Proposed upgrade to simracing PC

[G-Slev]

I haven't done an upgrade to my PC in years. My current spec is:

I5-8600k
32gb DDR4
Nvidia 2060 super
I run the PC to a 34 inch Samsung ultrawide and a second monitor (an old Acer 1920x1080). My plan is to run mostly at 1440p.

My thoughts are to upgrade to the following:

7800x3d
Gigabyte Aurus Elite AX
Deepcool AK620
32gb DDR5
7800 XT
Lian-li 216 case
Corsair 750w 80 plus gold PSU

Any thoughts on the above? By my calculations, I should be able to do it all for around £1400

 

[Elaphe]

I would get a more powerful PSU... and a NVidia GPU. Of course, don't forget a decent SSD drive for your OS and your simulators.

 

[G-Slev]

I would get a more powerful PSU... and a NVidia GPU. Of course, don't forget a decent SSD drive for your OS and your simulators.

Thanks but nvidia's 40 series GPUs are pants!

Is more than 750w necessary? I had been looking on pc part picker and most of the builds with that GPU and CPU have a 750w PSU? As for SSDs, I can recycle the nvme and sata SSDs from my current system.

 

[Wreckoning]

Thanks but nvidia's 40 series GPUs are pants!

Is more than 750w necessary? I had been looking on pc part picker and most of the builds with that GPU and CPU have a 750w PSU? As for SSDs, I can recycle the nvme and sata SSDs from my current system.

You might argue about the price/performance on the Nvidia GPU’s but there is nothing wrong with the cards and driver package. You just have to judge what package suits your needs best. DLSS may not be in all that many sims now but that may change and FSR is still somewhat behind . If you just look at raster performance you will see wins on either side of the equivalent cards.

As for 750w on the power supply I would say thats fine for now but may limit you in the future. Nvidia GPUs are more efficient this generation than last but you might need more power in the future, it’s more about the PSU being able to deal with spikes than average power draw.

 

[Neilski]

Thanks but nvidia's 40 series GPUs are pants!

Is more than 750w necessary? I had been looking on pc part picker and most of the builds with that GPU and CPU have a 750w PSU? As for SSDs, I can recycle the nvme and sata SSDs from my current system.

Some of the 40 series certainly have terrible value for money (well, frankly ALL GPUs have godawful vfm right now, but relatively speaking...), while others are more solid. I recently bought a 4070 Super and have been very happy with it. I bought it partly because its performance per watt is so good, but also because it hits a good compromise between cost and performance, and has decent ray-tracing performance if/when I really need it.

What bothers you about the 40 series?

I reckon that a 750 W supply would be more than adequate for your build, with plenty of margin.

 

[RasmusP]

Is more than 750w necessary? I had been looking on pc part picker and most of the builds with that GPU and CPU have a 750w PSU? As for SSDs, I can recycle the nvme and sata SSDs from my current system.

750W quality psu is more than enough.
My 7800X3D with tuned ddr5 at 6200 MHz and bios set to keep it boosted as high as possible (no OC possible though) and it never exceeds 70W power draw.

The spikes of the 3000 series aren't as bad anymore thanks to driver updates and the 4000 series is Kite efficient and has even less power spikes.
So 750W would be enough for an overclocked 3090 or 4090.

About nvidia GPUs:
DLSS is often better than TAA. I use it as my anti aliasing method in ACC and I save performance due to it too.
Win/win.
If you're using fullscreen without nvidia surround (triples), you can also use DLDSR, which takes quite a bit of performance but enhances the image quality a lot and applies good anti aliasing.
So these two features would make me buy an nvidia card right now.
However if you're someone who uses fxaa instead of msaa to have 150 fps instead of 110 fps, then you don't need it at all.

Also, apparently (I never found a real benchmark proving this), nvidia gpus perform a bit better in VR.
What's more important though: some non-mainstream VR stuff like OpenXR doesn't support AMD gpus that well or fore some features, which can make the experience a big difference.
But I have no real experience with this, so it's just "what I've read" and it shouldn't determine your decision without further research.

Rest of the system looks good!
I have the Gigabyte B650 Gaming X AX and I'm super happy with it. Maybe you don't need to splash out the extra money? The gaming x v2 has a pci-e 5.0 nvme slot now.

