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what desktop to buy to run latest flight sim

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  • 17-11-2009 9:07pm
    #1
    Naked Lepper
    Registered Users Posts: 1,514 ✭✭✭


    are there any good deals about

    how much are we talking roughly to get fs working properly

    have a laptop but graphics and frame rate / load time is really poor

    shame cos i spent all the cash on the game and it looks so crap

    anyone got any suggestions


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    #2
    jasonb
    Registered Users Posts: 3,319 ✭✭✭jasonb


    Hi there,

    I bought a PC recently and one of the things I wanted it for was to run FSX.

    The two main things to look for are a good processor and a good video card. I got an Intel Core 2 Quad Core Processor, 6Gb Ram and a Radeon 4850 Video Card. The 6Gb of Ram needs a 64Bit OS, so I went with Vista Home Premium 64Bit.

    However, I also signed up for the Windows 7 upgrade, so there's a Windows 7 Home Premium 64Bit disk on its way to me. Anything I've heard of regarding Windows 7 and FSX so far suggests that FSX runs faster on Windows 7 then it does on Vista, all other things being equal.

    With my current Vista set up I'm really happy with FSX. I don't have all the sliders up all the way, I've left a lot of the traffic sliders ( other aircraft, ground traffic etc. ) fairly average, but the rest are on quite full and FSX looks great and is very smooth. With something like FSX, there are a lot of different settings you can mess around with to get it just the way you want it. Don't forget to download and install the Service Packs for FSX as well ( 2 in total ).

    Hope some of this helps!

    J.


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    #3
    bandit197
    Registered Users Posts: 907 ✭✭✭bandit197


    jasonb wrote: »
    Hi there,

    I bought a PC recently and one of the things I wanted it for was to run FSX.

    The two main things to look for are a good processor and a good video card. I got an Intel Core 2 Quad Core Processor, 6Gb Ram and a Radeon 4850 Video Card. The 6Gb of Ram needs a 64Bit OS, so I went with Vista Home Premium 64Bit.

    However, I also signed up for the Windows 7 upgrade, so there's a Windows 7 Home Premium 64Bit disk on its way to me. Anything I've heard of regarding Windows 7 and FSX so far suggests that FSX runs faster on Windows 7 then it does on Vista, all other things being equal.

    With my current Vista set up I'm really happy with FSX. I don't have all the sliders up all the way, I've left a lot of the traffic sliders ( other aircraft, ground traffic etc. ) fairly average, but the rest are on quite full and FSX looks great and is very smooth. With something like FSX, there are a lot of different settings you can mess around with to get it just the way you want it. Don't forget to download and install the Service Packs for FSX as well ( 2 in total ).

    Hope some of this helps!

    J.

    Good advice there ^^^

    In a nutshell,

    Windows 7 64bit
    3.0Ghz or faster processor (dual or quad)
    4GB minimum RAM
    Fastest GPU you can afford (HD4890 1GB is very good)

    With the above you will run FSX as it was designed to be run;)

    Also a machine with the above specs will max just about any other
    flight sim out there...XPlane, Lock on etc

    Edit: Just seen you are looking for suggestions as to what to buy.

    The cheapest way to get a pc that can handle FSX is to build your own.
    If you have never done it before it can seem daunting but its not that difficult
    at all and you will have a fully upgradeable machine lasting for years.
    Check out the Building and Upgrading forum.
    If this is something you would be interested in doing post in there and I and others will spec you the fastest pc for
    the lowest possible cost.


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    #4
    Sepulchrave
    Registered Users Posts: 79 ✭✭Sepulchrave


    I would say it's important to bear in mind ATI cards (except a new one) have problems rendering clouds in FSX due to their architecture, and by that I mean your frames will take a hit. I have a 4870X2, it's a great card but struggles a bit on clouds. Also note that FSX cannot use SLI or Crossfire so in my case, the second core of my 4870x2 is useless. I think the general opinion is that the NVIDIA GTX 285 is a good card, but that is now being beaten in areas by the new ATI card, the 5870, which does not struggle with clouds at all. More information on FS hardware and discussion can be found on this AVSIM forum: http://forums1.avsim.net/index.php?showforum=327

    Because FSX is more CPU dependant than GPU, you need a fairly fast CPU too, so you would want to invest more money in a good CPU than a good GPU in any case.


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