Guys, I know part of this was discussed recently, but I wanted to get other user's direct personal opinions (my apologies if I put his in the wrong forum). My current PC is a i7-4771 with a GTX-970. The upcoming $1400 stimulus checks that are planned for us here in the US are what I'm going to use on a new PC (thankfully, with my wife's approval!). I'm 47, and I no longer play AAA FPS games via PC (my time with that is spent nearly 98% of the time on my Playstation in Destiny 2 with my clan). My monitor is a 27" Samsung that limited to 1080p/60Hz. All I want is a machine that can run TSW2 (and possibly TS2021) at 'Ultra' & also do a stand-up job on MSFS2020. I'm ready to leave Intel for a Ryzen build after all that I've read on the positive aspects regarding those CPU's, and seeing I'm not trying to run the latest Call of Duty at 4K, am I going to be satisfied with grabbing a system that's based on a 3700X/3800X with either a 2060 Super/2070 Super + 16GB RAM (basically the previous generation CPU/GPU's from early 2020)? I'm trying to bring myself up to speed again after being out of the PC building scene since 2013, and I know there are issues with TSW2 on certain Ryzen CPU's. I'm also interested in hearing your opinions about leaving the sim on a SATA-based SSD or getting a PCI-e expansion card to add a second NVMe SSD (as most builds in my budget only have a single NVMe socket). Thanks in advance for your thoughts & opinions!
It isn’t a stimulus check - it is a relief check to help overcome financial loss from the pandemic.... since I am way above the phase out for such things, good to see some can use it for relief from the boredom of quarantine ... . Politics aside, can’t comment on Ryzen since I have used Intel architecture since the early 80’s, but on the SSD’s I have TSW as well as FS2020 on SATA SSD’s and have good performance. Also running a RTX2070 Super - very nice GPU for the money.
You are correct regarding the checks. My wife & I are both essential workers (I'm a security systems tech, she's a vet tech), and I'm just looking to treat myself to a little guilty pleasure to help get through the pandemic fatigue. There are SO MANY different system builders these days, so I'm kind of at a loss as to who to trust (I've built Asus for a very long time, and all the Strix kits that are in my budget are all out of stock right now).
I don't know about Ryzen, but what's the thinking on SSD? I have an SSD for flight sims and have TSW2 on one of those. But as DLC comes out, the size of TSW2 increases. It still isn't huge, but does an SSD give a smoother driving experience, or just better load times?
The advantages of SSD's are faster read/write times, greater efficiency and reliability. They do not directly improve FPS, but the faster loading should make gameplay smoother.
Your current PC should already run TSW in 1080, maxed out. If it doesn't, then something in your setup is wrong. HOWEVER: there is a known issue with TSW not playing nicely with AMD chipsets (both CPUs and GPUs). Intel/Nvidia seems to be the way to go.
The question was about Sata , M2 or NVme SSDs. While the transfer rate of Sata III SSD is around 600 MB/s while NVME can be upwards of 3500MB/s - Impressive improvement but for our beloved little Train sims - Sata III rate is more than sufficient. Older SATA SSDs are between 100 and 200 MB/s which is an improvement over regular drives - shouldn't be considered for a new build.
Or perhaps something can be two things at once! Relief for those most in need and stimulus for those in less need to boost the economy! Politics aside, I agree with spending on SSDs either a SATA drive or NVMe. I also use Intel but if I were to rebuild today I would go with a new generation Ryzen. Intel got arrogant and stopped pushing the envelope and let AMD back into the game. Personally, I'd hold off on a build at this very moment. Give it a couple of months (it's going to be at least a month until the checks are passed by Congress anyway) and see if the new 30-series start coming into stock more. You'll struggle to find more bang for the buck than a 3060 or 3070. If you can actually find one! OR I can cut you a deal on my 6 month old used 2080ti that I just swapped out with a 3080, and you'll melt faces. I was pulling 45 fps in MSFS at 4K on High-Ultra settings.
Better load time and in some games that have to stream in lots of data from storage often during play, it can smooth out hitches as that stuff is loaded in. The Far Cry series is notorious for this. It tends to run noticeably smoother on an SSD. Not because you've increased FPS, but you've eliminated or reduced FPS drops as new textures are streamed in from storage.
