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DCS equipment decisions...


3dav8r

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New to DCS and am looking for advice/guidance on equipment:  

Gaming laptop

Video card/driver

Goggles

Stick

Peddles

I have an idea of what to get but would like to hear from users on some of the best performers, thanks so much for the help.

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7 hours ago, 3dav8r said:

New to DCS and am looking for advice/guidance on equipment:  

Gaming laptop

Video card/driver

Goggles

Stick

Peddles

I have an idea of what to get but would like to hear from users on some of the best performers, thanks so much for the help.

 

Which modules to you plan to fly? How much money do you want to spend? Where are you located?

Windows 10 64bit, Intel i9-9900@5Ghz, 32 Gig RAM, MSI RTX 3080 TI, 2 TB SSD, 43" 2160p@1440p monitor.

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I would also recommend a desktop rather than a laptop.

 

I have run DCS on a laptop, and an older, non-gaming one at that, so it's possible but it's not optimal in any way.
 

One big advantage of a desktop is the ability to upgrade components later.

 

In terms of graphics cards, I have a GeForce GTX 1660 Super, which I think is a pretty good card for a reasonable price. I am able to run DCS smoothly with near maximum settings. If there are a lot of other aircraft my PC struggles a bit, but I'm not sure if that is due to the graphics card. I think it's a lack of RAM, I have 8 GB which is on the low side. I also recommend a SSD with enough room, I would recommend at least 500GB but preferably 1TB.

 

With regards to stick / throttle, I have a Thrustmaster Warthog set. I am very happy with it, although it may be possible that VKB / Virpil are better. In any case the Warthog is pretty widely available and I found the build quality quite fantastic in terms of feel, even though there are people complaining about it. So far I have not had any problems. I think I have them 3 years now.

 

My pedals are the cheap ones from Thrustmaster and they are, well,  cheap. And especially too light. Not surpisingly. They do the job but I wouldn't recommend them unless you are on a budget. If you fly helicopters, pedals are an absolute must and then I find them lacking. For propellor aircraft, pedals are highly recommended but for that I think they are adequate. For jet aircraft, I often don't bother plugging them in, using the z/x keys instead while taxi-ing.

Modules: Bf 109, C-101, CE-II, F-5, Gazelle, Huey, Ka-50, Mi-8, MiG-15, MiG-19, MiG-21, Albatros, Viggen, Mirage 2000, Hornet, Yak-52, FC3

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It's all highly dependent on your budget of course. My setup is pretty modest cost-wise and I've been using a VKB Gladiator NXT for a while now and I would recommend it to anyone for  desktop use. It's got the features of a much more expensive stick and the best gimble by far in the sub $200 price range. https://vkbcontrollers.com/?product=gladiator-nxt

 

I considered springing for a Warthog stick but the thing's huge and I decided it would be too tall for use on top of my desk and I didn't want to bother with mounts.

 

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Ryzen 5 3600, Radeon RX 5600 XT

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11 hours ago, sun4eg said:

I'd say any kind of laptop is not good choice for gaming. You mentioned googles - I assume it means VR. In this case there's even more demand for the hardware beef. If being mobile is not your requirement - I'd suggest go for a desktop PC. 

Well. I use laptop. Albeit a pretty good one, but still a laptop. It runs fine. Only with Reverb G2, do I need to tweak down a bit on the graphics to keep it reasonable. I travel a lot and use DCS in hotels as a past time so dragging a desk top with me is not an option. That being said, a 3090 card equipped desk top is the plan before the end of the year.

 

Warthog HOTAS set up with the pendular rudder. Again too big to drag around, but flying with these makes for a very nice experience.


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12 hours ago, sun4eg said:

I'd say any kind of laptop is not good choice for gaming. You mentioned googles - I assume it means VR. In this case there's even more demand for the hardware beef. If being mobile is not your requirement - I'd suggest go for a desktop PC. 

 Laptop user here. Dont leave home without it..
Just use my trusty quest..

