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I was in Microcenter earlier and an associate was helping me with some questions with MSFS2020 in particular. He mentioned upgrading my CPU won’t help FPS and game quality all that much knowing my setup. I know upgrading the GPU will help exponentially, but is leaving my current CPU alone the right thing to do? Avg 20FPS and slight stuttering is killing me!! Here is my current setup:

Intel i5-10400K
5 fans for air cooling
GeForce 1660 Super
32GB DDR4-2666
As rock Pro4/ac board

(When I can get my hands on a better GPU I am definitely picking it up)

But would upgrading to an i9 or even i7 help?

was in Microcenter earlier and an associate was helping me with some questions with MSFS2020 in particular. He mentioned upgrading my CPU won’t help FPS and game quality all that much knowing my setup. I know upgrading the GPU will help exponentially, but is leaving my current CPU alone the right thing to do? Avg 20FPS and slight stuttering is killing me!! Here is my current setup:

Intel i5-10400K
5 fans for air cooling
GeForce 1660 Super
32GB DDR4-2666
As rock Pro4/ac board

(When I can get my hands on a better GPU I am definitely picking it up)

But would upgrading to an i9 or even i7 help?

I would not jump to the conclusion that you need a faster GPU.. without knowing a lot more..

What display resolution are you using?   What does your task manager tell you re CPU and GPU utilization?

What about RAM and VRAM utilization?

What kind of settings lead you to 20 fps??

I would expect your PC to run MSFS nicely at "high" settings.. with vsync on and fps locked at 30.

BTW, I cannot find a 10400K... which CPU do you have??

Edited February 25, 20215 yr by Bert Pieke

Hello Bert.

Here are a few screenshots in Dev mode Ultra and Medium.  I'm just running a 1080 165Hz 32" LG UltraGear monitor.  I just played around with some settings and getting 26-30 on both settings.  Minimal stutter on Ultra with Terrain and Object detail scaled back to 100.  That was a misprint on my part with the CPU.  It's an i5-10400F.  

 

Medium settings

Ultra settings

Task manager

I posted the processes by accident.  In the performances tab the closer I am to the ground the CPU is averaging 75-85% and the GPU averages 80-100%

Upgrading the GPU will help you achieve higher FPS in rural areas (non dense areas), as well as an increase in FPS in weather effects etc.

A CPU upgrade will help in denser areas like cities and complex scenery like addon airports. 

You would benefit from either, but it's usually a good idea to match the components so you don't spend too much on one while the other is holding you back. 

Your i5 10400K is very recent and should be as fast as an R5 3600. I think I would invest in a GPU upgrade first, it will lift the ceiling of available FPS by a good amount. However, if you fly low and in dense areas your CPU will hold you back. 

At medium settings your showing CPU limited not GPU, upgrade your CPU you will get more FPS but then show GPU limited flight sims are CPU dependent. At 1080p I can match a 3090 GPU on ULTRA .

On 3/4/2021 at 7:25 AM, G-RFRY said:

At medium settings your showing CPU limited not GPU, upgrade your CPU you will get more FPS but then show GPU limited flight sims are CPU dependent. At 1080p I can match a 3090 GPU on ULTRA .

All the pictures are in urban areas. If he flew somewhere with less complexity he would be GPU limited. Meaning a CPU upgrade might help a bit in the complex scenery, but there's still a FPS ceiling regardless of scenery. 

There will always be lower fps (and sometimes stutter, depending on the area) in complex, dense areas. Even if he bought the fastest Intel or AMD CPU. And his current CPU is actually fairly fast. 

So I'd suggest upgrading the GPU first. An RTX 3060 Ti, 3070, 2080 Super or 2080 Ti should give a large bump in performance. Especially at higher settings.

1 hour ago, Republic3D said:

All the pictures are in urban areas. If he flew somewhere with less complexity he would be GPU limited. Meaning a CPU upgrade might help a bit in the complex scenery, but there's still a FPS ceiling regardless of scenery. 

There will always be lower fps (and sometimes stutter, depending on the area) in complex, dense areas. Even if he bought the fastest Intel or AMD CPU. And his current CPU is actually fairly fast. 

So I'd suggest upgrading the GPU first. An RTX 3060 Ti, 3070, 2080 Super or 2080 Ti should give a large bump in performance. Especially at higher settings.

Makes you wonder why then users that have upgraded to the 3090 are not as impressed as they thought they would be and some complaining about performance in MSFS., I upgraded my MB and CPU last year and did notices a jump in FPS and able to run on 4K ULTRA , in P3DV5.1 and MSFS.

PS some are running in 1080p and 1440p where the GPU has less effect on FPS.

5 hours ago, G-RFRY said:

Makes you wonder why then users that have upgraded to the 3090 are not as impressed as they thought they would be and some complaining about performance in MSFS., I upgraded my MB and CPU last year and did notices a jump in FPS and able to run on 4K ULTRA , in P3DV5.1 and MSFS.

PS some are running in 1080p and 1440p where the GPU has less effect on FPS.

That's what I mean, there needs to be a balance between the components. 

His CPU is relatively fast. I'm not suggesting that he should buy a 3080 or 3090. Like I said earlier, he would benefit from upgrading either. A new CPU would raise framerates in urban areas, a new GPU would enable higher framerates everywhere the CPU is not holding him back. Meaning outside urban areas.