And I would recommend to buy Kingston ram with at least 5600 CL36 or faster.
They are 99,999% sure SK Hynix sticks, which easily run 6200 with tuned timings.
I witnessed a few cases of me recommending Kingston ram and them getting Corsair or Patriot with 6000 profiles that didn't boot with the xmp/expo profile applied.
They all had Samsung sticks inside instead of SK Hynix.
But Kingston doesn't seem to like Samsung, so all their higher range modules get SK Hynix

 

[Neilski]

I5-8600k

PS: depending on what you will be running (and your target frame rates), your CPU may not even need upgrading yet. A GPU upgrade will give you a big performance lift for sure, and has the nice feature of not requiring a new mobo & RAM to go with it.
(Yeah, I'm a bit of a miser when it comes to upgrades and I'm only just about getting ready to upgrade my 7700K. My recent GPU upgrade replaced a GTX 970 )

 

[RasmusP]

Yep, very true.
If you want to test this, put the resolution of your favorite titles to the lowest available but keep everything else the same.
Then check your fps, you're now CPU limited (if you don't use vsync or an fps limiter).
These will be the fps numbers you'll be getting just from a GPU upgrade.

If the frames are not enough for your liking, you'll need to upgrade the CPU too.

 

[Useless]

I haven't done an upgrade to my PC in years. My current spec is:

I5-8600k
32gb DDR4
Nvidia 2060 super
I run the PC to a 34 inch Samsung ultrawide and a second monitor (an old Acer 1920x1080). My plan is to run mostly at 1440p.

My thoughts are to upgrade to the following:

7800x3d
Gigabyte Aurus Elite AX
Deepcool AK620
32gb DDR5
7800 XT
Lian-li 216 case
Corsair 750w 80 plus gold PSU

Any thoughts on the above? By my calculations, I should be able to do it all for around £1400

I was using a 5800x3d with a 2080 on a 49" Samsung display @ 5120x1440 and ACC ran great at the highest settings.
Most of my other games ran at high settings with good fps.

Maybe go for a 7900xt/x for a bit more future proofing.

With the psu maybe go for 850w and get one with pcie 5.0 connector as they are around the same price and should last for the next upgrade

 

[G-Slev]

PS: depending on what you will be running (and your target frame rates), your CPU may not even need upgrading yet. A GPU upgrade will give you a big performance lift for sure, and has the nice feature of not requiring a new mobo & RAM to go with it.
(Yeah, I'm a bit of a miser when it comes to upgrades and I'm only just about getting ready to upgrade my 7700K. My recent GPU upgrade replaced a GTX 970 )

Do you think for simracing/DCS at a max of 100fps at 3440x1440 a 5800x3d and 7800xt would suffice? Am4 motherboards are cheaper and I can save 100 by reusing the 32gb of ddr I already have.

I know AM4 is a dead end, but I'll not upgrade again for 4 or 5 years.

 

[Wreckoning]

Do you think for simracing/DCS at a max of 100fps at 3440x1440 a 5800x3d and 7800xt would suffice? Am4 motherboards are cheaper and I can save 100 by reusing the 32gb of ddr I already have.

I know AM4 is a dead end, but I'll not upgrade again for 4 or 5 years.

I've got a 5800x3d and a 4080 super and you will probably be fine. Some racing games are a bit single core dependent but a 5800X3D is good enough in most scenarios.

DCS is a slightly different story If I have the performance monitor up it more often says CPU Bound Main Thread than GPU bound. Obviously with the Multi threading stuff they are doing you would hope it will continue to improve over time. I've only recently started tinkering with DCS mainly training missions/single player so I'm along way from being an expert.

 

[Wreckoning]

I've got a 5800x3d and a 4080 super and you will probably be fine. Some racing games are a bit single core dependent but a 5800X3D is good enough in most scenarios.

DCS is a slightly different story If I have the performance monitor up it more often says CPU Bound Main Thread than GPU bound. Obviously with the Multi threading stuff they are doing you would hope it will continue to improve over time. I've only recently started tinkering with DCS mainly training missions/single player so I'm along way from being an expert.

Just to add on the DCS side I’m still getting 90+ FPS with high/ultra settings in 4k and decent framerates with medium/high settings in VR on Quest 3. It’s all very playable. As I’m on Nvdia I do get the option to use DLSS in DCS but even in Quality mode it can cause ghosting on the image slightly so I tend to leave it off now.

