My current rig is 3850XT on X470 with 32G RAM and 1080 from 5 years ago (CPU was 2600 from start), it's not top edge then (bought 2nd hand 1080 for quite cheap as a start for that) let along now.

The really aging part is that 12 year old windows7, yes 12 year without reinstall, and it took quite effort to make it even work with this rig.

It's not broken, but things are staring to move away from me, iFly737AS/MAX for P3Dv5 only, FSL 320 for win10 1808 and above only (and upcoming Concorde for sure),  and XP12 of course....

I said this so you can see where I'm heading....I really like things that lasting loooooong....

Anyway, while I do have win10 installed from the beginning and if I switch to that I can probably squeeze it for few more years. But if I gonna switch OS then why don't I just get a new rig anyway.

Just to craftily I'm not that hate win10 (I do hate "Applization" of Microsoft recently, so not yet win11 for me, but that's another topic), I use win10 on my laptop just fine, I really hate to change OS, but I guess I have to now, so why not just build a new PC anyway.

If lunix could catch up later, I might ditch windows at all and go for it, but for now, as for flight simulation, I might lose more than stick with win7, so not yet an option....

<=TLDR, I'll going to build a new PC this year anyway=/>

2 broadly vague rig spec now in my mind:

a)7900X3D or 13900 equiv + 4090

b) 5800X3D + 3080/3070TI maybe

Basically, as the title, go full rig or just enough, I have enough banknote to go the high end, but ofc not want waste money. and I probably will hold it until obsolete, so I don't care it's resell price.

And I don't want bought something that cause more trouble than enjoyment, stability is quite important for me. I don't mean high end is not stable, tbh I'm not sure, so advice needed.

Someone told me I must go water cooling for the high end nowadays, I'm not sure, I'm a fan of quiet and cool stuff, but I‘m not sure the stability of water cooling nowadays.

Working condition likely to be:

2~4 hr airliner flight almost every day on P3D or XP, occasionally long haul overnight flight on weekend.

Likely to watching video, chat, browsing around etc "light activity“ on the same computer when cruising, sometimes some 3D or 2D creating stuff while cruising....

I have MSFS2020 on steam and tried it on my laptop, Not quite into it mainly due to it's online nature, but who knows, before my current rig I was on FS9 and never into FSX let along P3D.

VR？Maybe, Currently I run a mess of 5 monitor with different size, as 1080 only support 4 output, 1 is running on a USB video extension card. AFAIK adding a VR will also occupy one more output slot?

Other games I run is mainly Simracing and some management type, actually most of them running smooth on my current rig, so I don't worry too much about them.

I somehow keep my computer running 24/7 although not doing anything,  I used to use sleep mode but it will cause BSOD on my rig now (I assume due to the Frankenstein of old OS and new hardware) so I just leave it on, if sleep mode would work, I might leave it sleep for my sleep and working time (about 2300l ~ 1700l)

If you're even entertaining the idea of VR....  Proposal A all the way!

If you're just going to run MFS I'd give it a whirl on your existing machine (using Win 10 of course) because it will run better than P3D, you may find performance good enough to keep your machine for another 6-12 months until DDR5 and 4080/4090 have become more affordable.

If you're doing the upgrade now, I say spec A simply because you run so many monitors and are considering VR, on a more conventional setup spec B would be fine for long term use.

A. 

Thanks guys, I think I'll wait 79x3D and probably go 4080 rather than 90 for stability.

I'm in the process of upgrading a machine that's 4+ years old. Recently added the 20 gig  7900xt and a 1300w power supply. Next on the list to be added shortly is 7950x3d, 670 & 6000 ram. I've found buying the most HP gives you the longest life (future proofing).

On 2/4/2023 at 10:11 PM, C2615 said:

Thanks guys, I think I'll wait 79x3D and probably go 4080 rather than 90 for stability.

I wish I would have gone 4090...it's a lot better than the 80 for about 400 usd more

6 minutes ago, ryanbatc said:

I wish I would have gone 4090...it's a lot better than the 80 for about 400 usd more

Arrrgh.  STOP talking me into it.  heh.

@C2615 I would not even consider a 3080/3090 for MSFS at this point.  4080 if budgeted out, 4090 otherwise.   Especially if you go 5800X3D to save a buck, you would want to pair a 4080/4090 with that, not a 3080/3090.

5 hours ago, ryanbatc said:

I wish I would have gone 4090...it's a lot better than the 80 for about 400 usd more

Oops too late as my 4080 is alreay on the shipping....

Anyway, I'd more like things that cool and quite, I almost want wait for ASUS's Noctua 4080 but it doesn't have ETA.... I ended up with MSI's 4080 which is reviewed to be quite slient.

