Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 will be available as of August 18, and is now available for pre-order. There will be three versions available:
- The Microsoft Flight Simulator Standard Edition ($59.99 USD) includes 20 highly detailed plans with unique flight models and 30 hand-crafted airports. The Standard Edition will be available on day one with Xbox Game Pass for PC (Beta).
- The Deluxe Edition ($89.99 USD) includes everything from Microsoft Flight Simulator’s standard edition plus 5 additional highly accurate planes with unique flight models and 5 additional handcrafted international airports.
- The Premium Deluxe Edition ($119.99 USD) includes everything from Microsoft Flight Simulator Standard Edition plus 10 additional highly accurate plans with unique flight models and 10 additional handcrafted international airports.
RAM
While Microsoft says you can get by with 8GB of RAM, we highly recommend going for 16GB instead. The game will eat it all up, so it’s better to give it some breathing room.
The game requires a hefty 150GB of free disk space to install to begin with. If you’re stuck with a 256GB drive, it might actually be time to upgrade. A terabyte of storage is the sweet spot for both this game and everything else you’ll be doing on your system. Of course, SSD storage is always the best idea. Loading times have long been a constant complaint for the Microsoft Flight Simulator series.
Recommendations
That’s not enough information! I hear you, reader. Let me list my suggestions for choosing the best laptop processors for playing Microsoft Flight Simulator:
- Intel i3-1005G1 – minimum required CPU
- i5-10300H – perfect mid-range CPU for games; reasonably priced; no additional considerations needed;
- Intel i5-10500H – high-end CPU
“Ideal” Specifications for Microsoft Flight Simulator
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 2700X or Intel Core i7-9800X
- Graphics: AMD Radeon VII or Nvidia RTX 2080
- RAM: 32GB
- Storage Space: 150GB of SSD space
- Bandwidth: 50 Mbps
These “Ideal” specifications are actually a lot lower than we would recommend if you want the absolute maximum performance in Microsoft Flight simulator. The game can certainly make use of far more powerful processors than the AMD Ryzen 2700X or the Nvidia RTX 2080 graphics card.
Build
For a company that’s well known for making the most “gamer” profile products out there with their signature acid green accents that are not always tasteful in implementation, we were pleasantly surprised with the overall design language and aesthetics of the Razer Blade 15. Sporting a neat Razer logo at the back, that might as well be the only indication that this is actually a Razer product because everything else is commendably simple.
The Razer Chroma RGB backlit keyboard has little travel but is otherwise completely serviceable. The trackpad is phenomenal. It’s large, responsive, and precise. If you forget your mouse at home, you might actually be a little excited to switch over to it, it’s that good. The screen, while not as bright as we’d like, is otherwise excellent. Boasting a 4K resolution display with 144Hz, the colors are vivid and the details sharp. The laptop itself is extremely well built, looking as though it was chiseled out of a block of solid aluminum with it’s all metal design. You also get a Thunderbolt 3 port for some added connectivity. Not many complaints about the build quality.