I use this (Amazon link below) hooked up to an eGPU so it’s my CPU that is the bottleneck. It’s pretty good (up to 4.9ghz boost Intel i7 but only 4 cores) and I’m amazed what it can do but for dense areas it definitely struggles.
I’m running native 2560x1600 resolution though and most graphic settings can be on High without affecting it at all - locked to 30fps (some even Ultra like terrain pre caching and a few on Medium that don’t bother me, glass refresh Low etc) but my TLOD is only at 60 and OLOD is 50. I need to turn TLOD down to like 20 to get more fps in dense photogrammetry and then it looks pants.
I sometimes hook it up to external monitor and USB hub for all my peripherals but just been playing laying in bed today!
Problem is storage and ram too. Limited to 16gb and non upgradable ram. I can put a larger drive in (I have an extra 1tb Micro SD for all liveries and planes which I don’t fly as often) but probably just gonna get a beefy desktop soon so this is fine for now and saves a lot of space and can take it with me if I want (even smaller than a laptop)!
One Netbook ONEXPLAYER 1S Windows 11 Ready PC Gaming Handheld ; Core i7-1195G7, 16GB LPDDR4x RAM, 1TB NVMe SSD, Touchscreen [ON-OXP-1S]
https://amzn.eu/d/579krga
And I was proud of getting MSFS to run on MY setup!
I think you win.
When there’s a will, there’s a way!
I had to start by installing Windows on my MacBook. Now I have an Alpha, Bravo, radio, and pedals connected. An EGPU was tempting but I am certain the CPU is the bottleneck.
So yeah, the 414 is quite a good plane, and the 310 is more of an obvious comparison because of all the extra bells and whistles than because of how it flys.
When I fly the 310 I wish it has features FSW included on the 414 and when I fly the 414, I wish it had features Milviz included with the 310. But they both are more feature rich than other comparable GA planes!
That top speed IS reserved for the higher altitudes when the TAS is much better than the IAS.
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Hehehe totally. I love it! Impressive kit but it really needed the eGPU investment. Before I got that I had to run 1280x800 and renderscale 50% so the actual world was like PS1 resolution and you couldn’t really read any of the labels and numbers of the gauges. RTX 2070 in a box was a total miracle game changer for £500.
I think my remaining stutters now are due to running out of usable ram (even when task manager shows only about 60% physical used by MSFS as I have a lot of mods going and shipping etc) thus it’s using the SSD pagefile. Other than that it’s totally smooth and in most places of the world where there isn’t PG it’s rock solid 30fps. It’s fine now with all the Mamu global stuff and we love VFR, seafront shipping (I removed GAIST for now, might swap to that when the AI version releases).
So I’ve learnt to love to fly in the Caribbean, Papua New Guinea, Austria, Africa and the newer well optimised PG like Italy is absolutely fine (helped by being smaller cities).
Actually places with a lot of close mountains naturally have smaller cities and they are more fun to bush fly in anyway so all good!
I can explore the rest of the world when I get a next gen PC 
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I have a Series X for eye candy, but my main setup is through my lowly laptop. So I ignore the lower framerate and enjoy the extra planes and extra hardware.
I am almost ready to invest in a desktop PC, too. It is time.
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I’m waiting to see what the next gen Intels do to the prices of the current top end 12900K’s. Later this year I think. Don’t think I need DDR5, just a good current top end should last for MSFS 8 years - as they will always need to consider Xbox performance too?! (At least let’s say umm 4 years!)
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Bearing in mind that, based on released specs at least, even a 12700K will likely perform as good or better in game then the slightly older top of the line 11900K.
Not sure I get your point… wouldn”t 12900 be better than 12700 (both 12th gen) or doesn’t it really matter when FS really only needs 1 fast core (currently at least) and the 700 has a faster clock speed but less cores?
Looking at the spec, the 11th gen i7 in my little handheld that can run at 4.9ghz single core turbo with 2.9ghz base, on paper those big desktop CPU’s are actually quite similar (3.2 - 3.6 base with also about 5 boost) though I’m sure there is more to it than that. Like the Cache, cooling, motherboard etc. Mine is only quad-core, 8 threads, 12mb cache and only 28 watts TDP. Maybe a full bore desktop would not actually be that much faster and I would be gutted after spending thousands on a desktop setup. It’s all very confusing.
On the flip side, I’ve never been an AMD guy but from what I see that 5800x3D is meant to be the best for single core speed in MSFS so not sure if that’s a better way to go solely for this sim? Been years since I built my own PC and a lot of the terminology has changed since!