 

[G-Slev]

Just to add on the DCS side I’m still getting 90+ FPS with high/ultra settings in 4k and decent framerates with medium/high settings in VR on Quest 3. It’s all very playable. As I’m on Nvdia I do get the option to use DLSS in DCS but even in Quality mode it can cause ghosting on the image slightly so I tend to leave it off now.

To be honest, upgrading to the 5800x3d will be £200 cheaper than getting the 7800x3d, and I am not sure the performance benefit of the 7800x3d is worth the £200 premium. I could even make it cheaper than that, but I need to get 32gb of DDR4 as I am keeping the current PC because it is my photo editing machine.

Whenever I upgrade, I tend to do the motherboard and processor at the same time, because I do it every 5 years or so (I bought my I5 8600k back in 2018 according to my emails!)

I have never been one to get the latest and greatest stuff, and given my needs, I really am thinking AM4 is the way to go. Yes, I don't have an upgrade path, but like what I have now, I won't be upgrading any time soon anyway. I am sure it will be fine for ACC, AC, AMS2, RF2 and DCS.

Thanks for the advice!

 

[RasmusP]

How much cheaper would the new 5700X3D be?
In most games, the performance is almost identical and here in Germany, it's a lot cheaper, as the 5800X3D just isn't going down in price..

 

[G-Slev]

How much cheaper would the new 5700X3D be?
In most games, the performance is almost identical and here in Germany, it's a lot cheaper, as the 5800X3D just isn't going down in price..

It's only £30 difference in the UK

 

[Spinelli]

14900KS...Kidding!

Didn't read most of the thread but if you don't want to get current gen stuff and looking for fast but inexpensive, get a 5800x3D and a 3060 Ti (make sure it's the Ti, not the regular) and get both used. That's one of the best combos for "fast but inexpensive" in my opinion.

If you buy them brand new then you're totally wasting your money as previous gen PC parts are usually barley cheaper than the faster, new gen parts that replaced them.

 

[G-Slev]

14900KS...Kidding!

Didn't read most of the thread but if you don't want to get current gen stuff and looking for fast but inexpensive, get a 5800x3D and a 3060 Ti (make sure it's the Ti, not the regular) and get both used. That's one of the best combos for "fast but inexpensive" in my opinion.

If you buy them brand new then you're totally wasting your money as previous gen PC parts are usually barley cheaper than the faster, new gen parts that replaced them.

It's over £200 cheaper

 

[Spinelli]

It's over £200 cheaper

Because they're last gen parts, the price drop for used will probably be pretty big whereas the price drop for used current gen stuff isn't that big. So the combination of last gen + used can give a huge amount of savings.

What parts are you leaning towards at the moment?

 

[G-Slev]

Photography PC - AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D, Radeon RX 7800 XT, Lian Li LANCOOL 216 ATX Mid Tower - PCPartPicker

Photography PC - AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D, Radeon RX 7800 XT, Lian Li LANCOOL 216 ATX Mid Tower

uk.pcpartpicker.com

 

[pattikins]

Photography PC - AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D, Radeon RX 7800 XT, Lian Li LANCOOL 216 ATX Mid Tower - PCPartPicker

Photography PC - AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D, Radeon RX 7800 XT, Lian Li LANCOOL 216 ATX Mid Tower

uk.pcpartpicker.com

Seems a lot of money for a 5800X3D/7800 XT based system. By way of comparison, it's possible to build a 7800X3D/4070 Super setup for a similar price - with some compromises.

AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D	£348.19​
MSI AMD Ryzen PRO B650M-B AM5 PCIe 4.0 DDR5 MicroATX Motherboard	£99.98​
Palit NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER 12GB DUAL Ada Lovelace Graphics Card	£559.98​
Corsair Vengeance RGB Black 32GB 6000MHz DDR5 Memory Kit	£109.98​
Corsair CX Series 650W 80+ Bronze Fully Wired Power Supply	£58.99​
Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE CPU Air Cooler	£29.90​
Fractal Design Focus 2 Black Mid Tower PC Case	£64.99​
	£1,272.01​

(all from Scan with the exception of the cooler)