
My machine is 6 years old and like yours, it runs MSFS very well. Better than both P3D or X-Plane run on my machine. According to MSFTs own Windows 11 requirements, I’m not sure why yours wouldn’t work?
MS said Win 11 needs an 8th gen or newer intel CPU. I have a 7th gen. I think it’s even worse for AMD users. Win 10 will still be supported for a while though. Regardless of Win11, I’d still plan to get something by 2023 at the latest for the performance boost.
If it helps, I have an i9 10900k, 64Gb ram and an rtx 3080. I play in 2k, 27 inch gsync monitor.
Settings all ultra plus the ones you can tweak up tweaked up, 200 on the lod sliders (have experimented with pushing these and can easily go to 400, but not much beyond) 100 render scale, real time traffic, 100 on all the traffic sliders (except boats as I use the global shipping mod instead).
I get north of 60 fps pretty much everywhere. 45+ over London and Paris PG - to the point now where I don’t ever feel the need to even check the fps it is so smooth.
I’ve played around with 130 render scale and it’s flyable easily, but just that little bit less smooth for me.
So 60+ or close enough so that you won’t be able to tell is definitely doable at 2k with today’s hardware. 4k is a tougher challenge though.
Also you’ve not mentioned vr - I have the reverb g2 and get very smooth performance there too, but the settings are more mid to high with one or two ultra rather than all ultra. That’s where I expect the real gains to come with future hardware.
I bought an Aurora R11 earlier this year to get a 3090 and if I had to do it over again would not have done that, and instead gone with someone like Origin PC where the motherboard, PSU, ram and cooling are much better and not proprietary. The Dell ran ok but it ran very warm due to their poor case and I ended up swapping the gpu/cpu over to a new case, new motherboard and new power supply. I also upgraded the ram and cooling. All that to say that the R11 was ok but know that you can’t really ever upgrade it in that case and their mobo is proprietary. I have seen other builders (origin pc as an example, but there are many others too ) have much better component selection and have started to drop the price on the 3080 or 3090 option back closer to msrp. Shop carefully and check out a few builders and their reviews on Reddit too. I went with the i9 10900k and 64gb and am very happy with that along with the 3090.
The smart thing to do is to wait until Win 11 is released, stable and usable and then learn from other users.
MSFS itself will probably take another year to stabilize itself (once all the big name 3rd party dev studios start to produce their complex high investment add-ons, then you know that they consider the platform to be stable enough).
Speculating what could and might be is probably not the best risk management.
Simply said, it’s probably too early to worry about it and in time (in a year or so) you will know what to get.
(I am running MSFS on a Ryzen 5 2600 @ 4GHz, 16GB RAM, RTX 2060. Running on 1080p. As long as MSFS is not multi monitor compatible, no need for me to even consider upgrading.)
Thanks for the suggestion. Alienware and HP Omen, while not cheap, seem the cheapest way to get a 3080 these days. Have their product offerings or QC gone downhill from what they offered back in 2016/2017? The other custom builders seem to be quite pricey, and I’m not sure they’d stand behind the product if it needed repair/service.
My current rig is HP Omen which I’ve been quite happy with so far. Unless it conks out, I’ll plan to wait at least until sometime next year after Win 11 releases. The 12gen intel looks promising.
Both Intel and AMD shift to a new socket with their next generation of CPU’s and both will adopt DDR5 amongst other enhancements.
Intel will do this later this year with AMD slated for the move to new socket/ddr5 in 2022 therefore your “year or two” will allow a bit of time for things to mature.
Check my specs, runs like butter on high and ultra settings holding 50fps most of the time, and my 3090 is under utilised so plenty of headroom for the future.
Motherboard: Asus Rog Hero x11 wifi Z490
55" curved oled Tv.
CPU: Intel i9-10900K @5.3ghz per core.
GPU: Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3090 turbo
CPU-Cooler: Liquid cooled 240mm
PSU: Kolink 1200watt Platinum
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4/3600mhz
M.2 NVME SSD: 1TB Samsung 970 EVO Plus
M.2 NVME SSD: 1TB Samsung 970 EVO Plus
SSD: NVME Samsung 970 EVO 500GB
5.1 logitech sound system Soundblaster Z.
Next level V3 Motion platform on GT Ultimate rig.
2 Buttkickers on race rig with 300watt earthquake amp.
Sim Racing studio wind and tactile generators.
Saitek Quadrant.
Saitek Multi panel.
Honeycomb Alpha Yoke.
Honeycomb Bravo Throttle controller.
Saitek fuel controller and deicer levers.
Thrustmaster TPR Rudder.
VR. HP Reverb G2
400mbit Virgin fibreoptic net.
I had no QA/QC problems with my Dell, it ran well from the get go….but it ran warm due to the case and there was no way to add fans or a larger cpu cooler. Also, I wanted the ability to upgrade components and that was limited. But it totally worked for the purpose of getting a 3090 at a price far less than scalpers and same for a 3080. At current prices it’s likely $300 to $500 more to get a 3080 setup from CLX, Origin, NZXT or another builder. I also like the idea of waiting for the 12xx series chips to see how they perform for the price and it might even make an 11xx series chip cheaper for still very strong performance,