Is my PC up to it?

Hi

I've not bought MSFS 2020 yet, but I'm keen to providing my PC is up to it.

 

My PC specs are:

 

CPU: Intel Core i3-8100 3.6Ghz 4 Core CPU

Motherboard: Gigabyte B360M-D3P mATX Motherboard with USB Type-C

Graphics Card: NVidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB GPU

Memory: 16GB DDR4 2400Mhz Memory (2x8GB)

Primary Storage Drive: 512GB ADATA SX8200 PRO M.2 NVMe (3500MB/R, 2300MB/W) – 6x faster than SATA SSD

Secondary Storage Drive: 2TB Seagate BarraCuda 3.5″ Hard Drive

CPU Cooling: Delta Copper Core 95w Intel 1151 Cooler

PSU: Contour 400W High Efficiency ATX PSU

WiFi: Gigabyte CNVi Wireless 802.11AC 1733Mbps Dual Band Wi-Fi / Bluetooth 5

 

How does that sound? Any assistance is very welcome - thank you!

Long story short, yes you can run it but you will have to turn down either resolution like say to 720p and keep medium quality settings or keep your native resolution (I'm assuming 1080p) and then turn down quality settings. This is also assuming you target 30fps. I will say however that running MSFS unlike all previous versions shows that the video card is more important than the CPU. I run the GeForce Experience performance monitor overlay and on average the CPU vs. GPU usage percentage is 25/75 respectively. My settings are pretty much maxed out running a single 2560x1440 resolution (QHD) monitor.

 

The bottom line is that nothing has changed since previous versions just as with every MFS release, everyone's hardware combo will be different and require unique customization in the sim for optimal performance. If you do get it running I'd recommend posting your results as there are a lot of people out there who would be interested, especially considering video cards are still nearly impossible to find at retail price unless you are very lucky.

 

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i7 11700K @ 5.0GHz | ASUS Z590-Plus TUF Gaming | Noctua NH-D15 chromax.BLACK (Grizzly Aeronaut paste) | 2x16GB G.SKILL TridentZ 4000 | EVGA RTX 3080 Ti FTW3 | Super Flower Leadex III 850W | SilverStone Redline SST-RL06WS-PRO | Samsung 980 2TB M.2 NVMe (OS + MSFS) | Crucial MX500 2TB x2 | AOC 32" 1440p | Logitech Flight Yoke + throttle quadrant + CH Pro Pedals

Edited September 14, 2021 by N069NT

Saw this from an earlier posting - click on the Test My PC button at the top right of the screen -

 

https://www.game-debate.com/games/index.php?g_id=35975&game=Microsoft%20Flight%20Simulator&systemCheck

I suspect you will be able to run it pretty well, except you will probably need to run it off the hard drive which does not work well with the data demands. The limited cores of the I3 won't be a big problem, as the program only really works 2 or 3 cores very hard. You won't have much overhead, so you will need to limit secondary tasks running in the background. The GTX 1050 Ti should run everything OK, if not at high resolutions or high frame rates. If you run 1080p it should allow you to run medium or high settings. You don't mention your internet connection? This will be very important, as the data demand out of the cloud is quite high. You don't have much ability to upgrade, as your 400 watt power supply will be a limiting factor. You may also find you have a heat problem if your case is not well vented with enough fans. Heat build up may show up as CTDs?

In general, the pc looks reasonable, but that GPU will hold you back significantly.

 

The minimum spec for GPU is a GTX770. However, a 1050 Ti is somewhat less powerful than that (despite what Nvidia's confusing naming convention would suggest). See this link: https://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-GTX-770-vs-Nvidia-GTX-1050-Ti/2174vs3649

 

I actually ran it on a 4GB 770 for a while and it was reasonably enjoyable, but not ideal; I had to turn a lot of settings to low/medium. But heck, even my 970 is not ideal...

 

To be on the safe side, try out the $1 game pass trial. No risk and you'll have your answer

Try using the Xbox (something, grrr) for $1 for a month, that is a good way to "try" out the sim and see how it looks, performs etc on your PC

Just a small caveat with community recommendations about PC specs:

 

It all depends on what you can live with. There was a time in the flight sim community, where anything above 20 fps was considered a luxury (i.e. the good old days); however, nowadays many will complain bitterly if they get less than 60. The same general argument can be made about resolution and level of detail...

 

If you're in the camp that will be satisfied with lower settings and framerates, then that's great (I mean it, PC hardware is expensive) and use what you have. I'm generally in the middle of that and am satsified with a steady 30 FPS, 1080p, clouds that don't look like marshmallows and a reasonable draw distance. My 970 delivers most of that.

 

Nevertheless, try the $1 game pass for a month. As they say "to measure is to know".