LucShep

Yep. The distant clouds jittering is always present. It happens regardless of upscaling techniques being used (or not, it doesn't matter) or AA techniques (no matter which). The pixelation also happens regardless of clouds quality setting. It becomes painfully glaring (very blurry and jaggy clouds) once you decrease the clouds quality setting to anything below "High", which of course takes its toll on any system that isn't considerably fast for DCS. At this point, and after four years with this cloud system, you have two options: you swallow the pill, learn to live with it. Or use older DCS versions prior to 2.7 if it annoys you (and boy, it does annoy me!). But that, of course, also comes with a plethora of other problems/limitations...

YEEEESSSS!!!! @mbucchia

Note that all those B850 motherboards that I've listed are PCIe 5.0 on both the graphics slot and the main NVMe drive slot. I've noticed that you've selected (good) NVMe Gen4 drives, both for primary and secondary - so that makes no difference whatsoever for your components. Also, those B850 motherboards that I've listed are among the most robust, able to power even a 9950X or 9950X3D "24/7" with no issues whatsoever. So, in that aspect, there isn't any need for a more expensive X870 motherboard - the power delivery is more than covered for the 9800X3D (with PBO inclusively). These are not "locked" motherboards like Intel does with "Z" versus "B" boards. What X870 motherboards (the good ones, at least) notoriously have over the B850 ones is PCIe 5.0 also for the remaining PCIe and NVMe slots, with unshared lanes. Something that content creators really want (to whom time is money) to be fully loaded with the fastest (and very hot) expensive NVMe Gen5 drives. That's not meant for gaming - good NVMe Gen4 drives (like the SN850X and 990Pro) vastly surpass any performance needs and also run cooler (and will so for years). And that's why it's widely considered as wasted features and money even on enthusiast level gaming PCs. Some may argue that the good X870 motherboards have even more USB slots on the back, but then it's hard to justify the price difference with that, when a good B850 motherboard already have plenty (and even more so when any decent USB HUB makes that redundant for gaming/simming). Regarding the cooler, I think the highest power consumption you'll see from a (stock) 9800X3D is 160W(?), with gaming mostly at 45W~95W, similar also to the 7800X3D. Even if you go "OC mode" and load it with PBO settings, it won't really turn into a furnace (like Intel 13th/14th gen i9 and i7 do). A good dual-tower air cooler (like the mentioned PS120) will more than suffice. But some people will prefer a liquid cooler regardless of temps, and that's absolutely fine.

The way I see it, that system could be a little more optimized for value (some things there are excessive) and should have at least one aspect corrected (DRAM). Going in parts that I'd likely change: CPU - - - - - - - - - - - - - In this case the 9800X3D is a perfect choice. However, if budget or availability becomes a concern -and only if so- the 7800X3D is still an alternative to it for less money. (performance difference is there but it's small - for example see 7800X3D vs 9800X3d For VR DCS, FS2024 & CP2077). CPU Cooler - - - - - - - - - - - - - For the 9800X3D CPU you don't need liquid cooling for it. I'd go for the Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 and keep the money difference or spend it elsewhere. Note that any version of the Phantom Spirit 120 is good, among the very best air coolers out there and it's just $45 (even beats 280 AIOs at over double its price!). Motherboard - - - - - - - - - - - - - X870 motherboards are great, but are a tad expensive (most at well over $300) and you really don't need it for a gaming intended system. You've chosen the "Eagle" from Gigabyte at far lower price, but then I'm not so sure about the low budget orientation of that board (cheap components)... A good B850 motherboard (usually around $200, considered "mid-range") is all you'll need then, but you need to be careful when picking one (not all are good). I'm very partial to the MSI Tomahawk motherboard in this segment (what I'd go for) but any of these will be good: - Asrock B850 Steel Legend WiFi - Asrock B850 Pro RS WiFi - MSI MAG B850 Tomahawk Max WiFi - MSI PRO B850-P WiFi - Gigabyte B850 Aorus Elite WIFI - Gigabyte B850 Gaming X WiFi Regardless of AMD X870 or B580 that you choose, it'll require the latest BIOS right away (for voltages and performance to be safe and sound) - do not skimp on this! MEMORY (RAM) - - - - - - - - - - - - - As mentioned already, avoid DDR5 6400 memory for AMD Ryzen 9000 and 7000 series, unless you're into very lengthy/fiddly tuning adjustments with Memory OC. Go for a DDR5 6000 CL30 AMD EXPO kit of 96GB (2x48GB). Basically "plug&play", just make sure EXPO1 is loaded in the BIOS (it's same as XMP on Intel). You don't really need lower latency than CL30 (30-36-36-96) because the 3D V-cache on the X3D chip (9800X3D or 7800X3D in this case) makes it redundant. For example, I'd look at one of these kits from GSKILL: - F5-6000J3036F48GX2-FX5 - F5-6000J3036F48GX2-TZ5NR - F5-6000J3036F48GX2-RM5NRK Rest looks OK to me? Maybe see what next replies indicate.