I’ll probably end up getting a pre-built from Overclockers (UK) anyway even though it’ll cost a bit more.
FWIW:
Since building my rig with the 5800x3D, and coupled with a “vanilla” 10GB 3080 GPU, the performance compared to my old setup is stunning. Perhaps the best thing is that the GPU no longer sounds like a hovercraft. I did go with a beefy 1K watt PSU to make certain everybody was happy, power-wise.
Interesting. Thanks. Will consider that as a prebuilt.
So 28w vs. 1,000w… hahah. I’m amazed mine even gets off the ground 
At least my electricity bill is cheaper 
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The rig at idle doesn’t draw very much power. It just when you’re landing at KSFO in the C414…
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Ouch just done a configuration and it comes out at three and a half grand GBP 
Graphics Card alone (if they build it) is £1,500 but £999 if I buy it separate. Didn’t realise it was such a markup for them putting it together. Needs a rethink lol
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To be fair, with prebuilt they need to factor in the average price they can reliably source the parts for over the medium to longer term in reasonable quantities. When building your own rig you can take advantage of any price fluctuations or random fire sale pricing that pops up.
They also need to cover support for the entire system as opposed to home built where each individual component supplier is the support for that particular component and overall system support is done by yourself.
I built my new one, including a new case and the aforementioned PSU, for under $2K USD. The only thing “recycled” was the license for Win 11. I like to use a website called PC Part Picker to assemble my builds. The website will even figure the power requirements. Pretty cool…
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Are you using pcpartpicker?
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In the last month I have managed a total of four flights.
One 30 minute flight in Miss Demeanour
Three 30 minute flights in the Hurricane, two of which were yesterday. Bank holiday flying indeed 
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I’ve been flying the lovely V Tail Doctor KIller a lot
Plus I’ve been flying all 4 of the aircraft that came with the default reno pack. I know it got a lot of hate and the races are boring, BUT - the planes are fun in free flight, challenging and were a great deal for the price!
That 172 will need 30.000 in an engine overhaul real soon…
I think this is a good time update my top 5 last done on April 8th.
In no particular order…
Old
- Aerosoft CRJ
- SWS Kodiak 100
- FBW A32NX
- PMDG DC6
- Just Flight Arrow III (no turbo)
New
- PMDG 737-8
- Fenix A320
- Cessna Chancellor 414
- Kodiak 100
- PMDG DC6
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I hadn’t done but just did a little list now and it’s still coming out near 3k for all I think I’d want / need.
https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/dywCMb
But frankly the choices are bewildering especially for motherboards. I have no idea what any of that means any more and the prices are wildly different in some cases.
Also not sure about Case selection and cooling (liquid, compatibility of that etc) and if it comes with enough USB and -C ports for all my gear now and additions in future. Best to have them plugged straight in without a Hub I think.
I see there is some special tuned RAM for the Ryzens but not sure what to search for exactly (found it before, can’t find that page again now!). At the same time I read what looks like genuine advice that you don’t even need faster ram as it only has 1% impact on the x3D. Here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/ub9zcs/ryzen_7_5800x3d_no_need_for_highend_ram/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf
Also even searching just for RTX 3080Ti has massively different range of prices (from under 900 to 2k for Aorus Extreme) - surely they are all the same so how can one brand be more than double of another. Tho I see some have slightly higher clock speed but not necessarily the more expensive ones!
I have never been confident pasting the CPU either this is why I think I’d just rather get one arrive and easy to go even if I paid a premium.
On top of this I’ll want to get a better monitor. Wasteful having all this on a 32” 1080p old screen! And sound. I have an old 5.1 I can use for starters though.
Obviously I don’t want to pay over the odds if I don’t need certain things (ram, PSU, 4tb of NVME SSD if Sata is enough for the main install and mods etc) — and it will be pretty much just for MSFS but I want it to be future proof as much as possible as the sim expands and I add more stuff lol.
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Looks almost identical to my build from a few months ago except I went with AMD6900xt. No regrets and I have never had a CTD on my new PC. The Corsair case is excellent. You can save a huge amount of money by going with 3rd party Windows key (I used PremiumCDKeys and got key for $5). It is totally legit and I’ve never paid retail price for a Windows OS.
To keep on-topic here is my latest top 5:
- PMDG 737-800 (was the -600 until release)
- Bae 146 (Radio nav - don’t use the FMS)
- FSW 414 (fav twin)
- Just Flight PA28 arrow iii (fav single)
- Just Flight Hawk T1 (fav jet)
Fenix dropped off the list because I get horrible performance with my 2 monitor setup and have never been able to solve it. I prefer the 737 anyway
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