The AMD FX line (latest iterations anyway) have a very good price/performance ratio for regular gaming performance, especially since they are so overclockable (is that a real word?). A lot of new games, like Battlefield, takes advantage on multi--core CPU's but unfortunately and surprisingly, the flightsim development is still heavily reliant on single-core performance. I have an AMD FX-6300 @ 4,1GHz, mostly because I was on a strict budget building my latest PC, if I could afford it I would go with Intel but let's face it, my FX-6300 cost 109€ when I bought it compared to an 200€+ i5 4670k, spent the money on all-round better components instead. But you know, spook that 8350 with some overclocking and it will compensate some of it's single-threaded "handicap". BTW My setup FX-6300, Sapphire HD 7790 dual-x o/c, 8GB RAM runs X-plane quite nicely allthough big airports like truscenery Tampere-Pirkkala does slow it down a bit. I DO have HDR turned on though and that's what eats a lot of FPS even on high end rigs.