Assistance for a new PC for MSFS

User Support Hub Hardware & Peripherals
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Gday all, after nearly 20 years absence I’m delving back into MSFS, The last time I was simming it was Win XP so I have been spending like 14hrs a day down this Msfs rabbit hole on YT and this forum so thanks for all the advice while I’ve been stalking the various posts.So I ordered the computer on Saturday and should be ready by Friday. Spent bucket load of $ on hardware that’s being delivered this week (Honeycomb Alpha & Bravo, 3 x Streamdecks, Rudder Pedals etc etc)
I just went in to the guy in the pc shop as he was about my age and said listen mate I need something for MSFS that I want to not send me back to the dark ages the day after I pick it up, this the first time I have bought a windows pc in 15 years and it’s another world compared to iOS. so the specs are:
I7 Core 14700KF
MSI PRO B760M - DDR 5
T FORCE 64GB 6000MHZ CL30
2 X KINGSTON GEN 4 SSD 2TB
ANTEC MESH FRONT TEMPERED GLASS MID TOWER
WIN 11
DEEPCOOL LT720 360MM
MSI GEFORCE RTX 4070 TI 12GB (criky how expensive are graphics cards as the top tier was like $3k)

and some other stuff, if someone can translate above and say its top gear :+1: I’ll be happy, because it was another language to me

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@ InvictusAus
Welcome back to the wonderful world of flight simulators!
I had the same problem when I purchased my new PC a couple of years ago. The previous PC was about 10 years old & it took me a couple of weeks of research to figure out all the components to purchase (I build my own PCs).

I don’t have any of the items on your list, so can’t speak with experience of ownership. There are two items that I noticed on your list:

  • The MSI GEFORCE RTX 4070 TI. Lots of folks have it, & MSFS will run OK with it, but MSFS really likes a graphics card with lots of memory. My personal minimum is 16 GB (I have an Intel Arc 770 with 16 GB), so I’d not call the RTX 4070 TI “top gear”.

  • Your build has 64GB of RAM. This is, IMO, overkill if your PCs primary application / purpose is MSFS 2020. We don’t have any specs yet for the next version - MSFS 2024, due out later this year (date yet to be announced) and having too much RAM is generally better than having too little, but I’d have gone with 32 GB of RAM in 2 x 16 GB sticks & chosen a slightly better graphics card that had at least 16 GB of onboard memory.

  • You don’t list the power supply unit (PSU). These newer PCs use a lot more power than PCs of the WinXP / Win7 era. I have not calculated the power draw for all of your components but I’d guestimate that an 850W PSU would be the minimum required. 1000W would be better. Not all power supplies are the same. There are “budget” ones & premium ones. It’s not worth it to skimp on power supply units, as a bad PSU will affect every other component in the PC.

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Thanks mate, I was in the undecided in the graphics card but they have already put it together so I’m with that one until I upgrade I guess, I will call them back and find out the PSU wattage. Thank you for your help

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This is an approximate US pricing* and wattage of the part list you have selected:

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/6CJLn6

A 1000W PSU may seem excessive, but it is a good investment that will serve you well with this build and leave room for future upgrades.

I hate to be ‘that guy’, but whilst your configuration is OK for MSFS, it is not an optimal use of your budget. Here is a list of parts that would provide a much better performance, for a similar price range.

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/BsJLn6

The CPU is more potent with MSFS due to the larger cache, but it dissipates less heat, so you can get a more affordable cooling solution.
RAM is faster, 6400 is the sweet spot for that CPU/MB combo.
The GPU is much more powerful, the motherboard much more flexible for future upgrades.
As for the drives, I picked the Corsair due to the 5 years warranty, write longevity & random ops performance.
Finally the power budget is more efficient, so it requires a less expensive PSU and depending on where you live it could save you money with electricity bills on the long run as the current breed of Intel chips require more wattage than their AMD competitors.

Either way, welcome back to MSFS and I wish you the best with your new computer and years of happy simming.

(*there is a drop down menu at the top right of the pcpartpicker page, that will let you change the country in case you are not US based.)

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The machine seems decently spec’d, though i’d agree that 64GB of RAM is an overkill - go for 32GB instead.

With regards to the GPU, I think the 4070ti is good value for money. It will run 1440p well with TAA, though for 4k and VR you may have to enable DLSS to keep the frames up above 30fps in some areas (but i dont mean this as a negative).

With regards to the CPU, also have a look at the 7800x3D - its rated as one of the best CPUs for MSFS, and its ~10% cheaper than the 14700k.

I would say yes your spec is amongst the top tier. There are probably only 4 or 5 GPUs above the 4070ti in terms of performance, and a similar number of CPU upgrades at this time. But the price to value ratio starts to drop of pretty quickly thereafter.

The only time i would consider spending more, is if you plan on getting a pimax crystal, or need 4k or triple screens on ultra with a min of 30fps. For everything else, this spec is good.

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I think you will have no problems running MFS with that setup. It is top tier.

