PC hardware requirements

Question

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Greetings X-Plane Users,

First time here. I’m interested in purchasing XP11. I've read the requirements on the website, but would much appreciate a bit more advice. My current PC setup (not purchased with this type of program in mind!) is as follows:

• Win 10 64 bit
• 4^th gen Intel Core i7-4770 quad core, 3.4 GHz, 8MB Shared Cache
• AMD Radeon HD 7670, 1 GB 
• 12GB DDR3 Ram -1600MHz
• Two 256GB SSDs (one of which is virtually unused)
• 460W PSU 

This config seems to generally meet the requirements listed on your site, except for the graphics card, which I would need to replace. The recommended graphics card is GTX1070 with 8GB VRAM, which is more expensive than I‘d prefer, but not impossible.

I do see that the minimum graphics suggestion is less, but I would want to use high quality graphics settings with three 1080P monitors. Note that my interest is in light GA aircraft (not airliners or military aircraft).

 So, two questions please …

1. What alternative graphics cards could you suggest that would enable me to obtain the benefits of XP11, considering my intended usage, but that would be lower cost that the 1070? For example, would the 1050Ti/4GB provide enough capability to obtain most of XP11's capabilities?
2. Importantly, do you think that the other components in my PC setup are sufficient for XP11, if I upgraded the graphics care? (I could add RAM if you think it's important to do so ... another 8 would give me a total of 20GB.) It's not impossible for me to buy a new PC, but if I can avoid doing that, it would be great!

(I have a private pilot certificate with Instrument rating, 900 hours, but haven't flown in decades.)

Thanks much for your attention and assistance!

Answer 1

Hi Bob

I'm not with Laminar Research, just a fellow flight simmer in the UK and as far as your Question 1 is concerned, I'm sure that a GTX1050Ti graphics card would be more than acceptable. In fact I have seen PC spec's on this Q&A where simmers are using GTX670's, in fact I did until recently and I had no issues with it at all, albeit I was only using two 1080 monitors.

As far as Question 2 is concerned, a couple of comments:-

1. You could always add more RAM, but there would be little noticeable improvement

2. If you're going to update your graphics card, then you may have to think about upgrading your PSU, as some graphics cards can be quite power hungry. For example according to Nvidia, the minimum system power requirement for a GTX670 or GTX1070, is 500W. This already exceeds your total PSU capacity.

3. Your 2no SSD drives at 256GB each, assuming these are two separate volumes and not set up for RAID in anyway, would be too small, as the whole of the X-Plane 11 file structure is over 256GB on its own, well mine certainly is.

Lastly the Windows OS and CPU look fine.

Hope this helps :-)

Regards

Answer 2

HI Bob,

The short answer is: Since you stated you wish to run X-Plane with high graphic settings on triple monitors, I believe you’ll need the GTX 1070, at a minimum.

If you want a long answer on the GPU requirement, incidentally, I have conducted some Triple-monitor FPS measurements recently with various scenarios.  It’s too lengthy for this posting here, please PM me if you’re interested.