I got the go-ahead from my wife to build a new PC. I've always had a lower to mid-end PC that would run the sims, but on mid to low graphics settings. I want to build a PC that will be able to run on high graphics settings and not stutter if I get into complex environments or add on scenery. I've been looking at other members' rigs as well as what people who post on YouTube have, and I have come up with 2 different rigs. One rig is an AMD rig and the other is an Intel. My budget is $4-5k. Can you let me know what you think or any changes that you would make?

 

[b]AMD Set Up[/b]

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D 4.7 GHz 8-Core Processor 
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 chromax.black 82.52 CFM CPU Cooler
Motherboard: MSI MAG X870 TOMAHAWK WIFI ATX AM5 Motherboard
Memory: G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo RGB 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory
Storage: Samsung 990 Pro 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive
Storage: Samsung 990 Pro 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive
Storage: Samsung 990 Pro 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive 
Video Card: Zotac GAMING Trinity OC GeForce RTX 4090 24 GB Video Card 
Case: Lian Li LANCOOL 216 RGB ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply: MSI MAG A750GL PCIE5 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply 

 

[b]Intel Set Up[/b]

CPU: *Intel Core i9-14900K 3.2 GHz 24-Core Processor
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 chromax.black 82.52 CFM CPU Cooler 
Motherboard: MSI MAG Z790 TOMAHAWK WIFI ATX LGA1700 Motherboard 
Memory: G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo RGB 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory
Storage: Samsung 990 Pro 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive 
Storage: Samsung 990 Pro 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  
Storage: Samsung 990 Pro 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive 
Video Card: Zotac GAMING Trinity OC GeForce RTX 4090 24 GB Video Card
Case: Lian Li LANCOOL 216 RGB ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply: Corsair RM1000e (2023) 1000 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply
 

Can you still buy new 4090 GPU's?

9 minutes ago, YMMB said:

Can you still buy new 4090 GPU's?

Yeah they are still on amazon. Do you recommend the 5090?

2 hours ago, rampantfox83 said:

Motherboard: MSI MAG X870 TOMAHAWK WIFI ATX AM5 Motherboard

I've had some recent bad experiences with MSI X870E Godlike and ran into a few other users on the MSI forums with similar bad experiences.  I my case, the 10G onboard port died after 4 months.  One onboard USB 3 port also died 3 days ago.  Was never able to run 4X 6000Mts RAM modules in any configuration even after numerous EFI/BIOS updates claiming support, so stuck at 2X 48G 6400Mts Modules (96GB total).  Recommend you do more research on MSI.  I'm switching back to ASUS for my next high end board (but ASUS have their fair share of issues also).  Quality Control on the higher end boards (over $1000), seems to be lacking.

2 hours ago, rampantfox83 said:

Storage: Samsung 990 Pro 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive
Storage: Samsung 990 Pro 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive
Storage: Samsung 990 Pro 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive 

Why 3 drives?  I'd go with a single Samsung 9100 Gen5 4TB M.2  No need to run separate drives in the modern era of Flight Simulation and computing ... separate drives was a hold over from decades ago with slow HDDs.

2 hours ago, rampantfox83 said:

Power Supply: MSI MAG A750GL PCIE5 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply 

Seasonic Platinum 1600W or higher ... typically for that setup the minimum recommendation is 1000W PSU.

If you can find an affordable 5090 and you want to use DLSS/FrameGen, the 5090 will produce higher FPS than 4090.  I saw some PNY OC trio 5090 on sale at $2600 the other day (Prime day or something like that).  Still ridiculously over priced for the 5090, but it does crank out FPS with DLSS, not so much with TAA = 200 (aka SSAA).

Rob.

Edited July 14, 2025Jul 14 by SayAgain

11 minutes ago, SayAgain said:

I've had some recent bad experiences with MSI X870E Godlike and ran into a few other users on the MSI forums with similar bad experiences.  I my case, the 10G onboard port died after 4 months.  One onboard USB 3 port also died 3 days ago.  Was never able to run 4X 6000Mts RAM modules in any configuration even after numerous EFI/BIOS updates claiming support, so stuck at 2X 48G 6400Mts Modules (96GB total).  Recommend you do more research on MSI.  I'm switching back to ASUS for my next high end board (but ASUS have their fair share of issues also).  Quality Control on the higher end boards (over $1000), seems to be lacking.

