CPU Upgrade Advice.

[Rocky_53 1,603]

I run a fairly hefty machine based on 32Gb RAM and a RTX3090. However, I think my week point is likely to be the I7-10700 which is boosted to 4.8Ghz. My question is, can anyone offer some first hand experience of upgrading from this processor to an I9, and if so , which version would see a worthwhile gain in performance for me? I am conscious if I am running at 4.8Ghz whether I can actually find a boost in performance by upgrading to an I9 (not sure which model) If so, can I get to 5.2Ghz without a big overclock? Help with this will be appreciated. Thanks guys.

[Dave_YVR 1,000]

 It comes down to what it's worth to you. Upgrading to a new Z790 board with ddr5 and a new 13th gen Intel cpu that you would be lucky to see a 20% gain. Priced last night for my area and it was roughly $1700 cdn /1050gbp.

[RJC68 824]

33 minutes ago, Rockliffe said:

I run a fairly hefty machine based on 32Gb RAM and a RTX3090. However, I think my week point is likely to be the I7-10700 which is boosted to 4.8Ghz. My question is, can anyone offer some first hand experience of upgrading from this processor to an I9, and if so , which version would see a worthwhile gain in performance for me? I am conscious if I am running at 4.8Ghz whether I can actually find a boost in performance by upgrading to an I9 (not sure which model) If so, can I get to 5.2Ghz without a big overclock? Help with this will be appreciated. Thanks guys.

Hi Howard,

You may want to wait until the new Ryzen 7 7800X3D & Ryzen 9 7950X3D comes out. I have an i7 12700k and I have been thinking about switching to the new AMD CPU when they are released which I heard was the beginning of the new year, I also have a 3090. It seems like the huge cache on these AMD CPU's really benefits MSFS 2020

[Rocky_53 1,603]

1 hour ago, RJC68 said:

Hi Howard,

You may want to wait until the new Ryzen 7 7800X3D & Ryzen 9 7950X3D comes out. I have an i7 12700k and I have been thinking about switching to the new AMD CPU when they are released which I heard was the beginning of the new year, I also have a 3090. It seems like the huge cache on these AMD CPU's really benefits MSFS 2020

Thanks Richard, this is really interesting. Something I have not considered TBH moving from Intel. It always used to be in FSX and P3d that Intel was the way forward, it seems now that may not be the case?

Edited October 28, 2022 by Rockliffe

[RJC68 824]

32 minutes ago, Rockliffe said:

Thanks Richard, this is really interesting. Something I have not considered TBH moving from Intel. It always used to be in FSX and P3d that Intel was the way forward, it seems now that may not be the case?

I’ve always been with camp Blue as well but camp Red are making some interesting products, it will be interesting to see how the new CPU’s perform. Even with my 12700K I can very easily become main thread limited 

[RobJC 2,073]

Wait for the new 7000 series x3d from AMD. Then you will have a system you can upgrade for 4-5 years, if needed. 

[AnkH 2,290]

It all depends on how MSFS is being benchmarked I guess. With the Tomshardware review, the 5800X3D is still the most potent CPU for MSFS, leading all other CPUs including the brand new 13th gen Intel CPUs. In other reviews, those 13th gen Intel CPUs are almost on par with the 5800X3D or even slightly above (CPUagent for example). But have a look on this thread here on avsim: 

As you can see in the french test from comptoir, with a current 13th gen CPU you would gain the 20% already mentioned above. 

To me, you have basically two options here: 

a) go for an Intel 13th gen build and be happy with those 20% and thats it, LGA1700 is EOL and as such, no upgrade option anymore next year. You will need new RAM and a new MoBo. 

b) as others did, go for the AM5 platform and use an intermediate solution depending on the budget, e.g. a 7600X (will provide also almost 20% increase) and wait for the 7800X3D. Although nobody can tell you how much you will gain from the 7800X3D, I highly doubt that it will be less compared to the 5800X3D. You will again need new RAM and a new MoBo, the AM5 platform is brand new and as such rather expensive. And you must be ready for another investmend into the 7800X3D next year. 

[Ianrivaldosmith 5,317]

AM5, for longevity.

[CaptainNick 575]

Realistically....you are running 4k like I am. I doubt you would see double digit fps increase with the same settings moving to a newer processor. Yes the newest stuff is faster....but not double digit faster at 4k with the same card. Best bet is to wait until next year. A video card upgrade at that time may prove more lucrative.

[Noel 4,572]

4 hours ago, Rockliffe said:

I run a fairly hefty machine based on 32Gb RAM and a RTX3090. However, I think my week point is likely to be the I7-10700 which is boosted to 4.8Ghz. My question is, can anyone offer some first hand experience of upgrading from this processor to an I9, and if so , which version would see a worthwhile gain in performance for me? I am conscious if I am running at 4.8Ghz whether I can actually find a boost in performance by upgrading to an I9 (not sure which model) If so, can I get to 5.2Ghz without a big overclock? Help with this will be appreciated. Thanks guys.

I9-13900 goes to 5.8Ghz on it's 8 performance cores.  Single-core performance is somewhere around 40% or more greater for this CPU over my 9900K@5.0gHz.  I like to see at the very least a 25% or more increase before I ever upgrade anything, so this meets that goal handily.  Not sure how DX12 gets around single-threaded limitation so perhaps this is not what to look for anymore, i.e. single-threaded performance, but when I look at core usage clearly the main thread is still far busier than the other 7 cores.  

