Currently running the game on a new 5600x (default clock settings), 32GB RAM running at 3600MHz and a real bottleneck GPU AMD R9 290X/4GB. Still I’m getting decent framerates in most places: at 1440p between 20-25fps on ground, almost 30 on higher altitudes) which make the game quite playable as I’ve logged more than 200 hours (with most being on an ancient build from 2011 with i5-2500k with 16GB RAM). At the same time I’m running a ton of apps in parallel with MSFS, namely Little Navmap, OnAir Company, Navigraph charts, Simtoolkit Pro (quite heavy), vPilot, Pilot2ATC, Firefox with 15 open tabs and so on.
Note that I’m using the recommended settings of [HOW-TO] Graphics Settings and Performance Guide (1/08/2021), which is essentially high settings with some mid’s, so in theory despite my bottleneck GPU I could use lower setting and get a significant 5-10 fps increase with a 7 year old graphics card. But I don’t care that much, I prefer better visuals. Obviously I’m not counting busy international airports, big cities and highly un-optimized scenery addons (which are a lot, I’d say probably most of them actually) where fps can go at 15fps or lower.
Highly recommending you get at least a 5600x or a 5800x if you want to spend some more and you’re planning to use multiple apps at the same time (e.g. streaming with high quality). For 90% of people out there a 5600x would be more than fine, as contrary to what some people believe not all users are doing video editing and/or CAD and are in dire need of a 5800x or 5900x and are willing to pay $1000 for it. By reading through certain PC forums, you’d think anyone who buys less than a 5900x is the living embodiment of failure. Well, that’s just plain wrong.
Also ideally you’d want to make sure you get RAMs that can run at 3600 XMP, because I’ve see MSFS benchmarks with 3200MHz and there’s a significant difference with those lower clocks.
Also a B550 motherboard which is usually much more value for money compared to x570’s (I’ve got MSI B550 Tomahawk). Just make sure you update it to the latest stable BIOS, because those 5000s and their XMP RAMs can be quite finicky. I had to use the latest beta BIOS to get rid of in-game audio cracklings and poppings due to RAM errors.
Like I said in my system the real bottleneck is my GPU, so I’m planning to go for a 6800XT or a 3080RTX when there’s decent availability AND they drop to normal prices. I"m not paying $1200 for something that should could cost at most $700, don’t feed the scalpers and the profiteers, don’t be a sucker. Just be patient. I hear there are pros and cons for both cards though: 6800XT’s may have a better impact in the game due to their gigantic 16GB VRAMs (so better LOD, draw distance, textures etc) while 3070s and especially 3080s/10GB are considered by some better when using VR, probably because of better drivers? So you might also want to consider if you’ll be using VR in the near future or not (personally I don’t care much because I’m not convinced that you can fly IFR without getting a headache by looking at all those displays and I’m flying IFR 99% of the time so don’t care to pay $500-700 for random VFRs).