The Ultimate Guide to Finding the Best PCs for Flight Simulator
The Ultimate Guide to Finding the Best PCs for Flight Simulator
Are you a passionate flight simulator enthusiast looking for the best PC to enhance your experience? Look no further! In this comprehensive guide, we will help you find the perfect computer to take your flight simulator game to new heights.
Understanding the Minimum, Recommended and Ideal Requirements
Before we dive into the best PCs for flight simulator, it’s crucial to understand the difference between the minimum and recommended requirements for the game. Flight simulator games can be demanding on your computer, so you need to make sure your PC can handle the load. The minimum requirements for Microsoft Flight Simulator are as follows:
- Operating System: Windows 10
- Processor: Intel i5-4460 or AMD Ryzen 3 1200
- Graphics: NVIDIA GTX 970 or AMD Radeon R9 390
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Storage: 150 GB available space
The Importance of Processor and Graphics Card
When it comes to playing flight simulator games, the processor and graphics card are two of the most important components of your PC. A powerful processor ensures smooth gameplay, while a top-notch graphics card delivers stunning visuals and effects.
The processor is responsible for managing the flow of information and calculations, while the graphics card handles the rendering of images and graphics. For a seamless flight simulator experience, it’s crucial to have a high-performance processor and graphics card.
MSFS Graphics Card Benchmarks (Ultra Quality Settings)
This table shows the approximate performance in frames per second of all the modern graphics cards, as well as the graphics cards listed by Microsoft as Minimum, Recommended, and Ideal requirements. This uses the “Ultra Quality” preset without add-ons, assuming no bottleneck elsewhere in the PC.
As a rule of thumb, over 30 frames per second is acceptable; ideally, 60 frames per second should be your aim.
Remember, if you are installing aircraft or scenery add-ons, the extra load on the PC will mean these values are lower. So make sure you include headroom for this.
The Ultra Quality preset is not necessary to have a fantastic-looking flight sim, so you can adjust your simulator settings to match your graphics card and resolution.
Another thing to note is the huge improvement you can get from DLSS 3.0. It is only available with the NVIDIA 4 series graphics cards. This feature can nearly double the frames per second shown in the table which makes a lower-end 4 series graphics better than a mid-to-high-end 3 series graphics card.
It’s also worth noting the slight differences in the “ranking” of cards as we go from 1080 to 1440 and all the way up to 4K* resolutions. So make sure you chose based on the screen resolution you will be using.
*4k and triple 1080p put approximately the same load on the PC, so you can use the 4K values from the table as a quide if you intend to run 3 screens.
Top Picks for the Best PCs for Flight Simulator
Now that you understand the importance of the processor and graphics card, let’s take a look at some of the best PCs for flight simulator.
Here are what we recommend.
Our pick for performance
Private: Sim-X Eagle MSFS PC
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D
- SSD: 1TB M.2 SSD
- GPU: Nvidia RTX 4060
- RAM: 32GB DDR4 3600MHz
- CASE: NZXT H5
Our pick for visuals
Private: Sim-X Valkyrie MSFS PC
- CPU: AMD 7800X3D
- SSD: 1TB Samsung 980
- GPU: Nvidia RTX 4090
- RAM: 64GB DDR5 6000MHz
- CASE: NZXT H7 Flow
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Sim-X Lightning Flight Sim PC
This custom-built system delivers a smooth and immersive gaming and flight experience, perfect for titles like Microsoft Flight Simulator. With powerful purpose picked components, it ensures excellent performance for enthusiasts and casual gamers alike.
System Specs:
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D
- SSD: 1TB M.2
- GPU: Nvidia RTX 4060
- RAM: 32GB DDR4 3600MHz
- CASE: NZXT H5
£1,330.00 (inc VAT)