If this helps anyone, I use the benchmark website to compare computer parts sometimes. Pretty helpful. 

Here's a comparison of the i7 12700k with the i5 12600k. 

Here's a list comparing CPUs. 

You can do the same thing GPUs, etc.

On 2/26/2022 at 2:20 PM, jfri said:

What screen resolution were you using ?
Do you also use XP11 P3D5 DCS ? If so were the experience the same there ?

1440P (2K) with 100% Rendering scale.

I used to have XP11 but entirely migrated to MSFS before those overhaul to my PC so I cannot say

As an update for anyone interested, I did decide to upgrade and I took some of the suggestions of you all. My goal was NOT to build a top end system but do as good as I could with $750 USD budget. Here's what I did.

Previous system: I7 4790K, 32GB DDR3 Hyper Fury X RAM, MSI Z97 Gaming 5 Motherboard, RTX 2070 (originally GTX 960 4GB)

New System: I5 12600K, 32 GB DDR4 G.Skill Ripjaws, MSI Pro-A WIFI DDR4 Motherboard, RTX 2070

Basically, I only upgraded the motherboard, cpu, and ram. Everything else stayed the same (case, gpu, psu, hard drives, etc). I also decided to do a clean sweep by wiping my hard drives and starting completely fresh. The only thing on the computer right now is Windows 10 (fully updated), MSFS, and the various installers (Orbx Central, Contrail, etc). Windows is on one drive and MSFS is on another.

The first thing I'll say is hats off to Asobo for making the reinstall easy. Sure, it took a while (3-4 hours) to download and install MSFS but once I opened it, EVERYTHING was the same in the new install as when I deleted it the day before. My settings, my controls, my logbook... EVERYTHING was there and was the same. That really surprised me. 

The second thing I'll say: WOW! What a difference! I have never experienced such smooth flight simming. The I7 4790K did great and MSFS actually gave me new life when it came out but what a difference going to the I5 12600K! Buttery smooth. This morning, I took off with the FBW A320 out of Flightbeam KIAD with the settings on the stock "Ultra" and everything was perfectly smooth. No developer mode yet and no stats yet but very smooth to the eye.

Before I shut down the previous system, I did 3 test flights in developer mode and took some screenshots at various points (cold and dark, taxi, takeoff roll, cruise, final, gate). I plan to do those exact same flights with the exact same settings to see the difference. Once I do that, I'll post those screenshots so you can see the difference. 

Thanks all! I am very happy!

Good to hear.  I think MSFS is a completely different beast to any sims we've seen before.  I recently got a new gaming laptop for when I'm away (5800H Ryzen, 16gb 3200 DDR4, 6GB RTX3060).  So often we've seen people saying "don't sim on a laptop".  Last night I put MSFS on my laptop out of curiosity to see how it ran.  I couldn't believe how well  it runs.  40+ fps @ 1080p High around KLAX, and haven't seen a single stutter or blip.

Edited March 11, 20224 yr by Charlatan

@tomcatman24 Thanks for the update, always nice to know how things work out. You may find an all round small improvement in performance by upgrading to Windows 11, it can help correctly allocate threads between the E and P cores.

On 3/11/2022 at 10:48 AM, tomcatman24 said:

As an update for anyone interested, I did decide to upgrade and I took some of the suggestions of you all. My goal was NOT to build a top end system but do as good as I could with $750 USD budget. Here's what I did.

Previous system: I7 4790K, 32GB DDR3 Hyper Fury X RAM, MSI Z97 Gaming 5 Motherboard, RTX 2070 (originally GTX 960 4GB)

New System: I5 12600K, 32 GB DDR4 G.Skill Ripjaws, MSI Pro-A WIFI DDR4 Motherboard, RTX 2070

Looking forward to your comparison pics.

I'll probably go for an i9 because the prices are pretty good when I consider what it cost me for my Sandy build.

Edited March 19, 20224 yr by DJJose

Here are the test flights I did for comparison with screenshots. I hope this is informational for someone looking! On both systems, I used the exact same settings and the exact same addons. The only difference is the computer hardware.

Old System: I7 4790K, 32 GB DDR3, RTX 2070, MSI Z97 Gaming 5 motherboard

New System: I5 12600K, 32 GB DDR4, RTX 2070, MSI Z690 DDR4 Motherboard

Test Flight #1-KORD to KLGA

Aircraft: FBW A320

Addons: FSDreamteam KORD, REX Accuseason and Real Global Airport Textures

Settings: 1080p; Frame Rate Limit at 60; Render Scaling at 140; default high settings; scattered clouds preset; Real World Traffic

The first shot is from the I7 4790K system and the second shot is from the I5 12600K system. All shots are taken while the sim is "in motion." I did not pause the sim to take the screenshots. 

Cold and Dark

 

 

 

Ready for Taxi

 

 

 

Taxi

 

 

 

Takeoff Roll

 

 

 

Cruise

 

 

 

Final

 

 

 

Taxi to Gate

 

 

 

At Gate- Engine Shutdown

 

 

I did 2 other test flights that I will post the results of soon. One is with the default Beechcraft Bonanza over London and the other is with the Carenado M20 Ovation around New York. Stay tuned!