7 hours ago, C2615 said:

Oops too late as my 4080 is alreay on the shipping....

Anyway, I'd more like things that cool and quite, I almost want wait for ASUS's Noctua 4080 but it doesn't have ETA.... I ended up with MSI's 4080 which is reviewed to be quite slient.

Yeah I got the msi gaming trio x of the 4080 and it runs very cool and quiet.  Plus I couldn't find a reasonably priced in stock 4090 anyway hehe.

18 hours ago, ryanbatc said:

I wish I would have gone 4090...it's a lot better than the 80 for about 400 usd more

I'm sorry you feel that way. I'm very happy with my 4080, even in VR.

Sure, you may not be able to run MSFS VR at max graphics settings and still get excellent performance, like the 4090 can do, but it can run all of the settings that actually make a noticeable visual difference at max (eg. top half settings like clouds, texture resolution) and run a very respectable 160% OpenXR render resolution with DLSS Quality and pull 40+ FPS average.

In 2D with frame generation on it pulls FPS greater than the 60 Hz max refresh of my TV at 4K Ultra no matter how complex the airport, scenery, aircraft and weather is, so if I didn't use VR a 4090 would actually be a waste with my setup.

22 minutes ago, Reset XPDR said:

 

In 2D with frame generation on it pulls FPS greater than the 60 Hz max refresh of my TV at 4K Ultra no matter how complex the airport, scenery, aircraft and weather is, so if I didn't use VR a 4090 would actually be a waste with my setup.

Hehe yeah I should have clarified a little.  In 2D a 4090 would be a waste for me as well since I run 1440p.  But I think it would be a bit more helpful in VR because I like to run higher eye candy hehe.  Also, it would be very beneficial for XP12 - which I very surprisingly ran out of vram last week.  I think a factor was switching between VR and 2D and multiple aircraft in the same session.  But I was shocked to see 16GB get eaten up by XP12.  Frankly, aside from the broken AA, they need to optimize that sim - it runs quite rough on even what I'd call medium end hardware.  You'd think a 12700K and 4080 (which I would call high end) would dominate it - but with some addon aircraft now I'll go into the 30's even in rural areas especially if clouds are present.

 

I've only got the XP12 demo and I was bit shocked at how poorly it performs with with modern hardware, especially compared to MSFS graphics which IMO are significantly better than the best that XP1X can produce. I want to eventually use XP12 to experience the flight dynamics everyone raves about but I just can't commit with it in its current state of low performance and dated graphics.

2 hours ago, Reset XPDR said:

I've only got the XP12 demo and I was bit shocked at how poorly it performs with with modern hardware, especially compared to MSFS graphics which IMO are significantly better than the best that XP1X can produce. I want to eventually use XP12 to experience the flight dynamics everyone raves about but I just can't commit with it in its current state of low performance and dated graphics.

It's definitly a sim you need to use more than a few times to get a good feel for it.  I do think it has a leg up over msfs for general flight handling, but also crosswinds/landing/rollout phases of flight.  The planes seem to have mass and intertia (some do in msfs now but not on launch)... and the way I use my aileron input and rudder input seems to be very similar/logical to what I do irl in the beech.  And the general daytime lighting is better I'd say as well.  Dusk and sunset have some wwwweeeird colors.  And the clouds are way too blurry - they lack hardly any detail especially when up close.  And the lack of AA....  But when you just want to shoot some approaches or touch and goes and you don't care about if everything is looking super real outside, it's a great sim to play around with.  I also do some beta testing in the sim.  It's got some ways to go for sure.  Think about where we were when MSFS was launched though.... yikes!  XP is fairly new still...  I think hard launch was Dec 22?  And frankly I think it was rushed a bit but they'll get it up to snuff I truly believe.  Plus there just aren't a ton of native aircraft yet...but the ones that do exist are really awesome like the C337, C210, and the Aerobask stuff - particularily the DA42 and Legacy (I'm just so biased as I love all Lancairs haha)

Anyway oops I went off on a tangent.  I'd recommend to give XP another shot...maybe a few more shots.  I have had frustrating experiences in both sims to be honest!  It's because I've seen how close we've come to reality and just want more!  

to be honest, have a reverb g2 and run 2D at 4k, my 4090 is overclocked to 3100mhz core   1500mhz mem its like word not allowed dont like FG and Vr to little raw power.

Need a card thas approx 50% faster then 4090 for VR and hope to run 2D at 4k 60hz without  frame generation

my 5800x3d is ok for now paired with a 4090

Edited March 7, 20233 yr by westman