Sorry for the dumb question. Haven’t played flight sims in 20+ years. I’m now on Mac but am excited about the scenery in MSFS (especially VFR low and slow). To play if though, I’d have to (1) build or buy a PC (2) wait for X Box or (3) play X Plane 11 on Mac. 
 

im interested in your advice. Spending 2k for a hobby might or might not be dumb. I hope to learn a320 and others but that’s a ways off. Would you mind sharing your Ionian on (especially those who are flying MSFS and who have experienced X-11?  Thanks

19 minutes ago, dsweingard said:

Sorry for the dumb question. Haven’t played flight sims in 20+ years. I’m now on Mac but am excited about the scenery in MSFS (especially VFR low and slow). To play if though, I’d have to (1) build or buy a PC (2) wait for X Box or (3) play X Plane 11 on Mac. 
 

im interested in your advice. Spending 2k for a hobby might or might not be dumb. I hope to learn a320 and others but that’s a ways off. Would you mind sharing your Ionian on (especially those who are flying MSFS and who have experienced X-11?  Thanks

Do it 🙂 (if you have the cash) your new platform is gonna have many other use than just simming. 

 Maybe there is a fourth option?   For $1 you can get a 3 month trial of Xbox game pass for PC.

 

Spending money on a flight sim and specific hardware,  dumb?    Sure,    If buying golf clubs and spending thousands on outings is dumb.   Or buying ski's,  and then spending thousands.    Not to mention how much money people have wrapped up in cars,  guns, or sneakers.   Life is short,  if you are sure that something gives you pleasure and it's within financial reason,   go for it.    You could be the richest man in the graveyard if you want,  or increase your quality of life now.    At least that's how I see it.

As far as the A320,  the mod is excellent right now.

Edited October 24, 20205 yr by Waldo Pepper

1 hour ago, dsweingard said:

Sorry for the dumb question. Haven’t played flight sims in 20+ years. I’m now on Mac but am excited about the scenery in MSFS (especially VFR low and slow). To play if though, I’d have to (1) build or buy a PC (2) wait for X Box or (3) play X Plane 11 on Mac. 
 

im interested in your advice. Spending 2k for a hobby might or might not be dumb. I hope to learn a320 and others but that’s a ways off. Would you mind sharing your Ionian on (especially those who are flying MSFS and who have experienced X-11?  Thanks

VFR low and slow is basically the only use for this simulator at this point. That being said, that's what I'm using it for (VFR tour of the Caribbean in the 172 at the moment), and for that it's absolutely fantastic. The visuals are every bit what you hear.

Nobody can say whether that kind of money is worth it in your particular situation, but if you really enjoy flight simulation and can afford that, I would absolutely recommend it.

And FWIW, I'm playing it on Ultra settings with a 8700K and GTX1080, both stock. Runs like a dream.

56 minutes ago, dsweingard said:

Sorry for the dumb question. Haven’t played flight sims in 20+ years. I’m now on Mac but am excited about the scenery in MSFS (especially VFR low and slow). To play if though, I’d have to (1) build or buy a PC (2) wait for X Box or (3) play X Plane 11 on Mac. 
 

im interested in your advice. Spending 2k for a hobby might or might not be dumb. I hope to learn a320 and others but that’s a ways off. Would you mind sharing your Ionian on (especially those who are flying MSFS and who have experienced X-11?  Thanks

Are you or can you use an Xbox?  If so perhaps you could start there as the game will be optiimized for Xbox, then pick up a $1 gamepass to see what MSFS does for you.  For me, my flight simming days began at age 9 y/o when me and my neighborhood pal took a wooden sawhorse, and tacked plywood on one side so we could draw avionics on it.  We would sit w/ our legs under the thing and pretend away.  FF to circa 1981 or so I had my first exposure to Sublogic's Flight Simulator on my bro's Apple II PC.   It was touch n go (!) until MS Flight Simulator for Win 95 arrived and after that I was hooked forever, right on past FSX to P3D up to v4.5, and now MSFS & P3D v4.5.  I spend not less than 20h/week most weeks flying, esp now post retirement.  Never went down the XP road having demo'd it a few times.  

So what I'm saying here is if you think you might want to dabble and see if you're after more depth, you could start w/ Xbox, especially if there are other games you can use there, and then move on to PC if and when you get hooked.  To build a PC suitable to get in very deep you're really looking at $3K at a minimum because we're talking perhaps a bigger 1440p curved screen, a GPU that can set you back $1000-$1500, a yoke (I'm paying $475 for one right now!) w/ or w/o pedals, and a throttle quadrant.  Others will surely chime in of course and low ball this number but again, if you define 'suitable' as a PC you won't be needing upgrade for years that will make MSFS and any other sim shine as much as able, then that's what it looks like today for the hopelessly addicted.  You can adjust according to your personal standards and predictions.  

1 hour ago, Noel said:

Are you or can you use an Xbox?  If so perhaps you could start there as the game will be optiimized for Xbox, then pick up a $1 gamepass to see what MSFS does for you.

You're right about the yoke and throttle quadrant, etc. Although there really is no better time to be in flight sim than right now, when I stop and think about yoke, throttle, rudder pedals, etc., 1440 monitor, PC, TrackIR w/ pro clip, divorce settlement, and on and on and on, I've got every bit of $3,500 in the screen I'm staring at right now.

Is it worth it? Hell yes.

Edited October 24, 20205 yr by n4gix
Removed unnecessary long quote!

I was in a similar situation but a little over a decade ago. I only had iMac's and strictly used X-Plane 7 or 8 at the time. Once Apple moved over to Intel I installed Windows on my iMac and that opened up the world of FS9. Now I began to see the limitations of the hardware in an iMac an unable to do anything about it. Hey look a new hobby was born, PC building. Now I was able to use FSX, P3D, DCS, X-Plane 10 and 11, also any other game I wanted. I'm on my 4th build now, current one I just did specifically for MSFS. And to be honest, I did not reinstall XP11. I'm much happier with then P3D but now MSFS.

