Modern wind turbines are complex, highly-coupled systems. The dynamic interaction between various components is especially pronounced for multi-megawatt wind turbines. As a result, design process is generally split in several phases. First step consists of creating a global aero-elastic model that includes essential dynamics of structural components using the minimum-possible number of degrees of freedom (d.o.f.). The most important simplifications concern drivetrain and rotor-nacelle assembly (RNA). This approach has been shown valid for several wind turbine configurations. Nevertheless, with increasing size of wind turbines, any simplified design approach must be validated. The present work deals with the comparison and validation of the two modeling approaches for directdrive offshore wind turbines. ARNA/drivetrain model idealized as collection of lumped masses and springs is compared to a detailed Finite Element Method (FEM) based model. The comparison between models focuses on dynamic loads concerning drivetrain system. The comparison is performed in several operational conditions in order to explore the range of validity of the simplified model. Finally, the paper proposes a numerical-based workflow to assess the validity of simplified models of RNA/drivetrain in an aero-elastic global WT model.