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If you like combat flight sims I suggest the DCS Series https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Combat_Simulator https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Combat_Simu
by mastazi 10y ago
If you like combat flight sims I suggest the DCS Series https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Combat_Simulator https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Combat_Simulator
If you want small planes or airliners then you might look into the new X-Plane 11, it has very realistic physics and looks really good even in the basic configuration, i.e. without add-ons, thanks to its last-generation graphics engine.
If, on the other hand, you plan on buying many add-ons (e.g. because you want to fly specific planes or fly to/from specific airports) then I suggest Prepar3d or FSX Steam Edition which are both based on Microsoft Flight Simulator X, which means they are compatible with a large number of add-ons.
Their graphics are not on par with X-Plane 11 though (unless you install scenery add-ons), since they are based on a 10-year-old graphics engine; you can see a comparison here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUtEqgDjjJU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUtEqgDjjJU
- errantspark 10y agoNotably X-Plane 11 has extremely bad perf on all but the highest end CPUs. It's currently badly limited by single thread peformance. My 4Ghz AMD 8 core can barely top 20 fps o on minimum settings (and also on maximum settings since it's badly CPU bottlenecked)
- mastazi 10y agoYes X-Plane 11 is demanding in terms of CPU but as per comment above, parent is getting a new PC, so I assume the CPU will be at least on par with mine (I have an i5 6500, which is pretty much the minimum for a current gaming PC) and on my machine the game runs smoothly. I agree with you that on slightly older CPUs it might be a bit heavy to run.
- mlonkibjuyhv 10y agoA high clocked i5 is probably optimal for most flightsims.
- Filligree 10y agoAn i7 will generally be faster. If we're talking X-plane, then the single-threaded performance benchmarks on https://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html https://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html are a good place to start.
- ghaff 10y agoYeah but I read that chart and what it really says to me is that you can spend about $100 more to get a 10% single-thread uptick but other than that it pretty much doesn't matter (on that benchmark).
- joshwa 10y agoXP11 is still beta and they are working on bugs primarily-- they are addressing major performance issues but FPS optimizations will come later in the beta cycle. But BOY does it look good! And the stock 737/MD82/747 are approaching payware-quality.
- leoc 10y agoFlyInside https://flyinside-fsx.com/ https://flyinside-fsx.com/ is a very good VR mod for both FSX and Prepar3d (I haven't had the chance to use it myself, but all indications are that it's an outstanding VR app).