Intel i9-14900KF or Ryzen 9 9950X3D for a new DCS VR rig? (RTX 4090)

[darkman222]

Since my PC died yesterday, I am thinking of switching to AMD coming from Intel.

I had the i9 13900KS before. Using VR ( Aero and now the MeganeX) together with a RTX 4090.

Depending on the DCS online server or complex single player missions I had severe stutters due to long CPU frame times 12 to 19 ms = CPU bottleneck.

As I need a replacement PC soon, I dont want to dig too deep and too long.

 

So the basic questions are:

1) If I compare the single thread rating here: https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/5684vs6549/Intel-i9-14900KF-vs-AMD-Ryzen-9-9950X3D both CPU seem to have pretty much the same performance. BUT the L3 cache is much higher for AMD with 128 MB (Intel only 36 MB) will this potentially give less stutters in VR? Also the clock speed is 1,1 Ghz faster on the AMD.

2) Is there any issues running a RTX 4090 (upgrading to RTX 5090 later) on an AMD system for VR (Aero and MeganeX) use?

Thanks in advance for the quick help!

 

[Markus77]

If gaming is the most important application: AMD Ryzen 7 9800x3d, 96GB DDR5 6000 with low (really low) latency and max. 2 (in words: two) memory modules and a really fast 4TB SSD (ideally PCIe5.0) for DCS and an additional fast 1TB SSD for the operating system

[diego999]

8 minutes ago, Markus77 said:

If gaming is the most important application: AMD Ryzen 7 9800x3d, 96GB DDR5 6000 with low (really low) latency and max. 2 (in words: two) memory modules and a really fast 4TB SSD (ideally PCIe5.0) for DCS and an additional fast 1TB SSD for the operating system

 

This. For gaming the difference in performance between 9800X3D and 9950X3D is minimal, while the price is not.

[Qcumber]

8 hours ago, darkman222 said:

Is there any issues running a RTX 4090 (upgrading to RTX 5090 later) on an AMD system for VR (Aero and MeganeX) use?

No issues. This should be fine. 

[darkman222]

Thanks guys. Would you say, with the AMD, I will see improvements in CPU frame time aka CPU bottleneck stutters compared to the Intel CPU?

Edited Friday at 08:33 AM by darkman222

[Aapje]

We had forum members report a much improved situation with regard to stuttering, after going to the 9800X3D.

[lefuneste01]

Hello. I saw some people complaining on core parking issue with 9950x3d that are not existing with 9800x3d. I replaced my 12800K by a 9800x3d and got  great fps boost.

[darkman222]

Thanks for the opinions. So the money I will spend is not the main consideration. Improving stutters is. Seems like abandoning Intel and going AMD is the way.

From the youtube tests people do with the 9800x3d vs the 9950x3d the fps gain is minor. But the tests are done in 1080p resolution. Which tends to reduce the advantage of a fast CPU.
We also have the 9900x3d nobody seems to talk about for unkown reasons.

Edited Friday at 02:18 PM by darkman222

[Aapje]

The 9950X3D has two compute chiplets, with 3D-cache on one of them. The game should entirely run on the chiplet with 3D-cache, because otherwise things actually get slower/more stutter, since sending data between the chiplets is very slow. That is why the 9800X3D and 9950X3D perform almost equally, even though the 9800X3D has only one compute-chiplet. For gaming, only one chiplet tends to matter. 

The 9900X3D has two chiplets of 6 cores, again with one chiplet having the 3D-cache. So when running games, that would run on the chiplet with 3D-cache with only 6 cores. If you get a 9800X3D, then you actually run on a 8-core chiplet, and 8 is more than 6.

So we don't talk about the 9900X3D because it's a CPU with a very limited use case: a person that runs both games, and productivity software that can take advantage of many cores and benefits little from the 3D-cache, but can't afford the 9950X3D which is good at both, so they get the 9900X3D, which is worse at both.

I strongly suspect that most buyers of the 9900X3D lack technical knowledge and buy the wrong product for their use case.

Edited 16 hours ago by Aapje

[darkman222]

Thanks for the explanation about the 9900x3d. Makes sense why nobody talks about it.

I found this video of a spanish speaking youtuber. He is testing the 9950x3D and the 9800x3D in Vr in this video. Unfortunatey he seemed to have bottlenecked his test with the GPU. He has a lot of setting to high. I thought the RTX 5090 would handle it.

But he has a CPU frame time chart in the end, which shows that the 9950x3d gives some kind of improvement to the CPU frame time.

Here is the video at 6:00 min: 

Or see this screenshot:

[Raven (Elysian Angel)]

19 hours ago, darkman222 said:

But the tests are done in 1080p resolution. Which tends to reduce the advantage of a fast CPU.

Quite the opposite: CPU benchmarks are done in 1080p for very good reasons.