Im returning to FS and need assisance from anyone who has a system with similar specs to what i propose.
I grew up obsessed and ended up working for a helicopter flight training school about 10 years ago, and it killed my passion, and now im 36, married, 2 kids, living oversaes in the philippines, renting a house, lots of bills, crazy wife, addicted to work.
My boss got me a xiaomi 34 inch 3440×1440 curved monitor and i think it will make simming amazing, provided that the high resolution doesnt force me to spend myt entire budget on just a graphics card.

So my entire budget for jstu the case and internals is abotu 900-1000 usd. 
Ive been using an online builder from a local company here in the philippines, and this is what i think i can convince the wife to let me spend.

CPU - Core I5 13400F (12,995 php - 234 USD equiv)
CPU Fan - ARCTIC Freezer i35 (1,950 php - 35 USD)
MOBO - gigabyte H610M H (5,795 php - 86 USD)
RAM - TUF yellow 16GB 3600 DDR ( 2 x 8 GB sticks 3,195 php - 58 USD)

Now, what matters, the GPU....
Im not sure where to go here, but my budget came about simply by choosing what I think would be ok based on youtube videos of ppl with similar cpus and grpahics cards in FS2020.
I also looked at comparison sites and tried to work out where the value for money is in the range i can afford, and I think the GTX 1660 super is about all i can afford.
it sells for about 14-15k php, about 260 USD.

Now given that I have a crazy big monitor, I wonder if this is ok?
I dont care abotu these 100 FPS that people are talking about, I just dont want stupid stutters like I used to get in FSX all those years ago.
Im happy with a consistent 25-30 FPS, as thats about all the human eye can see.

 

This youtube video is from 16 months ago, which was just after SU5 was released and should be roughly representative of what a 1660 super can do in MSFS SU11 at 1440p with a 10th gen Intel CPU and 16GB RAM.

If you are happy with mostly medium settings, then it looks like your desired 25-30 FPS at the slightly higher resolution of 1440p W is possible, albeit only just.

Edited January 7, 20233 yr by Reset XPDR

righty so ultra is out of the question?
Bak in the day, FSX was all about CPU core speed.
Am i correct that this is no longer the case, its now mostly about the graphics card?
if so, im weighing up if ill be misserable wiht the 1660, and perhaps the rtx 3060 ti might end up being better value.
I cant get my hands on anything supere new like the 40 series here.
It seems according to the following, that the 4060 is affordable and better than anything, so maybe if i can hang out for it, it might be better to wait?

I wouldn't wait for a 4060 since the price of the 4070ti is at least $799US and not selling at all. Who knows what a 4060 will sell for? 

Would you consider a used card? A 1080ti would probably cut it and might fit your budget depending on local market.

15 hours ago, thommothompson said:

if so, im weighing up if ill be misserable wiht the 1660, and perhaps the rtx 3060 ti might end up being better value.

If you want ultra settings then yes, something around 3060/Ti performance would be required to get you there, second hand something like a 1080ti as @odourboysuggests or a 2070.

Edit, another option is an AMD GPU, like the 6600XT that costs only a little more than a 1660 super and seems to meet your requirements as seen here.

Edited January 7, 20233 yr by Reset XPDR

ok, i hadnt considered AMD because i grew up an Nvidia word not allowed because of everyone around me, and also, becasue FS always ran better with gforce.
I see that statistically, its a better option though now!

Thanks for that mr transponder!

On 1/7/2023 at 6:41 AM, thommothompson said:

righty so ultra is out of the question?
Bak in the day, FSX was all about CPU core speed.
Am i correct that this is no longer the case, its now mostly about the graphics card?
if so, im weighing up if ill be misserable wiht the 1660, and perhaps the rtx 3060 ti might end up being better value.

MFS is far more balance in requirements, but still tends to load the CPU a bit more than the GPU. It does also spread around CPU cores far better but I think you start to see diminishing returns past 6 cores. I have a 12400F processor that runs MFS well at 1440p with my GTX980, I think most of my settings are high? A GTX980 is similar performance to a GTX3060. Unfortunately graphic cards are still silly money at the moment so I am limping along with my GTX980 until the cheaper 4000 series such as 4060 become available later this year.

see i watch all these youtube FS2020 framerate videos, and no matter what rig they have, it always shows the GPU at 99 % usage. That alone is what makes me think it seems to be all about the gfx card nowadays.

