MS2024 Flight Sim Build

[Stickybloke]

Sorry, there’s probably going to be a lot of these spec check requests coming up with the forthcoming release of MS Flight Sim 2024. I appreciate there’s also a very similar post to this one just the other day, however…

I’m a (slightly tragic) airline pilot that wants to pretend to do his actual day job in his spare time on his PC (my wife despairs) and is looking to “invest” in a new machine. Budget up to about £4k if required for the machine, with a setup that will drive 3 monitors.

Anyway, this is the spec - grateful for any inputs, particularly CPU, mobo and CPU cooling. I’d like to future-proof for as long as possible but happy to be talked down from any obvious overkill 😂

Case
CORSAIR 4000D AIRFLOW TEMPERED GLASS GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D 16 Core CPU (4.2GHz-5.7GHz/144MB w/3D V-CACHE/AM5)
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG STRIX X670E-A GAMING WIFI (AM5, DDR5, PCIe 5.0, Wi-Fi 6E)
Memory (RAM)
128GB PCS PRO DDR5 3600MHz (4 x 32GB)
Graphics Card
24GB ASUS TUF GEFORCE RTX 4090 OC EDITION OG - 2x HDMI, 3x DP
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SOLIDIGM P44 PRO GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 7000MB/sR, 6500MB/sW)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
2TB SOLIDIGM P44 PRO GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 7000MB/sR, 6500MB/sW)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Braided Power Supply Cables
CORSAIR Premium Individually Sleeved PSU Cable Kit Pro (40 Series) - Red/Black
Processor Cooling
CORSAIR ICUE LINK H100i RGB HIGH PERFORMANCE CPU COOLER
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
LED Lighting
50cm ARGB LED Strip
Extra Case Fans
2 x 120mm Thermaltake TOUGHFAN 12 Case Fans
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
ONBOARD 2.5Gbe LAN PORT

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[Stickybloke]

Thanks very much for taking the time to reply, much appreciated.
I did wonder about which CPU would be better for MSFS - as you say, that needs a flight sim expert.
The RAM thing was odd - I’m sure I can spec faster stuff but, as you saw, PCS are only listing it as pairs.
I initially went for a 1000W but the configurator suggested that was excessive. You’re right though and I think I’d feel more comfortable with power available.
I thought I’d deleted the RGB strip 😂 as you say, a bit tacky!

Thanks again for the input! Cheers

 

[Scott]

You won't know until the game is getting benchmarked in reviews but with 2020 MSFS the 7950X3D gave a little more performance than the 7800X3D did. Not entirely sure of the mechanics of why this was the case, or if it is still applicable, but it's worth keeping in mind. With that said, the difference was marginal and not something you would really see anyway.

With the RAM, I wouldn't touch 128GB personally. The RAM speed absolutely tanks when you use 4 slots (as you can see). It's not something I would do with gaming in mind, it would likely be fine where the capacity is more important than the frequency. If 64GB is stated to be the ideal then it's going to be the ideal throughout the lifetime of the game. I would guess they would look to lower the utilisation rather than increase it over time.

 

[TonyCarter]

The other option would be to get the bare minimum RAM for testing and replace it with 2x48GB 5600MHz+ kit direct from Corsair/Crucial...which would get you somewhere between the capacity of 'above ideal', use only 2 slots, and get a much faster speed.

 

[Stickybloke]

@Scott - great stuff, thank you very much. Good gen on the RAM utilisation and just sticking with two slots. Must admit, I didn’t realise that using 4 slots would have such a big impact, thank you.

@TonyCarter - likewise and yes, that sounds like a good idea, I’ll look into that.

Thanks gents - all useful stuff, appreciated!

 

[Scott]

Out of curiosity I've been searching around the AV Sim forums to see what the thoughts are. Consensus is that 32GB is probably enough. The "Ideal" description for 64GB is to cover the bases of all the modding that often goes on, additional content, 3rd party content, etc).

It looks like the key bottleneck is going to be internet speed and vRAM.

With RAM itself, no need to look past 64GB. This gets you the optimum speed, which falls in line with "Ideal". I don't think there's any point in going past ideal, even just considering the meaning.