I am currently on the XBOX but seriously thinking about doing the switch to PC.
What kind of spec would i need to run the sim without taking out a small loan, i don’t really want to spend over £1000, would love to hear what you guys/girls are using especially if your on a budget.
This is one spec i have seen
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I would recommend for anyone on a tight budget to go with the 5800x3d cpu as it works great with the sim (and many other games) due to the additional 3D cache it has. I would also recommend at least a RTX 4060/4060Ti gpu if the budget allows.
I’m no expert, but I don’t think that rig would run MSFS very well Likely your xBox is more powerful overall than that config.
I am new to MSFS, I think I overloaded my i5 with 2024. any way to step back to an earlier edition? I don’t need all the “bells and whistles” , all I really want is something like x box- 172 for IFR practice, kinda lost in all the terminoligy.
That’s complete giberish and has what to do with this post? Let’s assume you don’t mean the version of Windows as the latest is 23H2 (Win11) 22H2 (Win10) so you must be talking about MSFS 2024?
Assuming you do have an i5, let’s just work with that for a second. You can get good performance out of MSFS with an i5 if it’s paired with a GPU, like a 3060 or later. VR performance might struggle though and I wouldn’t go past medium settings.
I don’t think 16 GB RAM is enough. I wouldn’t build any PC with less than 32 GB today, particularly not for MSFS.
Equally, I think you will have a bad time with a GPU that only has 8GB VRAM. I would not be surprised if MSFS 2024 is DX12 only.
The thing is, though, that GPUs in particular are still ridiculously expensive and this appears to be the new normal. I honestly think you’re going to struggle to get better performance than Xbox with your budget, but add another £500 and I think you’d have a lot more choice.
Are you prepared to buy components and build the machine yourself, or are you looking to get something off the shelf? Because you will absolutely be able to get better value with the former versus the latter.
Quite to the contrary. You can have a great experience with those as part of your specs. Will you have a great experience with all settings cranked to 11 and running multiple 4k monitors? Of course not, but seems a lot of people here only care if a PC can do that. Here’s my PC Part Picker list.
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/NCDkv3
It shows a base price of just shy of US $1700, but that’s including multiple extra drives that you may not need, and a bit of splurging on things that are going to be user preference. You could easily get one in the $1,000 range (less if you buy used) by knocking out the excesses I have in my list. I’m running 1440p with a mix of medium, high, and one or two ultra settings, plus a custom higher shadow resolution from a cfg edit, and running mild AI traffic via FSLTL, and can hit over 45fps at busy airports. In sparse areas and at cruise, there’s no issue getting 60fps locked (my monitor’s limit). The graphics card and memory have mild overclocks on them, which can help but is highly dependent on your specific setup. Oh, and I’m running DX12, which performs better than D 11 in my specific case. The DX11 vs 12 debate has no clear answer and you’ll find people running better both ways on a myriad of systems.
I will say that when it comes to storage, I would suggest either a smaller OS drive and a dedicated large storage drive for the sim, or at least 2TB single drive. The sim is massive, especially if you start adding in third party content. I started with a single 1TB m.2 drive and started running out of space with it and other programs. That’s why I now have a 1TB OS and misc. drive, 4TB gaming drive, and 4TB media drive.
Wait for the 5500x3d / 5700x3d if plan on building in am4. X3d processors have a large advantage in MSFS, and if you want future upgrade path without changing motherboard and ram, you have to go am5, ie ryzen 7000 series and ddr5 memory which can be a bit more expensive compared to the am4 options.
And the rtx3050 is too weak, even compared to Xbox series x I think. You will be better off getting an rtx 3060 12gb. MSFS tends to use a lot of vram specially with online features like photogrametry. But it may overshoot your budget.
You need to increase your budget if you want to see something significantly better than the XBox (Series X).
Do you already have a platform or are you building a totally new PC?
On a budget I’d recommend:
The hardware is one thing but how you set things up is the real challenge.
I have i7-10700 ,Nvidia GeForce 2070 Super, 32 GB ddr4 ram, 1 TB SSD but I can run the sim at a clunky 20 FPS or at a smooth 40+FPS depending on the settings I choose.
A good start is settings on high, resolution 2560X1440, DX11. ground/sea traffic at 5%, AI traffic OFF, use FSLTL traffic injector (free) for traffic instead.
