Microsoft Flight Simulator PC specs revealed - get ready to clear some space

After more than a decade, we're getting a brand new Flight Simulator game from Microsoft at some point this year. Dubbed only Microsoft Flight Simulator, there's a good amount we don't know about this game yet, but today Microsoft revealed some important information: recommended and minimum PC specifications. It even went one step further and listed "ideal specifications" for this new iteration of Flight Simulator, giving fans of the series an idea of what to aim for if they want the best experience.

If you were expecting Microsoft Flight Simulator to be a demanding game, give yourself a pat on the back because you were right. Microsoft's ideal specifications cover a range of high-powered hardware, recommending that players have a Ryzen 7 Pro 2700X/Intel Core i7-9800X paired with either a Radeon VII or a NVIDIA RTX 2080. Regardless of the graphics card, it'll need 8GB of VRAM to meet Microsoft's ideal spec, along with 32GB of RAM and 150GB of SSD storage.

It's clear that you'll need a beefy rig to meet Microsoft's ideal spec, but what about the recommended specifications? There things get a little more manageable, as Microsoft recommends a Ryzen 5 1500X or an Intel Core i5-8400 with either a Radeon RX 590 or an NVIDIA GTX 970. VRAM requirements drop down to 4GB and RAM goes down to 16GB with Flight Simulator's recommended specification, bringing them more in line with a wider range of gaming PCs.

Then we come to the minimum specifications, and to meet those you'll just need either a Ryzen 3 1200 or an Intel Core i5-4460. Your graphics card will need to be at least a Radeon RX 570 or NVIDIA GTX 770 with 2GB of VRAM to meet this spec, and you'll be able to get by with 8GB of RAM.

It's worth noting that regardless of the specification you're shooting for, you'll need to have the Windows 10 November 2019 update (1909) installed to run Microsoft Flight Simulator. You'll also need 150GB of storage space, which is a lot even by today's standards. Microsoft Flight Simulator is due out at some point this year, but Microsoft hasn't given it a specific release date yet. We'll let you know when that happens, so stay tuned for more.