Microsoft Flight Simulator Expected to Stimulate Billions in PC Hardware Sales

[RedelZaVedno]

Be aware if you're upgrading for this sim... FS 2020 loves Intel's CPUs for some strange reason (10-20% performance difference):

 

[Frick]

I think JPR is smoking something really potent. 2.6 billion for 2.27m copies, that's more than $1K per copy....
Either they overestimate how much an average(or even non-average) person is willing to spend on upgrades, or they simply assume that not a single person out of all 2+M has a computer and will spend a grand on one. Just by looking at their "recommended" spec, you can get something under $1000 with a monitor to run it, since it only requires a quad-core w/ HT or at most a hexacore non-HT CPU (basically a current-gen i3/R3, or pre-pre-last-gen i5/R5 will do). I'm sure you can even get by with a pre-built and probably have a few bucks left on a decent flight stick, if you settle on 1080p@144Hz monitor instead of 1440p.

People who play flight sims tend to want to run them on high settings. And they want flight sticks at the very least.

 

[RedelZaVedno]

People who play flight sims tend to want to run them on high settings. And they want flight sticks at the very least.

HOTAS are mandatory for decent flight sim experience.

 

[mystera]

Have any of you tried running this game through the linux vulkan emulator (dxvk)? Despite being built for linux, even on windows you (usually) get a decent uplift in performance for dx games. On my elderly i5 (4c4t) I get up-to 50% increase in fps in ac odyssey (vs native dx11), plus a much more consistent frame-time. This is not my sort of game so I won't be testing this, but being a dx11 title (for now) I wonder how it performs through vulkan, if at all..

 

[yotano211]

I really doubt that many people are interested in a flight simulator.

The flying community is much bigger than you think, and they come with deep pockets.

 

[Vya Domus]

The flying community is much bigger than you think, and they come with deep pockets.

It's still a niche.

 

[yotano211]

It's still a niche.

I agree but but its niche with higher income and deeper pockets than most other niches.

Overclocking is also a niche, but a over-clockable processor is 200-$300, a airplane is $50k+. I know many flight schools and pilots who have used flight sims to stay current with flying.

 

[Kapone33]

Now a days you either usually end up gpu limited, or game/engine limited. Really a shame this sim only use 4 threads at max.
Baffling really with all the data it is trying to simulate.

I did not play a lot of it but didn't the previous MS Simulator use all of the CPU cores? It doesn't make sense in this age of 16 core desktop CPUs. Maybe the Headline should have ended with if CPU scaled. TPU could you guys do a review using different RAM like 16 vs 32 vs 64 GB running this Game?

It's still a niche.

Well there are tons of aircraft pilots and enthusiasts that played the first one. Though the World has changed there is something about being able to actually sim a flight from New York to LA flying beneath the clouds.

 

[silentbogo]

People who play flight sims tend to want to run them on high settings. And they want flight sticks at the very least.

Not when it's badly optimized and engine-limited.
Techspot did some benchmarking, and as far as I can see, it's choking on itself, and not on hardware.
Especially 2080Ti results are alarming, since the FPS scaling w/ resolution is too high to be CPU limited(on a frigging 3950X), and too low to indicate a GPU bottleneck.
1080p medium results are also a good hint at how much "optimisation" went into this cashgrab. 10% variance across the board between GTX1660s and RTX2080Ti? Barely pulling 60FPS at 1080p?
I'm not even gonna focus on the fact that this is still a multi-platform game meant for XBox [X/One] as well as PC.
Another big and important complaint from the preliminary Xbox game pass beta, is that it basically uses 4 threads. So, even R3-3300X or i3-10300 will ever be fully loaded.'
Don't get me wrong - I like MS flight sims, but this one is just really-really badly optimized.

The flying community is much bigger than you think, and they come with deep pockets.

Whole 2.27 million of them? Pfff... About half of these people will play it on their underpowered laptops and forget about it the next day or get a refund, other half on their existing underpowered desktops and forget about it a few weeks later. Barely 5% of them will even have an old logitech flight stick (last Steam survey listed a grand-total of 300k users), and only the wealthiest and richest of flight sim fans will have a decent Thrustmaster kit.
With proper DIY or aftermarket flight cabin setup that the remaining 10 people can afford, most costs come from specialized equipment, and barely counts towards "PC hardware sales".
Yes, flight sim people and pilots are passionate and willing to spend a shitton of money on ridiculous sim rigs, but it's still not related to PC hardware sale numbers on the grand scale (especially not the ones JPR magically pulled out of their butthole).

