My advice coming from the peanut gallery is play with the FSX on the rig you have while you save up your nickels and dimes for a rig beefy enough for one of the more modern sims. 

There is also the option of X-Plane 11 that should be way less demanding than XP12. Did you try it?

I'm assuming you're running a fairly low resolution (e.g. 1024x768). 

If you're going for a minimal system that is capable of running both MSFS 2020 and 2024, emphasis on minimal and at fairly low resolution, you might look for a used 7600K or 7700K CPU that can run in that motherboard, and an RTX980Ti GPU (they have 6GB VRAM), both of which should be inexpensive and fairly easily found on the used market.  16GB of RAM is enough to do the job as long as you're not piling on multiple complex add-ons.

With that system you should be able to run FSX-SE or XPlane 11 with low-to-moderate settings, or MSFS dialed way back.  MSFS 2024 and XP12 would both be really iffy propositions.

To run MSFS you also need good, solid wideband--50Mbps for 2020, 100 Mbps for 2024.  Absent that, you should stick with landclass-based sims like FSX and XPlane.

I'm also assuming you are running Windows 10.  I don't know if FSX-SE still supports running on Windows 7 any more since Steam discontinued support for Win 7.

8 hours ago, Patco Lch said:

My advice coming from the peanut gallery is play with the FSX on the rig you have while you save up your nickels and dimes for a rig beefy enough for one of the more modern sims. 

Your advice is probably the best. Thank you.

Edited November 27, 2025Nov 27 by sfinazzi

I strongly advise against using GTX 9xx series cards with XP12!
I had a GTX 960 and suffered from the infamous "magenta bug."
After several comparisons with other users, it emerged that all GTX 9xx series cards suffered from the same problem.
So if the question is, "Can I use a GTX 9xx card with XP12?" my answer is, "The GTX 9xx works fine with XP11, but it should be avoided with XP12 !"

On 11/25/2025 at 11:53 PM, sfinazzi said:

AI tells me for the processor to go for an AMD Ryzen 5 5600. Any objections?

Do I have to change the motherboard? I have a Gygabite H170-D3HP-CF. 

I’ll tell you what - tell me how much money you can spend, and what country you’re in, and I’ll get you the best parts you can get at that price. 
 

however, if you are buying parts like the CPU motherboard and so on.. you’ll likely need someone to install and set it all up. it is probably better and easier to buy a prebuilt computer from a local store that can also provide basic support. 
 

Again, what country are you in (nearest big city?) and how much can you afford to spend. 
 

by the way - if your budget is more limited, MSFS is releasing on PlayStation 5 in a couple days, and it works really well on a base model PS5. Yes it will be better on a $2000+ PC but PS 5 is amazing value for the money.