I skipped the 14th gen chips waiting on the new release.... the initial reviews and benchmarks look horrid. 

 

Currently running a 12th gen i9-12900k setup with 3080ti and I am ready to build a new setup. 

 

What now? I've been a loyal intel user for the last 20 years with the exception of one build back in the mid 2000's. Is it even worth upgrading at this point? P3D and now MSFS is the main focus for my builds.... I do some other light gaming here and there but not much.  

7800X3D / 9800X3D if MSFS is a main focus, the very best CPU you can get for the task.

AMD is cheaper, more reliable (fewer problems), and draw less power. An old motherboard which takes intel cpu's usually won't work with the new Intell cpu's even with an updated driver. So a new MB is needed regardless.

2 hours ago, avi8tir said:

What now? I've been a loyal intel user for the last 20 years with the exception of one build back in the mid 2000's. Is it even worth upgrading at this point?

we have already discussed this in detail here:

 

I've also been a loyal Intel user and my setup is similar to yours. Unfortunately, we'll need to wait a while if we want to stick with Intel. There are rumors the current Core Ultra 200 desktop chips (Arrow Lake) won't even be refreshed next year, which means the next major upgrade in the desktop space won't come until Nova Lake in late 2026. Nova Late will likely feature a new CPU socket, meaning it's possible the current Arrow Lake chips will be the only chips that use the new LGA1851 socket.

That said, we'll need to wait and see how the Arrow Lake chips benchmark in MSFS 2024... there are a few games where it beats out the 14th gen and AMD chips, but only a few. Even though these new chips are basically a lateral move when it comes to performance, I think Intel needed to pivot in this direction... the Lunar Lake chips (the mobile version of Arrow Lake) are the first x86 chips to compete with Apple's M series chips when it comes to performance per watt, and process improvements will benefit future Intel chips, but it's going to be a waiting game.

The 2024 alpha ran great on my system, but we'll see if that translates to the final release with all the new procedurally generated goodies turned on and addons installed.

46 minutes ago, Funky D said:

all the new procedurally generated goodies turned on

a lot of that has been outsourced to the GPU, which is a much more powerful processing unit when it comes to parallel computing, not only raw graphics.

11 hours ago, avi8tir said:

What now? I've been a loyal intel user for the last 20 years with the exception of one build back in the mid 2000's. 

Sorry to say, but loyality for a hardware producing company? Useless, you never get rewarded for this nor does the company care at all. Get a 9800X3D if you aim for an upgrade.