Personally, I think this is great news, it means our GPUs are actually being used now and the more GPU memory, the better - it's not being wasted like it is in FSX.

Rob

 

Rob,

It's pretty easy to get my Titan up to near 100% utilization and I know that should be true w/ what you are seeing.  I'm actually contemplating picking up a 2nd Titan, though my PSU will be on the edge at 850W, though it's a solid 850W.   I can't see 12Gb of VRAM being used by P3D V2 ever, but certainly it seems likely an add'l Titan will be exploited by V2 in terms of GPU processing power.  Your thoughts?

 

Rob:  FXAA ON really looks awful to my eyes.  Have you tried leaving this set to OFF but leave on MSAA?  I find jaggies are resolved on exterior views of aircraft but ground textures are much sharper...

These are the settings I'm using to get rock solid 30 fps

 

Thanks for that screenshot! Good to see the exact settings. Too many people are posting that they have all sliders right while they usually don't... for some odd reason. Anyway, after fooling around with P3D for a week I now know exactly which settings are of importance to me so this screenshots really helps me to see if you rock solid 30 fps is something I can keep in mind when I am going to upgrade my GPU.

 

BTW I am currently using these settings (I do have Volumetric fog enabled though: it was off by accident when I took the screenshots) with my GTX580:

 

 

 

Your thoughts?

 

I'm waiting to see what V2.1 brings before adding another Titan.  It's early days for P3Dv2.x and I'm sure they'll have more patches/updates coming along soon.

 

 

Thanks for that screenshot! Good to see the exact settings. Too many people are posting that they have all sliders right while they usually don't... for some odd reason.

 

Agree, my goal is 30 fps.  I haven't really experimented much with the settings other than shadows.  I am able to induce lower fps (15 fps) by checking ALL the Shadow options.  My hope is V2.1 will fully utilize SLi performance benefits and allow me to check all shadow options and retain close to 30 fps.  Shadows will always be a hard on the GPU and in P3Dv2 they are real shadows not baked on (pre-rendered).

 

Anyway, I'm just digging into the SDK and tools - lots of reading to do, good times and great future for Flight Sim enthusiasts.  I still have FSX installed and will probably continue to use it, just not as much ... I probably wouldn't use FSX at all if it weren't for Steve P's DX10 Controller.  It'll be interesting to see what happens on the 3rd party front, some vendors are dragging their feet, other's are getting a head start and jumping on P3Dv2.

 

From my own perspective since I plan to become a commercial member and P3Dv2 content provider, it's obviously good news for me to see some 3rd party vendors dragging their feet

Rob, any word on how your setup performs at a heavy airport with something like the AXE?

....from reading all the above, with my ancient 580, i should

Get a monster card & file BK or

quit Simmeeing, & switch to , maybe,Monopoly...or maybe look for FS98 on eBay...... lol

I'm running a 570 so if you have a 580 you can still play it fine.

 

You just can't use all the new shadows (I currently don't have building or vegetation on). I was just at FSDT KDFW, FTX Global with max autogen, WOAI traffic at 100% Airline and 50% General Aviation, 40% road traffic, and overcast in the A36 and was getting about 30-35 FPS (limiter on unlimited). That's about what I'd get in FSX in the same situation but of course FSX had autogen popping up everywhere, no HDR, no VC shadows (or shadows at all), etc.

 

I bought a 770 4gb on sale from newegg.com today that I'll test with next week. Price was too good to pass up at $369 with free shipping + a free 3 game bundle that's actually dang good. By the time I sell my 570 on ebay ($125 or so) it won't be that bad of an upgrade price.

Well as far as I am concerned the relatively new ASUS Mars card is the perfect solution.

 

Two 760 GPU's mean better performance than the 780Ti whilst having 4Gb VRam on board.  One can have their cake and eat it too!

I'm pretty sure that's only 2GB usable per GPU though, keep that in mind. In multi-GPU setups, the frame buffers are mirrored.

 

 

Rob,

It's pretty easy to get my Titan up to near 100% utilization and I know that should be true w/ what you are seeing. I'm actually contemplating picking up a 2nd Titan, though my PSU will be on the edge at 850W, though it's a solid 850W. I can't see 12Gb of VRAM being used by P3D V2 ever, but certainly it seems likely an add'l Titan will be exploited by V2 in terms of GPU processing power. Your thoughts?

 

If you SLI 2 Titans you only get 6GB total of VRAM.

I did some testing today to try to answer the question, "How much VRAM is necessary for one 1920x1080 monitor?"  Others have reported that memory can exceed 2 GB, so that's what I wanted to test.

 

Using the Real Air Duke v2, 1024x1024 resolution, triple buffering on, 4 X MSAA, 4X SGSS, high LOD, all other sliders maxed (except AI traffic) and all shadows on in heavy weather over KSEA, I maxed out at my card's 2 GB. However, these settings are unrealistic for my 760 to try to handle no matter how much memory it has. Once I changed to a little more conservative on the settings (unchecked a few shadows and moved autogen to very dense), VRAM never passed 1.78 GB even in heavy weather. 

 

My conclusion is that 2 GB is probably sufficient on a 760 or lower card running one monitor at 1080p, However, to take advantage of the capabilities of a more powerful card, you will definitely want at least 3 GB VRAM, and probably 4 GB or more for a multi-monitor setup. I am actually planning to upgrade my 760 and just debating between a 4 GB 770 and a 3 GB 780. 

Patience is a virtue. The problem arises if you want to go back to FSX in DX9 (and some say DX10 too) to keep flying your well spent addons that aren't compatible yet. Anything over 3GB in a card will give you OOMs in FSX - instantly, as Rockliffe has already found out. http://forum.avsim.net/topic/427779-urgent-help-needed-with-gtx770/  Just FYI. Wish there was a NI setting that limited VRAM used and therefore VAS - that would be the bomb! 

Patience is a virtue. The problem arises if you want to go back to FSX in DX9 (and some say DX10 too) to keep flying your well spent addons that aren't compatible yet. Anything over 3GB in a card will give you OOMs in FSX - instantly, as Rockliffe has already found out. http://forum.avsim.net/topic/427779-urgent-help-needed-with-gtx770/  Just FYI. Wish there was a NI setting that limited VRAM used and therefore VAS - that would be the bomb! 

 

VRAM does not affect VAS in a 64 bit OS and with DX 10 or 11. This is a myth left over from the early days of FSX

Thanks for the report Mark. Really appreciate the feedback

 

 

If you SLI 2 Titans you only get 6GB total of VRAM.

 

Interesting, and that seems like an real engineering weakness, i.e. that SLI wasn't designed to take advantage all VRAM.  OTOH 6gb is likely more that V2 may ever be able to use...