I think you would agree with me that picking a computer suitable for virtual reality flight can be a complicated job. Even picking a computer in general can be complicated… or is it? Well I used to look at the computer specs and just saw numbers and words without meaning. The sales person at the store would either talk circles around me or wouldn’t know anything about computers and in either scenario was no help. I did the research and uncovered how simple buying a PC can be if you know a few basics. I went from very little knowledge about the computer parts, to a great understanding of what I need in my computer (especially when it comes to VR flight). This all led me to a point where I was able to build my own PC. In my post, I am going to break down the computer jargon and get you to a point where you can make a good and informed decision about buying a computer.
The Quick Answer
If you’re looking for the quick answer on what PC you should get for VR Flight, please take a look at my post, Top 5 Things You Need for VR Flight. You will find some great computer recommendations. If you want to get into the details about what makes a good flight computer, keep reading.
1. Getting Started
When you are looking to buy a computer, the first thing you need to do is determine what you want to use it for. You may be looking to run the computer with VR flight, a game, or maybe you just want to use it for typing. For me, the last computer I purchased, I was intending to use the computer for Flight Simulation with virtual reality.
Once you have a purpose for the computer, you will want to look up the minimum and recommended specifications for the program you are running. Consider looking at multiple games or applications and choose the highest specifications that you can locate. Just to give you an example, I have included the specifications from X-Plane 11 below.
Recommended Hardware Requirements:
- CPU: Intel Core i5 6600K at 3.5 ghz or faster
- Memory: 16-24 GB RAM or more
- Video Card: a DirectX 12-capable video card from NVIDIA, AMD or Intel with at least 4 GB VRAM (GeForce GTX 1070 or better or similar from AMD)
As you can see, there are a few major items that they list on there. The CPU, Memory (RAM) and Video Card. Most companies will also include the minimum recommended hardware requirements as well. For me, I tried to stay close to the recommended hardware requirements, as I intended on running the flight sim in VR, adding additional work for my system.
2. Processor (CPU)
The CPU is the brain of your computer. You will hear it referred to as the Processor, the chip, the brain, or the CPU. It is what does the majority of the work on your computer. Most CPU’s are about an inch or two in width and are very thin with metal pins lining one side (not all have pins).
Below I will list the items for the CPU that you need to know about when going to pick out a computer.
CPU Brands
The two major brands for computers are Intel and AMD. You will find these two names when looking for computers. They are usually stamped somewhere on the computer. I have found that Intel appears to be the biggest name in this field, however you will see lots of AMD when looking for your PC.
You have to understand that this is just a brand, so don’t get swayed when the sales person says, “You need this one because it has the AMD Chip”. Saying it has an AMD or Intel chip really doesn’t tell you much, but it sounds really nice, if you don’t know what he is referring to.
Clock Speed
This is where we get into the important stuff. A clock speed is a calculation of how many instructions can be processed in one second. The clock speed is usually written in Gigahertz (GHz). The Giga part means Billion. If you see a computer that says it’s CPU is 3.0 GHz, then you know it can process 3 billion instructions per second.
Don’t think to hard about this. As long as you understand that GHz is the measurement of how much it can process per second. So the higher the number the better… Right? Yes and no… With a single core computer, this is true, however when you add more then one core, it is doubling the computing power.
Number of Cores
Just to start out with an example. Say you have a CPU with a core speed of 3.0GHz and another CPU with two cores, both running at 3.0GHz. What one is going to be faster? The second one, as it is now processing 3 billion instructions for each core (3 billion X 2). Make sense? The more cores you have the faster the CPU. There is an exception, as it depends on what you are running. Some games run better on a single, really fast core vs multiple slow cores, but as a general rule of thumb, More Cores at Higher Speed = Better performance.
I really want to give you a list of the top CPUs, however the list will change by the time you read this. CPU technology is always improving. Just keep in mind that each company will have there own naming systems. Usually Intel uses names like i5-7600K. These numbers only mean something if you look up the stats on them. I would suggest looking harder for the number of cores and core speed. This will give you a true sense of what you are buying.
If you want to get into specifics about how each CPU performs compared to their peers, here is a link to https://www.cpubenchmark.net/. They have lots of comparison charts and information that is constantly updated.
VR Flight Specific Information
So, now you have a basic understanding of the CPU. When if comes to flight simulation, the CPU is a very important part. You will hear some people say that you don’t need a very fast CPU to run a game. That can be true with some games, however if you plan to run a flight simulator, this is not true. I’m not saying that you need the top of the line CPU, however you should get a decent CPU.
I am running a i5-7600K, which is an Intel CPU that is running 4 cores at 3.8GHz. In the world of Intel, the K at the end of the name allows for me to overclock my computer. Overclocking is a way to say that you are running it faster then the stock speed. I have mine overclocked to 4.3GHz. We aren’t going to get into overclocking, as that would take up another an entire post. Now, if I were to get a computer, I would want a computer with at least a CPU running at 3.5GHz and at least 4 cores. If you can get an Intel i7-7700 or better, then you will be set. Even an i5-7600k is a good solid cpu (especially if you know how to overclock).
2. Graphics Card
Ok, so graphics cards can get quite complicated if we did into every element of a graphics card. At a basic level, you really don’t need to get to deep into all the specs. There are two different types of graphic cards. One is a integrated graphics card, which you will find on lower end computers. The second is the dedicated graphics card, which is the one we will be talking about.
Here is some of the basic information that you will find listed on a computer.
Brandnames
This is one that may or may not be listed when you are looking for your new PC. There are two main companies that create the graphics cards. The first is NVidia and the second is AMD. These two companies produce the Graphics Card and do sell the card, however what you will notice is that there is usually another brand name like MSI or EGVA attached to the card. These other brands take the cards produced by NVidia and AMD and make there own version.