That's a great improvement, so well done with the upgrade. You might want to update your sig too.

WOW @tomcatman24

That's an amazing increase in FPS.

I just picked up my i5 12600K at Best Buy today after reading all the excellent reviews on this chip. Ironically I'm upgrading from the i7 2600K.

I also ordered the MSI Pro-A WIFI DDR4 Motherboard based on your advice from Amazon, but I got Corsair Pro DDR4 RAM 3200 instead of the Ripjaws.

RAM

https://www.newegg.com/corsair-32gb-288-pin-ddr4-sdram/p/N82E16820236570?Description=CORSAIR Vengeance RGB Pro 32GB&cm_re=CORSAIR_Vengeance RGB Pro 32GB-_-20-236-570-_-Product

@tomcatman24  What cooler are you using? Lastly, with regards to win 10 re-activation, what procedure did you utilize?

Thanks for sharing your experience.

Jose

Edited March 24, 20224 yr by DJJose

1 hour ago, DJJose said:

WOW @tomcatman24

That's an amazing increase in FPS.

I just picked up my i5 12600K at Best Buy today after reading all the excellent reviews on this chip. Ironically I'm upgrading from the i7 2600K.

I also ordered the MSI Pro-A WIFI DDR4 Motherboard based on your advice from Amazon, but I got Corsair Pro DDR4 RAM 3200 instead of the Ripjaws.

 

You're on the 2600?  Wow what a great life for that old CPU!  You're going to notice a massive difference!  What card are you using?  I kept my 1080 ti - I was surprised to see Tomcat was still GPU limited with his RTX 2070.

Well I have my upgrade done now. Went from 4790K OC 4.7, 16gb DDR3, RTX 2080ti to 12900k, 32gb DDR5, same RTX 2080ti.

I'd made a few upgrades to my previous system which was pre-built, but this was my first build from scratch, and all in all, it went fairly smoothly, with just a few hiccups, but nothing major.

One of the biggest changes I notice is that my new system is so much quieter, even though it has three more fans than my old one. Performance-wise, it is a huge jump from the 4790k, even with keeping the same graphics card. I don't really obsess over FPS, but I find a good way to judge performance is to go somewhere dense and look 90 degrees to the side and see if the scenery (especially the buildings) looks sharp as it moves past. So I hopped into the c172 and flew around some cities with real time weather on. On my old system I had the render scale as low as I could stomach (75), with most settings at high or ultra, except for a few key ones like terrain LOD and objects LOD which I had around 125 each. With those settings I would generally get good performance, without much stuttering, but when looking sideways, or even a little forward, it would get choppy and hard to see clearly in the cities.

I haven't had as much time as I'd like yet with the new system, but I've got everything set at ultra, with the render scale at 100, terrain and object LODs at (I think) 200, and flying over central London was super smooth, and looking sideways out the window was smooth and clear as well. The only time it seemed like it might be struggling a little was as I sideswiped Gatwick and Heathrow. 

So overall, super happy with the new build. It'll be interesting to see what happens when I throw a more complicated airplane at it, like the PMDG 737 when it comes out, but looking forward to this system for a long time to come. And the building part was fun too.

9 hours ago, ryanbatc said:

You're on the 2600?  Wow what a great life for that old CPU!  You're going to notice a massive difference!  What card are you using?  I kept my 1080 ti - I was surprised to see Tomcat was still GPU limited with his RTX 2070.

What's up my brother?

The other reason I chose the i5 12600k is because it should work perfectly with my Titan X (Pascal.) Almost zero bottleneck.

MSFS is so customizable that fps should be much higher with the new CPU.

BTW Ryan,

My 2600K feels like it still has life left. MSFS runs great in most sceneries except the major sceneries like Samscene's NYC etc. Yet it's still mainly smooth.

It's why I have been so reluctant to upgrade.

Edited March 24, 20224 yr by DJJose

On 3/22/2022 at 2:52 AM, Reset XPDR said:

That's a great improvement, so well done with the upgrade. You might want to update your sig too.

Thanks! And good catch! Will do!

21 hours ago, DJJose said:

What cooler are you using? Lastly, with regards to win 10 re-activation, what procedure did you utilize?

Looking forward to hearing your results! 

I am using the Noctua NH-U12s and am very happy with it. Temp management seems to be a lot less of an issue than with FSX or P3d. With my I7 4790K, even though I was CPU bound, the total usage was still not as high as with previous sims when it would run at close to 100% all the time, so the chip ran a lot cooler. With the i5 12600K and this cooler, my temps are pretty much at 35c to 40c all the time running MSFS. 

Regarding Win 10, I reinstalled from my original Win 10 disk from when I first built this computer back in 2016. Then I used Windows Update Assistant to get Windows fully updated. I am actually now running Windows 11 because with the upgrade in motherboard and cpu, the system was able to run Windows 11. It was a free upgrade.

14 hours ago, Drebin8 said:

It'll be interesting to see what happens when I throw a more complicated airplane at it, like the PMDG 737 when it comes out,

I am looking forward to this as well!