But then again, it all depends on the user. If you max out all the graphic settings, turn on multiplayer and live traffic, fly complex aircraft and have 3 cinema sized monitors at “uber” high resolution… well then you can bring any computer in the world to its knees.

With that setup, if you keep things within reason, I doubt you will find any situation where you’ll be hardware constrained.

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msfs just loves the x3d cache from the AMD CPUs.
suggest to go with AMD, eg 7800x3d. it will smoke all intel cpus by far.

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I would have gone for the 4070 Ti Super, but considering the sim is currently CPU-limited, I’d have to agree with the above posts that the AMD 7800X3D is a more important change. And of course, budget is always an issue…

I bought a 3090 Ti two years ago, and running 4K it works well. I don’t do VR, so I can’t comment on that. But yeah, I think the 12GB VRAM of the 4070 Ti puts it at a real disavantage.

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i hvae a used 3090 nvidia and also in VR very happy.

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I went through the same process last June and had many of the same components installed. The problem I’m having now is that a lot of the scenery doesn’t render until I’m flying directly over it. I’ve searched through all the MSFS forums out there, watched countless YouTube videos, deleted my third party scenery addons, and adjusted my LOD’s every which way and have yet to find a solution. Is there a thread out there somewhere where I might find a suggested step by step?

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I went down the 7800X3D route 32 GB RAM, 4070 Super. I’m only driving a 1080 monitor but I’m very happy.

The point I wanted to make was check the boot time of the MSI motherboard. I had a cheap one and it was 30 sec. Slower than a similar price Gigabyte board.

@kido007dz suggestion should be a nice step up from mine. Where I would have gone but ran out off cache.

Good luck, sPK

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Got a few pc’s,. A desktop that is 10 years old on windows 10, a surface pad with windows 10 and a new laptop on windows 11 - none of them with graphics specs or processor speed capable of running MSFS 2020, only flight sim X.

Now after playing almost all previous flight sims (going back to 1999 - looking glass, fs2000, fsx etc) I decided to see if you can be serious with flight sim on the xbox - and I mean pmdg type serious, flying as you would fly the manual pmdg.

I ended up getting a new xbox series S to sit next to my xbox one X and then the hotas thrust. Shortly to add a keyboard and mouse (as I am told they should work).

Will the functionality of all of these combined match the ease of userbility I had on the PC? (mouse for pushing buttons and flipping switches, keyboard for gears flaps etc and thrust / stick for basis thrust control and basic banking.)

If it does it might save a hell of alot of money running all of this on the xbox instead of a new desktop - afterall, the xbox really is just a PC streamlined for gaming isn’t it.

Anyone else doing the same?. And what about all of the previous purchases on FSX bought over the years - do we have to buy all of this again?.

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You might want to look at this thread: https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/biting-the-bullet-and-migrating-from-xbox-to-pc-a-journal/621454

I have no experience of running FS20 on an Xbox so I can’t talk about using an xbox with Airbus and Boeing liners but this forum seems full of people with lots of issues especially when runing high fidelity liners.

The biggest issue with Xbox is the lack of access to all the user created content.

Any way, good luck with whatever you decide, sPK

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FSX purchases would not work on anything other than FSX, so yes you would have to purchase FS2020 equivalents.

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In the midst of aquiring components for my new pc build, so know the feeling the OP has been going through.

So far I have:
2TB GEN4 M2 storage for FS2020 and X-Plane 12.
1TB GEN2 M2 storage for OS (comes from current PC)
6TB High performance Toshiba HDD for add-ons and sceneries (also coming from current PC)
Thermaltake Toughpower 1200W PSU.
Lian LI Lancool 219 PC case (on it’s way from Amazon.com)

Will be buying the AMD 7800X3D+Mobo+32GB RAM bundle this weekend.

So what’s left is liquid cooling and GPU.
These two depends on my decision if I want to stick with me current 3 monitor setup, or switch to a single 49" Ultra Wide curved monitor.

Looks like if I want to stick with the 3 monitor setup, I’ll have to get the RTX4090, but with the 49" monitor a RTX 4070 TI Super would be sufficient.

For the liquid cooler I am looking at the Arctic Liquid Freezer III 360, but the 280 would be enough for the 7800X3D. Just the price difference is minimal.

Will be a few months before I can afford the GPU, so it gives me time to make up my mind, and hopefully GPU prices have come down some more by then.

It’s always exciting to build/get a new pc for our hobby, but certainly also nerve wrecking. Dit I make the right choices…

Update 0501/2024:

I purchased the 7800X3D+Mobo+RAM at the Denver Microcenter a month ago (And the bunble is already sold out again :wink: )
Bought a 2nd M.2 module (1TB) for the OS, as the one in my current pc is much slower, and also go the Arctic Liquid Freezer III 360 without RGB, as the pc will be hiding under the desk anyway.

Last piece to obtain is the GPU, which I decided to go with the RTX4090, as I am keeping the multi monitor setup.
I am waiting “IMpatiently” to pull the trigger, as most likely the prices will drop next month when the new GPU series are expected to roll out.

