I’m a Mac guy who plays MSFS 2020 on the XBOX series X for the past few years. I think I’m ready for the move up to a PC so I can take it to another level (hopefully). The only thing is I’m totally clueless when it comes to the PC world. I’ve got an opportunity to get a computer with these specs below, and if someone would be so kind to say, yes this def should handle MSFS 2020 (and hopefully 2024) or no, don’t get that Core, or motherboard it won’t work. I would think either would work fine, just because they both have more umph than an XBOX. But I have no clue.
Option 1 is def more costly than Option 2. I’m looking to get something that works great and I can fiddle/customize even more later if need be. I’d like to hit the airways with the best and enjoy flying. The XBOX has been great (even though I’ve gone nuts dealing with all the XBOX “fun” we deal with) Time to go all in on dark side I think. (it’s frighting!)
I’m going the route of buying a pre-build BTW. I don’t feel like dealing with building at this point in my flying career.
Oh and I enjoy the big jets. I fly PMDG 737, DC6, A310, A300-600R, A320neoV2, Bae 146. But also enjoy the 414W Chancellor and the Comanche 250
The lower spec setup should be fine, but just add more storage. You’ll find some advantages to keeping the sim and other applications on a physical drive separate from the Operating System.
Whatever you decide upon, I’d suggest waiting until November before making a purchase. By that date we should have much better official guidance on PC specifications, plus with a bit of luck the PC will cost less during the November sales period. Your two options do not appear to be “budget” PCs, so making sure that whatever you purchase is right for MSFS 2024 would justify the delay, IMO.
If not already, please be aware of the current issues with intel CPUs:
Waiting until November might also ensure that proposed Intel fixes & BIOS updates do indeed work.
I agree with @CasualClick w.r.t storage. Having the OS & Apps on separate disks makes backup & restore simpler.
Hate to be that guy, but a PC stands for “Personal Computer” that does include Mac. Best way to differentiate between both is just to say Mac or Windows.
As for which pre build is best, depends on your budget and how well you want to future-proof. Option 1 defiantly has more power, which in result give you a bit more better performance than Option 2. The other good thing about Option 1 is the secondary storage drive, todays day and age, most games are huge in size so having 2 drives will be ideal. Option 1 has the most future proofing if you want it to last before having to upgrade down the line.
Option 2 however is not bad by any means, it will play most games at ultra settings above 60-100FPS, minus flight sim of course. I do not think there is a single PC out there that can run MSFS completely maxed out especially when you add addons such as 3rd party scenery and aircraft. I am sure this build will save you a bit of money here.
So the option is yours and completely up to you. How much you want to spend and how much power you want on your PC. Both of the options you listed here will handle MSFS 2020 and 2024 well, you will have to tinker with the in-game settings to get the desired performance you want, but once you have that dialed in, it will all be worth it.
If you really want the latest and greatest, AMD is coming out with their 9000 series soon or I believe it is already out. NVIDIA is also coming out with their 5000 series at the end of most likely this year, you can do that if you want as well, just a suggestion but like I said both right here are really good PC hardware.
I’m a Mac and Xbox guy also. I’ve inquired with the PC idea as well. But two big things keep me from doing it, at least for now.
The cost. A good pc is going to be around $2500 to $3000. Sure can do cheaper but won’t be much gains.
The inconvenience. Many a replies I’ve seen people say they spent hours of frustration doing trial and error troubleshooting, installing drivers, checking updates on multiple vendors etc. Being an Apple person, going into Windows world is much more manual and not as concise.
Side issue- until 2024 comes out, at least for me, I’m hoping some addons not available on Xbox currently do make their way there. + freeware mods don’t provide for support attention or updates like payware often does. I’ve seen many cool items on flight sim.to but also many authors have been dormant for years and or notate an item is incompatible or make it complicated to download; ie on GitHub & non zip one and done folders. Just more manual.
Lots to consider but yes PC offers quite a few benefits over Xbox. Just depends what you prefer, budget, and to know it won’t be as simple.
I’m with @SmotheryVase665 and would suggest staying away from Intel all together right now. Even if it turns out to be not as big of a problem as initially thought, the latest round of issues is still too early in the cycle to know for sure.