 

[Chomiq]

When I built up my computer...

Yo dawg, that Alienware's prebuilt.

 

[RedelZaVedno]

I did not play a lot of it but didn't the previous MS Simulator use all of the CPU cores? It doesn't make sense in this age of 16 core desktop CPUs. Maybe the Headline should have ended with if CPU scaled. TPU could you guys do a review using different RAM like 16 vs 32 vs 64 GB running this Game?

I managed to fill 27 GB of dram and 12,6GB vram when flying low over Dubai at 4K/ultra. So 64 GB of dram should be an overkill and 32GB a sweet spot. As for vram usage, I see that 8 GB is probably enough for 4K/Ultra as 16 GB Radeon 7 performed worse than 1080 TI (I didn't test it with 8GB Vram GPU but according to Hardware Unboxed testings, 2070S was on pair with 2080S/1080TI at 4K/ultra & medium so 8GB of Vram should be enough).

 

[Frick]

Not when it's badly optimized and engine-limited.

Sure they will. All fair points, but ... people will play it and upgrade for it.

 

[RedelZaVedno]

If anyone needs optimized settings, Tom's hardware posted very good optimized settings. I got 13 fps more out of my 1080TI (44fps on average ) vs 31fps at 4K high-ultra and sim still looks nearly the same as on high settings -> https://www.tomshardware.com/featur...or-benchmarks-performance-system-requirements

 

[Krzych]

For now add DX12 and proper multi threading because so far the game runs like 2005 single threaded MMO.

 

[Turmania]

I would love to own this game but i can not justify the expense of its controllers. And without them it is not fun.

 

[RedelZaVedno]

I would love to own this game but i can not justify the expense of its controllers. And without them it is not fun.

You can buy 2nd hand HOTAS on Ebay for cheap from time to time. I got "broken" Saitek X45 (ripoff) for 30 bucks- throw it away, but then I bought 2nd hand as good as new Saitek X52PRO for 35 bucks. So €65 for €200 flight controllers, not bad at all. I see similar adds popping up quite often, as ppl get bored playing sims and selling their stuff or moving to better gear.

 

[Dave65]

Why would anyone build a pc for this, it is pointless... its a shitty optimized DX11 engine. It looks great but your system doesn't matter because its soo fucking CPU limited.

Microshat shat the dog on this one.

 

[DemonicRyzen666]

I did not play a lot of it but didn't the previous MS Simulator use all of the CPU cores? It doesn't make sense in this age of 16 core desktop CPUs. Maybe the Headline should have ended with if CPU scaled. TPU could you guys do a review using different RAM like 16 vs 32 vs 64 GB running this Game?
TAX

Well there are tons of aircraft pilots and enthusiasts that played the first one. Though the World has changed there is something about being able to actually sim a flight from New York to LA flying beneath the clouds.

Nope FSX, was notorious for only loading a single core and nothing else.

Will guys stop using the words cpu limited that would indicate that thing acting puts a load on a cpu.

It most certainly does not. It loads an i9 10900k to an average less than 20% and then R9 3950x to less than 20% load

 

[msimax]

game runs like shit on a 6950x could be a driver problem also as my vega64 runs at the lowest pstates even when i oc them all

20.8.2 driver

 

[lemoncarbonate]

I will not buy hardware just to "play" a poorly optimized simulator. This is not even a game.

 

[semantics]

Be aware if you're upgrading for this sim... FS 2020 loves Intel's CPUs for some strange reason (10-20% performance difference):
View attachment 166521

Not really strange the game only uses like 4-8 threads and it's mostly just the 1-2 threads doing all the work you can tell how old the base of the game really is. The game was likely just built right on top of the old FSX engine.
Intel has the higher clock and still has a slight edge on IPC so it should do better in such a scenario.

 

[Parn]

I'll be getting this game in a few days. Since I've already got a pretty good computer to run it, no upgrade will be needed.

Flight sims have a very niche market. So even though those who really like FS2020 might need to upgrade their PCs, they will contribute very little to the overall PC hardware sales.

I agree this game needs DX12 rendering and proper multi-threading urgently.

 

[Octopuss]

Why would anyone build a pc for this, it is pointless... its a shitty optimized DX11 engine. It looks great but your system doesn't matter because its soo fucking CPU limited.

LOL this is Dx11? Jeez, that's so retarded I don't even know where to start.
When I think about it, almost any newly released game still being Dx11 is retarded.