NVidia cards currently use a GTX series. Here is a list of there top cards in order of how they perform. Now if you look at the list, you will notice that there is a 900 range and a 1000 range. Everything that is 900 is a last year model. The 1000 range is this year. The 1080Ti and the 980Ti are the top cards for each year. As you can see from the list below, just because it has a bigger number, does not necessarily mean it is better . This is because each year they build a range of cards and prices for different computers. Some computers need the 1080ti for absolute power (with a $$ cost), however some computers are more budget friendly and will use a GTX 1050, which doesn’t quite make my list.
- GeForce GTX 1080 Ti
- GeForce GTX 1080
- GeForce GTX 1070 Ti
- GeForce GTX 1070
- GeForce GTX 980 Ti
- GeForce GTX 1060 6GB
- GeForce GTX 980
- GeForce GTX 1060 3GB
- GeForce GTX 970
AMD cards are usually a bit harder to distinguish when trying to pick there top cards. Here is the list of there top cards from AMD.
- Rx Vega 64 8GB
- Rx Vega 56 8GB
- R9 Fury X 4GB
- RX580
- RX480 8GB|
- RX480 4GB
- R9 Fury
- R9 Fury Nano
- R9 390X
- RX 570
So to finish off this section, I want to point out that most computers being sold on Amazon or at a computer shop will not have too much detail on the specs of the graphics card. There are lots of different measurements, similar to the ones I showed you for the CPU, however these rarely gets listed. The best idea is to understand the top two lists, which will help guide you on what is the best card for your needs. You will find that some of these graphics card will show the amount of Video Ram available. Just note that the higher the video ram the better. At this time, anything above 6 GB of video ram is really good (some of the cards just won’t list this unless you go digging for it in the card specs). If you don’t understand RAM, then keep reading. We will get to that after graphics cards.
Here are two great resouces to help you determine what is the best graphics card for you.
First one is a list of graphics cards (including both brands), from top to bottom. https://www.futuremark.com/hardware/gpu.
Always remember, with graphics cards, the more the better. Especially when you are talking about VR flight. I currently use the GTX 1060 6GB
3. RAM (memory)
Ok, so this one can confuse people, as it can be referred to as memory, even though it doesn’t have anything to do with the amount of storage you can hold on your computer. If you look at my X-Plane 11 example above, you can see that they refer to the memory as RAM in the system requirements. This is because, technically RAM is memory. RAM actually stands for Random Access Memory.
To dive deeper into this, I will bring you an example. Imagine that you have a filing cabinet (memory or hard drive) with all your important information in it. Now, say you need to access your taxes… so you walk over to your filing cabinet and start digging around. Eventually you find your taxes. This would be a computer without RAM. Now lets add some RAM. Back to the same scenario where you need your taxes. It is getting close to the end of the year, so you said, “I’ll take them out of my filing cabinet early and leave it in my desk for quick access”. The desk is now your RAM. It comes around to the end of the year and you want your taxes. BOOM, there are your taxes in your desk. Easy to find and fast to access.
This is the same as RAM. Your computer will store most of it’s memory on a Hard drive and will use your RAM as quick access to this information. Another example would be your tool box. Only the important tools for that job would be stored in your tool box. When you are running a program, the computer is putting it’s important information into the RAM, so it has quick access.
So now that you understand RAM, you can appreciate that it is a fairly important part to the puzzle. RAM allows your computer to run efficiently, however it really depends on how the program is set up. Some programs will use and require lots of RAM (video editing and X-Plane 11), whereas other programs will use very little RAM. For me, more RAM is always better, as it allows your program to run smooth, without your computer having to look around the hard drive.
Speed of RAM
Ok, so this is getting a bit more technical, however all you need to know is, that there are different speeds for RAM. Alot of time you won’t see the speed listed, however if you see DDR3 or DDR4, this is the speed. Currently, DDR4 is the ram in most gaming computers. Beyond that, you really don’t need to know much about RAM speed.
4. Memory Storage
Memory in your computer is the storage capability of your computer. In this case I am referring to the memory storage. There are two main ways to store information on your computer. You can use a Sold State Drive (SSD) or a Hard Disk Drive (HDD). You will find that most computers use the HDD, however alot of the modern computers are going to the SSD because it is a much faster drive. In this case, when I say faster, I am not talking about running a game faster. The difference between these two will not help you run a game faster, however it will help you do the initial load much faster.
If you hate waiting for the computer to load your game, and can’t stand watching the progress bar, then the SSD is for you. This also helps your computer start quickly if you install windows on the SSD.
How much space do I need?
Well, this question depends on you. You do need to consider that you will need enough space for the games that you want to run, however you also need to look at what else you will store on the computer. Will you store your photos and videos on the computer. Are you going to store movies? Also, when you are getting most modern games, they usually require that you download a huge file. These games can be 80 GBs or more. This is a lot of space. Luckily space is not the most expensive part of a computer. You can usually get 1 or 2 Terabyte (TB) for fairly cheap. One Terabyte is 1000 GB, so usually this is plenty of space for all your needs… but again this is a personal question because you may want to store crazy amount of video on your computer.
Conclusion
So here is a quick conclusion of how to buy a computer.
- Start off by finding what you need for requirements (system requirements on toughest program you will use)
- Ensure that your CPU, GPU, RAM and memory at least meets these requirements
That’s it… Easy right.
If you want to see some of the computers I recommend, take a look at my post on Top 5 Things You Need for VR Flight.
Here is another couple posts I made that relate to this.
Virtual Reality Flight System Requirements
Do you need the absolute best VR flight computer?
Thanks for reading.
Dan
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