I’m looking for advice on what speed my storage should be for my storage. I plan to run both sims as I will eventually make the jump over. As for details, I need a 1TB NVME somewhere in the gen 4 or 5, while all remaining on a tight budget. I’m currently looking at the Crucial P310 1TB which has up to 7100MB/s in gen 4.
Here are my pc specs I am planning for my build below so you can get an idea on what I’m needing:
-Ryzen 7 9800X3D
-AMD RX 7900XT
-32GB DDR5 RAM (6000, 28)
-Gigabyte B650 Aorus
(keep in mind parts are set in stone)
At this point in time, Gen 4 NVMe is still the sweet spot and what I would recommend.
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I’ve just installed a high-performance Gen5 SSD along with the fastest RAM supported by my motherboard. The improvement in simulator load times has been substantial—far beyond my initial expectations. The reduced I/O latency and increased memory bandwidth appear to have made a significant impact on overall performance.
Mathijs Kok
PMDG
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This sim seems to defy all efforts to follow the usual advice given for gaming systems.
It really is the most power-hungry game out there.
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“Thin client”, they said for 2024.
I had looked at the Crucial T705 PCIe 5 M.2 for a new build, and all the regular hardware reviewers seemed to conclude faster PCIe 5 SSDs run very hot, with little to no benefit. You would certainly want to ensure good airflow over the heatsink for cooling.
It wouldn’t surprise me if flight sim has different results than all other titles, but I wonder if the faster RAM alone accounts for the better performance gain for Mathjis?
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Here’s a test I just did over the last week or so.
Gigabyte X670E AORUS Pro X
7950X3D (Process Lasso - vCores only)
3090 Ti 24GB
DDR5-6400/CL32 downclocked to 6000/CL30 with tightened subtimings.
DDR5-8000/CL38 (EXPO profile)
1 Gb/s fiber, WiFi 7
I flew the same flight path over NYC, with the same conditions (‘Few Clouds’ preset, Traffic OFF) and the same graphics settings (1080p CPU-bottleneck.)
This chart shows the average of 10 flights (8 really, since I threw out the highest and lowest in each set.) DDR5-8000 showed a significant improvement in 1% and especially 0.1% lows. Frametime variance was also improved.
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My instinct tells me there would be a greater benefit for flight sim from more ram (eg, 64 GB) at 6000 MT/s than from PCIe 5 SSD, but that’s just my guess.
On the other hand with so much data moving around, it would be interesting to know if the SSD is a bottleneck too. Mathjis is the first report I’ve seen of PCIe 5 SSD making a difference
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Is there any way to tell how much of the improvement in sim load time is attributable to the faster SSD rather than RAM?
Would you be willing to share your CPU, Motherboard, RAM (and timings) etc?
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It sure plays a role, but MSFS loads a ton of small files and gen5 drives are good at that. In the end it is all a combination of course, but after a sloppy start, gen5 really starts to work.
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Thin but not 2 dimensional. It still has to load something from local disk, and improving hardware will decrease loading times to some degree.
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Of course!
Samsung 9100Pro 2Tb drive
Ryzen 9 9900X Pro
X870 Steel Legend motherboard
Kinston Fury 6600MT 32Gb
3060Ti Graphics
Memory runs at expo settings, and I do zero tweaks on any hardware (and none on the simulator).
On this setup MSFS2024 starts to the main menu in 12 seconds and loads the 777-200 on Heathrow (in cache) in 17 seconds. I do have an extremely clean and streamlined (removed default aircraft, etc) simulator, though.
A far cry from MSFS2020 that takes a lot longer.
Mathijs Kok
PMDG
2 Likes
If your aircraft and airport is in cache you will download very little and it will run 90% from your own system. The whole cloud aspect is widely misunderstood.
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I’m surprised you didn’t choose one of the X3D CPUs, with larger L3 cache (which everyone says benefits gaming and MSFS).
I’m shopping for a PC build so am asking everyone what their choices were!
I keep looking at reviews for PCIe 5 storage like the Crucial T705, and worry about the heat. Since I’m planning on a custom water cooling loop, I might consider adding the M.2 water block…
Good thing GPUs are so expensive, it convinces me every day to postpone decision making. I likely won’t even have a PC built or be back in MSFS until the fall…
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Just built a new PC that provides 72Hz/FPS (Quest 3 VR) in most places with MSFS2024 medium settings (and just about ALL places with MSFS2020):
AMD 9800X3D (Mild 10% overclock)
Corsair Titan 360 CPU cooler
Gigabyte x870 motherboard
Corsair Vengeance RGB 64GB RAM DDR5-6000 CL30
Corsair MP700 with Heatsink 2TB PCI 5.0 x4 NVMe M.2 SSD <<======
Current GPU = RTX5080 but started with 3080ti which gave 50-60FPS in most places
Temps on the MP700 are about 44 C when MSFS is running MSFS flight
CPU temp - 58C
GPU temp - 52C
My goal was to run MSFS and DCS at 72HZ/FPS without ASW/SSW motion reprojection for VR or above 60 FPS for three monitor use. This $3000 USD system really is amazing. Yes, wish I could run Ultra settings but I really prefer the smooth visuals when looking sideways for VFR or especially with helicopters in VR mode.
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