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Just an advice if you want to use a laptop (I'm using one) to run DCS. Before buying one, you'll have to check the power supply. It's important, whatever the graphic card, the processor or the memories onboard....I mean, a laptop with an 3080 graphic card and a power supply below 300 Watt won't be effective (actually you may find laptop with less than 200W)...you'll get maybe all the new RTX features but about performance, that will be far away from what you may expect.

 

To be clear, a 3080 on a desktop PC with a good I7 or I9 processor need around 600-700W to run smothly (300-400 W for the 3080 and 150-250 W for the processor) , knowing this, with 300W (or even 200W) on a laptop you may expect to have around 70-90 W for the Processeur (mobile one) and 100 to 150W for the graphic card, so a big hit on performance. That's why a lots of people prefer desktop to laptop

Another thing is the heat problem....slim laptop are not suitable for runing big 3D games like DCS, they will overheat and downgrade the performance or simply crash. Check all the manufacturer, there are a lot of customizable "desktop laptop" design available.

 

For example I used an EUROCOM Sky X9 laptop for about 6 years with an GeForce 980 (desktop version) and an I7 6700K, runing DCS with lots of planes and vehicules and graphics around high with 25 - 50 FPS most of the time, not extraordinary but it's a 6 YEAR Laptop. To be honest, even if this laptop was VR Ready,  the VR with this laptop was not suitable to enjoy a flight (knowing that DCS is not really optimised yet for VR)

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16 hours ago, Zius said:

With regards to stick / throttle, I have a Thrustmaster Warthog set. I am very happy with it, although it may be possible that VKB / Virpil are better.

 

When it comes down to the gimbals (the part that makes the joystick move), VKB/Virpil are lightyears (!!!) ahead of Thrustmaster.

Win11 Pro 64-bit, Ryzen 5800X3D, Corsair H115i, Gigabyte X570S UD, EVGA 3080Ti XC3 Ultra 12GB, 64 GB DDR4 G.Skill 3600. Monitors: LG 27GL850-B27 2560x1440 + Samsung SyncMaster 2443 1920x1200, HOTAS: Warthog with Virpil WarBRD base, MFG Crosswind combat pedals, TrackIR4, Rift-S.

Personal Wish List: A6 Intruder, Vietnam theater, decent ATC module, better VR performance!

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I've flown DCS and own/have owned most (under $600USD) joystick combo out there except Virpil so far over the years. 

 

Many work well .... for non-clickable cockpits (Flaming Cliffs Pack) I tended to run out of buttons fast.... even that is OK if you use something like Voice Attack to function some of the cockpit actions

 

Assuming you have a budget and not an endless pool of money (if you don't have a cost limit .. congrats .. go for it)....

 

If you are looking for relative cost savings with functionality AND you are going to use VR I recommend the Logitech X56 to start... medium priced and both the joystick and throttle have a mouse axis stick on them that you can use to move the mouse cursor around in VR without taking your hand off one or the other (stick or throttle)... then setting up mouse click (L &R) and Mouse Wheel (fwd/back) to buttons and knobs on the stick and throttle that make sense to you ... you can use most fully clickable cockpits in DCS without programming every single function to a button, toggle, wheel... you just have to program the pitch, roll, throttle, rudder (if you don't have rudder pedals), fire, brakes and whatever else is actually on the stick and throttle of the aircraft/helo you are flying... all other functions are done clicking or scrolling the actual system in the cockpit versus artificially putting them on the HOTAS controls ...   

 

X56 also has three springs that come with it to change the resistance on the stick... not perfect.. but lets you change it up for say.. helos versus Jets if that's a big deal for you ...

 

Since there are 3 mode switches on it.. you can program everything pretty much 3 times (i.e. Mode 1 Nav, Mode 2 A2A, Mode 3 A2g) .. but then you have to train yourself to remember all that.. so a double edged sword .... can get mind boggling if you fly more than a few AC/Helos in DCS.. but hey .. maybe you have a very keen memory and that's just fine for you ....

