Hi All. Newby Question

[cgp303]

Hi All

 

Im returning to flight simming after a few years. I purchased msfs2020 recently. Im very happy with it, but want to upgrade my system a little. Im not looking for 4K ultra high def realism here, but smooth flight and some attractive nicely rendered landscapes at 1080 would be wonderful. My current system is ok, but struggles at times.

 

Here is my current hardware set up.

 

AMD Ryzen 5 3600X

16 GB Ram

Radeon RX580 GPU

Windows 10

 

Am I right in thinking that Flight Sims, as well as being very GPU intensive are also very CPU intensive too?

 

Im wondering what performance boost I might see if I bought myself a new GPU? Perhaps a AMD 6600 XT? And upping my Ram to 32GB? Or would I be better upgrading my CPU first?

 

Any advice/experience would be greatly appreciated.

 

 

:)

[andyfb]

I am also new to this world. I have 11 hours real fly time on my path to getting becoming a pilot, getting reasonable at circuits and landing. Id like to use a Sim for practice but I find flying in MSFS very different and difficult, especially for landings. I'm using a 2 year old laptop with a Logitech joystick. Happy to spend some dollars if it'll help. Will better hardware and peripherals help much with control, I'm not particularly concerned about graphics resolution, though I think 3 screens would help. 

Any suggestions and recommendations would be very much appreciated. Happy New Year

[Nels_Anderson]

Though others may disagree, I don't think MSFS will help a lot with your real world primary training. In learning basic flying skills a lot depends on the "feel" of the aircraft, something you really cannot simulate. The sim will help you get familiar with aircraft systems, avionics, navigation and things like that but first you need to master the basics of controlling the aircraft.

[lnuss]

Nels is right- while the sim is very helpful for many procedures, such as VOR navigation, instrument approaches, flying by instruments, and in so many other ways, the takeoff, landing, and maneuvering in relation to the ground won't be helped much by using the sim. The "feel of the aircraft" that Nels mentions is way beyond just control pressures: sounds, the exact look out the window with the reference points on the aircraft nose and wings, the feel in the seat of your pants, pulling g's, and much more is needed in the real world.

 

I might mention, too, that for all my students I've always required that they actually fly the traffic pattern, including takeoffs and landings to a full stop with the instrument panel covered by my coat. In preparation for that I'd have them do slow flight, minimum controllable airspeed flight (MCA) and airspeed changes, as well as turns, climbs and glides, raising and lowering flaps while maintaining altitude and airspeed, all with the panel covered. This forces them to look out the window and learn to judge performance by attitude, sound and feel (seat of the pants, control pressures and more). It surprises them when they discover that they can, with the panel covered, get within two or three knots of the target airspeed, and mostly maintain close to the desired altitude, just by the sound of the right power setting, the pitch attitude, the control sloppiness and more, none of which can be taught/duplicated in a desktop, non-motion sim.

 

I could go on about differences, but hopefully this will get the point across.

 

All of that said, the sim can be useful for your later training (but don't practice your mistakes- learn it right), and it can be a fun thing to do, even exploring areas where you've never been, but not very much help for pre-solo work, as you've been discovering. The sim is way too different from real aircraft in that area.

 

Luck...

[jgf]

Just like race sims a flight sim gives you the visual appearance of doing something but absolutely none of the physical feedback.  Just driving your street car to work in the morning you subconsciously process myriad inputs - the feel of the wheels on the road, the movement of the suspension, chassis flex, g-forces - to control the car;  it's the same with flying an aircraft, so much tactile input you process without thinking about it.  But one major facet of either sim - your butt is not on the line. 

[ViperPilot2]

9 hours ago, jgf said:

Just like race sims a flight sim gives you the visual appearance of doing something but absolutely none of the physical feedback.  Just driving your street car to work in the morning you subconsciously process myriad inputs - the feel of the wheels on the road, the movement of the suspension, chassis flex, g-forces - to control the car;  it's the same with flying an aircraft, so much tactile input you process without thinking about it.  But one major facet of either sim - your butt is not on the line. 

 

When you start moving around in your seat/chair trying to simulate the movements of the Airplane on your Computer monitor... you know this Game/Sim has captured you completely. Just sayin'...

 

Please... don't do that.