Decided to try out MSFS on my old i7-6700k (no overclock) with GTX 1660ti and 32gb memory before dropping big bucks on a new system that had a $1,600 video card in it. MSFS is running smooth as butter on it at 1920x1200 with all high settings. Have a 50gb rolling cache on a non-ssd hdd. With vsync on and set to 30fps my CPU is staying at 30-40%, GPU at 40-50%. With vsync off (or on and set to 60fps) CPU is at about 50% and GPU at 80%.

Some day I will get one of those high dollar PCs, perhaps when there are AI addons etc. that need it, but for now the scenery at my settings is so far and above what I am used to looking at in FSX, even in ORBX areas, that I feel no need.

No stuttering even when panning, and it's incredible how good everything looks. Granted I'm not flying over NYC in an airliner, but I have been over some fairly large cities such as Washington DC and Vancouver in GA with no slowdown at all. I took a 4-hr flight today and twice the sim froze for about 10-seconds while something loaded or something, but after about 15-hrs total flying no real problems. The cure for all of my initial problems was finally getting my extreme 3d pro mappings/sensitivities the way I wanted. Couldn't be happier and I saved about 4k!

As long as you're using lower resolutions, older and or lesser PC builds will do just fine. The trouble starts when you want to run 4K...

I'm running i5 8600K at 4.5 GHz, RTX 2080ti std clock. 16 Gbyte Samsung RAM. 

Silky smooth on ASUS ROG 34" 4K monitor.

Waiting for HP Reverb G2.

Edited August 22, 20205 yr by Pevenhull

3 hours ago, desbean said:

Decided to try out MSFS on my old i7-6700k (no overclock) with GTX 1660ti and 32gb memory before dropping big bucks on a new system that had a $1,600 video card in it. MSFS is running smooth as butter on it at 1920x1200 with all high settings. Have a 50gb rolling cache on a non-ssd hdd. With vsync on and set to 30fps my CPU is staying at 30-40%, GPU at 40-50%. With vsync off (or on and set to 60fps) CPU is at about 50% and GPU at 80%.

Some day I will get one of those high dollar PCs, perhaps when there are AI addons etc. that need it, but for now the scenery at my settings is so far and above what I am used to looking at in FSX, even in ORBX areas, that I feel no need.

No stuttering even when panning, and it's incredible how good everything looks. Granted I'm not flying over NYC in an airliner, but I have been over some fairly large cities such as Washington DC and Vancouver in GA with no slowdown at all. I took a 4-hr flight today and twice the sim froze for about 10-seconds while something loaded or something, but after about 15-hrs total flying no real problems. The cure for all of my initial problems was finally getting my extreme 3d pro mappings/sensitivities the way I wanted. Couldn't be happier and I saved about 4k!

I was planning a $2200~ for this game myself. I too currently have a 6700k at stock clocks with a GTX 1070 and 32GB of RAM along with the game on a 970 PRO M.2. I do get some stutters my CPU hits 100% at times which drops the FPS under 10. I am playing at 2560x1440 though. I don't have a "rolling cache" setup, and have not looked into that. Probably something for to check out. I have a 144Hz monitor and GSync so just have the game set to unlimited. Maybe setting it to 30 FPS could fix some of my problems. I have the high-end preset running. About 30 hours in the game and I have just been dealing with it so far. Was kind of waiting till next month when RTX 3000 and Ryzen 4000 drop to see if its worth it to me to upgrade.

Waiting for the Ampere cards next month for the upgrade rig

30 minutes ago, M3Stang said:

I was planning a $2200~ for this game myself. I too currently have a 6700k at stock clocks with a GTX 1070 and 32GB of RAM along with the game on a 970 PRO M.2. I do get some stutters my CPU hits 100% at times which drops the FPS under 10. I am playing at 2560x1440 though. I don't have a "rolling cache" setup, and have not looked into that. Probably something for to check out. I have a 144Hz monitor and GSync so just have the game set to unlimited. Maybe setting it to 30 FPS could fix some of my problems. I have the high-end preset running. About 30 hours in the game and I have just been dealing with it so far. Was kind of waiting till next month when RTX 3000 and Ryzen 4000 drop to see if its worth it to me to upgrade.

I couldn't see much difference between setting at 60fps and 30fps, so I set it at 30 and it dropped the load on my GPU & CPU quite a bit. I too occasionally hit 100% on the CPU maybe when it's loading something new.

24 minutes ago, desbean said:

I couldn't see much difference between setting at 60fps and 30fps, so I set it at 30 and it dropped the load on my GPU & CPU quite a bit. I too occasionally hit 100% on the CPU maybe when it's loading something new.

Tough call that one... 30 fps does indeed reduce the CPU and GPU load quite a bit, and is certainly very flyable... but unlimited is smoother.. not sure quite yet 🤔 

Pouring a lot of heat out the back...

Edited August 22, 20205 yr by Bert Pieke

There are people who spend several grands on a new rig and still whine and howl like clubbed baby seals about the sim not running smoothly, low framerates, etc. 

For me it's kinda like "run what ya brung"

7 hours ago, Bert Pieke said:

Tough call that one... 30 fps does indeed reduce the CPU and GPU load quite a bit, and is certainly very flyable... but unlimited is smoother.. not sure quite yet 🤔 

Pouring a lot of heat out the back...

It is a tough call, and lots of people don't see 30fps as very smooth. It doesn't bother me, but in the future maybe there will be a GPU that will run MSFS at 60fps without the big load. Probably not because by then there will be lots of 3rd party goodies bogging it down. I just want to nurse this system along for another year because I "just" built it at the end of 2016.