Next Microsoft flight simulator looks astonishing

[Buddy Bradley]

I think I fixed my constant crashing problem - flashed the BIOS last night (new release a couple of weeks ago) and now I can play MSFS on Ultra settings comfortably with no unexpected reboots (yet). Huzzah. (No real idea what in the BIOS could have been causing complete shutdowns, but prefer this solution to having to buy more RAM.)

 

[NoXion]

This is only for wealthy PC owners or will it be available on the mac at some point too?

Wealthy? The recommended specs for MSFS2020 are quite low, actually. Plus Apple shit is overpriced as fuck.

Meanwhile there are various independent vendors (who don't engage in shitty anti-consumer practices), who can build you a PC of similar performance, with more customisation options, for a fraction of the price of the cheapest Apple desktop offering.

 

[Magnus McGinty]

I flew tonight from the Grand Canyon to Las Vegas with a mate. In Cessna 152s. Took about 2 hours I think taking in some properly alien scenery over Nevada.

 

[ffsear]

Can any tech ppl recommend a decent desktop pc that will run this well. Budget is £700. Base unit only. I've lost touch with GPUs and CPUs these days.. no idea what the numbers mean.

 

[ffsear]

I'd want another mac for mac osx. We use windows machines at work and I take my own mac in as windows is frankly unusable. Only reason I'd be tempted by a PC is to play this, but I'm thinking about getting a shadow tech one.

Shadow Cloud Computing

Cloud Gaming turns your devices into a powerful high-end gaming PC. Choose the gaming setup to stream your video games

shadow.tech

I gave this a go a year ago, was no good. Might of improved since..

 

[teuchter]

Wealthy? The recommended specs for MSFS2020 are quite low, actually. Plus Apple shit is overpriced as fuck.

Meanwhile there are various independent vendors (who don't engage in shitty anti-consumer practices), who can build you a PC of similar performance, with more customisation options, for a fraction of the price of the cheapest Apple desktop offering.

A common misconception amongst those who don't really understand things and spend most of their work time using Microsoft Word. There's a good reason macs aren't used much for gaming - they are not aimed at teenagers in their bedrooms. They are popular with skilled professionals because they appreciate where value actually lies.

 

[NoXion]

Can any tech ppl recommend a decent desktop pc that will run this well. Budget is £700. Base unit only. I've lost touch with GPUs and CPUs these days.. no idea what the numbers mean.

Are you planning on building it yourself, or is this a pre-build you're after? Assembling it yourself will be cheaper, but I'm guessing that you haven't built one in a long time, if ever. There are companies who offer "off-the-self" PC builds, as well as more custom-built machines that you can build in a configurator on their website. The two that I've purchased from have been Overclockers UK and PC Specialist. Both of those companies can do Intel-based or AMD-based builds. I've been an Intel guy since the beginning, but AMD's prices are occasionally tempting, and would doubtless be helpful in helping you stick to the budget.

I suggest you play around with PC Specialist's AMD configurator, as their prices seem a bit better than Overclockers, and the configurator is more user-friendly. Here's the list of minimum, recommended and optimum specs for MSFS2020 for reference.

 

[ffsear]

Are you planning on building it yourself, or is this a pre-build you're after? Assembling it yourself will be cheaper, but I'm guessing that you haven't built one in a long time, if ever. There are companies who offer "off-the-self" PC builds, as well as more custom-built machines that you can build in a configurator on their website. The two that I've purchased from have been Overclockers UK and PC Specialist. Both of those companies can do Intel-based or AMD-based builds. I've been an Intel guy since the beginning, but AMD's prices are occasionally tempting, and would doubtless be helpful in helping you stick to the budget.

I suggest you play around with PC Specialist's AMD configurator, as their prices seem a bit better than Overclockers, and the configurator is more user-friendly. Here's the list of minimum, recommended and optimum specs for MSFS2020 for reference.

Cheers for that. So AMD over Intel you'd say?

 

[NoXion]

A common misconception amongst those who don't really understand things and spend most of their work time using Microsoft Word. There's a good reason macs aren't used much for gaming - they are not aimed at teenagers in their bedrooms. They are popular with skilled professionals because they appreciate where value actually lies.

