Thinking of getting a new PC

[AK Mongo]

Been looking around but haven't found an answer yet. I am building a new rig, but need to purchase incrementally. With an i5 or i7 processor will the onboard graphics run fsx at all?

reid

[Sean Nixon]

Been looking around but haven't found an answer yet. I am building a new rig, but need to purchase incrementally. With an i5 or i7 processor will the onboard graphics run fsx at all?

reid

Absolutely, yes. An i5/i7 will run default FSX with exceptional framerates. Even with on board graphics.

It's the add-ons like PMDG and custom scenery that will bring the thing to it's knees! Even then, it's the CPU that's the weak link, rather than the graphics chip.

[50sqnwop/ag]

I think its meant to have an ATI card as apposed to the onboard card. roger on AMD being cack as apposed to i5 boards...... Are the companies you see advertising systems in pc pilot magazine any good?

[Neil Hewitt]

Got to agree with Sean here - don't touch AMD with a barge-pole. Their top-end performance on a single core - which is what MSFS needs above all else - is nowhere near a match for Intel CPUs. And faster Intel chips (those that can be clocked much faster, that is) are cheaper.

3rd generation Core i5 chips are fantastic performers, but in truth on a single core they are only slightly faster than the 2nd generation Sandy Bridge chips. The Core i5 2500K is still probably the best price / performance ratio CPU on the market today, even more so because it's getting cheaper as it gets older. My strong advice would be to go with an Intel chip and only with one that has an unlocked multiplier (K or X series).

Cheap md-range graphics cards are fine for an FSX or FS9 setup these days - neither will use the full capability of today's top-end cards, because there's nothing being handed off to the GPU other than simple rendering. In my experience, only single-core CPU performance, RAM speed and HDD speed are important to running FSX at close to its full potential.

YMMV as always

UPDATE: Bah, didn't read the full thread before posting... but I'll leave this here just in case anyone finds it useful.

[fordgt40]

This will do the job nicely

Chillblast - The UK's most awarded Custom PC builder - Cheap PCs - Gaming PCs - Workstations

[Sean Nixon]

This will do the job nicely

Agreed. Chillblast do put together good PC's.

If you're looking for somewhere to do a comparison, then this company used to win a lot of awards for their PC's too.

Gaming PC, Custom Gaming Computers and Cheap Pcs