Im thinking about building a PC next year, I have a xbox series x currently, which is only used for msfs and the odd exclusive, I have my PS5 pro for most games, so a PC build seems like a good route for me.
I have a spec in mind based on my budget and help from elsewhere on the parts. Primarily for MSFS 2024 would the below be good?
AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D Eight Core 5.00GHz (Socket AM5) Processor
Gigabyte B650 EAGLE AX (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard
Asus GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER Dual EVO 12GB GDDR6X PCI-Express Graphics Card Corsair Vengeance 32GB EXPO (2X16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C30 6000MHz Dual Channel
WD Black SN770 2TB SSD M.2 2280 NVME PCI-E Gen4 Solid State Drive
Phanteks AMP GH 750W 80PLUS Gold ATX Power Supply Modular
Kolink Umbra EX180 ARGB CPU Cooler - 120mm
Antec CX700 Elite RGB Mid Tower - Black
I guess this is classed as a mid range spec, not built a PC in 20 odd years so a bit behind with things.
Also currently I can only play over wifi, I do have decent broadband 1gb fttp into the house but where the pc is going I cant get cables up there at present, Wifi however has never been an issue on my consoles. Do any of you lot play msfs over wifi on your PC?
I have played MSFS2020 over wifi and had no problem at all.
Benchmark wifi was 350 Mb/s on my PC.
Now i have 1GB Ethernet, so there is more then enough bandwidth for MSFS2024.
I’d say it’s a mid-high spec. If it were me I’d consider pushing a few things a little higher:
You might want to consider the 9800x3d and an X870 motherboard. These should be more available next year, depending on when you want to build, and while that would push the budget up there’s a performance uplift of around 20% in general terms, and tests in MSFS 2020 showed roughly a similar uplift in FPS. I just did a new build based around this combo to replace an existing 13900K system and while it’s not night and day in FPS terms it is faster, and it runs a LOT cooler and quieter. I think it’s too early to draw any real conclusions about MSFS 2024 performance at this point.
Most X870 boards can run 2x16GB significantly faster than 6000MT/s, and 2x32GB up to 6400MT/s (this is the configuration I went with). Speaking of which, while I know people will say 32GB is plenty (and it is), I have seen just the MSFS 2024 process using 22GB on my system, so I’m glad I went for 64GB, as I have plenty of room to run other stuff at the same time. So again, I would consider going for more RAM. Also, make absolutely sure the RAM you buy is listed on the QVL for the motherboard you buy as being able to run at the rated speed. DDR5 is notorious for being incompatible.
Then I’d push to a 1000W PSU, if you can. It’s not much more expensive. You won’t need that much power on day 1, but what if you buy a next-gen GPU that draws a lot more power? I like to have a margin for safety in my builds. OTOH if you’d rather spend less now and then upgrade only when you have to, that’s an option. More cost in the long term but less in the short term.
As far as the GPU goes, I was never anything other than Main Thread limited in MSFS 2020 and my GPU (I have a 4090) was never taxed that much. In MSFS 2024 I see much higher GPU usage and I am quite often GPU-limited, which is a novel experience. The 4070 is no slouch, and pushing up to a 4080 or beyond involves a significant price uplift. That said, MSFS generally eats VRAM and it seems like MSFS 2024 does so even more. The 5000 series cards are out soon but I would expect prices of the 4000 series to remain high. I doubt you’d have much room for manoeuvre there unless you are willing to really spend a lot more.
On bandwidth - I’ve seen MSFS 2024 burst up to 300+Mbps but it’s usually much lower, and my WiFi would certainly cope. That said, the latency with wired ethernet is lower.
I play over WiFi 6 and have no problem. I see the Gigabyte motherboard you chose has WiFi 6E. That’s good. I recommend checking your router specs to see whether it supports WiFi 6. If not, see if you can budget to replace it with one that does (if you even can replace it - some ISP’s don’t allow it, while some like mine do.) Otherwise, I’m guessing WiFi 5 will be OK.
Everything else looks fine (very solid choices, actually) but I would recommend getting 64GB RAM (2x32GB kit.) I see reports of people getting close to using all of their 32GB RAM, and I’ve seen mine getting close to using 30 of my 64GB as well.
