Do I spend $2,000 for 1440p capability or $4,000-5,000 for 4k capability?

[Sky_Wolf]

Looking to buy new pc and monitor.

 

Option 1: $2,000 for pc with RTX 4070 and i7 and ultrawide 40” 1440p monitor

 

Option 2: $4,000-5,000 for pc with RTX 4090 and i9 and ultrawide 40” 4k monitor

 

If I’m going to use the pc for the next 10 years, why would I go with option 1? Is the difference between 1440 and 4k really that significant?

[CAG_Sanders]

Basic answer is option 1 if you are just planning on flying flatscreen. Option 2 would be a high end VR setup and overkill for flatscreen. You could spend $2000 now and in 5 years spend $2000 again and have a significantly better experience over the 10 years you are looking at. Also I would do more research on what kind of monitor you are looking at and it's cost. 

Edited February 11, 2024 by I./JG3_Col_Sanders

[jollyjack]

what's the benefit regarding an i7 over a i9 these days? costs only?

[Sky_Wolf]

3 hours ago, I./JG3_Col_Sanders said:

Basic answer is option 1 if you are just planning on flying flatscreen. Option 2 would be a high end VR setup and overkill for flatscreen. You could spend $2000 now and in 5 years spend $2000 again and have a significantly better experience over the 10 years you are looking at. Also I would do more research on what kind of monitor you are looking at and it's cost. 

 

 Option 1 is 1440 monitor

 Option 2 is 4k monitor

 

The question is: is paying extra for the hardware required to run smoothly at 4k resolution (on a monitor) worth it? Is the difference between 1440 and 4k really that significant?

[cardboard_killer]

9 minutes ago, Sky_Wolf said:

The question is: is paying extra for the hardware required to run smoothly at 4k resolution (on a monitor) worth it? Is the difference between 1440 and 4k really that significant?

 

The answer is that your 1440 hardware will work at 4k. Your 4k set up would only be needed if you were not using a monitor but using VR instead. Like he said:

 

3 hours ago, I./JG3_Col_Sanders said:

Basic answer is option 1 if you are just planning on flying flatscreen.

 

[Sky_Wolf]

I can run 4k smoothly >60 fps with the RTX 4070? Anyone object to that? 

[Aapje]

@Sky_Wolf

 

An ultrawide 1440p already has more pixels than a regular 1440p screen to accommodate the wider screen, so I would just go for that. You seem to be under the impression that all 1440p and 4k screens are the same, but ultrawide screen have different resolutions than regular widescreen monitors.

 

Don't get the regular 4070, though, but get the 4070 Super. And as others say, it is typically way more cost-efficient to swap out the GPU after 5-6 years or so, than to keep the entire system for 10 years. Swapping out a GPU is also fairly easy.

 

I would also suggest going for an AMD CPU. The 7800X3D is great for gaming and will potentially allow for a decent upgrade with the same motherboard.

Edited February 12, 2024 by Aapje

[cardboard_killer]

4 hours ago, Sky_Wolf said:

I can run 4k smoothly >60 fps with the RTX 4070? Anyone object to that? 

 

I believe that without running a VR setup, your bottleneck will be at the CPU, not the GPU. However, I also don't think the i9 chips are with the extra money over the i7 chip. But, there are others that are more competent here than I.

 

Concerning the Ryzan suggested above; I think that if you are mostly playing IL-2, the i7 will be the better buy. If you play other games, then the 7800x3d will be the better buy. However, you could go to the RX 7900xt GPU, which is cheaper and faster for most games than the RTX 4070, or at least that's what the testers are saying.

[Aapje]

@cardboard_killer

 

VR is actually quite CPU-intensive, often more so than a flat screen.

 

Any mid-tier and up CPU should be plenty fast right now, but I do expect the game engine to be rewritten for the new IL-2 game that they are working on. We see with both DCS and MSFS that more modern simming-games love the X3D-chips. They are also very power-efficient, which is great for comfort in the summer and as I said, there is the potential for a solid upgrade in the future without having to upgrade the rest of the platform.

 

[1PL-Husar-1Esk]

For sure reasonable CPU for price and future upgrade (Intel sucks at changing sockets to often) is Ryzen 7800X3D , there is no better CPU for gaming, the 14th Intel sucks ass and current socket is dead end. My older  i9 bottlenecking my GPU in most CPU heavy games. I ask myself, why would I buy the Intel not the AMD - for less price, less energy consumption , better fps in games and future prof socket and pci-e 5 expansion (GPU, m.2) and DDR5?

Edited February 12, 2024 by 1PL-Husar-1Esk

[Lusekofte]

On 2/11/2024 at 7:24 PM, jollyjack said:

what's the benefit regarding an i7 over a i9 these days? costs only?

It might mean a difference if the sim support multithreaded cores. In DCS they say what kind of ram and how much count a great deal. If I was looking for a new rig I might look at Rhysen 

[1PL-Husar-1Esk]

1 hour ago, Lusekofte said:

It might mean a difference if the sim support multithreaded cores. In DCS they say what kind of ram and how much count a great deal. If I was looking for a new rig I might look at Rhysen 

But even multithreded games do not truly utilize more that 6-8 cores. What I see is like 70% game thread and 30 % draw thread on separate core and rest już barley few %

[Lusekofte]

9 minutes ago, 1PL-Husar-1Esk said:

But even multithreded games do not truly utilize more that 6-8 cores. What I see is like 70% game thread and 30 % draw thread on separate core and rest już barley few %

You are correct. None of currently used flightsims is support truly multithreaded 

I would not bother with i9. I find that how much ghz eatch core has is more important. 

[jollyjack]

But an i9 might be a wiser investment in time, and especially already if you run DCS:

https://stormbirds.blog/2023/03/10/dcs-multi-threading-is-here-plus-a-ton-of-other-updates/

[1PL-Husar-1Esk]

38 minutes ago, jollyjack said:

But an i9 might be a wiser investment in time, and especially already if you run DCS:

https://stormbirds.blog/2023/03/10/dcs-multi-threading-is-here-plus-a-ton-of-other-updates/

Not , because current Intel socket is dead end, am5 is best choice for gamers, not need for hyperthreading also , and Intel said it would drop HT for performance cores anyways.

[Remontti]

Please consider that ultra wide resolutions are often not supported in games. You might end up with strange FOVs in first person games, black bars in some or messed up UI elements in some. It works fine in this game and in many simulators.

 

Most of time support or fix for ultra wide is added in a patch but sometimes not. Usually it is worth checking the game forums how ultra wide works in the game before buying.