I was talking about price-performance ratios, not gaming you snooty git. Apple market their products as premium items, and their prices are certainly matching up with that marketing. So it makes no sense for you to talk such arrant nonsense about "wealthy PC owners" when it's trivial to point out that there are PC builds offering similar performance at a lower cost than entry into the Apple club.

 

[NoXion]

Cheers for that. So AMD over Intel you'd say?

I understand AMD can offer a better balance of price and performance, but I've never bought anything AMD so don't take my word for it. If it is cheaper, go for it.

 

[teuchter]

I was talking about price-performance ratios, not gaming you snooty git. Apple market their products as premium items, and their prices are certainly matching up with that marketing. So it makes no sense for you to talk such arrant nonsense about "wealthy PC owners" when it's trivial to point out that there are PC builds offering similar performance at a lower cost than entry into the Apple club.

How old is your current PC?

 

[tommers]

You can put together a build using this site Choose A CPU

It compares prices for all the bits and tells you if they are incompatible. I would consider building it yourself, it's pretty straightforward - if a bit of an adventure. PCs are easily accessible and easily customisable, so you can specify exactly what you want and upgrade later once you have cash.

 

[Magnus McGinty]

AMD are better than Intel nowadays. And you’ll want an Nvidia GPU.

 

[Magnus McGinty]

Also if you can wait the next series of AMD processors and Nvidia GPUs are coming down the pipe. Which means prices will drop on eg the 2080.

 

[NoXion]

How old is your current PC?

I got it in 2017. Why do you ask?

 

[NoXion]

Also if you can wait the next series of AMD processors and Nvidia GPUs are coming down the pipe. Which means prices will drop on eg the 2080.

How much are prices of the RTX 2080 likely to drop? Going here and searching for 2080 gives this as the cheapest one at £636.91, from Amazon (sigh). ffsear specified a budget of £700, is a big enough price drop likely to happen within a reasonable time-frame?

I was previously gonna go with a GTX 1660 for my next build, but I've just been playing around with a configurator, and with my budget I could get one with an RTX 2060, if I go for an i7 instead of an i9. If prices don't drop soon enough then that build looks good, less bottlenecked than my previous choices.

 

[Magnus McGinty]

How much are prices of the RTX 2080 likely to drop? Going here and searching for 2080 gives this as the cheapest one at £636.91, from Amazon (sigh). ffsear specified a budget of £700, is a big enough price drop likely to happen within a reasonable time-frame?

I was previously gonna go with a GTX 1660 for my next build, but I've just been playing around with a configurator, and with my budget I could get one with an RTX 2060, if I go for an i7 instead of an i9. If prices don't drop soon enough then that build looks good, less bottlenecked than my previous choices.

I haven’t been following prices too closely but I suspect the 3080 will cost roughly the same as a 2080 now with the 2080 dropping to what the 1080 is now, as a rough guide. The price will drop though, you can’t keep charging the same for older tech.

 

[NoXion]

I haven’t been following prices too closely but I suspect the 3080 will cost roughly the same as a 2080 now with the 2080 dropping to what the 1080 is now, as a rough guide. The price will drop though, you can’t keep charging the same for older tech.

Any idea what the likely time-frame on this is, though? I've heard rumours of parts shortages, although they are probably bollocks.

 

[Magnus McGinty]

Actually the 1080 still looks a bit pricey so maybe I’m talking bollocks. I think the 3080 is expected in q4. But yeah, Corona may have changed all that.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

I'd be certainly looking at AMD Ryzen 5 if I had budget for a new gaming build over Intel.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

How old is your current PC?

Mine was released in 2012. With the addition of a SSD and a RAM upgrade it still flies though everything I need. But I guess that's not the point you were trying to make.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

I got it in 2017. Why do you ask?

Because he wants to make the point that you can use Macs for longer which makes them better value. Which holds some weight against cheap laptops you buy from PC World. Less so against a desktop.

Apparently Apple are glueing the SSDs into their latest machines so if it fails (which it will) you have to replace the entire motherboard.

 

[Magnus McGinty]

This comes in under £700 if I was buying right now although without operating system which will add another tonne onto it.

