[SOLVED] Need Advice On The Best Gaming CPU and GPU?

[Heat_Fan89]

I'll leave it up to the tech experts because I am not. I have been forced to go "prebuilt" because of the scalpers CPU/GPU parts and it will be Alienware as I have $4K financing.

Alienware just announced the new 5000 series CPU's for their desktops. I typically upgrade every 7-8 years so I want it to play games decently a few yrs from now. My main concern is Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 and that is a challenge for any hardware today but I would love to play it in 4K at least at 30FPS with HIGH to VERY HIGH settings. For general aviation sims, 30FPS seems to be acceptable as it translate to a smooth visual experience but i'll take a higher FPS as a bonus.

I was looking at building my prebuilt with the Ryzen 5800X which is an 8 core but thought for future growth maybe the 5900X 12 core would be better. What do you think?

The prebuilt comes with 32GB of DDR4 3200mhz and I have the choice of the RTX 3080 or the new RX 6800XT. I need advice on these as well. I've read that Ryzen works better with the fastest RAM you can give it but is 3200Mhz acceptable or do I need to go with 3400Mhz? This is strictly a GAMING Rig so NO email, web browsing etc, just games.

Anyways, thanks for offering your advice in advance !

 

[imjayngl]

RTX 30 is more than powerful enough for microsoft flight sim 2020. CPU I suggest at least a Ryzen 7 on AMD terms, and an i9 on Intel terms for 4k 30fps on high settings. If you are looking to save even more you can probably deal with a 2080, 30 is good for microsoft flight sim but a little overkill.

 

[Heat_Fan89]

RTX 30 is more than powerful enough for microsoft flight sim 2020. CPU I suggest at least a Ryzen 7 on AMD terms, and an i9 on Intel terms for 4k 30fps on high settings. If you are looking to save even more you can probably deal with a 2080, 30 is good for microsoft flight sim but a little overkill.

What do you mean on AMD terms or Intel terms? Are the new Ryzen CPU's good enough for 4K gaming?

Thanks for the quick response !

 

[Deleted member 2838871]

My main concern is Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 and that is a challenge for any hardware today but I would love to play it in 4K at least at 30FPS with HIGH to VERY HIGH settings. For general aviation sims, 30FPS seems to be acceptable as it translate to a smooth visual experience but i'll take a higher FPS as a bonus.

I was looking at building my prebuilt with the Ryzen 5800X which is an 8 core but thought for future growth maybe the 5900X 12 core would be better. What do you think?

Don't sleep on Intel. As the above poster said the i9 is a solid chip for this kind of performance. My new 10core 10900k/3090/970 Evo Plus build hits that MSFS2020 performance... slightly higher actually both in on screen 4K high/ultra settings and in VR. You'd be fine with a lesser 30 series card too.

MSFS2020 is one of the reasons I built this new PC a few weeks ago. The previous build just wasn't gonna cut it... the new build is a much smoother framerate and awesome overall experience. Honestly the VR is so good I don't know if I'll ever fly again looking at the display. That's a good experience but the VR is out of this world.

 

[Phaaze88]

At 4K, you're at the point where it would matter little which modern cpu brand you went with, because the 'hard stuff' has all been thrown on the gpu at that resolution...

My main concern is Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 and that is a challenge for any hardware today...

This is entirely on Microsoft. They released it in a half-butted state, with future optimizations to come in time; it's been quite the staple for companies to do that as of late...
Most of the playerbase is software limited, because they launched it with only DX11 and only 4 cpu threads(max) are being used. That may have changed, but not by much, I suspect.

RTX 3080/RX 6800XT - but before that, a little quickie about RT and DLSS:
RT adds a little extra eye candy, but the performance impact is still noticeable, the degree to how much extra eye candy is visible varies between developers, and support is not widely available.
DLSS is kind of the opposite of RT in that it improves performance but at the cost of some image quality - things people are less likely to notice, like shadows, for example. Support is not widely available.
They can be used together to balance each other out.

Anyhoo, back to the 2 gpus: it's down to RT & DLSS Vs Rasterization and features.
-If you feel you will use RT/DLSS regularly regardless of it's current shortcomings: give a point to the 3080.
-If all you care about is pure rasterization performance: give a point to the 6800XT.
-Do you find value in Nvidia Reflex, Ansel, Broadcast, Nvenc Encoder? The AMD equivalents aren't quite as good. If these don't matter at all, then go back to the first 2 points.

 

[Deleted member 2838871]

At 4K, you're at the point where it would matter little which modern cpu brand you went with, because the 'hard stuff' has all been thrown on the gpu at that resolution...

This is entirely on Microsoft. They released it in a half-butted state, with future optimizations to come in time; it's been quite the staple for companies to do that as of late...
Most of the playerbase is software limited, because they launched it with only DX11 and only 4 cpu threads(max) are being used. That may have changed, but not by much, I suspect.

Yeah it definitely needs some optimization. Didn't know that about the cpu threads though... what I do know is I definitely saw a difference in the 7700k/3090 and 10900k/3090. It's smoother on screen.

Credit to the CPU? I dunno. Either way that initial performance was what led me to saying to hell with it and building an entire PC... on top of the other things I do such as the video work which definitely benefit from the CPU upgrade.

It brings PCs to their knees... no doubt about that. Will be nice to see it optimized to take full advantage of hardware.

 

[Phaaze88]

7700k/3090 and 10900k/3090. It's smoother on screen.

Raw single thread performance, IPC, and a few other things that likely go over my head, made the difference.
Credit to cpu, definitely. Since both cpus have enough threads, speed will be the deciding factor.

It brings PCs to their knees... no doubt about that.

I have doubts. The gpu I understand, with cpus it looks a little silly. It's kind of a slap to the face for people who say one only needs 'this many cores/threads' for X or Y PC.
I'm reminded of certain other games that didn't run exceptionally well even with high end PCs: PUBG, Arma 3, that one Batman game...

 

[Deleted member 2838871]

Raw single thread performance, IPC, and a few other things that likely go over my head, made the difference.
Credit to cpu, definitely. Since both cpus have enough threads, speed will be the deciding factor.

Makes sense.

I have doubts. The gpu I understand, with cpus it looks a little silly. It's kind of a slap to the face for people who say one only needs 'this many cores/threads' for X or Y PC.
I'm reminded of certain other games that didn't run exceptionally well even with high end PCs: PUBG, Arma 3, that one Batman game...

Yeah I agree... the "brings to their knees" is just my opinion because I have seen so many people complain about poor performance from "lesser" systems. Even one as new as mine is only getting 30-40fps in 4K ultra.

Playable yes... but it should be better. There's a theme here... "But can your PC run Crysis/MSFS2020/CP2077?"