Besides, the AMD 7800x3d CPU is the king for gaming right now. Maaayyyybe look at the 7950x3d if you also need strong production workloads, but it is a fair bit more expensive and not going to provide much extra for gaming.
For the graphics card, either an Nvidia 4080 or AMD 7900xtx level card would be fine if you are aiming for 4k or VR use. The 4090 is basically overkill for most anything gaiming today and only useful as a status symbol. I’m actually running a 7800xt, which is several levels down and it runs fine on 4k and VR with fairly high settings.
32 GB of RAM would be fine.
Your storage option would be fine if this is mostly a sim only machine. If you plan to add a lot of extra programs or media, consider buying more storage. A lot of Windows users have a 500 GB to 1TB OS and minor program drive, then a large gaming/program drive. The sim takes up a ton of space, especially if you start installing add-ons.
I’m curious as to why you have the Cable Mod extensions in your specs. The included cables with the hardware should suffice. Is there a specific reason they are included, or is it for aesthetic reasons?
Thx for the response and the 2 drive thing def sounds like the way to go. Not that I have tons of money to blow, but I’m actually fine spending some $$ if the thing works and makes my flying experience better. This is the kind of response I was hoping to hear though, with suggestions to maybe wait or look at boards that are just about to be released. I know it’s almost impossible to time it right. There will always be something faster better. But if these spec’s or something coming sooner (like Nov timeframe) then it might be wise for me to hold out a bit. (plus gives me time to read up and be informed
The inconvenience part is def one of the things I’m not looking forward to. Plus my ignorance on all this PC stuff. (BIOS, drivers, etc) I’d rather spend time learning the aviation/flying part instead of keeping my PC up and running. But it looks like that’s part of the “fun” I’ll need to do to enjoy my flight sim hobby. (I’m retired so I’ve got time to mess with it I guess). Prob really does make sense to wait till 2024 comes out and then really see what options one would need for the ultimate PC to run everything. Thx for the input!
Not necessarily. If you just use the Xbox controller on default FS settings, then easy. That’s what I did when I was using xcloud streaming & played on an iPad before I got Xbox.
Yes, this machine will be used for gaming/flight sim only pretty much. Maybe a twitch channel, if I go that direction. But that would def be future. Def thx for the reply.
Thanks all for the responses. I think it def makes sense to hold off for a few months and just XBOX it out till 2024 is released. Then make the move to PC after the dust settles. I’m not in a super rush (even though I prob would go out and buy the PC today if 2024 wasnt coming) and also wait see what new cards/tech comes. Maybe year 2025 will be the year for the dark side for me. I’m def out growing the XBOX flight sim limitations though and I’m ready for to spec up!
The worst thing you can perhaps do is expect whatever you buy to seamlessly run areas such as NYC, with 4-5 mods in that area. Ain’t gon’ happen, I’m afraid. I’ve a system that sits between your two options (probably closer to option 1): AMD Ryzen 7800X3D (regarded as the best gaming CPU currently on the market), AMD Radeon 7900XTX (the highest-spec AMD GPU, sitting somewhere between the RTX 4080 and 4090) and 48gb RAM. The only reason I chose 48gb is because it was just a couple of pounds more than 32gb — 32 is plenty for MSFS.
The only things to watch with AMD are memory speeds (6,000 can have issues, apparently) and poorer ray-tracing capabilities than their Nvidia counterparts.
As an aside, I had zero clue about PCs too! You might need some help from the knowledgeable bunch here — have a read through this informative (but admittedly long-winded) thread:
I used to be the guy who spent hours tweaking drivers, bios setting, cfg files. I would build PC’s etc. Now some 25 years from when I first started with FS2000, I bought my first PC from Dell 2 years ago. The only thing I added was RAM and its been flawless. I let Windows do system updates, I don’t download the latest drivers from Nvidia (Windows update will do this if they are actually needed for security reasons) and it just works.
The other thing I would say is that payware doesn’t equal good support. There are lots of great developers in the freeware community too. Good and Bad exist in payware and freeware, the benefit of the latter being you can just delete the folder and its cost you nothing.
