MS Flight Simulator PC

[happybiker]

I'm looking for a PC for my 14 y/o son to run MSFC, he's not really into other games and has an older XBOX which he barely uses these days except to pay the online version of Flight Simulator on and it's not great.

The only thing he wants to play is Flight Simulator.

Could I I have some pointers regarding where to source something suitable and get a rough cost. I understand the game is pretty demanding so don't want to get something that doesn't cope, also don't want to spend too much. The one he showed me was £1300!

He'll need a monitor too, I've seen some on Amazon for £150, would they cut it or should I shop around a bit more?

Edited by happybiker on Thursday 27th November 10:59

[Griffith4ever]

Any monitor will "cut it". But you'll need a decent PC, MSFS is a hungry beast. The last version runs fine on my 3070 in VR, but I have to turn down a fair few things. The graphics card alone will prob cost you £400+

[happybiker]

Ok, thanks, I'll compare the specs of the ones I've seen.

[bloomen]

Is it MSFS 2020 or 2024? The latter is a bit more demanding and needs quick internet.

My main machine for it for a long time with 2020 was a laptop with a 1070 maxq. I had no complaints at all.

I could get 4K at 30-40 fps on a 1080ti.

More firepower is better of course, but it's not a genre that's a FPS queen.

[Nicks90]

It doesn't take tooooo much to get that to run well.
An intel i7, 32gb ram and an SSD main drive, coupled with something like an nvidia rtx5060 will more than do the job. You could probably build one of those for about £600, or pick up a second hand similar specd machine for about £4-500 from someone wanting to upgrade to a super spec rig.

That'll leave you some pennies for where it counts, monitor and joystick/throttle

[ReineKurokawa]

I run MSFS2024 without any issue
My set up
Ryzen 5 3600
AMD 6600XT
2* 16 GB ram
1 TB m2 SSD
Probably not running the game at max setting but capable enough

Edited by ReineKurokawa on Friday 28th November 16:45

[mmm-five]

ReineKurokawa said:

I run MSFS2024 without any issue
My set up
Ryzen 5 3600
AMD 6600XT
2* 8 GB ram
1 TB m2 SSD
Probably not running the game at max setting but capable enough

At what resolution and settings though?

4K, dual-4k, single 5120x1440p, 1080p? Min, Medium, High, Ultra? Live weather/traffic, etc?

But for most people, anything over 30fps seems to be acceptable.

[happybiker]

Thanks for the replies, it's the 2024 version.

I think he'll go for something like this:

https://www.gamer-pc.co.uk/collections/gaming-pcs-...

[Griffith4ever]

happybiker said:

Thanks for the replies, it's the 2024 version.

I think he'll go for something like this:

https://www.gamer-pc.co.uk/collections/gaming-pcs-...

Looks great. Tip. Grab a cheap 2tb nvme SSD from Amazon. Install it as the D drive. Msfs will fill a 1tb SSD with an already installed OS before you can say disc cleanup.

[bloomen]

2024 is a tiny install compared to 2020.

But you have to have fast enough internet to stream it all.

I binned it as it was totally unusable for me because of that.

[Griffith4ever]

bloomen said:

2024 is a tiny install compared to 2020.

But you have to have fast enough internet to stream it all.

I binned it as it was totally unusable for me because of that.

Oh? ! I didn't know that. 2020 was obscene, but at least everyone can buy storage but not everyone can buy bandwidth

[bloomen]

It's less than 20GB, but unless your connection is fast enough it's a totally miserable experience.

I was waiting over 10 minutes sometimes for an airport to stop being a blur.

You can now download stuff like aircraft rather than stream them if you want, in which case your storage is going to add up again but it'll never reach the epic size of 2020.

[durbster]

bloomen said:

... it's a totally miserable experience.

I was waiting over 10 minutes sometimes for an airport to stop being a blur.

I've been to airports that felt like that. Are you sure it wasn't trying to give you an authentic experience?

[Griffith4ever]

durbster said:

bloomen said:

... it's a totally miserable experience.

I was waiting over 10 minutes sometimes for an airport to stop being a blur.

I've been to airports that felt like that. Are you sure it wasn't trying to give you an authentic experience?

Post of the week, for sure :---)

[happybiker]

Griffith4ever said:

Looks great. Tip. Grab a cheap 2tb nvme SSD from Amazon. Install it as the D drive. Msfs will fill a 1tb SSD with an already installed OS before you can say disc cleanup.

Thanks, will do.

[mikef]

happybiker said:

Griffith4ever said:

Looks great. Tip. Grab a cheap 2tb nvme SSD from Amazon. Install it as the D drive. Msfs will fill a 1tb SSD with an already installed OS before you can say disc cleanup.

Thanks, will do.

Hmm. See this thread: https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&.... There aren’t many decent cheap 2TB NVMe SSDs right now - in the Amazon BF sale they are nearly twice as much as earlier in the year

[Griffith4ever]

£100. I've a couple of no name jobs in my PC, been in there for years - perfect for gaming partitions.


https://www.amazon.co.uk/KLEVV-Internal-Heatsink-T...

Edited by Griffith4ever on Tuesday 2nd December 02:23

[ReineKurokawa]

happybiker said:

Thanks for the replies, it's the 2024 version.

I think he'll go for something like this:

https://www.gamer-pc.co.uk/collections/gaming-pcs-...

Look like a DDR4 set up
The i5 would be fine but likely need new motherboard in the future upgrade with DDR5
5070 is a good mid card