If you’ve ever been shopping around for a sim racing wheel or even just been looking to get into the hobby, you’ve most likely heard the term “force feedback” thrown around over and over again. But, what does it mean, and is it even important? Let’s find out.

When referring to sim racing, force feedback is a feature within certain wheels that try to simulate the feel of a real car by making the wheel react with force and resistance. The problem is that it's extremely tricky to explain to someone who has never actually experienced it. Pretty much, when driving a real car, the driver can get a sense of the vehicle's grip, any bumps or curbs hit, the feeling of the road, etc. by using all their senses. For example, you know you hit a pothole because your body can feel the car as it goes through it. But in the virtual world, there's no real way of feeling that. As a result, a force feedback wheel can react to appeal to your sense of touch and give you more awareness of the virtual car. A force feedback wheel will, for example, give counter-resistance when turning into a tight corner at high speeds, shake and rumble when your virtual car hits a curb, goes off-road, hits gravel or sand among many other things for example. All of this is done to not only increase realism and immersion but most importantly give essential cues to the driver which would otherwise be impossible to feel.

With all great things, however, there seems to always be a catch. The catch with force feedback wheels for sim racing is that they will inevitably be pricier than those without them. That's why, when looking to buy a racing wheel there seem to be so many options under $100 and then the price suddenly jumps to around the $200 mark for certain wheels. At the moment, the most budget-friendly wheels which force feedback, both of which I’ve used and highly recommend, by the way, are the Logitech G29 and G920 and the Thrustmaster TMX and T150 which can range anywhere from the low to mid 200's if you’re buying them new.

Lowest Prices on Amazon:

Logitech G920: https://amzn.to/3yPcdg6

Logitech G29: https://amzn.to/37IJqy8

Thrustmaster T150: https://amzn.to/2VZdC5z

Thrustmaster TMX: https://amzn.to/3g3irSc

So, is a force feedback wheel worth it?

100%. I would even go as far as to say that wheels without force feedback shouldn’t even be considered for 99% of people who are seriously looking to begin driving in the virtual world. This is because, without force feedback, you have little to no feeling of how the car is behaving making it nearly impossible to drive on the limit, or even close to the limit if I’m being honest. The only decent reason someone might have when purchasing a non-force feedback wheel is if you’re buying it for a young kid who has never in their life driven a car and just wants to begin experiencing the feel of holding a wheel. And I guess if you just want to play games like Mario Kart and other arcade games, a force feedback wheel won’t be necessary but chances are, you’re looking to play games like Forza, Grand Turismo, or The Crew which even though aren’t the most realistic, will still require a force feedback wheel for anyone who wants to take the driving seriously.

Types of Force Feedback Wheels

Once you're in the market for a force feedback wheel, you’ll start hearing terms like “gear-driven”, “direct-drive” and “belt-driven”. These are just used to refer to different mechanisms within wheels that produce the force feedback. Gear-driven wheels like the Logitech G29 and G920 are on the lower end of the spectrum because they can’t produce too much force, are a little noisy, and are slower to react. But don’t get me wrong, even these low-end gear-driven wheels are miles superior to those without force feedback.

Belt-driven wheels have a good reputation because they offer a very solid amount of performance without being excessively expensive. Thrustmaster, a sim racing hardware manufacturer, is best known for producing belt-driven wheels because they make most of them. For example, the T300, TS-XW, T-GT among many many others.

At the highest end of the spectrum, are the direct-drive wheels. Although they’ve been becoming more accessible lately, these are still on the highest end of the price range. Direct-drive wheels connect a motor directly to the wheel. As a result, they can give off the most force, at faster speeds and with more precision than belt-driven and gear-driven offerings.