Anybody into Sim racing here? looking to build a simracing / Flight simulator rig?

[woofercooker]

My 4790 i7 and rx 5700 have been struggling for a while now, its got me into the VR door but its time for a proper upgrade, i'm completely out of touch with current cards and cpu's etc. How much should i be looking to spend to get a decent spec for sim racing games like AC, iracing, ACC and Microsoft flight simulator etc? I don't have a budget but if i build something i'd like to think it will be able to run everything with decent quality settings for a good 3 years. I also don't want to spend 80% more money to get 10% better specs etc, i know this won't be cheap but i also want bang for my buck if that makes sense.

 

[lokiss]

Probably around sub 2k. Don't skimp on the cpu, it's just as important in physics heavy sim games. Graphics are a bit tricky with a new generation on the horizon, but anything 3070 or up will do fine. The racing genre is fairly static, so any system you build today will likely be as good still in a few years, because you'll be playing the same games.

If the tech goes the way we think it will with foveated rendering, anything decent built with a strong cpu should last out a while longer.

Personally it was racing that got me back on the hardware gravy train. You double up VR and a rig, it's not hard to call it the best thing ever.

 

[BigBANGtheory]

I do flight & space sims, although I have a ffb wheel for driving I'm more into the simulation than the racing if that makes sense.

The problem you have with VR is quality, and that is a highly personal factor what is acceptable to one can be awesome or garbage to another. Start with your preferred headset does best value meet your quality expectations, do you need bigger FOV, how sensitive are you to latency and visual fidelity?

If you want something good for 3yrs you absolutely need to get the best bang per buck out of next gen GPUs imho, a 3070 on MSFS will force you into framerate depression unfortunately.

Ultra-high end you're looking at 4k in PC parts alone
Good enough right now you're looking at 2k for PC parts
extra's are controllers, monitors, VR equipment, furniture which could add another 1K-10k depending on what you need and want

alternatively.... PSVR2 might be a better option if bang for buck is the highest priority, as a package that probably is the benchmark when its released

 

[Ravenger]

However PSVR2 may not have the breadth of VR sims you get on PC.
I've got relatively cheap sim-racing peripherals - A G29 wheel, pedals and stick, mounted on a folding Playseat Challenge, and an X52 Pro flight stick and throttle.
But to drive sims effectively in VR you need a monster PC. I'm using a 5900X + a 3090FE, and even then on some games I have to turn down the settings in VR to get a decent frame rate - and that's on a Valve Index.

 

[drakulton]

I do flight & space sims, although I have a ffb wheel for driving I'm more into the simulation than the racing if that makes sense.

The problem you have with VR is quality, and that is a highly personal factor what is acceptable to one can be awesome or garbage to another. Start with your preferred headset does best value meet your quality expectations, do you need bigger FOV, how sensitive are you to latency and visual fidelity?

If you want something good for 3yrs you absolutely need to get the best bang per buck out of next gen GPUs imho, a 3070 on MSFS will force you into framerate depression unfortunately.

Ultra-high end you're looking at 4k in PC parts alone
Good enough right now you're looking at 2k for PC parts
extra's are controllers, monitors, VR equipment, furniture which could add another 1K-10k depending on what you need and want

alternatively.... PSVR2 might be a better option if bang for buck is the highest priority, as a package that probably is the benchmark when its released

@BigBANGtheory have you seen this Lunar Module sim?

 

[Tykey]

yeh i agree, for MSFS you're going to need a 3080 minimum

My 4790 i7 and rx 5700 have been struggling for a while now, its got me into the VR door but its time for a proper upgrade, i'm completely out of touch with current cards and cpu's etc. How much should i be looking to spend to get a decent spec for sim racing games like AC, iracing, ACC and Microsoft flight simulator etc? I don't have a budget but if i build something i'd like to think it will be able to run everything with decent quality settings for a good 3 years. I also don't want to spend 80% more money to get 10% better specs etc, i know this won't be cheap but i also want bang for my buck if that makes sense.

when i was pricing up a pc with the best components it came to about £4k, but graphics cards prices have since dropped so it might be a bit cheaper now. for vr you want the best gpu possible. in vr we game at high resolutions so the gpu is of paramount importance. good cpu and ram are important but imo it is gpu that makes the most difference. 4000 series gpu's are thought to be releasing soon so maybe you can wait until then.