Simulator Hardware
Best Flight Simulator Hardware
Hardware recommendations for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 and X-Plane 12, scored by actual game performance requirements.
28 products scored across 1 simulator
Browse by Simulator
Select a simulator to see hardware ranked for each category.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024
Photorealistic world with live weather and AI traffic — balanced CPU/GPU demands with DirectX 12 and native DLSS/FSR support
Computer Hardware
Peripherals
X-Plane 12
Blade-element theory flight physics preferred by real-world pilots — more GPU-bound than MSFS, with physically-based rendering and Vulkan renderer
Computer Hardware
Peripherals
Top Picks by Budget
Highest-scoring product in each budget tier, across all simulators and categories.
AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D Desktop Processor
AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D ·
100 /100
ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 5080 16GB GDDR7 OC Gaming Graphics Card
· NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080
97.6 /100
Alienware Aurora R16 Gaming Desktop – Intel Core i9-14900KF, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Super, 32GB DDR5, 2TB NVMe SSD
Intel Core i9-14900KF · NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Super
88.15 /100
Flight Sim Guides
In-depth articles on hardware, peripherals, and simulator setup.
How to Build a Home Flight Simulator Cockpit (2026 Guide)
Step-by-step guide to planning and building a home flight simulator cockpit — from setting a budget and choosing software to selecting controls, displays, and a cockpit frame.
Read guide →Types of VR Headsets: Which Works Best for Flight Simulators?
Breakdown of every type of VR headset — PC-tethered, standalone, and console — with recommendations for MSFS 2020 and X-Plane 12 sim pilots.
Read guide →X-Plane 12 vs Microsoft Flight Simulator — Which Should You Choose?
X-Plane 12 vs Microsoft Flight Simulator compared — flight physics, visuals, hardware demands, add-ons, and which simulator suits your flying style.
Read guide →How We Score Flight Simulator Hardware
Scored per simulator
Each product is scored using that simulator's exact performance weighting — MSFS 2024 is 45% CPU and 40% GPU, X-Plane 12 is 55% GPU. The same hardware scores differently depending on which sim you fly.
Benchmarks cited
Benchmark data sourced from community reviews and derived from hardware specs — every figure is labelled with its confidence level (measured, derived, or community-reported).
Content from data
Content generated from data, not written by hand — 431 pages built from 63 product records. Every page is reviewed before publishing.