-edit-
I air-cool my 7950X3D, and by undervolting it (which you can do quite easily with your 7800X3D) I keep CPU temps around 55-70°C while in the sim. This also lets my CPU run at or close to its boost frequency without overclocking it by increasing voltage.
I might think about adding more ram but will stick to the spec I listed I think, I don’t want to up my budget too much as I’m quite nervous as it is that everything will work as planned.
I just want to build something that will perform well enough for msfs 2024 and once I feel confident with what im doing I can upgrade parts down the road l guess.
Based on the pre-release discussions by Microsobo, I thought 32GB would be fine. But users reports are showing that 64GB is a better choice. Be sure you get a 2x32GB kit, as AMD CPU’s are quite finicky about using EXPO or XMP profiles with 4x DIMM kits.
I don’t see why not. I would recommend PBO and undervolting with either CPU, especially with a single-fan air-cooler like the one you’re looking at. It’s not difficult, and will help keep temps down and speed up.
Neither CPU is particularly power hungry, but the X3D chip design does add some thermal management challenges. The 9800X3D is a bit easier to cool than the 7800X3D.
If your motherboard BIOS needs to be flashed it would need it for the 7800X3D as well.
The specs for the motherboard say:
Q-Flash Plus：Update BIOS Without Installing the CPU, Memory and Graphics Card.
Easy Peezy! I’d recommended flashing it with the latest BIOS before you do anything else. Attach a monitor to the motherboard HDMI port, power the system up, and flash it with a USB drive.
One thing you’ll want to research is the format for the USB drive. I had to learn the hard way that my motherboard requires that the USB drive be formatted with FAT32. Not a big deal, but it can be a puzzling roadblock.
So Romo, you have given a lot of thought to spec. Wondering what your performance targets/expectation are for this build? Might help folks (not me, I’m an interested onlooker here) pressure check your plans? Just a thought. After following a few threads, it appears to me that there are a lot of miffed PC user getting all kinds of results in 24 that are not always what was expected, given their rigs.
That is true. Personally, I was a bit disappointed when I upgraded from a 5800X3D to a 7950X3D. I expected “Oh wow!” and got, “Meh…”
Since then I’ve done some (actually a LOT of) tweaking - especially with Process Lasso, PBO and per core undervolting - and I’m closer to “Wow!” now. I’m running 4K with mostly Ultra/High settings, and Live Traffic and Weather, and seeing 50 FPS in the IniBuilds A320neo (V2) at KJFK. I’m good with that. I can’t really use TAA, but DLSS - Quality looks great to me, and if I had a 40xx-series GPU with frame gen I could max everything out with TAA. I’m stuck with my lowly 3090 Ti 24GB, though. It’s working great, as long as I’m willing to make some slight compromises.
I personally think that the GPU, and especially the internet connection, are more important than the CPU in the new sim. One really weird thing I found through some pretty extensive testing is that the sim doesn’t seem to care whether I use the Vcache cores, non-Vcache cores, or even all 16 cores. Performance is the same. That’s what leads me to believe i’m being GPU bottlenecked.
I wonder whether the 7900X or 9900X (non-X3D) would be the best CPU for FS2024.
Yeah, its hard at present with how msfs 2024 is to get a clear idea, I won’t be doing this until the new year sometime, and although it for msfs2024 its for other games as well mostly exclusives as it would replace my series x.
I will update if I do go ahead and how I get on.
As for my thoughts on the spec, these parts were based on my budget from helpful people. Not sure what to expect, lol.
In my setup, using an AIO water cooler and with stock CPU settings (no tweak to voltages etc) with the 9800x3d, I see max temps of about 70C under load in the sim. I’m considering taking the cooler off and putting new thermal compound on because I’m not sure it’s optimal now, but that’s still a lot cooler than my 13900K.
When I built my system three years ago I put a custom loop in and liquid-cooled the CPU. I soon realized the 3090 Ti was a furnace, dumping a lot of heat into my case. So I put the CPU on an air-cooler, and bought a water block for the GPU. Everything is much happier (and quieter) now .
