Question Graphics card for MS Flight Simulator ?

[Pimpom]

I'm not a gamer and have only a broad general idea about hardware requirements for gaming. I have a friend who relies on me for his requirements. He's not a gamer either but does like to play MS Flight Simulator now and then.

Which graphics card will be good enough to ensure a good experience with FS at 1080p but is not overkill (unnecessarily expensive)? The CPU will be a midrange or mid-high AMD.

 

[COLGeek]

What is your friend's budget? What make/model PSU does he have now?

Knowing the specs for the rest of his system would be useful as well.

 

[Pimpom]

This is to be a new build and there's no fixed budget. It is to be primarily a video editing rig, not a gaming machine. Not a real high-end editing system though. No Threadripper, no 5090 or anything like that. Just a good mid-range setup. It's not like the guy's going to run a rendering farm with multiple GPUs and terabytes of RAM.

I'm OK with the CPU, PSU, motherboard, RAM, storage, cooling, monitor, etc.

 

[RTX 2080]

Well, MSFS is very heavy on the CPU & GPU (I know from personal experience) so it’s hard to go overboard, even at 1080p.

You’ll want to go beyond the usual 1080p class cards (RTX 4060) and jump to something like a RTX 4070. It has the rendering power and VRAM to ensure a good experience.

Oh, and in case you weren’t aware, MSFS is so notoriously CPU heavy that you should strongly consider purchasing the very best CPU possible, like a Ryzen 9800 3DX. It’ll be worth it.

 

[COLGeek]

Without some limits, it is hard to realistically make recommendations to meet someone's needs.

For an AMD CPU: Consider 7700X or higher (7000-series) or 9700X or higher (9000-series)
Minimum memory 32GB (2x16GB)
GPU: AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT or higher. Nvidia RTX 4070 or higher. I would not recommend 5000 series until prices normalize.