A good start.
Good luck!
You can get okay performance with 8gb VRAM. I have a rtx 2070S and it’s not too bad. It is maxed out occasionally though but even so I don’t get stutters. That said, when I upgrade I shall be looking at a bare minimum of 12gb and hopefully 16gb or more.
I agree with you on the RAM. 16gb is pushing it a bit imo and much better to get 32gb.
Your comments re: ‘struggle to get better performance than Xbox’ reflect my own feelings too. £1000 is a pretty tight budget for a gaming PC, especially if you want to run FS20 well. Personally, I would save up for another few months or so and put another £500 onto the budget. Pretty much like you said in fact.
Another advantage in waiting a bit might be that we will know a lot more about what specs FS24 will need (I know it should be similar to now but even so …) and we might also have a better idea of which CPUs will perform better. For example, will the cache offered by the X3d cpus still deliver the best performance and still be the Kings in the FS24 world? I wonder. Probably ‘yes’ but who knows.
ok guys, have been doing a little bit of research from various websites.
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D 8 Core CPU ( 3.8GHz Base Up to 4.5GHz Boost)
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8GB GDDR6 Graphics Card
32GB Standard DDR4 3600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (2 x 16GB)
MSI B550M PRO-VDH WIFI Motherboard
Wired2Fire 1TB NVMe PCIE Solid-State Drive
What’s the price on that? Can you up the GPU to anything better?
CCL have some OK Black Friday offers here but seems you can’t customise them and they are only 16gb ram. You could always sell that ram and buy your own at a later date. Can you sell the Xbox to put cash towards the PC?
i think the price was just short of £1,200 ish
done a little bit more homework, having trouble trying to put this together as its been a long time since i built a PC.
Radeon RX 7600 8 GB
AMD Ryzen 7 7700X
1TB SDD
CORSAIR Vengeance DDR5 5600 MHz AMD EXPO PC RAM - 16 GB x 2
ASUS PRIME B650-PLUS AM5 Motherboard
my budget is about £1,300 is
I’d say that’s a bit of a backwards step vs the 5800 X3D option (which is actually a higher performing CPU specifically in FS2020.
Are you using https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/ Which is a hugely helpful resource for building configs?
You can use reddit to: /r/buildapcforme and /r/buildapc for parts and building advice specifically.
In reality, you want a capable CPU - which everything from Ryzen 7600, 5800X3D, current intel i5’s are, and then bias towards GPU to maximise the actual performance you get and the resolution you run. If a CPU is giving 99th percentil above 100FPS then you’re well above the headroom of running the game at a stable 60FPS so long as your GPU is up to it.
| Type | Item | Price |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D 3.4 GHz 8-Core Processor | £289.00 @ Amazon UK |
| CPU Cooler | Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler | £39.00 @ Computer Orbit |
| Motherboard | MSI B550M PRO-VDH WIFI Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard | £109.00 @ Computer Orbit |
| Memory | Corsair Vengeance LPX 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL16 Memory | £80.98 @ Ebuyer |
| Storage | Solidigm P41 Plus 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive | £97.64 @ Box Limited |
| Video Card | Gigabyte WINDFORCE OC GeForce RTX 4070 12 GB Video Card | £564.97 @ Ebuyer |
| Case | Corsair 4000D Airflow ATX Mid Tower Case | £69.00 @ Computer Orbit |
| Power Supply | Corsair RM750e (2023) 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply | £79.99 @ Corsair UK |
| Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts | ||
| Total | £1329.58 | |
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-11-26 11:40 GMT+0000 |
This will be a much higher performing PC for FS 2020 vs your recent list: The 5800X3D is a higher performing CPU (iin flight sim!), and the RTX 4070 is significantly more powerful than the AMD RX 7600. It comes in at £1330 for the tower but you’d have to build it yourself!
What resolution are you running and do you need peripherals too?
As far as peripherals go i have the Honeycomb setup and i was going to use my 4K LG tv
Well I’d definitely stick with a 4070, or you could consider a high end and option (6800xt, 6900xt, 7900xt). The 4070 opens up dlss which may work for you at 4k, although a 4070 will do a decent job at native resolution and high/ultra settings.
