As I said in my OP, I’ve got a 7800X3D sitting right over there still wrapped in its packaging.
Last night I ordered a motherboard, fans, a liquid-cooled CPU AIO, a case and a power supply.
After I pulled the trigger. I was looking at how much I spent and I hadn’t even bought a GPU, RAM or an NVMe. I got cold feet and cancelled the order.
I mean, really, is the PC experience going to be that much better than what I’ve got now on Xbox? Sure it’s got the potential to have some extras that I can’t get on Xbox, and I can have Tobii eye tracking (for an astonishing $245), but is all that truly worth the 5x a Series X price?
I am still, clearly, very much on the fence about it.
Crazier still, I have a PC — a 2018 Razer Blade 15” Advanced model. It’s hooked up to a 27” 1080p display and I’m doing some beta testing on it of an airplane coming soon for MSFS.
I’m sitting there listening to the fans howl on the Razer and reflecting on the case and reflecting on the PC components I had selected — 10 fans! 4 in the case, 3 on the GPU and 3 on the AIO. The Xbox is nearly whisper silent. How did Microsoft manage to make a 4K PC-like experience on a console with a near-silent fan in a really small case (as compared to a PC)?!
Exactly, that is why I still sit on that fence. The GPU Greedy Price Gougers made me wait and now I am happy I did. They hurt the entire PC market with their greed. The only thing that is making me hesitate now is the multi-screen issue, VR and VatSim.
Definitely the sim is in a good place right now on Xbox absolutely over the moon with the DC 6 and how it performs. Now for the gritty stuff the atc needs work with the dc6 it’s a bit of a mess but can live with it it being an older aircraft but with the pmdg 737 airliners coming it’s a must atc gets addressed for these aircraft with ifr routes otherwise it will kill the immersion.
Lets just hold that thought a minute the 737… they are currently having issues with it in testing and have asked for the help of MS/asobo so im not holding my breath unfortunately
These are exactly my thoughts on this topic. Also, each time I start speccing a PC I see a thread like “stutters with 4090 and 7800x3d” and I just can’t go through with it. I would absolutely love to have eye tracking (it’s a real shame they got rid of XBOX Kinect) but for 1/5 or 1/10th of the cost I can move my head around the cockpit with a joystick or keyboard.
In the end I still might end up with a PC, but I think it’ll just make me that much more conscious of any small imperfection in the sim. It’s kind of an endless cycle. At least now I can marvel at how they managed to pull this off on a $500 machine. And the savings from building even one PC will keep me in top of the line XBOXes for many generations to come.
I’m with you on loving the quiet aspect of the xbox, I wouldn’t want a really noisy PC.
Something else I’ve not seen mentioned is the power consumption. Electricity is really expensive here, well except in the middle of the day when solar is really cheap but I’m working not flying.
Some of the power ratings I see on PC parts are horrifying, if those translate directly to the power bill that could be something of a shock. Maybe it adds realism to the cost index setting when flying airliners?
I love this thread. Xbox flyers are like the quiet kid in the back of the class and Asobo/MS keeps committing to making that kid a priority. Makes me feel lucky and thankful. Sim’s running great on Series X, keep it up.
The dc6 is has changed the sim for me on Xbox . I thought it could be a car crash waiting to happen and break the sim but it’s awesome love the immersion it brings with its complexity.
I dont own the dc6 and am sure PMDG did a wonderful job. To me it was the A310 that changed everything. It was the first complex airliner that run smoothly on my XBOX X and first to use WASM so inibuilds showed the way! Waiting for the 737 to come but also very excited by Asobo ATR which promises to be study level and very detailed snd should come out in two weeks time. Good times to get into flight simming! Happy I just got addicted in the last two years…
Maybe i am the vast minority but to me having all these detailed interior inside airports terminals is such a waste of resources. It’a flight sim and all I care is the exterior of buildings, taxiways, airport close by scenery. Cutting the unnecessary stuff would probably make most complex third party aiports run much smoother on xbox…
They showed they can make the dc6 work really well on console now that wasm is possible. PMDG also stated that now they are much more knowledgeable about the SIM environment after a couple of years. I would be surprised if this is a major issue that takes long to solve but will have to see! Ooops….just realised I was beaten by PMDG confirming it’s already fixed!
Indeed the a310 is great but took sometime to fix and I still get the odd black screens is one of the reason I don’t use it often very annoying losing avonincs after a long flight on final approach but is terrific when it works. The dc6 has worked straight out the box hats off to pmdg I have over 100 add ons installed.
I think PC folks find the A310 much heavier on their system than PMDG and with lower fps so of course things from now on will further improve. Luckily not one CTD or black screen for me and that is the only plane i fly daily.
I know matw posted this morning apparently they had notification it was all ready for testing but it actually wasnt which is why it showed an error… still keeping everything crossed
I know I keep saying but I just can’t stress enough: we won’t have a completely rounded sim until we get proper AI traffic and a GSX equivalent (and, for me personally as a big(ger) jet flyer, airport VDGS). The team need to recognise this (and to their credit, I think they do). But I keep hearing “can’t, can’t, can’t” and can’t help but feel it’s more a case of “won’t, won’t, won’t”. Nothing’s impossible these days!
I’m a Series S user.
The only issue with the sim for me is the A310. Hasn’t worked since SU12. I believe this is a plane-specific issue, because all the other “good” planes, like the TBM and CJ4, deliver incredible performance since the release of SU12. No stutters, black screens, CTDs, anything. By this, the (knock on wood) incoming 737 will work great. The scenery is good (I have suboptimal internet, so it could be better) live weather and air traffic work great (ATC improvement would be greatly appreciated), and everything just clicks. The possibility of black screens on small planes, even the A320 99% of the time, is nonexistent, a massive step up from even 6 months ago.
I agree. Back in the days of FS9, Project AI traffic (freeware!) was a must have for me. This is the only thing I really miss on console. I even turned the live traffic off because I hate those ugly generic planes.
not good for the heart