I am a former XBox user who is purchasing a PC solely for MSFS.
I figured as long as I was going to make this purchase, I would go for the most advanced processor. I was pricing out a desktop with a 12900 processor, 2 TB SSD, 64 Gig DDR5, and an RTS 3090. I know that will be able to handle the sim well.
However, one of the things was, the particular motherboard used constrained things. There was only 1 slot for m.2 SSD, and the max it allowed was 2TB. My addon folder with XBox MSFS is already over 400 Gig. Obviously there is even more available for PC, and my worry was being capped at 2 Gig, I was just going to have to purchase another PC next year when the builds were more mature.
However, I found a laptop that has a 12900, 64 Gig DDR5, RTX 3080 TI, and 4 TB m.2 with RAID0 (so 2 2TB drives). I know there will be some dropoff in FPS with stepping down to the 3080 TI, plus it being a mobile version. But I come from XBox which is capped at 30 FPS, so if I got 30 FPS with everything set on Ultra, I would be more than pleased with that performance. It also gives me choices of running either an external 38 inch ultrawide monitor or in the living room off the 4K OLED since its portable.
So you will have to forgive me, its been 8 years since I’ve had a gaming PC, so I am unfamiliar right now with current hardware. Would this laptop be reasonable to expect 30 FPS on both the laptop, the 38 inch ultrawide, or the 4K TV?
Get a desktop PC. Find a motherboard with more M.2 slots. If not, that is ok. You can buy 4TB external SSD’s with 1000 mb/s read/write. There is no performance difference between those 2 options.
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well, all gamimg laptops suffer form too much heat buildup…not recommended for
long heavy gaming at all.
besides that desktops are cheaper for same specs, and upgradable. a laptop never is.
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are you VR? I’m considering moving from Series X to PC
Goto YouTube and find Tech testers site. Watch review on one you are asking about. I bought ASUS ROG Strix Scar III two years ago March, excellent laptop, runs MSFS just fine.
Intel I-7-9750
32GB System Ram
RTX 2070
1TB SSB C-Drive
1TB SSB D-Drive
No built in CD/DVD/BR drive, have separate one I use plugged into USB 3.0 Port when needed.
No card Reader, have external one of those too.
New model has TWO USB-C Ports, I think 1 display port and 1 HDMI port for external monitors. I do have USB-C Hub out of the port on back, running HDMI monitor, ASUS Claymore II keyboard, Virpil TM3 Throttle and VFX with Mongoose base. Never, ever stutters except in MSFS (game issues not laptop) also FSX and X-Plane 11, everything else is perfect.
Mine runs at 83C for GPU, as Asobo has made game more efficient as time has gone on, at first 87C, never have issues with this unit period. Excellent quality and actually thinking about desktop game box in late summer, give this one secondary duty for X-Plane or FSX maybe. Just not sure now. time will tell. I highly recommend ASUS and the new ROG Strix Scar unit is very very impressive.
I run a 12900k with a 3090, mobo is a: ROG STRIX Z690-A GAMING WIFI D4 | ROG Strix | Gaming Motherboards｜ROG - Republic of Gamers｜ROG Global (has 4 m.2 slots, all gen 4, one which uses direct CPU lanes and other via chipset).
A 3080ti mobile will be a huge downgrade from a 3090, they are around 3070 performance if you are lucky.
Cooling a laptop will be the issue, 12900 mobile will be nothing like its desktop equivalent.
If you don’t need a laptop, don’t buy one, always get a desktop, they are way more cost effective and blow laptop performance out the water.
That being said, the 12900k wants a very beefy cooler, that thing really gets hot under load (it pulls 220w under load assuming MCE is on in the BIOS) and will easily go into the 90’s under sustained r23 benchmarks (on a 280 and 360mm rad).
Just a note, you will not get stable 30fps at 4k with everything on ultra even on a 3090 (also the sim is massively CPU bound).
