help for old timer returning to flt sim

[flteng]

Hi, eons ago I was active with FSX. Then the world fell apart when I switched to Win 10. Nothing worked correctly; my stick, weather, aircraft performance, crashes, etc. Eventually lost interest with buggy software even though I had a lot of money , for me, invested into this hobby. I would like to get back in but not sure what to do. Is the steam version of Win 10, FSX buggy? How hard is it to use Prepare and other newer flt sims. Will my FSX aircraft work ok.? I was a former non schd professional flight engineer and my sim aircraft reflect that. DC-8, old 747; MD-10, C-130, Electra, Connie. I like to fly instrument approaches into international airfields. Will other flt sims do that as well as FSX did in the "old" days.
What if I just did a clean install of Win 7 and used my old version of FSX? The computer is only for flt simming anyways. I was perfectly happy with Win 7 and FSX.
My specs are: GTX 460 video card; cpu i5- 2500k@3.3 Ghz; HD =70GB, 8 GB ram, win 10 pro 64; At one time this was a super hot computer but then I was a lot younger!! Will this configuration even keep up with newer Simulators?

Any advice appreciated. George

[Flacke]

Hi and welcome. I have Win 10 and FSX-SE. It works smoothly and very well . No more Out-of-Memory errors either. All my FSX addon airplanes work in SE just fine. If you use FSX-SE you will never go back to FSX. I enjoy the Real-Weather feature and use it all the time. It has been totally bug-free for me.

The XPlane 11 and Prepar3D are a whole other story. You would need a higher-Perf. 'puter to run those and you had better be into learning them, especially xplane 11.

I really suggest that you spend A LOT of time on YouTube learning all about the current Simulators. It will help you make the right decision on which one to choose.
Remember, the one you pick should be correct for the money YOU want to spend, and it should be good for the type of flying YOU want to do. Have fun, fellow Aviator.

[jerryg1940]

i RECENTLY HAD A PROBLEM WITH WIN 10 FOR THE 3RD TIME. AS A RESULT OF THAT I DECIDED TO GO BACK TO WIN 7 AND ALL MY PROBLEMS WENT AWAY. WIN 10 IS OK FOR SOME USERS, BUT NOT FOR ME. ALL MY PROBLEMS MELTED AWAY AND I'M A HAPPY CAMPER AGAIN. AS FAR AS P3DV4 GOES, IT WILL WORK ON YOUR MACHINE, HOWEVER IF YOU DO PURCHASE IT, GET ORBX GLOBAL AND YOU WILL BE GLAD YOU DID. P3D SCENERY SUCKS, BUT ORBX GLOBAL MAKES A BIG DIFFERENCE IN THE QUALITY AND BEAUTYOF THE SCENERY,ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE A LOW AND SLOW FLYER. TRY IT; YOU MIGHT BE SUPPRISED AT HOW WELL IT PERFORMS. AS FAR AS STEAM GOES, ITS OK, BUT THE GOLD IS BETTER!

[papituwall]

For your PC and your addons, no doubt: FSX-SE as Flacke suggests

[hertzie]

Had my PC upgraded from Win7 to free WinX and from that moment I only had problems with all my flightsims, mostly FSXAcc and WOFF. Accepted that for a year and a half, then with a new (forced!)WinX-upgrade the mess was complete. So I decided to go back to Win7 Professional and since then I came from Hell into Heaven.

hertzie

[Fozzer]

Its a funny old do... ....

..but folks keep telling me that I am an old stick-in-the-mud with my Windows 8.1 and my Mozilla Firefox browser with all its add-on apps and all sorts of old-fashioned stuff in my magic computer box of tricks.

But I purposely avoided the Windows 10 update, mostly because what I've got now does everything I want it to do with no problems at all with both my present software and also some of my older computer games from long ago!

Previously I was a fan of Windows XP, but folks do occasionally remind me that Windows 7 was even better!

Sometimes "newer" is not "better"!

I occasionally use the Chrome Browser, mainly because if give me access to Google Chromecast to send/cast stuff from my Computer to my Television screen, (but I prefer Firefox as a general Browser for all sorts of fun stuff!).

So there you go....Playing games and Browsing instead of fiddling about!

Paul.... ...!

[B52bob]

I have to disagree with flake. You will get occasional oom crashes with fsx-se as it is only still a 32 bit program. It is, however, a big step up from the old ms fsx program. If you are sticking to fsx, the steam version is the way to go.

P3D4 is the way to go right now. It’s 64 bits and that means no oom crashes. It runs much smoother on older computers with much better frame rates than fsx. Many fsx add ons work in P3D or have been upgraded. Many freeware also work as long as they were native fsx and not a fs9 port over. It has been announced by many developers that the will only develop for P3D in the future.

Good luck on what ever you chose, you flight experience will greatly be enhanced.

Bob