Yes, that's true. It's VA but that's a really good premium panel there, and Samsung does handle VA better than most, especially at these very large sizes. Having had the older 55'' NU8500 with less pronounced curvature, which was also VA (and did have an awesome panel for the time), I'd say that 2nd gen Odyssey Ark 55 is certainly worth a look. I've often entertained the idea of a 48'' or 55'' OLED in the front of my own desk. But, as good as OLED does look (and I've tried plenty), I've decided to refrain on the idea. Simply because, after using a really big 16:9 curved monitor, the big flat monitor always make you feel that something is missing (I'm using a Philips 50'' 4K TV, so that's first hand experience). The 55'' panel was a bit too big for my own personal (desk) use and the only single reason I got rid of it - years later I still often regret it. But if it was for a sim rig and with no budget limit, I'd definitely pick that Odyssey Ark 55. There's nothing else like it in the market. I've only saw one working once in a expo (and was the older 1st gen) and I think it's fantastic for this type of hobby, IMHO. Whatever you end up deciding to get, and if you're not restricted by budget, don't miss the oportunity to first check on it.

hmmm... tough one. For me that would be a huge screen with a nice pronounced curvature (much nicer immersion for simming - if you already tried it, you know it's better). I'd say, it would have to be 16:9 screen format, 4K resolution and a good quality panel at that, with gaming focused features (high refresh, VRR, good motion handling, etc). And, actually, there's one model like that already... Honestly, I'd take a good look at the 2nd gen of the Samsung Odyssey Ark 55'': https://www.samsung.com/us/computing/monitors/gaming/55-odyssey-ark-2nd-gen-4k-uhd-165hz-1ms-quantum-mini-led-curved-gaming-screen-ls55cg970nnxgo/

If you're using the most recent (beta) release of OpenTrack then it could be it, people have considered it buggy (even the author alerts for it) https://github.com/opentrack/opentrack/releases I'd suggest to uninstall it, then install version 2023.3.0, or 2023.2.0, or 2023.1.0, or 2022.3.2, or even 2022.3.1 (further down in that link), see if it helps.

I concurr with @speed-of-heat. That said, if speculating on specs alone (TPU's GPU database), performance should be slightly better than the current RX 7700XT 12GB, and the new RTX 5060Ti 16GB. Which means it will not be a recomendable GPU for DCS VR - something more powerful (and preferentially Nvidia) is recommended to make it satisfying. But, if using a monitor, should be a tremendous 1080P and decent 1440P performer (also thanks to FSR4) at a good price, if the base $349 MSRP is practiced.

^^

If Noctua really has managed to achieve AIO cooling performance without a pump then it means it's a more reliable cooling solution, which is important for those of us still viewing watercooling pumps with suspicion (I still prefer dual-tower air coolers because they're utterly reliable, they never fail). The problem there for me is the unknow pricing. Noctua is not known for making low-priced products (compared to its competitors) and I'd imagine the R&D costs on this are significant. If it does end up working good and priced competitively, then Noctua might have a winner here. I'd surely get one then.