My MSI Carbon WiFi Z690 has five m.2 slots. Unbelievably, the idiot that put it together has put the OS drive (Gen 4 Firecuda 530) in the one Gen 3 slot. I would have been better off with your one slot motherboard 
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I have Alienware m15 r4 laptop
Processor: i7-10870H
RAM: 32GB
GPU: RTX 3080 Laptop Card (150W 8GB)
Windows 11 Home
I have absolutely no problems, not even stutters. ​Used to get CTD, but none since SU7.
You should double check the power of the GPU. Most RTX 30XX’s are derated based on the capabilities of the laptop. These used to be branded Max Q. Now the derating is ​often not called out.
Some brands like Alienware, though expensive, will enable full power.
In summary: As long as you have good disk space, full powered GPU, good memory, a high powered laptop can do just fine.
Alienware is Dell… don’t, really…
I have turned away from Intel and NVIDIA and went full AMD. Best decision I could make.
ROG Strix X570-F Gaming with a Ryzen 9 5900X and an RT6900XT OC. 32GB RAM DDR4 at 3600MHz, I have stable 70FPS in Ultra and 4K (2160p) settings in the DA62 with NXi or CRJ, 40 in the DC-6 with the Dev Mode trick disabled. All I need now is a FreeSync TV.
Not sure about that NVIDIA and Intel hype anymore… It’s just expensive.
2 TB is more than enough… My PC only have 1 TB of m.2 storage, and it’s enough for me. But to be fair, it’s a PC with only MSFS installed and a few other games.
And I do regular clean up of my drive, so it’s enough for me.
As for your FPS requirement, I think both choices are fine. My PC is actually an i9-9900K with RTX 2080 Ti, so it’s a few generations behind your prospective spec. And I run on my 4K HDR TV on Ultra and I can have around 30 FPS myself.
So with a more advanced and later generation of CPU and GPU that you’re asking, either it is on the 3080 Ti or the 3090, both should be good to push 30 FPS on 4K HDR or 38" ultrawide.
The X17 actually allows you to overclock if you want to. I think now that they have their cryotech cooling, they aren’t worried about the thermals as much, so they actually encourage the overclocking now.
- Desktop’s upgrade-ability is a huge benefit over laptop
- It’s still a relatively difficult/expensive time to build a PC due to supply issues
- Even top end modern hardware does not get top end modern performance in MSFS because it’s so CPU demanding (expect ~60-80FPS 4k ultra with top of the line hardware; where other current gen games will be >120FPS 4k ultra)
Given these conditions, if I was building a new machine today, I’d target medium 4k or high 1440p 40FPS and skip the RTX 3000 series entirely. The 3080s and 3090s are still unavailable for <$700 and all other cards use traditional VRAM that largely negates the game-changing benefits of the 3080 and 3090. Go with a 10 or 20 series card now, spend what you save on better PSU (and a g-sync monitor if you don’t have one), and upgrade graphics card when prices come down to sane levels
MSFS is very sensitive to overclocking. While i’m sure there are success stories, if you look at the forums of people troubleshooting CTDs, turning off overclock is suggestion #2. It comes right after “check your community folder.”
I don’t overclock my gaming laptop and have a buttery smooth experience on Ultra settings on a widescreen 34" monitor.
All - I have not overclocked a PC even with intel blessing, I just do not see the benefit in this game. Others possibly, but like running engine at 5,000 rpm all the time, it will fail, this game does not benefit one iota from overclocking, where those folks have issues, I for most part do not.
I never worry about FPS, and just fly the 747/787/C-17 around all the time. Occasionally CTD, mostly my fault. Keep CF folder mostly empty or only 5-6 things. Problem mostly trying to test hardware like new TM3 Throttle unit, so don’t get to fly much. But, seriously thinking new game box in late summer, its going to be desktop, also think next gen cards will be introduced mid-year (no info to this period-so don’t blast me), so opting for those.
MY BIGGEST HOPE IS THEY GET THE BUGS FIXED IN THIS ONE, and it finally lives up to all the hype.