As @Waldo Pepper says, hobbies aren't cheap. But it's human nature to want to dump a bunch of money into something we enjoy doing. I've built many PC's for flight simming. I've cycled through many peripherals over the years. I've spent thousands on 3rd party addons. I'd say buy or build a gaming PC and get MSFS, you'll be happy for years to come with this simulator. 

One thing to consider - the XBox version is unlikely to support Community folder freeware mods like the PC version does.  Consoles are a very locked down platform, so it will probably be base game + MS Marketplace only.

Some of the best things in the sim right now like Robert Young's Bonanza Turbo, the Working Title G1000 / G3000 / G3X mods, the VL-3 Rotex 915 Mod, etc are all Community folder mods.

2 hours ago, dsweingard said:

Sorry for the dumb question. Haven’t played flight sims in 20+ years. I’m now on Mac but am excited about the scenery in MSFS (especially VFR low and slow).

XBox is a cheap way to play MSFS. But one thing you want to consider is if other 3rd party apps will work on the XBox.  For example, VATSIM.  For me, the ability to play MSFS with VATSIM is a huge bonus for me because I am not a real world pilot so I have never interacted with human ATC before.

You will also want to consider if some of the community mods will work with XBox, For example, you mention the A320.  There is already a community mod for the A320 called the FlyByWire A320 mod.  But will the FlyByWire A320 mod work on the XBox?  I don't know if it will and this is something you need to find out if you intend to use some of the community mods.  Since the XBox isn't released yet, we don't know the answers to this.

Finally, I don't think you need to spend 2K USD to get MSFS to work.  If you're on a budget, you could build your own PC for MSFS for probably $600 USD.  Check the specs on my signature.  My PC cost around $600 to $700 USD.  However, I play on 1080p because my monitor is 22 inches so I can get away with a weaker graphics card. If you are on a budget, you can wait until the Nvidia 3060 is released and I think you should be able to build a PC for $700 to $800 USD to play MSFS (just the PC -  the monitor, speakers, and joystick would be separate).

Edited October 24, 20205 yr by n4gix
Removed unnecessary long quote!

Just now, marsman2020 said:

One thing to consider - the XBox version is unlikely to support Community folder freeware mods like the PC version does.  Consoles are a very locked down platform, so it will probably be base game + MS Marketplace only.

Some of the best things in the sim right now like Robert Young's Bonanza Turbo, the Working Title G1000 / G3000 / G3X mods, the VL-3 Rotex 915 Mod, etc are all Community folder mods.

Yup.  And I don't think VATSIM (or any of the other ATC networks) would work with XBox too.

1 hour ago, abrams_tank said:

XBox is a cheap way to play MSFS. But one thing you want to consider is if other 3rd party apps will work on the XBox. parate).

If you wait until the spring, the new Ryzen 5600 (non-X) version will be out with 6 cores and single threaded performance likely better than Intel CPUs costing $100s more.  Plus you'll have a choice of the nVIDIA 3060 or the AMD 6700XT for a graphics card.  I think it will be possible for less than $2k but $800 is on the low side.

The sim is 'limited by main thread' (CPU) in a lot of instances right now.  Assuming the high single threaded performance of the Ryzen 5000 series is real when they are actually available, they will likely become the CPUs of choice for MSFS. 

Edited October 24, 20205 yr by n4gix
Removed unnecessary long quote!

19 minutes ago, marsman2020 said:

If you wait until the spring, the new Ryzen 5600 (non-X) version will be out with 6 cores and single threaded performance likely better than Intel CPUs costing $100s more.  Plus you'll have a choice of the nVIDIA 3060 or the AMD 6700XT for a graphics card.  I think it will be possible for less than $2k but $800 is on the low side.

My graphics card is the 1660 Super and it costs like $240 USD or so.  My CPU, the i5-9400, is about $163 but if I wanted to save further, I could have gotten the  i5-9400f which is the same CPU but without an on board GPU for $144 USD.  So put together, an  i5-9400f and 1660 Super cost under $400 USD.  That leaves over $200 to spend on an SSD, power supply, and 16 GB of RAM. I actually upgraded my PC (I upgraded my CPU and graphics card) to play MSFS, but I think if I were to build my PC from scratch, I think I could do it for $600 USD to $650 USD easily. 

I get about 40+ FPS, using high settings, at 1080p, with GA planes in many cities.  For New York using the A320, my FPS will drop to 20 to 25 FPS but it's still playable (New York and Manhattan is the ultimate test for FPS in MSFS).

I think the rumored price of the 3060 is something like $300 to $400 USD.  The 3060 will be a very economical graphics card for budget PC builders.

Anyways, I got a budget PC now but I will wait out a few years before I get a more decent PC for MSFS.  My guess is in 3 years time, you should be able to get a decent PC that will run MSFS really well, at ultra settings, for probably $1K USD, especially if Asobo optimizes the Main Thread code further (Asobo said the code for CPU core usage can be optimized further by moving some of the work to other cores).

Edited October 24, 20205 yr by abrams_tank

44 minutes ago, mtr75 said:

VFR low and slow is basically the only use for this simulator at this point.

Stop spreading misinformation. 

48 minutes ago, mtr75 said:

VFR low and slow is basically the only use for this simulator at this point. 

I disagree. For the last few weeks all I've been doing is IFR flights. Yes, it has it's bugs, but flying the A320 with the mod  is quite both usable and enjoyable.

 

 

6 minutes ago, Ricardo41 said:

Stop spreading misinformation. 

I don’t remember asking you.