Most important upgrade

I want to upgrade one component on my PC in anticipation of getting the MS flight simulator.

 

Current: I5 9400K, 32 Gb Ram, Nvidia GTX1650 4Gb.

 

Which component should I upgrade to get the most bang for my buck in the context of this sim?? I'm assuming GPU?

 

Thanks!

Yes, the graphics card is probably your best bet. Upgrading the CPU might be just as beneficial but that would you would probably need a new motherboard too.

The easiest (& probably cheapest) option is the graphics card

 

Certainly no probably with 32Gb ram :)

 

Regards

Steve

If you have a hard drive rather than SSD that would be my number one upgrade.

You can pick up a decent 1TB SSD now for about £100.

MS 2020 is going to be downloading quite a bit of data and if you had a traditional hard drive that likely to be the biggest bottleneck

 

If you already have a SSD already then I agree graphic card would be next on my list.

 

I have almost finished my PC build and it doesn't have any graphics card.

I will be using the onboard graphics on the I9 9900k for a month or two until the RTX 3000 series is released. I am looking to get something similar to the existing RTX 2070 super.

 

 

I can see three different scenarios

 

1. the new 3000 series cards will be similarity priced in which case buying a new card now might be something I would regret.

 

2. depending on the price point of the new RTX 3000 series its possible that retailers will want to dump their existing stock of mid range to high end RTX 2000 cards. There might be bargains to be had for a new 2070 super.

 

3. they will be far more powerful than existing cards but also more expensive. In this scenario its likely that good second hand deals would be possible for existing mid range and high end RTX 2000 cards.

 

 

If none of the above happens then I have lost nothing I can still buy a card at no additional cost, all it would mean is I waitied a a few months to find out.

I upgraded in April to the RTX 2080ti - what I’d forgotten about though was the PSU - I also needed to upgrade that as my old one wasn’t really up to it (going by the min requirements anyway)

 

Someone mentioned on a forum (possibly this one)... if you wait until the next upgraded model is available, then you will never upgrade. This is so true. There is always a better model due out soon.

But...as you say, you might get an RTX 2 series at a bargain price when the 3 series comes out.

 

Regards

Steve

Your processor and ram look pretty good, a reported test of a generation back I5 8400 showed about 35 fps with a GTX1060 or GTX1050. Your architecture is great, it isn't clear how much additional cores will be beneficial. I suspect the GTX1650 will be fine if you run at 1080P or 720. To run 4K, you might need a more powerful card.

I agree, the places you need to look are enough memory and an SSD. Those are going to be important. Also getting a really good internet provider will be very critical!

Edited August 2, 2020 by plainsman

Make sure you get 8mb or more on the graphics card. You really need that video ram. Low end here is a 2070

There are a couple of test videos out showing early alpha versions getting ~35 fps with a 4mb GTX1060 and an I5-8400 at 1080p. The larger video ram will be needed to run higher resolutions.

I want to upgrade one component on my PC in anticipation of getting the MS flight simulator.

 

Current: I5 9400K, 32 Gb Ram, Nvidia GTX1650 4Gb.

 

Which component should I upgrade to get the most bang for my buck in the context of this sim?? I'm assuming GPU?

 

Thanks!

You're ram is fine...upgrade the GPU and the processor to match...I would go with a 2080ti and I9-9900K and an Asus rog strix motherboard. Honestly I would just go with a dedicated new system for msfs2020.

I upgraded in April to the RTX 2080ti - what I’d forgotten about though was the PSU - I also needed to upgrade that as my old one wasn’t really up to it (going by the min requirements anyway)

 

Someone mentioned on a forum (possibly this one)... if you wait until the next upgraded model is available, then you will never upgrade. This is so true. There is always a better model due out soon.

But...as you say, you might get an RTX 2 series at a bargain price when the 3 series comes out.

 

Regards

Steve

 

I would agree about the waiting if the new RTX series was being release for early next year, as it is it appears these will be released in September.

 

Got to be worth the 6 week wait if you are looking to buy a mid range to high end graphics card at the moment.

 

Also with NVIDIA and AMD releasing their new graphic cards at more or less the same time and going head to head, if there ever was a time when NVIDIA would get into a price war this is it.

Until now NVIDIA have always charged top price for their cards because they simply could.

Big Navi potentially could change that if the card is as good as the leaked reports suggest. It might not compete with the replacement for the RTX 2080 TI but it definitely sounds as if it will be competing in the same space as the RTX2060 Super, RTX 2070 or the 2070 Super.

 

You would be a fool not to wait the 6 weeks if you can, to see exactly what the prices are on release for these new cards and what impact they will have on the price of older stock.

Edited August 2, 2020 by efanton

Thanks everyone for the advice. I appreciate it. I do have an ssd I will be running this from.

 

I think i will get by with what I have for a couple months and see what happens with the new graphics cards rtx 30xx.

 

Any idea what the price range may be with those?

 

Thanks again.