At Computer Planet. Will be cheaper to build yourself.

• Black ATX Tower Case
• AMD Ryzen 5 3600X (6 x 3.8 GHZ - Turbo 6 x 4.4 GHZ)
• Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 X - Low Noise
• Asus PRIME A320M-K (AMD B320) - 4xUSB3/2xUSB2 - (M-ATX)
• 16GB 2666MHz (1x16GB) - Lifetime Warranty (DDR4)
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER - 6 GB - DVI/DP/HDMI - HD/4K/VR - Supports 3 Monitors
• 1 TB Seagate (1000 GB) SATA-III HDD 7200 RPM 64MB Cache
• Motherboard Integrated HD Sound
• Motherboard Integrated 10/100/1000 Ethernet Lan (Broadband Ready)
• 1.8 Metre UK Mains Power Cable
• 9 Working Days - Built, Tested, Installed & Ready To Go
• 2 Years Collect & Return Warranty

 

[Magnus McGinty]

Forgot to add power supply

 

[UnderOpenSky]

This comes in under £700 if I was buying right now although without operating system which will add another tonne onto it.

At Computer Planet. Will be cheaper to build yourself.

• Black ATX Tower Case
• AMD Ryzen 5 3600X (6 x 3.8 GHZ - Turbo 6 x 4.4 GHZ)
• Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 X - Low Noise
• Asus PRIME A320M-K (AMD B320) - 4xUSB3/2xUSB2 - (M-ATX)
• 16GB 2666MHz (1x16GB) - Lifetime Warranty (DDR4)
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER - 6 GB - DVI/DP/HDMI - HD/4K/VR - Supports 3 Monitors
• 1 TB Seagate (1000 GB) SATA-III HDD 7200 RPM 64MB Cache
• Motherboard Integrated HD Sound
• Motherboard Integrated 10/100/1000 Ethernet Lan (Broadband Ready)
• 1.8 Metre UK Mains Power Cable
• 9 Working Days - Built, Tested, Installed & Ready To Go
• 2 Years Collect & Return Warranty

Sounds good. Although I'd be inclined to go with a SSD before a better CPU cooler. Apparently the stock ones are OK.

Edit. Whilst not in the spirit of things you can buy a Windows 10 key of ebay for a tenner that works just fine.

 

[NoXion]

Because he wants to make the point that you can use Macs for longer which makes them better value. Which holds some weight against cheap laptops you buy from PC World. Less so against a desktop.

Apparently Apple are glueing the SSDs into their latest machines so if it fails (which it will) you have to replace the entire motherboard.

Yeah, I live in a dusty flat and I can get a bit lazy with the cleaning, so being able to replace components that choke up and die is kind of important to me. I've been considering adding dust filters to my next build.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

Yeah, I live in a dusty flat and I can get a bit lazy with the cleaning, so being able to replace components that choke up and die is kind of important to me. I've been considering adding dust filters to my next build.

Well I'd be suprised if an SSD was a victim to dust, but yes, I take your point. The PC and PS4 could probably do with a clean.

 

[Magnus McGinty]

Sounds good. Although I'd be inclined to go with a SSD before a better CPU cooler. Apparently the stock ones are OK.

Edit. Whilst not in the spirit of things you can buy a Windows 10 key of ebay for a tenner that works just fine.

Yeah I was trying to get it under budget and for a gaming PC you want the best GPU you can afford in it with the CPU coming a close second. I consider SSDs a bit of a luxury although yeah they're better and faster.

 

[NoXion]

Well I'd be suprised if an SSD was a victim to dust, but yes, I take your point. The PC and PS4 could probably do with a clean.

My previous machine was an entirely air-cooled affair, with a massive radiator on the CPU and a fan blowing air through it. That thing was an absolute magnet for dust, especially smoke. That's why I prefer liquid cooling systems now.

 

[teuchter]

Wealthy PC owners just chuck away their computers every few years when they stop working. They can afford to. They can also afford to spend a lot of time playing games instead of earning a living. Hence, the PC market sees so much high spec disposable stuff. Also, money doesn't buy taste. Which is why you see all the multicoloured LEDs and ugly keyboards.