My greatest goal always is 100% stutter-free animation with a minimum frame rate of 30.  After weeks of toil I'm back at that now after a 3 week detour into loss of stutter-free animation.  When I have nearly stutter-free performance (for example was able to notice just a handfull or less of brief stutters on a 90 minute flight I'm pretty much at Nirvana for me.  I find 30 FPS exceedingly fluid--it's the micro/macro stutters that are the only issues that impact my full on enjoyment of the flight.  I left KDEN this morning for KLAS in the PMDG 737:  I had maybe 2 microstutters the entire way until close to touchdown then some modest stutters during landing.  But TLOD was set at 100 because of my arrival airport being what it is.  After landing I had zero additional stutters during taxi, so I was very close to Nirvana.  There was ample RT online traffic upon arrival into KLAS as well.  So for me a 40% increase in single core sounds absolutely huge!  The other area that matters greatly to me is heat management and I think I should be okay w/ air cooling on a 13900K as I have cooler ambient to work with.

I think the primary focus for me would be to be able to eliminate those common degredations at arrival airports.  I'm quite close already in large part.  Fortunately Terrain-LOD is a control that has a very poor cost:benefit ratio.  If I had to leave T-LOD at 100 and yet eliminate ANY stutters secondary to main thread impact at arrival airports I'd be happy w/ upgrading the CPU.  What argues against the latter for me is there are some with 12900K and RTX4090 who still report this issue, which I hope means they just set T-LOD too high.  All my other settings are fully maxed always except I do keep Render Scale at 100 and uses NV's DSL for sharpening as I've found RS causes an odd shimmer/stutter.

What issue(s) are you hoping to solve w/ a better CPU?

 

[Fielder 3,812]

" L3 cache obviously reigns supreme here as the Ryzen 7 5800X3D is an incredible 20% faster than the Core i9-13900K. Here we see some odd performance trends with Ryzen 7000 processors once again, with the Ryzen 9 7900X inexplicably trailing the other chips regardless of how many times we retested. This suggests some game code tuning could be in order. "

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-core-i9-13900k-core-i5-13600k-cpu-review

Ryzen 7 5800X3D is the M4 socket. Newer AMD cpus will need the new M5 socket motherboards. And newer RAM. I would get a cheap B450A motherboard (M4), Ryzen 7 5800X3D, keep my present RAM, and save $1000. 

 

 

 

 

[guibru 477]

Stress your game and you will have a real benchmarks. X fps on a vanilla games has no interest in you giving a vague idea of the performances.

[Rocky_53 1,603]

5 hours ago, Noel said:

I9-13900 goes to 5.8Ghz on it's 8 performance cores.  Single-core performance is somewhere around 40% or more greater for this CPU over my 9900K@5.0gHz.  I like to see at the very least a 25% or more increase before I ever upgrade anything, so this meets that goal handily.  Not sure how DX12 gets around single-threaded limitation so perhaps this is not what to look for anymore, i.e. single-threaded performance, but when I look at core usage clearly the main thread is still far busier than the other 7 cores.  

My greatest goal always is 100% stutter-free animation with a minimum frame rate of 30.  After weeks of toil I'm back at that now after a 3 week detour into loss of stutter-free animation.  When I have nearly stutter-free performance (for example was able to notice just a handfull or less of brief stutters on a 90 minute flight I'm pretty much at Nirvana for me.  I find 30 FPS exceedingly fluid--it's the micro/macro stutters that are the only issues that impact my full on enjoyment of the flight.  I left KDEN this morning for KLAS in the PMDG 737:  I had maybe 2 microstutters the entire way until close to touchdown then some modest stutters during landing.  But TLOD was set at 100 because of my arrival airport being what it is.  After landing I had zero additional stutters during taxi, so I was very close to Nirvana.  There was ample RT online traffic upon arrival into KLAS as well.  So for me a 40% increase in single core sounds absolutely huge!  The other area that matters greatly to me is heat management and I think I should be okay w/ air cooling on a 13900K as I have cooler ambient to work with.

I think the primary focus for me would be to be able to eliminate those common degredations at arrival airports.  I'm quite close already in large part.  Fortunately Terrain-LOD is a control that has a very poor cost:benefit ratio.  If I had to leave T-LOD at 100 and yet eliminate ANY stutters secondary to main thread impact at arrival airports I'd be happy w/ upgrading the CPU.  What argues against the latter for me is there are some with 12900K and RTX4090 who still report this issue, which I hope means they just set T-LOD too high.  All my other settings are fully maxed always except I do keep Render Scale at 100 and uses NV's DSL for sharpening as I've found RS causes an odd shimmer/stutter.

What issue(s) are you hoping to solve w/ a better CPU?

 

Hi Noel, much the same as yourself, smoother perfomance with 30fps, which is ideal. I find at some of the big airports in the PMDG 737, I can still only see 24/25fps. In the air there is never a problem, but as I say, on the ground, particularly taxiing, stuttering spoils things. So approx 20% increase would be ideal. 

[CaptainNick 575]

9 minutes ago, Rockliffe said:

Hi Noel, much the same as yourself, smoother perfomance with 30fps, which is ideal. I find at some of the big airports in the PMDG 737, I can still only see 24/25fps. In the air there is never a problem, but as I say, on the ground, particularly taxiing, stuttering spoils things. So approx 20% increase would be ideal. 

A new CPU wont make that happen (the 20% bump) at 4k currently. Get a 4090, or dial back your settings a bit to bump the FPS up.

Edited October 28, 2022 by CaptainNick

[Ianrivaldosmith 5,317]

30fps. No chance. 100fps with gsync Is 2022! Amazing experience