I think you misunderstood that. That quote you got there was a reply to SharpeXB (post below your previous one), not to you. If you noticed, my reply to yours had no sarcasm. And had no other motivation than to make a case to say that Linux OS (through distros), as little or far-fetched as it is right now for gaming, isn't so insignificant anymore.

I think the problem of Nvidia is.... hubris. And there are things that, if joint together, can make things go bad for them at some point. Just look at Intel since last year. From darling to despised, thanks to overconfidence and complacency. Issues with one gen of CPUs (Raptor Lake) followed by disapointment of the following one (Arrow Lake). .....Hubris. It damaged their image, public perception, and it'll now take them at least another new generation of processors to catch up to their competitor (AMD), gather acceptance again. Now, looking at the current Nvidia GPUs - higher prices, mediocre generational performance uplift, driver issues for the last five months (and nine drivers released during the time?), power connector issues on 5090 and 5080... While AMD slowly gets market share with competitive and better priced GPU hardware for a given segment (RX9070/XT) and constantly improving software (drivers, FSR4). The Nvidia RTX 6000 series will have to be a tremendous improvement, reliable, and be correctly priced. Because, otherwise, and with these shady practices (media manipulation tactics?) being exposed, on top of what already is bad, maybe they become the next one falling from the pedestal...

Sure, but that is another point of matter. Wether you consider Linux visible growth as a "relative thing" or not, or cost effective to add compatibility and ongoing support for it (for what may not be small numbers of users in the mid/long term) is irrelevant for this matter. You're not ED. Or are you a shareholder and we don't know it? DCS will run on Vulkan at some point ahead, and we know it's still in development (for some years now). Vulkan is a cross-platform API, and what is used on Linux for gaming. Add to that there are many Win10 users here and out there unhappy with it being EOL (unwillingly forced onto Win11 migration), who may find some Linux distros quite appealing later as alternatives (I am also one of those considering it). It made sense to question if ED is already considering some sort of testing, towards potential support, of DCS on Linux. It was already answered (above, by Bignewy) that it will be considered after Vulkan is implemented, and for now only Windows is supported. It's a vague answer but understandable why it had to be, and for now it will have to do as good enough.

Sure, and the Steam user survey also indicates 0.12% (as in "zero point twelve") of Windows 7 users. A system that so many still use today - put that in perspective.

I'm not sure where those stats are coming from. Estimating the exact number of Linux users is challenging but, AFAIK, and as of early 2025, Linux accounts for about 4.5% of the global desktop operating system market share. Additionally, and while irrelevant for this matter, Linux powers 85% of smartphones through Android, indicating a significant user base in mobile devices as well, which means total dominance in that market. The number of gaming computers using latest free Linux distros (Bazzite, Fedora, Nobara, Pop!_OS, etc) is unknown. But I'm pretty sure that is more relevant than you and I account them for - and should account for higher than the estimated 4.5% of global desktop OS market share. So much so that game devs have started aiming for Linux compatibility (among others, check Gaijin Interactive, producers of a flight game that shall not be named). SteamOS (which is a Linux distro) is already the dominating OS in handheld consoles, and will soon be made available for desktop. This is not a minor thing, quite the opposite. Then you have very polished and user friendly distros, such as Bazzite - which, quite frankly, already puts a lot of question marks on the validity of Windows. Have you tried it? I did and found that it's mind-blowing on how far things have evolved. It is no longer a "OS thing made for nerds". There are more users trying and then migrating to such alternatives every day, exactly because people are tired of Windows shenanigans and inconveniences, with increasing (intrusive) barriers, bloatware, plus the intermitent mishaps from Windows updates. If you get a Linux distro already doing most things that Windows can do for the average user, and is made for free, while being far more lightweight and well tuned from the start (actually, already better gaming performance with AMD GPUs), constantly being improved, on and on, then it's just a matter of time that the mindset and market share towards it changes. Thus, software (games, drivers, peripherals) compatibility as well.