I am in way to replace my actual CPU for MSFS, and want advice about a medium/high class Intel processor, and RAM options.

Thanks

13600K is probably still the price/performance king, especially when overclocked.

32GB ram of your choice, I tend to buy RGB ram-sticks, in this case, G-skill.

 

Edited April 13, 20242 yr by HiFlyer

You need to know what CPUs your Motherboard will support and the Z model number of your MB. 

My mother and CPU are too old ( i7 990) and should be replaced, so I am searching for both.

I noticed there are DDR4 and DDR5 RAM mother options, which is the diference ?

2 hours ago, solito said:

My mother and CPU are too old ( i7 990) and should be replaced, so I am searching for both.

I noticed there are DDR4 and DDR5 RAM mother options, which is the diference ?

 DDR5 tends to be quicker. If it's within your budget, I suggest that.

On 4/13/2024 at 5:36 PM, HiFlyer said:

13600K is probably still the price/performance king, especially when overclocked.

Do you really notice any difference in MSFS by overclocking your 13600K? I mean, I did not even try it (while I overclocked any CPU I had before since 20y). Simply not worth the hassle if you ask me, those 10% more FPS are neglected by frame generation anyway instantly 😉 

2 hours ago, AnkH said:

Do you really notice any difference in MSFS by overclocking your 13600K? I mean, I did not even try it (while I overclocked any CPU I had before since 20y). Simply not worth the hassle if you ask me, those 10% more FPS are neglected by frame generation anyway instantly 😉 

The motherboard came with an installed application called XTU which overclocked the CPU automatically;  but to answer your question, I tendcto think every bit of cpu power matters especially in vr.

These CPU's are notorious for running extremely hot, meaning up to 100C,  But I never exceed 90 even during extreme stress tests,  and much less than that under normal use, so why not take the extra frames?

Exactly because of the heat? I did the contrary: limited TDP of my 13600K, limited voltage of my GPU and now I can play MSFS for several hours and my temperature controlled fans never leave their basic setting resulting in an almost completely silent PC. The loss? Around 5% in benchmarks like 3DMark TimeSpy. Wheter or not my 4080 renders 60 out of the provided 25 baseline FPS or 66 out of the baseline 33FPS does not really matter in my case. But I do not use VR. 

11 minutes ago, AnkH said:

Exactly because of the heat?

So..... This is me at ultra 2K settings. What heat are we talking about, exactly? 🤔

As I have no information on the cooling system you use, posting a screenshot with current temperatures and volts, but no wattage, is completely useless. Could be that you have a very potent water cooling solution efficiently transporting created heat away resulting in low temperatures. The net energy emitted by the CPU is still there. 

But anyway, on the P-Cores you have a whopping +5.8% higher clock speeds, on the E-cores at least 10%. And the screenshot shows currently 116FPS. That is what I meant: even if all of the 10% increased clock on the E-Cores would translate into 10% more FPS (which is never the case), you would end up getting 105FPS instead when using "only" stock clocks. Considering the fact that P-Cores contribute more to the final performance and taking those 6% into account, it would even be only a loss of marginal 6-7FPS. But clock increase never translates 1:1 into more FPS, so your overclock is in the end maybe responsible for 5% more FPS, max. Which is 5FPS when the baseline is 100FPS. 

In critical situations with only 30FPS, you will gain 1.5FPS using your overclock. Not worth the hassle imho...

Edited April 17, 20242 yr by AnkH

3 minutes ago, AnkH said:

In critical situations with only 30FPS, you will gain 1.5FPS using your overclock. Not worth the hassle imho...

My cooling system is shown in this thread in the image of my computer though not sure why I'd be too concerned about the wattage above and beyond the effects on temp, which as you can see are negligible. It's not like I'm running stress tests 24/7 or anything. 🙃

Most of its life this system is going to be on idle or just above, so worrying about watts seems pointless. As for the overclock not being worth it.... I clicked a button and it was pretty much done.

Also not sure why 30fps would be my guide to pretty much anything. (which would equate to 15fps in VR) I use many other applications and games above and beyond just MSFS on my computer, including 3D modeling apps that much appreciate the power, which I'm pretty sure MSFS does as well, even if only to help eliminate stutters (and 1% lows) on a powerful enough GPU at problematic airports like DD's KEWR.

(where I see pages of complaints about it being hard on peoples systems, but which runs with gratify smoothness for me)

That's pretty much my experience across the board, and since I mostly play in vr when I do play, the extra computational power seems to come in handy at higher settings, especially when running frame eating aircraft like the Fenix....

If I understand correctly, your premise seems to be (i think) that taking free frames wherever you can get them is, in this case, a minus? (which I rarely hear in simulation circles)

Honestly the biggest heat-producer in my machine is the EZ-bake oven that is my 4070ti.

I deliberately saved some dollars in not buying a 13900k, and instead overclocked my 13600k to 13900 speeds, which I really don't see as a bad idea when heat is controlled, unless worried about electricity, which I honestly haven't given a thought too since I was.... a teen.