So I’ve been out of gaming for a long time now. But MSFS 2020 dragged me back in. I bought a Logitech Extreme3D Pro to get my feet wet. (Love it). I bought a set of oculus Quest 2 goggles, foolishly thinking that my wife’s suped up Dell Precision workstation laptop (Xeon processor, 32gb ram, 4gb Nvidia Quadro GPU) could drive it. Turns out the laptop can only do smooth graphics at 1080p on medium setting. The GPU isn’t supported by the VR goggles.
2 questions:
What is the minimum system to run MSFS 2020 on high/ultra on a monitor? I’m not looking to do a custom build. I don’t know what PSU means . Is there a company that you would go with in terms of high performance and good value? HP? Saber? Alienware?
Would that system also be able to handle my VR goggles?
Since you’re “new” to this PC buying game I highly recommend you watch all 4 parts of Linus Tech Tips’ “Secret shopper” prebuilt PC buying series. It will go through every bit of what to expect, what to ask as a buyer and what not do when you buy a prebuilt PC. It will potentially save you up to several grands.
Now as a general rule of thumb when buying a PC for VR: just buy as much computer as your wallet permits. At least 32GB memory, at minimum 3070 and a fast processor.
This will all require a bit of work and studying what to get from your part - unfortunately. Don’t just blindly believe what people say in the forums, research yourself and double check recommendations from the internet review sites/videos.
Great advice above. I’ll add that with GPU shortages the pre-built route is a good way to get one at a sort-of close to msrp price. But, know that even pre-built companies have trouble getting GPUs so some of them have put mark ups on GPU prices. I ended up buying an Alienware as they have not added a mark up and the wait time was not terrible (still a month though). There are trade offs as some prebuilt from a Dell, or HP as examples will use low or mid grade components that are proprietary to help them keep costs down. So, while I love my Alienware desktop for the cpu/GPU and overall performance, the case is a bit small so it runs warm and doesn’t have much room for upgrades. The PSU and motherboard are proprietary and not re-useable in a larger case if I wanted to move the cpu, GPU and memory to a bigger case with more cooling. Having said that, I have a full warranty and likely easier path if something fails in the first year or two as opposed to if I had built from scratch by buying parts from various places. I would buy it over again in the same situation of mass shortages on lots of parts…and that’s predicted to continue. As for choice of GPU and cpu, get the most you can knowing how hard this sim is on PCs, especially in VR. A 2080ti, 3070 or 3080 GPU would be a really good choice and the fastest processor you can get. Rtx 3090s are fantastic but are crazy expensive even at msrp. Ping back if you need more help, many here have built or bought machines in the last year or so from what I can tell … and many just for this sim so a lot of experiences learned on the hardware choices. VR is a terrific experience in this sim, even with it not being optimized and being new still. Have a look too at YouTube videos for VR specifically in MSFS, there are a few prolific video makers so you can see the experiences on a few types of hardware.
Exactly the information I have been looking for, tempestornado23. Thanks much for sharing your experience.
It sounds like you’ve managed to get a viable VR machine up and running with flight simulator. If you don’t mind my asking, what are your specs? If I was to hop over to Alienware and order something, what can I get by with that’s tried and true.
Thanks for the great feedback on the “what hardware” question, folks. It seems like it will be a while before I can put together a machine capable of running MSFS 2020 nicely in VR. Fortunately, I just figured out how to make the hat switch on my stick do a fluid pan almost like having VR. Makes for a lovely flight through Patagonia at sunset
It won’t let me post a link, but google “FS2020 - how to set up your Hat Switch to look around the cockpit freely!”
I’ve read somewhere there custom made RTX 30XX where running maybe hotter and had slightly less perf (not much lower though) than others (including founder edition) and this makes me wondering too.
I went with a Dell Alienware R11 earlier this year, an i9 10900kf, rtx 3090 and 32gb ram (upgraded to 64gb a few weeks ago). And yes the Dell 3090 is a specific model as the case is small and won’t fit a full length 3090. It has 2 fans only and also exhausts out the back of the case. It runs at about 72C max temp while gaming or running MSFS which I am ok with. It’s warmer than normal 3090s in a larger case with more fans but it was the only way for me to get a 30xx somewhat easily without eBay prices and I didn’t already have a gaming PC. From what I have read on benchmarks the Dell 3080/3090s are down about 7-9% from full size cards on performance but I haven’t researched if that’s due to speed or temps or what. I have not overclocked the gpu and run the standard fan curves controlled by the gpu.
. Is there a company that you would go with in terms of high performance and good value? HP? Saber? Alienware?
