MSFS Required Specs

[Dominique_K 10,133]

Just now, ChaoticBeauty said:

I assume you are comparing a 2.5" SATA SSD with an M.2 NVME SSD (as some M.2 SSDs can be SATA too). Nowadays there seems to be a very small difference between the two in games, just a few seconds in loading screens or none even. However it is said that this is caused by a CPU bottleneck and inefficient APIs. If we end up seeing DirectStorage and hardware decompressors (like the Xbox Series X) on the PC, then the NVME SSD should have a clear advantage, but right now I think the difference would be minimal.

I was impressed seeing that a SATA SSD moves stuff at 600 MB/s when the new plugin drives do that at 3.5 GB/s.

What kind of CPU bottlenecks ? I noted earlier in the thread that the 9800X CPU had a higher max memory bandwidth compared to other top-tier CPU. Would it be a factor ?

PS I am long simmer in its quest to build a new rig not an IT specialist so I may be naive in my questions 😉.

[ChaoticBeauty 6,692]

1 minute ago, Dominique_K said:

I was impressed seeing that a SATA SSD moves stuff at 600 MB/s when the new plugin drives do that at 3.5 GB/s.

What kind of CPU bottlenecks ? I noted earlier in the thread that the 9800X CPU had a higher max memory bandwidth compared to other top-tier CPU. Would it be a factor ?

PS I am long simmer in its quest to build a new rig not an IT specialist so I may be naive in my questions 😉.

Pretty much any CPU nowadays bottlenecks the speed potential of an NVME SSD due to the inefficient API. The next generation of CPUs could improve matters, but brute force is never the true solution. For example, Microsoft have said that thanks to DirectStorage, for a PCIe 4.0 SSD on PC you will need two Zen 2 cores to cover the overhead, and on the Xbox Series X just one tenth of a core. And with the hardware decompressor, the console has the equivalent of five Zen 2 cores dedicated to I/O overhead and data decompression.

Until the newer API makes its way on the PC (Microsoft said they plan to, but it is unknown whether Microsoft Flight Simulator will utilise that), NVME SSDs will continue to be bottlenecked no matter the CPU. The lack of a hardware decompressor can eventually be alleviated as higher core counts become mainstream.

[michal 44]

6 hours ago, Dominique_K said:

the 9800X CPU had a higher max memory bandwidth compared to other top-tier CPU.

It is all theoretical, in real life applications may amount to little or no advantage.

There are well known benchmarks that compare the best I9 "K" CPUs against the best I9 "X" CPUs and the "X" only wins in professional applications like encoding, compression, encryption, transcoding, etc.

The "K" wins by larger or smaller margin in all games.

If MSFS2020 would all of a sudden be an exception - that would make huge headlines in the computer world, I don't see it happening but if it does - you bet we will hear about loud and clear.

[Krakin 5,728]

18 minutes ago, michal said:

It is all theoretical, in real life applications may amount to little or no advantage.

There are well known benchmarks that compare the best I9 "K" CPUs against the best I9 "X" CPUs and the "X" only wins in professional applications like encoding, compression, encryption, transcoding, etc.

The "K" wins by larger or smaller margin in all games.

If MSFS2020 would all of a sudden be an exception - that would make huge headlines in the computer world, I don't see it happening but if it does - you bet we will hear about loud and clear.

Yup pretty much I've seen as well. I'll save some money and go for a "K" model because when it comes to gaming, "X" ain't 'gon give it to ya.

[Noooch 1,084]

I am starting to think I am gonna buy a Ryzen5 3600  with a GTX 1660 Super for less than 500 euros it should be more than enough, what do you think?

[ChaoticBeauty 6,692]

10 minutes ago, Noooch said:

I am starting to think I am gonna buy a Ryzen5 3600  with a GTX 1660 Super for less than 500 euros it should be more than enough, what do you think?

A great combo for a budget 1080p system right now, but I would still suggest that you wait until the simulator is released and you will have a good idea of what would be enough for you. There's no harm in waiting unless you need a new PC now, when Zen 3 is released the entire Ryzen 3000 series should become much cheaper (you could get the Ryzen 7 2700 for like 140€ shortly after Zen 2's release), and while the next-generation mid-range GPUs are due in early 2021 or later, you might be able to spot a better deal until then.

[Noooch 1,084]

@ChaoticBeauty Great advice thanks, it all depends when the sim will be out, or even a public beta, because with my potato gtx960 I doubt i will get an invite soon 😔

and I know I wont be able to wait a few months once the sim is released 🙃

Edited April 24, 2020 by Noooch

[ChaoticBeauty 6,692]

22 minutes ago, Noooch said:

@ChaoticBeauty Great advice thanks, it all depends when the sim will be out, or even a public beta, because with my potato gtx960 I doubt i will get an invite soon 😔

and I know I wont be able to wait a few months once the sim is released 🙃

Actually I have seen a GTX 960 get accepted into the Alpha, according to a spreadsheet on Reddit, but it's true that the chances are really low. It performs similarly to the minimum GTX 770, and considering that Maxwell is doing a lot less badly than Kepler in newer games, it is pretty much guaranteed that you will be able to play the simulator at least.

By the way, did your 500€ bundle include a motherboard as well? Otherwise this seems a bit expensive to me. The Ryzen 5 3600 shouldn't be costing more than 180€ now, and you should be able to find a GTX 1660 Super with a good cooler at around 250€.

[Noooch 1,084]

@ChaoticBeauty Yes 500e including the motherboard.

Since I have a I5-4460 I think my motherboard won't be able to receive the Ryzen 5. I am currently looking at the best motherboard I could get as we speak.

I will keep my old hard discs for now...

[ChaoticBeauty 6,692]

7 minutes ago, Noooch said:

@ChaoticBeauty Yes 500e including the motherboard.

Since I have a I5-4460 I think my motherboard won't be able to receive the Ryzen 5. I am currently looking at the best motherboard I could get as we speak.

I will keep my old hard discs for now...

That is a good deal then. Though considering your current CPU is Haswell, it means that your RAM is DDR3, so that is another thing that will have to be replaced too.

[Noooch 1,084]

Didn't consider that, thanks @ChaoticBeauty you are really helpful.

Edited April 24, 2020 by Noooch

[PWJT8D 446]

From my quick search, an i7-9800X is not even available to purchase anywhere. So why they would list it as Ideal I don't know. Doesn't seem to ideal to me if I can't buy it. As we have been made aware, it has way more maximum memory bandwidth. The weird thing is if you look at current i9 X series processors they don't list the max memory bandwidth for any of them so it's hard to compare. I play other games as well so I may just say forget about the X series and go with a K.

[Krakin 5,728]

The sim will probably run at 144 fps locked if they tone down on the hyper aggressive ambient occlusion lol

Edited April 24, 2020 by Krakin

[Tuskin38 6,445]

10 minutes ago, PWJT8D said:

From my quick search, an i7-9800X is not even available to purchase anywhere.

Best Buy (America) has it on their website, but they're out of stock. $599.99.

I used the PC Part Picker website to find it.

Edited April 24, 2020 by Tuskin38

[Noooch 1,084]

@ChaoticBeauty Since you seem to know a lot more than me about hardware, what motherboard  would you recommend? Is the MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX a good choice?