What FSX Can Do And What It Cannot Do

[casey jones]

I came across this very detailed article by Mr NickN posted on the SIM Forum in 2013 he explains what FSX can do

and what it will not do. As the article is very very long I can only paraphrase the last number of paragraphs where

he gave advice. "Only a High end Machine will run FSX somewhat very well" Off the shelf machines sold today will

not run it well at all, the people at ACES stated "You get what you pay for" "All this queaking is nonsense" I am

sorry this is all I could gather from it, I wish I could upload it to you but I am not savvy with a PC. Just type in NICKN

SIM Forum.

 

Cheers

 

Casey

[napamule2]

You could memorize every tweak NickN ever posted but that won't help you with FSX unless you have a 'newer' (ie: powerful) PC. That is the (simple) reality. Deal with it. (Which means: save your dollars ($1800) and get a 'balanced' system (not a rig off the shelf)). And, it's best to built it yourself.

 

Accept this 'reality' and you'll be 'alright'. Fight it and you could get a headache, a heart attack, or a hernia (due to you going into a destructive rage). Life is hard AND it's not fair. You hope for 'crummy' cookies but you get 'tough' cookies instead. So, YES FSX CAN drive you crazy (if you let it).

Chuck B

Napamule

[ftldave]

And, it's best to built it yourself ... Fight it and you could get a headache, a heart attack, or a hernia (due to you going into a destructive rage).

 

 

I would think that if a hobby sends anyone into a "destructive rage" -- maybe it's time to change hobbies or think about some counseling with a professional.

 

There's plenty of affordable, powerful systems sold by reputable vendors with enough cpu power, video adapters, ram, and fast drive storage to run FSX with good performance. Even more so now than in 2013. The "you have to build it yourself" rule might have been true some years back, but now high performance pc's are available as commodities. Not to mention that the do-it-yourselfers don't factor in the time and technical skills required to build from scratch. Think about how someone who isn't familiar with pc internals is going to do it. Not easy for them and, I believe, not very realistic to think that just anyone can do it. And I can't believe that buying individual components to assemble yourself is going to save you that much money these days. Pricing has changed, too, the trend as usual for the cost of an impressive pc system to go down, not up.

 

Sure, I could buy components and build myself, but I have better, more fun ways to spend my limited free time. Any, yes, any system that runs a flight sim is going to need adjustments. That's one of the great values of this site and others on the Internet - learning how to do it right. PC's are not console games, so the need to configure the sim software is a fact of life, like it or not. I'm running a modest system by today's standards, not overclocked, and its FSX performance is just fine for the aircraft and scenery that I use.

[darryl737]

I have heard it said a lot, and if you have a low range PC then yes I guess you would encounter issues. But I have what I would deem as maybe a slightly above mid range off the shelf HP that is close to three years old now and I have never had any issues running FSX with high settings, some at there highest, along with numerous add-ons. That being said the machine is basically dedicated to running FSX as I do anything else on my laptop so what it would be like if I had other software on it I couldn't say.

That being said 2013 high end computers would be todays low end or probably so low spec you couldn't buy one now anyway.

So I am sure any mid range PC with reparable hardware components in them would work fine. I would say its when you start buying off the shelf cheaper generic banded PCs that use cheap processors and hardware you have the chance of having issues trying to run FSX with high end settings.

[Rupert]

You're correct that you don't have to build it yourself but there are a number of advantages to doing so. First of all, there is no "black art" to building a PC and no great technical knowledge required to do so either. It's just a matter of plugging things together and there are numerous videos online to show you how to do it. You can do it in less than a day even if it’s your first attempt. Secondly, you get to choose the components you want to use. Many ready-built systems will not allow you to specify the exact manufacturer and model of motherboard, memory or GPU that you want; it may be a GTX 970, for example, but not necessarily the particular one you’d like. I am just in the process of building my next PC and I estimate that I will comfortably have saved over 30% (maybe even 40%) compared to the nearest equivalent ready made system. Some of that is down to sourcing the parts cheaply and some is down to being able to re-use things from my previous PC. Because I always use quality parts, I can re-use the PSU, hard drives, CPU cooler, optical drives, keyboard, mouse and monitor. Taken together these are quite a saving from the overall cost (even if you just buy a bare-bones system without any peripherals). A number of suppliers are now selling ready assembled and tested motherboard/CPU/GPU/memory bundles for just the price of the parts making the build even easier and more foolproof. System manufacturers have to make a profit and generally use the cheapest parts that achieve the specification for the computer. Those that don’t will usually make you pay a premium for the privilege.

 

I say build it yourself - it’s easier than you'd think and you know you’ve got the absolute best for your money!

 

I AGREE!! For one thing, as has been pointed out a lot lately, flight simmers are a very small market. Gunfight and car theft sims are all the rage! FSX runs on very old technology where the CPU speed is paramount. Most of the big selling sims run on GPU based technology. Even when you shop real high end computers, the machines are almost always based on multiple core CPUS & Super GPUS which the more popular sims need. In other words, not what FSX needs.

 

So rather than wasting a ton of money and coming away disappointed, either build yourself from parts picked for your purpose. Or find a local FSXER, HAM, or electronics geek & have them build it for you. You will probably save a ton of money & you will get what you need for FSX!

[napamule2]

Look at my specs. I bought the parts. But I bought from a PC Repair shop and the owner picked them for me. I told him I wanted a 'balanced' system with an i7, an Asus MB, a 1 Gb Radeon GPU, 7500 rpm HDrive (SATA), and 80+ PSU. He picked the brands. The cost was $1200, including case and fans, two years ago. I priced an equivalent and they all were around $2500. Do the math.

 

Where a lot of simmers have a problem is them not downloading 'latest' chip drivers for the MB and 'latest' drivers for the GPU. They buy an off the self rig with 3 yr old drivers on that CD that always comes packed with a 'bundle' and install those. No bueno. They install OS and FSX and wonder why they only get 20 fps, have lags, and crashes. They don't check for processes running in the background and are un-aware that the bloatware installed is constantly 'calling home' and using up ram and cpu.

Chuck B

Napamule

[W2DR]

OK, here's the deal. I've always built my own computers since 1998. But...the last build I gave to a local shop. I ordered the parts. I took the "old" box to them with my newly purchased parts and said "install...".

 

The result:

 

I'm USD$150 poorer because I had them do it. But.....

I'm USD$1100 richer because I didn't buy a name-brand equivalent.

 

The moral of this story.....

 

Can't do it yourself? Find a local computer shop who can. Get what you want and save a bundle.

 

Doug