RTX 4090 with i9 10900K, will an upgrade to a i9 13900K make a difference?

[motoadve]

Using the Varjo Aero, 4090 and i9 1099K @5.0 performance is not bad, but would be nice to have better performance.

Will an upgrade to a i9 13900K make a difference?

[LucShep]

We're talking +20% gaming performance improvement in general (about the same in DCS, I suspect) but well over 45% in multithreaded workloads - this is where it'll excel.
That's the good news.

Now the bad news....
The i9 13900K runs very, very hot when pushed, so that means that, on top of the motherboard and etc, you may also have to consider even better cooling.
You can, of course, consider Z790 D4 motherboards, in case you wish to re-use your current DDR4 RAM from that system, saving a bit in the upgrade process.

The thing is, when all is said and done, we're talking close to, if not beyond, $1000 (doing quick math, $590+ for the processor, $290+ for the motherboard, $170+ for the 360AIO cooler).... all done for "brute force problem disguising", for a simulator/game with real and specific optimization issues (multicore + vulkan can't come quick enough!).

So, the TLDR: yes it will make a difference (especially with that RTX4090) but not enough to justify the investment, IMHO.

Edited February 3, 2023 by LucShep

[FR4GGL3]

Alternative: You might think about a 13700K or you may wait for the new AMD X3D Processors. The 13900K shows its power over its lower brothers on Multithreading stuff and DCS isn't a Multithreading Task for now. I came from a 9900K and I felt both. The GPU and CPU. You can even feel it in DCS. But it is subtile in DCS.

If you want a possible Update for the lowest invest, a 5800X3d might be a thing. But then again: the new X3D are around the corner. If I was you, I would at least wait and see how good they are.

[Mars Exulte]

Hardware won't cure the issues with performance we have in DCS. There is little point in continuing to spend money trying to brute force it. Multithreading and Vulkan are the only things that are going to ''fix'' this thing. Hopefully they'll be launching this spring/summer from how it sounds.

[motoadve]

Thanks for the replies, I will just wait for Multithreading and Vulkan 

[Gunnars Driver]

I upgraded from a i9 9900KS OC:d to 5.2ghz to 13900KF/Z790/fast DDR5 and 4090.

I run the 13900 in stock settings (no powerlimit time activated).

From this point it seems like the CPU frametimes is not an issue anymore.

No real need (no panic at least) for multithreading as the frametimes never comes close to being the limit.

The GPU is the limiting factor, I have a OC version that I have clocked even further. 
 

This CPU is hot if no fix is done.

I saw more than 90C on stress testing with a Corsair H150i with the stock thermal paste (was just a test, I newer use these).

After lapping the CPU and using thermal grizzly conductonaut the CPU is about 10C cooler in stress tests, and running DCS or Assetto Corsa only reach 65-67C on the cores as the top value during gaming.