I'll do a little more research on MSI as well as ASUS. I currently have an ASUS in my 8 year old build and never really had any issues with it so maybe i'll just stick with them.

 

12 minutes ago, SayAgain said:

Why 3 drives?  I'd go with a single Samsung 9100 Gen5 4TB M.2  No need to run separate drives in the modern era of Flight Simulation and computing ... separate drives was a hold over from decades ago with slow HDDs.

Personal preference. 1 for the OS and system requirements, 1 for me and flight sim and my gaming and the 3rd for my wife and all of her work documents and things that she needs.

 

13 minutes ago, SayAgain said:

Seasonic Platinum 1600W or higher ... typically for that setup the minimum recommendation is 1000W PSU.

If you can find an affordable 5090 and you want to use DLSS/FrameGen, the 5090 will produce higher FPS than 4090.  I saw some PNY OC trio 5090 on sale at $2600 the other day (Prime day or something like that).  Still ridiculously over priced for the 5090, but it does crank out FPS with DLSS, not so much with TAA = 200 (aka SSAA).

I noticed a jump in wattage requirements when I went from a 4090 to a 5090. I'll go ahead and get the extra. As for the 5090s, I am finding them priced from $2,600 up to $3,700 on Amazon.

48 minutes ago, rampantfox83 said:

Yeah they are still on amazon. Do you recommend the 5090?

I'd never recommend it simply because I think nVidia are extorting us...unfortunately it is however the best GPU available...and in a build of the best of the best it would be the choice.

 

Here in Australia the cheapest 5090 costs AUD$1.5K more than my whole new last build...a i7-7700k, GTX1080Ti, 32gig ram etc.... and back then it offered a very easily justified performance bump over the components a generation older...

Edited July 14, 2025Jul 14 by YMMB

21 minutes ago, SayAgain said:

If you can find an affordable 5090 and you want to use DLSS/FrameGen, the 5090 will produce higher FPS than 4090.  I saw some PNY OC trio 5090 on sale at $2600 the other day (Prime day or something like that).  Still ridiculously over priced for the 5090, but it does crank out FPS with DLSS, not so much with TAA = 200 (aka SSAA).

I think based on all things being equal, the choice for GPU would be the Asus ROG Astral OC GeForce RTX 5090 32 GB Video Card and based on a very very very quick and preliminary search, the motherboard that I got was Asus ROG STRIX B650E-F GAMING WIFI ATX AM5 Motherboard. I still want to research some more on the motherboard part of the equation however so that one isn't final yet.

I'm running msfs 2020 in VR which means I'm displaying 2x 55" displays whether I use them or not, in addition to my 4k x 2 VR headset.  I have a high end system, but only 64 GIG, and a 4090.  What I noticed was that my CPU, an i7 I believe, was not even hitting 50% when IN VR, and my ram slightly over 30% when running in VR also.  What KILLED my system was the lack of GPU overhead even with the 4090 card.  about 90-95% on the 3D and about that on NON shared memory. So the bottle neck for me is the video card.  can't have enough vram. Only solution is to turn down rendering in MSFS 2020 to about 80%. Then the VR "slide show" stops and things smooth out. Would be nice to have a 9090, but that is only in my dreams.  My son tells me there IS a card with about 96 vram, if you have the $8,000 to shell out for a video card.

On 7/15/2025 at 4:58 AM, captflyby said:

What I noticed was that my CPU, an i7 I believe, was not even hitting 50% when IN VR, and my ram slightly over 30% when running in VR also.  

Well, to make sure: those 50% of CPU usage do tell you exactly NOTHING. You have to monitor the GPU usage to see if you are GPU or CPU limited. If your GPU is running below 90% -> CPU limit, no matter what percentage current CPU load tells you. Simple as that. And in your specific example, no surprise you actually ARE GPU limited with so many pixels to be rendered 😉