The EDitor's cornEr

MS Flight Simulator "X"

If you have heard that Flight Sim X is the “cat’s meow”, then the description is probably too good to be true. I don’t doubt that this program is fantastic, but before you run out and buy it, let’s discuss some the drawbacks.

System requirements as specified by Microsoft vs. reality:

                                                MS Requirements                               Optimum Use Requirements* 

                                           System: WINDOWS XP + 256mb RAM                  2-4 GB RAM

                                      WINDOWS Vista + 512mb RAM

                                      Processor Speed: 1.0 GHz                                  3.4 GHz

                                      Hard Drive Space: 15 GB                      100 GB Free Space on HD

                             Video Card: DirectX 9 with 32mb RAM           NVidia7800 512mb x 2 

*Optimum System Requirements as listed on page 6 of The Official Guide Microsoft Flight Simulator X published by www.Primagames.com

I had previously planned to upgrade my Computer (a 2.1MHz Pentium III) by moving it to a larger Case, adding 1 Gb RAM, a 250 Gb Hard Drive and a GeForce 5200 - 256 Mb Video Card , but realizing that this would still leave me at the lower end of FSX requirements, I made the plunge.

Since I already had the Case and the Hard Drive, I found a bundled Intel Motherboard and Dual Core 3.0 GHz Processor on sale and decided to put together a new, faster and better computer. In my new prototype, I’d have afterburners and every- thing. I should be able to tame this new FSX easily.

As is my CARMA, I stumbled into more info and I quote, “*FSX is designed to perform on high-powered hardware that is not yet available to the General Public, so even three or four years down the road, Flight Simulator X can still challenge even the most robust hardware while providing a stunning simulation”. In other words, I still won’t have enough!!!!!!

Oh well, I can still blow the doors of my FS9/2004! Whoa not so fast; November’s Edition of Computer Pilot Magazine in an article titled “Time to Upgrade” in reference to Dual Core Processors, the author writes “ Unfortunately, the majority of flight sims are not designed to take advantage of the second  processor. FS2004 is one of these. No frame rate gains are made due to the second core”.

Since I’m batting a thousand, let’s discuss Video Cards. I had originally decided to get 2X Geforce 7300 512 Mb, PCIe (PCI Express is a new system that is twice as fast as AGP 8X) and has SLI, the ability to bridge 2 cards together. The current Nvidia SLI and ATI “Crossfire” cards are DirectX 9.0 compatible. In the near future, when MS VISTA is released, it will be DirectX 10 compliant. Now, do I buy two DirectX 9.0 cards only to see them soon outdated or buy a less expensive card in hopes of updating later? Life is never easy……

So unless you have enough computing power to open a “Star Gate”, wait and think it over or you’ll be disappointed!

One last thing, FS X comes with *2 activation keys, each can only be used once.  Should you choose to install it more than two times (say you upgrade, then your computer crashes), you’ll have to go to www.microsoft.com  and purchase additional keys.

Steve