Upgrading from Xbox to PC

I bought an Xbox series X 3 months ago to play msfs and i’m loving it, except for the bugs. I have a 4k TV so I am very interested in running msfs in 4k resolution but I don’t seem to get high resolution with my xbox.

For players who have both an Xbox and PC, what can i expect if I move to the PC version of msfs? Thanks.

When you say not getting good resolution on your Xbox, it sounds like maybe your TV? The Xbox X runs at 4K with a 4k TV. But if you have a 4K monitor, the pixel density is usually higher, so it may seem sharper.

In theory at least there should be no difference in resolution using a PC or Xbox X plugged into the same 4k tv.

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PC offers multi monitor (which should be implemented hopefully in July or September) and VR.

I am a home cockpit / multi monitor guy. PC offers you to get started with a realistic home cockpit with external controls, if you are planning to take your simulator experience onto more realistic levels.

VR allows for this full immersion experience.

Either way, if any of this is of interest to you and you are planning to aquire a new PC, you might want to spec it accordingly.

On PC, you have a plethora of add ons available. Including external programs such as Little Navmap. Flightsim.to will certainly spark your interest.

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I run my PC version on a 4K 65" TV…

However, I use for MSFS on my PC not the full resolution of the TV but I use widescreen format. (3840 x 1620 Pixel) in Windows.
It gives you more visibilty to the sides in games. Like those widescreen monitors some people have.
And the black bars top and buttom on the screen don’t matter if you sit in the correct distance.

Just a though about what one can possibly do with a PC and a 4K TV.

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Hi @NanooseGuy MSFS should definitely be producing a 4K feed into your TV. But according to Digital Foundry, the Xbox Series X, MSFS internally upscales from 1440p to 4K, maybe this is what you are noticing? but it should look pretty crisp. If it’s clearly a lower resolution then that’s an issue you may need to look at. I can’t offer much more, I exclusively use the HP Reverb G2 on PC and have not looked back since.

I started on XBox. I was one of the most vocal members of the XBox community. But then some of my addons I bought would be broken with an update. And then I bought the PMDG DC-6 and Seafront Simulations AI shipping mods, which of course didn’t work when they came to XBox. I never got a refund on those because I knew I would want them when they were fixed. Slowly more and more of my addons kept breaking with XBox specific bugs. The sim kept getting more and more XBox specific bugs. I was in a very bad place with the sim. When I was on, I was trying to isolate why something wasn’t working. Other times, I just wouldn’t feel like touching it. It started feeling more like a second full time job just trying to diagnose bugs.

So back in January, I bought a PC and a 38 inch Ultrawide+ monitor. Things worked. It was smooth. I had access to all sorts of addons that I didn’t have before. My broken mods were working. I was able to download South Africa mods from flightsim.to to make that look more realistic. I fell in love with the sim again.

Since then, I have found JumpSeat radio. I can start a flight anywhere, and tune into a radio station right where I am flying to get even more immersion. I’ve detailed France to a ridiculous level with the France VFR products, we love VFR, coastline fixes, waterways, roads, a ton of airports (payware, flightsim.to, and Simvol) and either site see or practice STOL bush flying with all these short grass strips in the French Alps.

I actually got an HP Reverb G2 really cheap from HP on one of the holiday for like $350, but I haven’t even set that up yet because I am still having too much fun flying with just the Ultrawide+ monitor and the sim working so smoothly.

I accepted what were the advertised shortcomings of using the sim on XBox. I would have been fine if things hadn’t gone so south for me. When I came to PC, I came unsure if this was the right move or not, and I came with only the expectation that it should work a bit better than XBox. Well, I found a whole lot more things than I was even looking for. If you are thinking of making the move, and you are doing it for this sim but unsure if it is the right move, I can tell you, you will love it. I don’t regret even in the slightest making the move now.

I have read on the hardware category discussion on resolution when choosing the ultra option — varying LOD. On my xbox version (disk, not cloud download), I do not have any graphics options that I can select.

Tgbushman, your comments ring home for me. The addons you mention (and others) are very interesting to me. I don’t want to invest in a costly, high-end PC only to lose interest in a couple of months. I am ready to upgrade — I just need to find the money (read ‘convince my wife’) :grinning:

I also played exclusively on XsX with a 55” 4K TV and loved it. But I was sick and tired of CTD with third party airports, even before the infamous SU9.

I switched to PC. I can’t hook the PC up to the TV as they’re on opposite sides of the room, and I don’t want to move either. So I just play on a 27” gaming monitor (not 4K).

Once I got used to playing on PC, I found myself enjoying it more. Far more stable certainly. I wouldn’t go back to Xbox now, even if they fixed it, as I now have far too many PC-only dlc. Plus I have a Logitech flight yoke system and throttle quadrant set up, which would not work on Xbox.

[quote=“NanooseGuy, post:8, topic:516097”]I just need to find the money (read ‘convince my wife’) :grinning:
[/quote]

Just remind her of her marriage vows in which she promised to obey you. :rofl:

Then duck, run or both :astonished:

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My journey was Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X (in many ways the S ran better), then onto a PC 12900 + RTX3080ti. I’m now flying 100% VR with a Reverb G2, while not perfect I could not go back to flying on my OLED 4K TV.

I should also clarify my original post wanting 4k resolution. I believe that I am getting 4K on my TV, but the source imagery is just not 4K.

For example, I was hoping to be able to zoom down to view a city, town, village, etc. and see something interesting but most often all I get are redundant computer generated, low resolution images. Sometimes I zoom in to a parking lot and all I see is a bunch of smudges in place of vehicles.
I have visited a few sections of the major cities like London and Paris and the LOD is, of course, so much better!
Maybe, in the future, msfs will have photo-realistic imagery of the POIs, like google maps street view achieves.

I was in your shoes as well, congrats on making it 3 months. I pulled the trigger after 2 days :slight_smile:

sort of on-topic, is there a recommended PC buy or is it all build-yourself kit??

Hi Dave,

I have a computer background so I am comfortable building my own custom PC. Here is my current build plan. I will upgrade to a high-end Graphics card (like the RTX Geforce 3080Ti or 3090) after my initial build, once prices come down.

Intel i7-12700k
MSI MAG Z690 Tomahawk WiFi DDR4 Gaming Motherboard
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti 8GB GDDR6 Video Card
Corsair 4000D Airflow Tempered Glass Mid-Tower ATX PC Case - Black, CC-9011200-WW
CORSAIR RMX Series™ RM850W 80 Plus Gold Fully Modular ATX Power Supply
Patriot Viper Elite II DDR4 32GB(2 x 16GB) 4000MHz Memory Kit
Lexar NM620 1TB M.2 2280 PCIe Internal SSD
Noctua NH-D15
Wireless Gaming Keyboard and Mouse Combo with 87 Key Rainbow LED Backlight Rechargeable 3800mAh Battery Mechanical Feel Anti-ghosting Ergonomic Waterproof RGB Mute Mice for Computer PC Gamer (Black)

Vic

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Both viable options, comes down to your comfort level and availability of components.

In the current climate, if you want to get your hands on a high end GPU (like a 3090) you almost have to go pre built.

Or pay the entire cost of a PC and then some to get one on eBay, etc…

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Thanks for that, I’m no stranger to PC builds but the last one i built was a Pentium :slight_smile: had about 8mb of ram in it LOL, I’m just way out of touch.

I might wait a little while to watch graphics card prices, they have been scary over the last few years.

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