I just realized I've been all but repeating myself with a few posts here thinking I was responding in two different threads (IPhone forum management). Anyway you are perfectly right in your assessment. The best I can say is like what was told to us for years about FSX, don't expect to run the sim maxed out. P3D v2 can do more than what FSX can just like FSX displays more than what FS9 can. With settings making P3D v2 comparable to visuals in FSX you should get the same thing. When you go above and beyond moving all sliders to the right is when your going to run into problems. P3D v2 has a few more bells than FSX that can come at a performance cost if you have a lower end video card (or should I say an older video card).

I have a an older cpu to be sure but I have a GTX680 4GB FTW card. Think I will be ok.

 

Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk

 

 

I installed the Academic version today and ran it for an hour or so. I used affinity masking to take advantage of my 6 cores, 12 threads. Here is the data:

 

 

 

 

Though the dialog shows 83 processes running, most of them were dormant drawing zero CPU usage. The only other major program was the System monitor itself. I deliberately set conditions to those that in FSX would have been very demanding; maximum weather, rain, etc. All of this was with pretty much the default settings. I was getting roughly 30 FPS with Unlimited set in the control panel. I will probably set my affinity mask to something more reasonable, like 4 threads, next time I get the opportunity to run P3D.

Edited November 26, 201312 yr by Tom Allensworth
edited to correct terminology.

 

 

Even those with a older cpu but with a newer GPU should fair pretty good due to the offloading into the GPU now. Am I wrong?

 

You are not wrong.  P3Dv2 is very flyable at 2560x1024 on my old hardware.  Of course I can't max it out but there is a bright future!

I'm seeing the exact same posts over at the P3D forums for 2.0 that were issues when 1.4 came out. OOM's, API crashes, APP crashes, low GPU usage, stutters, unrecognized hardware, failure to load RDI, rsync failures, R2T errors, etc etc etc.

 

I still haven't pulled the trigger even though I was hardly satisfied with 1.4, and by the looks of it, I won't be either. Not at least until the sim-breaking bugs are quashed. But hey, it appears V2 is chocked full of the same issues 1.4 had, most of which they never fixed, and most of which still seem present.

I have a an older cpu to be sure but I have a GTX680 4GB FTW card. Think I will be ok.

 

It runs okay for me on three screens with a 4Gb card. One thing to not do is jump in and move all of the sliders to the right. At the resolution I am using (3880x1920) there will be 'out of graphic memory' messages. This is because one of the sliders adjusts LOD and moving it fully to the right sets LOD 6.5 - too much even for a 4Gb card at that resolution.

I've said it before:

 

FS2004 is XP

 

FSX is Vista

 

Prepar3d is Windows 7

 

Windows 8 is just S**t

 

...in my humble opinion!!

 

 

The news flash for us is we don't have to do all that with P3D v2, just make sure we have the right hardware (that should be little over $700) and we're flying. This is what I've been waiting on since 2006. New simmers to our hobby is going to love this as well.

 

Dillon,

You will not run P3Dv2 well on a $700 machine.

 

Two years after FSX was released we had the hardware to run it well, but you refused to believe it.

But the facts are that the majority of simmers have been enjoying FSX for many years now.

P3Dv2 is FSX with a DX11 rendering engine bolted on, it needs a very good Video card to get the most out of it, preferably a  GTX 780.

There's $500 gone out of your $700 before you get round to buying a high end CPU and MB.

The main reason I switched from FSX was the improved stability and the fix to autogen popping. I couldn't be happier with the choice. The amazing reflections and shadows are just a bonus. For anyone considering the switch, try it! Use the default slider settings to start with. Fly at dawn/dusk and night over water to see the visuals really shine. Notice that there are no stutters, no lag in drawing scenery when panning, and other great improvements. Notice also that the AA is not as good as FSX, but P3D support is top notch, and you know that Wes and company are working hard to make improvements. They are working with Nvidea, so it should soon be officially supported by the drivers.

I bought P3D 2.0 last night, and firstly let me say that I have absolutely no doubt in my own mind that it represents the mainstream future of flight simulation.   I also have no doubt that it will be my main (and probably sole) platform in a year or so.

