Hello, so my CPU and RAM just barely meet the minimum specs for MSFS however my GPU is under the minimum specs, yet I am able to run it and get a similar Frame rate to P3D. Because of this, though, I think certain textures can look blurry, especially on runways, and this might also affect how far out textures look blurry or not populated with trees and buildings. Currently, I have an Nvidia GTX750ti, and I was thinking of upgrading to the 1050ti or 1080ti, but I am not sure if that is the best option or if there is another card you would recommend and how much would this improve things for me. Basically, I just want to make sure the ground textures look like what should be expected with the game, which I think would be solved by getting a card that meets the minimum specs.
The 1080 is considerably more powerful than the 1050 but really you should be looking at a 20 series rtx card to take advantage of dlss. Also if you look on ebay you might find a better cpu for your platform at a reasonable price and sell what you had, in earlier days I upgraded a basic PC to top of the (available) range in this manner at little extra cost.
Thanks for the reply, but I still have a few questions. So should I still be looking at a 20 series if I don’t upgrade the CPU as well, or would that be overkill? Also, my motherboard is a Lenovo CIB85M which has a LGA 1150 chipset. Also if I did upgrade the CPU what do you think of this one? I don’t know if I will find a better one for a similar price.
Lenovo as in laptop Lenovo? … chances are that your cpu is soldered to the motherboard and cannot be replaced also by upgrading there would possibly be a heat issue leading to a downclock. I didn’t even know Lenovo did stand alone mobos so check it’s specs carefully re. power draw etc. That’s before even a gpu upgrade.
Personally, I think you need a complete overhaul. If you upgrade your graphics card, your CPU will quickly bottleneck it. The terrain lod setting will play a large role in getting clear ground textures, but also one of the larger CPU impacts when you increase it. Being cpu bound not only means lower frame rates, but also worse stuttering. I currently have an i5-8400 and it just barely keeps up in that department.
Your ram being 12 GB likely means it’s mismatched sticks, such as a 4 and 8 GB stick. Memory works best when using a matched kit, so you are likely leaving a lot of performance on the table there. This actually sounds like a prebuilt system because they are known for such shenanigans, which also means a lack of optimizations in general.
I would say if you don’t care much about the graphics at all, the CPU I have would do ok, but also means upgrading the motherboard. Not sure if your RAM is ddr4, but I would upgrade that to standard 16 GB kit minimum and something faster. At that point, a 1080ti card could be doable (I started with a 3 GB 1060), but not all that great. You don’t need a screaming system to run this at low settings, but a bargain basement system isn’t going to cut it. The 1080ti will likely being obsolete before long too.
If you think you’ll ever start adding mods, well you can throw all that advice out the window. I’m only considering you playing only the base sim with no add-ons.
So if I understand, what you’re saying is that a GPU upgrade probably isn’t worth it unless I upgrade the CPU and ram as well. What about just upgrading the Ram and GPU, then upgrading the CPU later along with the motherboard. It’s a Lenovo desktop I bought off of Amazon and I can’t tell what form factor it is so dont know if I just replace it without having to buy a new case. I am trying to keep costs down as much as possible. Luckily I laready have an SSD.
Looking at what they have it’s very likely to be micro atx (9-10" in height), these will also fit in an atx case (there will just be more room at the top). Mini atx is no larger than a paperback novel.
It could be worthwhile scrubbing your harddrives and selling your whole PC on e-bay as it’s still quite a reasonable spec for a home computer. Let someone else have the worry of upgrading and Lenovo is still a name that people (not gamers) trust … a bit like Dell
I did some digging, and it looks like your mobo was used mostly in the k450e desktop computers like this.
If that’s the case, your upgrade options are going to minimal. Space isn’t a huge issue, but one thing I also forgot to mention in my last comment was the power supply. I just about bet the psu in that one wouldn’t be able to support much more than what is already in there. Any newer graphics card worth using on the sim will require at least one (often two) PCIe power cables direct from the psu, and I wouldn’t be the least surprised if that one doesn’t have any at all. That means it would need upgraded, assuming the current one is used serviceable and not riveted in or some other goofy setup.
The cpu power connection looks to be a 4 pin on the board, so I would expect that as well on the psu. Modern cpu’s would likely need more, so a 6 or 8 pin connection unless it’s a very low power CPU.
Also, the ventilation on that case looks bad, which could severely impact performance if upgrading in it. Remember, these systems are built to their respective specs and nothing more, meaning little flexibility with aftermarket upgrades.
I think you have a few options depending on your budget. The cheapest and easiest would be buying a used complete system. Something in the $400-500 range should do ok, and you may find something for less.
The next cheapest would be to buy your own parts and build it yourself, which could be a mix of new and used parts, depending on budget and how much you desire warranties and trust used items. This also requires you to be ok with putting everything together.
The easiest, but most expensive route would be to buy a new complete system. This theoretically gives you an out of the box ready to run system with a full warranty, but now you may be limited on the quality of parts and assembly, or companies like Dell/Alienware that try to sell you an extended warranty that happens to come with a computer full of proprietary parts that you can’t easily replace or upgrade.
We can help you figure out what to go with if you can give us a budget, your monitor resolution, and what you want in terms of performance. I know you want clear ground textures, but that can be subjective in what you consider acceptable and doesn’t account for things like if you run AI traffic or use add-ons.
I soon realised that although I’ve never actually seen one over here (never been interested in office PCs), their laptops are popular though, even my wife has a thinkpad for home office. I know you won’t get much for your desktop so if there’s anything worth salvaging then why not use it. For example my old gaming tower may look rubbish but as both side panels are removable I thought it just perfect for the mesh conversion that I use now and am extremely happy with. I even have a couple of rescued laptop drives in raid0 that i use just for photo’s and music and one of their screens for the occasional pop out panel. I don’t compromise on the actual system though, too much mixing and matching and you’ll only lose performance.
Thanks for all the advice. For now what I might do is upgrade the GPU and the RAM and PSU, then I can buy a new MB CPU and case later and then everything that matters will be upgraded. The hopefully I can just swap my drive into the new computer, so I don’t have to install everything again.
It sounds like your current system is already some 8 years old. At this point, architecture has evolved enough that with each part you replace, you essentially create a new bottle neck.
You might look at buying a whole new PC, or something of more modern architecture.
As for value, AMD graphics cards currently offer the best value. Nvidia is riding the AI train and is grossly overpricing its cards.
I am running an RTX 2060 and the sim is struggling (triple FHD).
Unless you can fetch a used Nvidia card at a great deal, you might to look to AMD.
Re: the GPU, keep an eye on power consumption specs, unless you’re on a flat rate.
A 3060 12GB has more ram, performs better, has DLSS, needs less power than the 1080. It may cost 50 dollars more on the used market, but it’s a better value, imho.
Re CPU/RAM: you can probably find a good deal on a Motherboard + CPU/RAM combo on the used market, without breaking the bank.
As people move to new gen chips, lots of good deals on very good hardware are available.
