I have been flight-simming for over twenty years, and at one time started taking flying lessons in a Cessna 172N until I ran out of flying lessons money. I ran FSX on my PC for many years, and then switched over to Prepar3D.  I now run P3DV5.2.  I am interested in MSFS 2020, because I liked what I saw in the previews, and I like the fact that the new MSFS has a dedicated support and development team.  It is my opinion that MSFS 2020 has awesome graphics, and a lot of time and energy invested in the aerodynamics of how a simulator should perform, I believe MSFS 2020 has a lot of promise, and very well may be the best flight simulator on the market, after all of the bugs are worked out, one day. How long will that take?  Who knows?  I would love to hear what the community has to say about MSFS 2020 and its future.

I have moved this topic to the appropriate forum.

6 hours ago, Texaspilot48 said:

I believe MSFS 2020 has a lot of promise, and very well may be the best flight simulator on the market, after all of the bugs are worked out, one day. How long will that take?  Who knows?  I would love to hear what the community has to say about MSFS 2020 and its future.

Based on your background, I would suggest that you try MSFS now... it is reasonably stable and unrivaled for VFR flight IMHO.

I would also suggest keeping P3D installed (I have)..

You do need a good videocard, preferably with 8 GB of VRAM to get good performance out of MSFS.  16 GB of RAM is also required.  CPU seems less critical.

And.. a good Internet connection (this is a streaming sim) 😉

Edited October 14, 20214 yr by Bert Pieke

6 hours ago, Texaspilot48 said:

... I believe MSFS 2020 has a lot of promise, and very well may be the best flight simulator on the market, after all of the bugs are worked out, one day. How long will that take?  Who knows?  

Indeed.  

Not aware of any modern flight sim that has "all" the bugs worked out.  SubLogic Flight Sim for the Commodore 64 might have been the last one (only because there was so little to go wrong).  These days, there is no such thing as a perfect program. 

In the meantime it's been a very good year and getting better all the time now.  No regrets as a day-one purchaser here. 

 

Just now, Stoopy said:

Not aware of any modern flight sim that has "all" the bugs worked out. 

Why I have three sims installed and use frequently.

After flying MSFS 2020, and I have been simming for 3 decades, going back to P3D or FSX is like going from HDTV to a VHS machine. Once you fly MSFS, ou will be spoiled for anything else.  

While people keep several sims I just keep one MSFS and one real airplane. Both occupy most of my time, however MSFS way cheaper to maintain LOL

 

After thirty years of Simming , MSFS was the holy grail for me . I just wish I could live another 30 years to fly it everyday .

 

I can't go back period, 

8 hours ago, Texaspilot48 said:

I have been flight-simming for over twenty years, and at one time started taking flying lessons in a Cessna 172N until I ran out of flying lessons money.

Here already a year into MSFS it would still be helpful to learn what style of flying you do and what is important to you.  Do you like local scenic flying, low and slow, and/or sightseeing places around the globe that you have not traveled to in person?  MSFS is the holy grail.  No question.  Also, you would be better served with your inquiry if you provided your system specs.  While specs may not be a barrier, they could limit what you experience.  No way to speak to that without knowing them.

Do you prefer to fly airliner types between major airports? Many such major airports have been well developed in default MSFS.  Much better than default in previous simulators.  The aircraft are not PMDG quality, but the airports are very good and you will enjoy flying into them.

Do you immerse yourself in aircraft models with deeper developed systems like PMDG, A2A, Realair, Milviz, and/or fly distance at cruise altitudes from and to general aviation airports?  Do you enjoy fully developed GNS and GTN GPS avionics?  How important to you is accurate live weather, realistic ATC and ATIS? Is live traffic a factor for you?  If so I do recommend also you keep your current sim installed to fall back on.  If those are important to you MSFS still comes highly recommended as continuous progress is underway on some of those attributes and the future sounds promising on others.  The recent development of the Garmin G1000 NXi for MSFS as an example is excellent and still being enhanced. 

Updating MSFS can sometimes become an issue and that has seemed to follow the Microsoft Store purchased version more than the Steam purchased version.  So at this time my recommendation is to procure the Steam version.  And update snafus may be yet another reason you might not wish to totally abandon what you have been flying.  I often fly FSX SE on days with scheduled MSFS updates as I wait for the dust to settle from everyone else updating.

Edited October 14, 20214 yr by fppilot

3 hours ago, Bert Pieke said:

16 GB of RAM is also required. 

The sim runs fine at medium settings at 1080 p with 8 gigs of system ram. 

Only using MSFS.

For VFR using some of the Cessnas coming together with the Sim.
For IFR using the Aersoft CRJ 700, good plane.

I tried to use the FBW A320, but having a lot of problems with the Thrustmaster TCA  Airbus Throttel Quadrant settings, I do not use it again.

Peter

The past decade we were all crying for a next gen sim.  Something that just doesnt put on more makeup for the next upgrade, but something that actually looks like its from 2020.  We now have it, and the potential is tremendous. But its a toddler that has learned to walk but occasionally stumbles.  All good things need time to mature. I have uninstalled P3D now after a decade of investment, and XP has been sleeping for awhile, and investing in 2 sims is not financially viable.  The complex airliner models will be releasing within the next year and I am pretty sure that this will propel another leap forward in its advancement and attraction to the sim.  Next year , helicopters will be officially supported which already has a high interest from hacking and really great effort heli models.  Look forward to the future of flight simming hobby!

To put it simple, as much as I try to uninstall it, I can't 😕

7 hours ago, Bert Pieke said:

CPU seems less critical.

I believe the CPU speed is actually very important for airports and low VFR flying as well as photogrammetry cities. GPU is of course too especially for 2k or 4k resolutions but a fast CPU makes quitr a difference in fps.