 

But I disagree a little with the overall sentiment of Dillon, concerning how P3D looks and runs "out of the box".    Look around these, and the LM forums; there are dozens of posts about issues, from black screens, to vsync, to clickspot failure to FPS drops, etc, etc.....   I am not criticizing the release!  ........ Although I will rarely use P3D 2.0 just yet, until more add-ons are compatible, I can still see fantastic promise and potential in it.  Heck, who couldn't think that after riding the humble A36 around the skies with those FANTASTIC shadows in the VC !!.........   But I also think, just like FS9, FSX, and XP10, it has a number of issues "out of box" and Joe Average User is far from assured a hassle free flight, out of that "box".

 

Initially my install failed, so there's the first point, but that was fixed quickly but even then, I had a black screen with only sound (no visuals) the first 3 times I tried to load P3D 2.0.      When I got to see it, I had 9 FPS in the default situation, with default settings.   Now I say again, this is not a critique, it's a reality check.   In the event, after 2 hours of surfing this and the LM forum,  I had done some workarounds and changed some settings and I now get 30 FPS almost solidly (still with the nice shadows in the VC :smile:) but the point is, I really don't think this release can be considered quite as "good straight out the box" as Dillon has alluded.

 

But for sure ------------------->   The future is bright!  (as is the lighting!).   :lol:

mad dog, on 26 Nov 2013 - 01:23 AM, said:

Dillon,

You will not run P3Dv2 well on a $700 machine.

 

Two years after FSX was released we had the hardware to run it well, but you refused to believe it.

But the facts are that the majority of simmers have been enjoying FSX for many years now.

P3Dv2 is FSX with a DX11 rendering engine bolted on, it needs a very good Video card to get the most out of it, preferably a GTX 780.

There's $500 gone out of your $700 before you get round to buying a high end CPU and MB.

 

Let's analyze your logic here. First off how much would a 4 year old machine cost today? One as you said could run FSX well years ago. From there all one needs is the video card. Either way using your logic I could buy a fairly cheep machine by today's standards, get a $500 video card and away I go. Install the sim and enjoy it. The advantage over FSX is no Tweaking which could take months to get things right for my machine. With FSX for no reason at all a setup that works one day causes OOM's the next or your always searching for that unattainable hardware that gives you that one or two frames extra. So if your correct (and I know your not) I could use the computer I already have and just buy a video card for $500.

 

 

Q_flyer, on 26 Nov 2013 - 06:57 AM, said:

I bought P3D 2.0 last night, and firstly let me say that I have absolutely no doubt in my own mind that it represents the mainstream future of flight simulation. I also have no doubt that it will be my main (and probably sole) platform in a year or so.

 

But I disagree a little with the overall sentiment of Dillon, concerning how P3D looks and runs "out of the box". Look around these, and the LM forums; there are dozens of posts about issues, from black screens, to vsync, to clickspot failure to FPS drops, etc, etc..... I am not criticizing the release! ........ Although I will rarely use P3D 2.0 just yet, until more add-ons are compatible, I can still see fantastic promise and potential in it. Heck, who couldn't think that after riding the humble A36 around the skies with those FANTASTIC shadows in the VC !!......... But I also think, just like FS9, FSX, and XP10, it has a number of issues "out of box" and Joe Average User is far from assured a hassle free flight, out of that "box".

 

Initially my install failed, so there's the first point, but that was fixed quickly but even then, I had a black screen with only sound (no visuals) the first 3 times I tried to load P3D 2.0. When I got to see it, I had 9 FPS in the default situation, with default settings. Now I say again, this is not a critique, it's a reality check. In the event, after 2 hours of surfing this and the LM forum, I had done some workarounds and changed some settings and I now get 30 FPS almost solidly (still with the nice shadows in the VC :smile:) but the point is, I really don't think this release can be considered quite as "good straight out the box" as Dillon has alluded.

