Aapje

So it looks like my prediction was spot on. Since people have been using a 4070 with decent results in DCS VR, this card should perform well enough if you manage your expectations.

We have a Winwing subforum. @NineLine Please move this thread.

Very generous. I hope that @sirrah ends up enjoying it (if he gets it).

You can always post your build list in a new thread if you want feedback on the parts you picked.

Did you look in #flying-settings-shared?

Hey, no need to swear!

The 7700 XT is slower than the 3080/4070. Given the leaks, the 9060 XT is probably close to the 7700 XT and thus between the 4060 Ti and the 4070.

The Intel-chips focus more on having a lot of cores, but games are pretty much always constrained by the fastest core, once you have sufficient cores to offload the less critical work. So the end result is that the Intel CPUs are better suited for productivity software, not games. The AMD X3D-chips have the innovation of having a very big cache-chiplet under or on top of the compute chiplet. This is mainly beneficial for gaming, since games tend to require heavy processing of data that is often too big to fit in the relatively small cache on the compute chip(let), but is small enough to fit in the 96 MB of X3D-cache. As a result, the CPU has to retrieve things from RAM less often, which has a bunch of advantages: - It improves the outliers, since chips without X3D-cache regularly find that they need to get data from RAM, which is way slower than getting it from the cache. So you get inconsistent performance. In gaming, having consistent performance is more important for a good experience than having a better average FPS, and this is even more true for VR. So X3D makes the gaming much more smooth. - It makes the speed & latency of the RAM far less important, since having to wait for RAM is far less common. So effectively, it's like buying very fast RAM, but without the expense. The 14700 is much more sensitive to the RAM speed/latency. - It increases efficiency substantially, which also means that it is easier to cool the system and your PC pumps less heat into your house. - Simulation games like DCS tend to profit from the X3D-cache more than the average game. There is also the issue that Intel has been failing in a variety of ways basically since the 9000-series that is in your system. In particular their foundry, but also their designs. This is why AMD could catch up to them in the first place (and then move past them). To cope, they've been pushing the 13th and 14th gen to their limits, which in turn caused them to fail in large numbers, which we hope is fixed by now. But buying the 14700, you are risking that this is not fully fixed (and you need to make sure to get the newest BIOS). And since they push the CPUs so hard, they are pushed quite a bit out of their most efficient zone, so the chips use a lot of juice. Also, it's quite telling that you are considering the 14700, because it is not actually from their newest CPU line up, but their newer CPUs are slower than the older ones. Finally, AMD has innovated (seemingly mostly by accident at first, but now they do it intentionally) by having their platform support many generations of CPU. We've seen that early buyers of AM4 could get amazing gains for a very modest outlay, by upgrading their CPU only, rather than having to replace their motherboard as well. Buying into AMD means that you have a much bigger chance of being able to do a relatively cheap, but significant upgrade. And because of this, AMD motherboards and CPUs also keep their value better on the 2nd hand market.

That's one opinion. I consider it false advertising, allowing them to show a price that is not the actual price you pay. Although I see that they now do show the total cost on their website as well, probably after their legal council told them off. But in their marketing, they still put a big focus on the partial price. It's also a loan that presumably is not registered in the loan registers in various countries, that protects people from getting too many loans and such. And in general I'm in favor of responsible financial behavior, where people only use loans for capital goods, (semi-investment) goods and such, and keep a solid financial buffer and spend within their means. So get a loan for houses and cars, not for phones, headsets. But bad behavior in this regard is primarily caused by failing parenting, education and culture, rather than predatory practices by companies. /rant

I don't really understand this. Why limit yourself to a worse CPU rather than get the much better one? Quest 3, Quest Pro (2nd hand), or Pimax Crystal Light are the good sets for a decent price.

There is no best. All the headsets have advantages and disadvantages. I would suggest a Pimax Crystal Light, Quest 3 or 2nd hand Quest Pro for a beginner, and once you have learned what matters to you (weight, FoV, binocular overlap, real blacks, etc), you can start looking at the more expensive headsets, with a bit of knowledge of what matters for you.

