Prebuilt: How important is GPU vs CPU in MSFS?

User Support Hub Hardware & Peripherals
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Hello everyone! Long time lurker! I am in the market for a new computer, and as luck would have it, I bought two by accident. I need to return one of these, but I don’t know which one to choose.

I know better GPUs are important, but I’ve also read a lot on here about how important cpus are in MSFS in particular. This PC will mostly be used for gaming, and mostly MSFS at that. I have a quest 2 headset I would occasionally like to use as well. Any help deciding would be appreciated it! Here are the contenders:

  1. https://www.costco.com/msi-aegis-zs2-gaming-desktop--amd-ryzen-9-9900x--geforce-rtx-5080--windows-11-home---32gb-ram----2tb-ssd.product.4000355760.html

AMD Ryzen 9-9900x
RTX 5080
32gb RAM

  1. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=skytech+gaming+pc&i=electronics&crid=3PC9V5B73ZXA0&sprefix=Skyt%2Celectronics%2C131&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_2_4

AMD 7 9800x3d
RTX 5070 ti
32 gb RAM

Given the lack of experience, gpu availability, and time, I am not really interested in building. Plus, I already have both. Just need to decide which one to keep!

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Both are very good options. The X3D CPU won’t help you much in FS24 since it needs cores and muti threading, not cache. But both are solid CPUs and solid GPUs. The idea is to always be GPU bottlenecked, as in the GPU needs to be working at 100%, and the CPU at a low % usage. If it’s the other way arround, meaning the CPU is at 100% and the GPU is only at 40% for example, the GPU is heavily underutilized, meaning you don’t get the full perfomance out of it, meaning low frame rates.

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You have them both?

Take the 5080 out of System#1, drop it into System#2. Done. Keep System#2 (9800x3D + 5080). :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

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Thanks, that’s helpful! So in this situation you would keep the 5080 with the 9900x?

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Haha! Don’t think I didn’t consider it! I bought the one from Amazon and then the one from Costco popped up. I had been gpu shopping considering my own rig and when I saw a 5080 for that price, I bought it thinking I would cancel the Amazon order. Then amazon wouldn’t let me cancel. So now I have two lol

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Yeah 5080 with the 9900x would be optimal

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ha ha ok. In that situation I agree with RulingPlacebo, I’d keep the 5080 + 9900x

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