 

But for sure -------------------> The future is bright! (as is the lighting!). :lol:

 

My point has always been in comparison to FSX over the years. What your describing above is normal for any new release of this complexity. FSX was on a level I have yet to hear about from any other software. Going by most estimates that try to defend FSX it took no less than 4 years to run the sim decently. That's worse than the Windows 8 rollout and the Obamacare website would be dead if it took that long to be usable. There's no gaming software that took that long to be usable by most. Anything else with a rollout like that would have failed in any other arena. You had whole writups by people like Word Not Allowed who spent months figuring out how to get FSX to run right on most people's system. Heck people are still reporting problems. It took you less than 24 hours to get P3D v2 setup versus '4+ YEARS'. What your alluding to is no more than it took initially to get FS2k2, FS9 up and running when it was first released. So in comparison to what this community delt with for years up until now P3D v2 is hassle free in my book and/or comparable to a normal rollout within reason. People easily forget now that they have their systems running and want to stand in judgement and be indignant (not you but I'm just sayin). People have no room to say anything when they sat back and put up with a piece of software like FSX for the last 7 years. Yes there's things that need to get ironed out but they will be fixed in less than six months not '4 years' or never.

.... Install the sim and enjoy it. The advantage over FSX is no Tweaking which could take months to get things right for my machine. 

 

My point was to say that you can not compare P3D v2 to the issues people have had with FSX when it was release or the years it took for this community to figure out how to get it usable.

Dillon, no offence but do you own P3D 2.0 yet? .......... a lot of us that do are tweaking our hearts out to get it fundamentally working! ............ Black screens, No mouse cursor control working in full screen, etc,  

 

It seems like your perception of this wonderful magical trouble-free simulator out of the box is just so different to the reality that I've experienced over the last 12 hours of owning it. 

 

I want your P3D ! ....... it sounds heavenly!   :smile:

I'd be unable to recommend a product to this community if I had owned it for a mere 24 hours.

 

Especially, if my recommendation were based on a comparison of complex flight simulators like FS9, FSX,  P3Dv1.4 and P3Dv2.0.

Dillon, no offence but do you own P3D 2.0 yet? .......... a lot of us that do are tweaking our hearts out to get it fundamentally working! ............ Black screens, No mouse cursor control working in full screen, etc,  

 

It seems like your perception of this wonderful magical trouble-free simulator out of the box is just so different to the reality that I've experienced over the last 12 hours of owning it. 

 

I want your P3D ! ....... it sounds heavenly!   :smile:

 

No I don't have it yet but I know for a fact by your very testimate you have it up and running in a state it took people 4 years to accomplish with FSX. That says something right there and I firmly have confidence in six months it will be even better. The bar of expectation should be so low after FSX over the years I don't why some are so put off with the few issues found outside of the fact this is change (for the better). What's sad is if Microsoft would have released P3D v2 would we have so much pushback from FSX users?

No I don't have it yet but I know for a fact (...)

 

 

Now, Tom, where is that "verified product user" tag when we really, really need it!!!   :lol:

I'm not sure "pushback" is correct. 

 

That's certainly not my intention, anyway. I'm glad to see you making the jump, Les, I really am. Adding to our earlier conversation, I myself was in "the FS9 crowd" until the T7 release...and barely even simming at that point. When you look at it that way, you were just able to hold out a bit longer than I was, and as the T7 was what finally pushed me over the edge, P3D2 has done that for you.

 

I'll say the same to anyone that is ready for something new; good luck, have fun, and please share what you find with the rest of us.

 

For me, PMDG will be the deciding factor. I don't think people are reading carefully enough, or are reading too much into, exactly what their plans are for P3D. 

 

In any case, I again wish you the best of luck as you start this new chapter in your simming history.

 

As a sidenote, some of the post-voting in this thread has me a bit confused, the agrees and disagrees I respect completely, but really Bill, "Old" ? Look, for someone that is ready for a change, P3D is a great choice it seems. My only counter-point, when you boil down my long-windedness, was that for anyone that is actually satisfied with FSX as it is today, or like myself, just settled themselves into FSX, why is it so unreasonable to want to see something more than a few shadows first ?

 

Do we need to have a Ballmer visit ?

 

 

 

Show me why I should be interested in P3D vs FSX, and yes, it will be up to you guys, as the base product, while solid, doesn't really impress me at this stage.