Yes and no. You can pay that amount in one go.

On Reddit, people say that you can configure this through the software for the regular Alpha, so this is not actually a feature of the Prime: https://old.reddit.com/r/hotas/comments/wykgz4/virpil_constellation_alpha_vs_alpha_prime_quick/ilxfvk2/

@pegasus1 Nvidia does market frame generation as a DLSS technology, although in my opinion that is a marketing-driven decision, to improve acceptance of frame generation due to how strong the DLSS-branding is. But it can make it confusing, and it is better to explicitly specify whether you are talking about upscaling or frame gen, rather than use the word 'DLSS' and assume that people will interpret it as merely referring to upscaling.

They haven't. The product doesn't meet their targets yet and it is thus just a prototype at this point. We still have to see whether they can make it good enough to sell.

@LucShep Ultimately, I think that the quality of the product is key, and a positive image is fairly marginal. People will buy the better product, even if they dislike the company, unless they can choose for similar quality from a more sympathetic company. The bigger issue for Intel and Nvidia is that the complacency and hubris led them to stop listening to consumers, which makes their products worse and worse, and that mindset is not easy to shake when it gets baked into the company. Even once the company starts losing market share and needs to change course. Just look at how Intel keeps refusing to make a long-lasting chipset that can support many generations of CPU, even though this is a big selling point for AMD. And Nvidia seems to believe that then can just keep adding more multi-frame generation to make people upgrade, rather than give people what they are asking for (more VRAM, more real performance and good drivers).

I think that SteamOS is the premiere Linux platform for gaming, and no one is going to play DCS on a Steam Deck. So most other types of games make much more sense to make Linux-compatible than flight sims.

Elgato is now selling keypads without the stand, which looks like an interesting option for a home cockpit. They are available in 6, 15 and 32 key variants: https://www.elgato.com/us/en/p/stream-deck-module-32-keys https://www.elgato.com/us/en/p/stream-deck-module-15-keys https://www.elgato.com/us/en/p/stream-deck-module-6-keys Do any of you guys see a place for this in your home cockpit? Here is a picture, btw.

The front paddles are buttons, not axes, so you are never going to get a smooth application of braking using them.

The X3D-chips lag behind the regular CPU's, so realistically it will probably be 1.5 years before they release those.

The biggest gain would be in fewer microstutters: Note that I would first upgrade to 64 GB.

No clear information about this on the Discord.

@Rechs You can get the FFBeast as a full build, and from what I can tell, the support doesn't seem any worse than the Moza and probably also the Brunner. With Brunner the issue seems to be that they focus primarily on civilian airline professionals who tend to fly other sims, and as a result their DCS support seems to be lacking and there is no guarantee that they'll improve. The designer of the FFBeast is from Poland, so I don't see what the issue is with the place of origin. We also have another person building these devices who is Ukrainian (GVL224), but I think that he lives in Germany at the moment. AFAIK there is a higher tariff for Switzerland (Brunner) than for the EU, and the shipping should not be any more expensive. For Americans, getting stuff from Europe should be easier than getting it from China. Note that both of these builders are active on the DCS forum.

It's going to be hard to compare, given the custom facial gasket. The FOV is going to be even more dependent on your facial features.

The old force feedback systems were very weak and the instructions from the game to the FFB joysticks were rather poor. The new systems have way more power and use telemetry-based FFB, for much better quality. However, it is still an immature field. But a big advantage is that you can also use it for regular planes if you tire of helicopters or want to fly airplanes as well. Aside from acting as a cyclic, they can mimic both traditional sticks, but also the more modern force sensing sticks. The most mature options right now are the VPForce or the FFBeast (more power) bases. Both provide DIY kits if you prefer to build them yourself. Those are both top tier 'man in shed' operations. If you want to mount them to the right of you, replacing your current stick, running without an extension, you shouldn't need a huge amount of power though. The regular 9 Nm one by VPForce should be fine. There is also Moza who make one as a 'real company,' but they are struggling a bit with getting the software right. In the future companies like Winwing and Virpil will release one too, but better not wait for that.