Computer recommendations

[Biff malibu]

Howdy

I have an Alienware X51 R3 and would like to play Flight Sim 2020. Specs are: Intel core i7 processor, 8GB of SDRAM, Nvidia GTX 970 4GB video card. Do I need to upgrade and if so what do you recommend? Thanks

[g7rta]

Hi, you haven’t said what speed the i7 processor is, but I’m guessing it’s an i7-6700?

MSFS should certainly run on this system, but you could do with upgrading the ram to 16mb if possible (32 would be better) Personally I’d also upgrade the graphics card.
But.. you’re well over the minimum specs.. so get the sim and try it first.
Better still.. sign up for the Xbox game pass. You can try it for a month for just £1 (or $1)


Regards
Steve

[PAULCRAIG]

You didn't specify your OS? MSFS requires Windows 10.

[guzler]

For the price of an RTX 3070, it's good value and runs it well. I'd go for 32Gb ram, I've seen the sim using over 20gb with addon scenery running.

[g7rta]

For the price of an RTX 3070, it's good value and runs it well. I'd go for 32Gb ram, I've seen the sim using over 20gb with addon scenery running.

It wouldn’t be worth getting an RTX3070 for the moment, as the processor would be a bottleneck (not to mention the RAM) Also there’s a good chance the PSU would also need upgrading.
If you’re going to do that, then you’re going to end up buying a new motherboard too.. basically a new pc.

Regards
Steve

[Biff malibu]

Ok, sounds like I will add RAM and see if I like the game....what I would really like would be a realistic WWII European theater game....thanks!

[g7rta]

Ok, sounds like I will add RAM and see if I like the game....what I would really like would be a realistic WWII European theater game....thanks!

No worries Biff
I’d try MSFS via the game pass though. It’ll mean you can pay just $1 and try it for a month (then cancel game pass) of course it’s not a WWII game, but it is still excellent.
Adding more RAM is still a good move, whatever you decide to do.

Regards
Steve

[sfojimbo]

I'm using an I7-2600K that is running at about 4 gig and the results are not bad at all. It does bog down in some cases where the scenery has a lot of detail. My settings are mostly at mid point.

I started with a Radeon RX 590:GTX which seemed to be OK but I was having a lot of crashes to dark screen (not CTD) so I bought a GTX 1080 Ti which seems to have solved the crashing problem.

While trying to solve the crashing problem I replaced 32 gigs of slightly slower single channel ram with 24 gigs of dual channel ram and it made no difference. Reducing CPU speed didn't help either.

Currently I have an I7-10700 system almost ready to replace the 2600K machine. That should eliminate the stalling under high loads.

My assumption is that the bottlenecks when either the graphics or the CPU gets overloaded is what causes most of the crashes.

I still have a problem where if a flight ends badly (crash) a restart causes MSFS to terminate when it gets to the ready to fly screen. Restarting the program then works OK. It is an annoyance to be sure.

[g7rta]

“My assumption is that the bottlenecks when either the graphics or the CPU gets overloaded is what causes most of the crashes”

I have a high end cpu & a good GPU but I would regularly get CTDs - a couple of weeks back I reduced the ram speed by one notch (from 3600mhz to 3400) - I haven’t had a single ctd since
(Reducing the speed by more than that didn’t help)


Regards
Steve

[sfojimbo]

g7rta
Your crashes were due to your ram being overclocked, you were trying to make the ram run faster than it could run. Your system would have failed using any software that worked memory hard. MSFS became stress test software for you.

This reverts to the old question "is the failure hardware or software"? It could be that all the crashes associated with MSFS are due to CPUs and ram that are marginal to begin with, and the heavy use demanded by MSFS causes failure. I doubt it though.

In my case, I doubt that there was a hardware failure in my Radeon RX-590; I suspect it performed correctly and if I would have had other 590 cards available, swapping them out wouldn't have fixed anything.

When logjams in data flow occur, unusual conditions of the software, things that can't easily be anticipated or be tested for in advance can rear up to cause problems; things like buffer overflows tend to happen, pointers go awry, etc.

I suspect that after some future update, most of these crashes will go away.