Is it time (and safe) to get MSFS?

[omarsmak30 4,068]

Big YES!

[jcomm 5,918]

Yes.

[Waldo Pepper 1,952]

2 hours ago, ArkRoyal said:

I have resisted buying MSFS.  I've seen so many new programs have so many problems for months after launch that I decided to sit back and watch the ensuing mayhem - of which there appears to have been much.

However, things seemed to have settled now and with the much-heralded performance improvement coming at the end of the month, will it be time to take the plunge?

An additional question: if I purchased MSFS after this update, would the download come with this update included along with all the previous updates - or will they all have to bee downloaded separately?

I'd say that listening to a vocal minority has made you late to a great party.   But, why not just see for yourself?   Please don't take that as me being rude or sarcastic,  for $1 (usd) you can obtain a 1 month subscription to "Xbox Game Pass for PC".     It will allow you to play the base version of the sim,  and try out some of the mods.

https://www.xbox.com/en-US/xbox-game-pass/pc-games

Seriously though,  it's what you make of it.   And now that we have complex birds like the PMDG DC-6 and Aerosoft CRJ it's going to become tougher and tougher for the holdouts.   FS2020 is going to win in the end,  and support for the other sims is already diminishing.

 

 

[ThrottleUp 617]

Look at the spec of my system in my sig. Its coming up on 14 years old. 

Guess what - MSFS runs so well on it that I'm constantly amazed. A billion times better than FSX did. Where I was getting single digit FPS on FSX I get 30FPS now with the new game. The only limitation is I cant fly over cities and cannot use the airliners (turns into a slideshow). 

But otherwise there are no settings that are on "Low" everything is a mix of med-hi-ultra. Its also very stable  - the only CTD I had was hardware related. I found out that the game does not like overclocking so I bought the OC down from 3.8 to 3.5Ghz and now its so stable.

I would advise if possible that you dedicate a drive just for MSFS and if you like going mod crazy its gonna have to be a big one. There is a clever mod manager that can use symbolic links to the mod folder (which can be anywhere, even on another drive).

Dont hesitate, the visuals are amazing. The only thing you'll have to make the call on is where you're gonna buy it from. MS Store or Steam. If you own an XBox Series X then the MS Store make sense as you will get the XBSX version included. 

 

[Dominique_K 10,138]

3 hours ago, ArkRoyal said:

I have resisted buying MSFS.    

 would the download come with this update included along with all the previous updates - or will they all have to bee downloaded separately?

Resistance is futile 😉 this is a great vintage of a sim. It is still perfectible by some margin on almost all levels but it already gives a great sensation of flying an aircraft in great sceneries. The "much heralded" end of July update is just that, "much heralded". We'll see then. But the sim is already rather stable IMHO and well optimized for lower end machines (I know see my sig). 

As you don't say anything about your style of simming, what you focus on, and your hardware, difficult to say more.  I fly GA aircraft, WW2 warbirds and the DC-6 all over the planet and I do regret a minute my purchase of the Steam Standard version.

Technically your sim will come updated but the regional free DLC (Japan, USA, France/Benelux and Scandinavia) will have to be downloaded separately.

 

[LesOReilly 176]

37 minutes ago, ThrottleUp said:

Look at the spec of my system in my sig. Its coming up on 14 years old. 

Guess what - MSFS runs so well on it that I'm constantly amazed. A billion times better than FSX did. Where I was getting single digit FPS on FSX I get 30FPS now with the new game. The only limitation is I cant fly over cities and cannot use the airliners (turns into a slideshow). 

But otherwise there are no settings that are on "Low" everything is a mix of med-hi-ultra. Its also very stable  - the only CTD I had was hardware related. I found out that the game does not like overclocking so I bought the OC down from 3.8 to 3.5Ghz and now its so stable.

I would advise if possible that you dedicate a drive just for MSFS and if you like going mod crazy its gonna have to be a big one. There is a clever mod manager that can use symbolic links to the mod folder (which can be anywhere, even on another drive).

Dont hesitate, the visuals are amazing. The only thing you'll have to make the call on is where you're gonna buy it from. MS Store or Steam. If you own an XBox Series X then the MS Store make sense as you will get the XBSX version included. 

 

The problem you have though is that your processor does not support the minimum required CPU family and thus instruction sets like BMI2...  Problems will happen in the future 😞 ... 

[Ricardo41 5,949]

Let's just say it the way it is:

MSFS 2020 is currently the most promising iteration of a flight sim. It's remarkably stable, runs well even on crappy hardware, and looks extremely good, even at lower settings.

I'm running MSFS 2020 on a six year old PC, off of a creaky harddrive, with 8 gigs of system ram. On medium settings I get about 18-20 fps on average. Not great.. But works for me. 

There is an enormous eco-system of free mods, which basically means you don't have to spend a penny to enjoy the sim. 

Avionics are being improved as we speak, with WT (CJ4 mod, G3000 mod, etc.) leading the way. The G1000 Nxi is on its way. 

Most crashes and problems seem user-generated (broken runtime libraries, overclocked gpus, etc.).

Happy days in flight simming are here again!

Edited July 8, 2021 by Ricardo41

[ThrottleUp 617]

4 minutes ago, LesOReilly said:

The problem you have though is that your processor does not support the minimum required CPU family and thus instruction sets like BMI2...  Problems will happen in the future 😞 ... 

Yes the plan I have is to wait one year for Windows 11 to settle down, for (hopefully) chip supplies to go back to a decent level and then get a new gaming PC. The new Intel Alder Lake CPUs are coming out also. I have to get a new machine anyway because this one cannot run WIn 11. 

I just wanted to share that the minimum spec does not mean PCs specced lower than that cannot run MSFS. Out over the boonies I can get upto 40FPS - and thats with vegetation on ultra, textures on ultra. FSX + ORBX was 8 or 9 FPS for me lol. 

[Swe_Richard 1,172]

I would say it is a no-brainer at this point. And especially since the DC-6 (logged about 50h in that gorgeous piece of kit as of writing this ) but even the WT CJ4, The A320 and to a certain extent the CRJ (even though it has been resting in the hangar for some time now). 

Resistance is futile (said, of course, with the lovely 'Borg' voice). . 

[abrams_tank 7,397]

1 hour ago, Waldo Pepper said:

FS2020 is going to win in the end,  and support for the other sims is already diminishing.

 

 

Yup, absolutely agree.

[rocketlaunch 614]

I never thought of MSFS of being dangerous so I guess it is safe?! With the xbox games pass it really is a no brainier. I can try the sim for a month for $1 right now! 

[ArkRoyal 30]

Many thanks to all of you who have replied. I'll give the July update time to bed down and if nothing gets broken I've got a SSD ready and waiting.

[mazex 419]

This is the first simulator where the small airfield in Sweden where I did my first solo in a Bergfalke II/55 30 years ago looks exactly as it should. In P3D and XP it does not even look like Sweden. In MSFS it's almost surreal with all the small details done right that brings the immersion of beeing there. And even in the release version the performance was great. Waited until it got VR support before I plunged all in - but after that I think that I have spent more time in MSFS than in any civilian sim since 1985... Only the Hind in DCS got me back to military sims again for a while...

It does not matter if SU5 is a disappointment - this is the future. And it runs very well on modern hardware.

[avistudent 47]

Yes, definitely.

It's the best flight sim out there, visually, better than p3d and xp.  And among other things, it will exceed p3d and xp once it matured.

[blueshark747 1,843]

Wait until after July 27th update.

It should be a much better first experience for folks who haven't touched MSFS yet.