9 hours ago, thommothompson said:

see i watch all these youtube FS2020 framerate videos, and no matter what rig they have, it always shows the GPU at 99 % usage. That alone is what makes me think it seems to be all about the gfx card nowadays.

You said you plan to run 1440p, so you won't be gpu-bound no matter what you pick.  I mean, sure, if you pick up some ancient card you will be.  But nothing made in the last 5 years.

The suggestion to look for a used 1080ti or 2070 or 3060 is worth investigating...those should all handle 1440p well.  Sometimes you can find one for a cheap enough price that it makes it worthwhile.  I'm not too familiar with AMD vid cards but in general you can save a few $$$ with them, nvidia has gotten outrageous with pricing, and its even trickled down into their budget line and used sales.

here it is. 
performance on a budget. anything look bad or silly here?

 

INTEL PROCESSOR

Intel Core i5 13400F 13th Gen Raptor Lake 10 Core 6P+4E up to 4.6Ghz LGA 1700 65W Desktop Processor

1 x ₱12,995.00

 INTEL MOTHERBOARD

Gigabyte H610M H DDR4 LGA 1700 LGA Motherboard

1 x ₱4,795.00

 MEMORY/RAM

Lexar® Hades RGB 8GB | 16GB DDR4 Desktop Memory (16GB 2x8 3600Mhz CL22)

1 x ₱3,495.00

VIDEO CARD

MSI Mech Radeon RX 6600 XT OC | OC V1 8GB GDDR6 Video Card (OC V1)

1 x ₱18,495.00

SOLID STATE DRIVE

 Team Group GX2 2.5" 128GB | 256GB | 512GB | 1TB | 2TB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive SSD (1TB)

1 x ₱3,695.00

On a budget that will be decent. I'd consider 32GB of RAM if possible but 16 is the minimum and should be acceptable.

Oh wait - I'm not sure that mobo supports 13400 cpu - maybe someone would know for sure?

I'm not certain that video card will support your nicer monitor that well.  1440p at best but I'd probably stick with 1080p with that video card.

 

1 hour ago, ryanbatc said:

Oh wait - I'm not sure that mobo supports 13400 cpu - maybe someone would know for sure?

According to Gigabyte this motherboard does support the 13400, it just needs one of the latest BIOS updates to do so.

1 hour ago, ryanbatc said:

I'm not certain that video card will support your nicer monitor that well.  1440p at best but I'd probably stick with 1080p with that video card.

The OP's state requirement was a 1440p ultra and 25-30 FPS. Per below a 6600XT should exceed this.

On 1/8/2023 at 9:17 AM, Reset XPDR said:

another option is an AMD GPU, like the 6600XT that costs only a little more than a 1660 super and seems to meet your requirements as seen here.

 

Edited January 12, 20233 yr by Reset XPDR

22 hours ago, thommothompson said:

anything look bad or silly here?

For your stated requirements and budget, it looks OK to me. Don't forget to factor in case, CPU cooler and PSU (650W should be enough).

On 1/10/2023 at 8:55 PM, thommothompson said:

here it is. 
performance on a budget. anything look bad or silly here?
 

Looks ok for a budget build, running no more than 1440p res.

Two things, 1) is your monitor a native resolution 1440p monitor?  Because if it's a 4K native, running 1440p on it might look a little fuzzy/grainy.  You might be able to dial that out somewhat with sharpening settings but just be aware.

2) the 6600XT vidcard -- i notice it says "OC", and be aware if that's an overclocked card, you *might* be able to find the next tier up vidcard that isn't overclocked.  You don't need an overclocked video card, all it does is add heat which you don't need in the Phillippines, for very minimal performance gain in the sim.  If you're paying an extra 50 bucks for the OC I would investigate the next high-level card, which might be the same price but give you more performance.