 

You will be using a mouse a lot while in VR in the fully clickable cockpits .. so if you choose a joystick/HOTAS that doesn't have something to map the mouse x/y to ..then consider getting a trackball mouse with a bezel ring or scroll wheel to strap onto your right or left leg..that way you always know exactly where it is and aren't groping around your desktop feeling for it.... that will give you mouse movement, L&R Clicks, and mouse scroll to do most everything you need to function in the cockpit (and in the DCS Menus).

 

If you don't go VR... seriously consider TrackIR 5 or another head tracking capability to look around naturally.... makes a world of difference and was how I flew before VR.

 

Take your time to decide and Have fun... because if you're not having fun.. what's the  point.. right ?

Semper Fi

AldoUSMC

 

Intel i7-6700 CPU @ 4 GHz, 32 GB Ram, GeForce GTX 980 Ti, Windows 10 Pro -64 Bit

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On 9/17/2021 at 7:56 AM, Lange_666 said:

 

When it comes down to the gimbals (the part that makes the joystick move), VKB/Virpil are lightyears (!!!) ahead of Thrustmaster.

 

That may very well be, but there are also much better graphics cards than my GTX 1660...

Still I am pretty satisfied with my setup, also given the price what I bought it for.

 

While I think the Warthog is pretty expensive (and probably overpriced) it is still cheaper than Virpil and most VKB products. I am not saying it's more value for your money though.

Additionally it's pretty well supported by DCS and the community.

To be honest, as long as it works, I'm not looking for something else, even if money were no problem at all.

Modules: Bf 109, C-101, CE-II, F-5, Gazelle, Huey, Ka-50, Mi-8, MiG-15, MiG-19, MiG-21, Albatros, Viggen, Mirage 2000, Hornet, Yak-52, FC3

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On 9/17/2021 at 8:15 AM, flag02004 said:

Just an advice if you want to use a laptop (I'm using one) to run DCS. Before buying one, you'll have to check the power supply. It's important, whatever the graphic card, the processor or the memories onboard....I mean, a laptop with an 3080 graphic card and a power supply below 300 Watt won't be effective (actually you may find laptop with less than 200W)...you'll get maybe all the new RTX features but about performance, that will be far away from what you may expect.

 

To be clear, a 3080 on a desktop PC with a good I7 or I9 processor need around 600-700W to run smothly (300-400 W for the 3080 and 150-250 W for the processor) , knowing this, with 300W (or even 200W) on a laptop you may expect to have around 70-90 W for the Processeur (mobile one) and 100 to 150W for the graphic card, so a big hit on performance. That's why a lots of people prefer desktop to laptop

Another thing is the heat problem....slim laptop are not suitable for runing big 3D games like DCS, they will overheat and downgrade the performance or simply crash. Check all the manufacturer, there are a lot of customizable "desktop laptop" design available.

 

For example I used an EUROCOM Sky X9 laptop for about 6 years with an GeForce 980 (desktop version) and an I7 6700K, runing DCS with lots of planes and vehicules and graphics around high with 25 - 50 FPS most of the time, not extraordinary but it's a 6 YEAR Laptop. To be honest, even if this laptop was VR Ready,  the VR with this laptop was not suitable to enjoy a flight (knowing that DCS is not really optimised yet for VR)

Can't run mine on battery when playing DCS. Needs a lot of power to keep it going smooth. Even a gaming laptop like mine does get pretty warm. I keep the AC on cool in what ever hotel room I am serving a quarantine sentence. 

5 hours ago, Zius said:

 

That may very well be, but there are also much better graphics cards than my GTX 1660...

Still I am pretty satisfied with my setup, also given the price what I bought it for.

 

While I think the Warthog is pretty expensive (and probably overpriced) it is still cheaper than Virpil and most VKB products. I am not saying it's more value for your money though.

Additionally it's pretty well supported by DCS and the community.

To be honest, as long as it works, I'm not looking for something else, even if money were no problem at all.

Warthog is not cheap in any sense. One of the biggest reasons I got this set up was that the local electronics store happened to have one sitting on a shelf. I had seen these before in various aviation and computer stores around the world and wanted one. Just too big of a box to drag around the world before going home.  Additionally this shop was willing to entertain special orders. So I ordered the Reverb G2 and Thrustmaster Pendular Rudder from them as well.

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