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@MFDC3:
I’ve never used X-Plane, so don’t know how it performs, but if it performs well running on an HDD, I’d consider running X-Plane from the 6 TB HDD & devoting the entire 2 TB M2 storage to MSFS, unless you expect MSFS + addons to exceed that capacity.
I run MSFS from an HDD, and though it runs very well, I think I’d get better performance if it were installed on my M.2 drive, especially when around large airports with loads of traffic, when there is a considerable amount of read requests to the drive as one is on an approach path to the runway.

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Hello @SmotheryVase665
I currently am running X-Plane 12 and FS2020 on a 1 TB M2, and the FS2020 add-ons are on the 6 TB HDD, and using Addon Linker to activate what I need for my flight. I still have about 300GB left on the M2.

Running FS2020 on the HDD would not be what I would advise, as it loads a lot faster from the M2.
I would definitely advise you to move FS2020 to your M2 if you have the space.

Thanks for your thoughts though.

Happy flying.

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@MFDC3 : Agreed, for a new PC, I’d only use an HDD for backups, archives, or data (such as pictures) that do not require fast load times. As I said, MSFS, and in general any app, game & their data would perform better if placed on an M.2 drive. Once the specs for 2024 come out I plan to purchase a second M.2 for my PC. I’ll move 2020 to that drive & install 2024 on it too. Just waiting for the 2024 specs to determine the right size. MSFS’s current location on an HDD was simply because that was the only drive with enough space at the time for the installation.

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Hello.

I hope it is OK to tag onto this thread, maybe it is because I am new here, but I could not see a “new post” button. Happy to go elsewhere if I have got it wrong.

I am a casual user of Flight Sims; currently I use X-Plane. I am a bit disappointed by the availability of real-life scenery, and am considering a switch to MSFS.

However my day-to-day computer is a Mac, so I think I will have to buy another machine to home the new Sim. Its display will be separate from the Mac for the time being.

I have learned that the requirement to run MSFS is “Intel Core i5-8400 or AMD Ryzen 5 1500X or better“ and the video to be “Radeon RX 590 or GeForce GTX“. I want to buy a used machine on eBay, where my choices will be wide (and cheaper, bearing in mind this for casual, not serious use). It is the term ‘better’ that I am confused by. For example, I guess the bigger the number implies a better (and later) processor, so i7 is better than i5, but what of the 8400 number? Is a Ryzen 6 better than a Ryzen 5?

And with the video card, what is better than the two I mention? Clearly I have entered a world where my knowledge is very limited.

Is there a published hierarchy of specifications that will allow me to identify a machine that will serve my needs, which are those of a casual flight just for amusement.

I’d be grateful for some pointers, please.

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Welcome and don’t worry about the lack of ability to create a new thread yet. This forum has a trust level system that slowly grants new users more access to prevent spammers and such. Just keep participating and commenting, and your trust level will quickly get to the level you can start your own threads.

As to your jump into the sim, the minimum specs listed are probably the original minimums from when it was released several years ago, not accounting for any updates since then and may no longer be truly valid. I will say that’s how I started out and while it looked surprisingly good at minimum settings, I didn’t stay there long and don’t suggest you try it. There is a TON of info on system builds for this, and it would be too complicated to start explaining the pc nomenclature for CPU’s and GPU’s.

Instead, I’ll start with some basics and we can build from there. For the CPU, you’ll want an AMD processor with X3D at the end of the name. The 5800x3d was the king of gaming processors last generation, and the 7800x3d is this generation’s king (there is no 6000 series CPU). There are other x3d CPU’s, but those two are the sweet spot for value and performance. The sim isn’t like most games, and will be very CPU intensive.

For the GPU, things get more complicated because of new tech like upscaling techniques (rendering at a lower resolution, then upscaling the output to the monitor) and frame generation (creating a frame on the GPU that’s interpolated from two regular frames rather than running the entire processing pipeline). I personally don’t like those because I don’t want the trade-off of increased artifacts, others will swear by them because it can increase frame rates. Your monitor’s refresh rate can also play into the decision. About the only rule of thumb here is get lots of VRAM. 8 GB can get you by well as I was on that until very recently. If planning to sim at 1440p, I would suggest at least 12 GB VRAM, at 16 GB if going 4k. But VRAM is something relatively cheap to add to a card, so manufacturers sometimes do that to increase perceived value and price. Just because a card has more doesn’t automatically mean better.

If you can give us more detail on your budget, what resolution and refresh rates you want to aim for, just how high you want to run the graphics settings, and whether or not you want to rely on upscaling or frame generation, if you want to run vanilla or go heavy with mods (especially when it comes to live traffic mods) we can start providing suggestions. In the mean time, start watching YouTube videos on the sim. There are tons out there that can give you an idea of how a CPU and GPU can perform. There is no built in benchmark for it and there’s too many variables to make a direct head to head comparison, but it’ll start giving you an idea of what to expect.

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