This could go in the Virtual Spanner section but I thought it might be of more general interest...
There's huge emphasis right now on new processors (particularly AMD) and GPUs (particularly NVidia). I'm still on the newly old AM4 platform and changing to the latest and greatest would involve a motherboard, and probably memory, change. But, partly as a consequence of the new stuff, some of the old good stuff is nearly as cheap as chips. The AMD Ryzen 9 5900x is going for just under £200 at Amazon (still in excess of £500 at Currys), which is a bit of a bargain to be honest. I took advantage of that and the 5900x coupled with my Black Friday 9800xt finally gives me a system that presents MSFS2020 in all its intended glory. I came from a 3600x so the performance differences are substantial.
So, for those of us on quite dated systems (my Mb is 5 years old), there's some bargains to be had to give these systems quite a long lease of life yet.
Old Dogs New Tricks
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Re: Old Dogs New Tricks
Thats a good shout. My system is an 12900 intel, and its no bother at all and FS20 or FS24 do seem to stress it at all. The GPU is a 3080RTX, and its more than good enough for my needs. High end last gen kit is a great shout. 
Ben.







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Re: Old Dogs New Tricks
Sounds impressive from both of you.
Our internet is so bad that I'm stuck with FSX for the forseeable future.
It took me an hour to log onto our bank account to pay a council rates instalment.
Our internet is so bad that I'm stuck with FSX for the forseeable future.
It took me an hour to log onto our bank account to pay a council rates instalment.
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Re: Old Dogs New Tricks
Our internet connections are now a critical part of our set up and a poor connection can be as bad or worse than a poor PC. Have you looked at Starlink Mike? We are still on copper and awaiting an upgrade to fibre - they did have the town last year and we were supposed to follow on immediately but something seems to have gone amiss with the schedule as no sign of continuing works. Having said that, and apart from recently acquired regular drop outs, our speed of 59Mbps is fine for just about everything.
Re: Old Dogs New Tricks
My daughter has Starlink in rural Michigan. She says it fluctuates a lot, but they get between 20 and 200Mbps. Her husband works from home for Roblox, and he seems happy enough, though I don't think he's much of an online gamer or simmer. Still worth investigating though.
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Re: Old Dogs New Tricks
Thanks for the tip, gents.
Looks like Starlink costs about AU$630 for the gear and $160pm.
Both out of our budget range.
Accessing info on their site is like requesting sensitive government information, which makes me nervous to start with.
The costs I did find were from comments. Starlink's own suggested page came up "404 not found"
Looks like Starlink costs about AU$630 for the gear and $160pm.
Both out of our budget range.
Accessing info on their site is like requesting sensitive government information, which makes me nervous to start with.
The costs I did find were from comments. Starlink's own suggested page came up "404 not found"
Re: Old Dogs New Tricks
Wow, that sounds a great upgrade and at a bargain price too, I thought; I'll get one of those! Good job I clicked on Sysinfo before ordering - I've already got a Ryzen 9 5900x fitted. Senility continues to gather apace.chrispbits wrote: ↑21 Jan 2025, 17:17The AMD Ryzen 9 5900x is going for just under £200 at Amazon (still in excess of £500 at Currys), which is a bit of a bargain to be honest.

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- Trident
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Re: Old Dogs New Tricks
Good catch Paul. I thought I had a 5600x before I took the fan off to reveal the 3600x. That gave me much more bargaining power with the budget holder.
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- Trident
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Re: Old Dogs New Tricks
By the way the Arctic Freezer 36 is a superb fan for the money. Currently £38.99 on Amazon although that's a slight increase in the £35 I paid early Jan. It was given a best buy award on Gamers Nexus on the basis of best bang for the buck. Slightly awkward to fit but othewise it's a brilliant fan for the price.