Happy new year fellow simmers! I hope 2014 is a good year for you all.

 

I've decided to save up for a new PC as my laptop is showing its age with fsx. I'm just a bit concerned about the specs needed for good performance in P3DV2. I've seen mixed reviews about The performance of V2 when compared to FSX. Is there a clear difference between V2 and FSX that makes switching absolutely necessary? What is the real benefit? Is it really that much more GPU dependant?

 

I'm eyeing up a prebiuilt Asus ROG desktop as it it gas turbogear, which overclocks the CPU to 4.1 GHz with litterally the click of a button. I know that building one's own system gives most people better performance for a better price, but I have limited knowledge of computer hardware and thus I'm more comfortable buying a decent prebuilt system. The system I'm looking at is actually cheaper than configuring my own on gaming computer websites. Keep in mind, I'm in Canada so shipping from US websites is usually too expensive. The problem is, the system has a GTX770, and I've seen on previous posta that a GTX780 is the best pairing for a 4770k. I want to get much better performance than I have now, but as a student saving for university and flying lessons, I'm on a somewhat tight budget.

 

So, to sum up a long, wordy post, is P3DV2 worth it, and of so, would a GTX780 a necessity,or can I get away with a 770?

 

Thank you and a very happy new year to you all!

Is there a clear difference between V2 and FSX that makes switching absolutely necessary? What is the real benefit? Is it really that much more GPU dependant?

 

So, to sum up a long, wordy post, is P3DV2 worth it, and of so, would a GTX780 a necessity,or can I get away with a 770?

 

Thank you and a very happy new year to you all!,

 

Hi Matthew,

 

Switching is absolutely not necessary ;o)  By far, today, IMO FSX is so much more complete of a package that I would argue one gets into V2 for different reasons, for example to be part of watching a new platform develop.  There are also some important 'problems' w/ V2 that do not get around similar issues i FSX:  it's not native 64-bit, nor does it exploit multi-core platforms better than FSX does.  The former means quite literally out-of-memory crashes are in no way solved by V2 over FSX, and in fact could be more of a problem when the PMDG planes become available for V2.   Yes, the GPU gets used more for sure!

 

This being said, V2 clearly offers some behaviors, related to the redesign of the rendering engine, that one does not get to partake in in FSX.   The visuals are materially superior IMO, significantly so that despite it's limitations, and the fact that I don't believe we will have better performance when complex airports meet complex airplanes in V2, I have taken about 2 flights in FSX since installing V2 a month ago.   Even the visual improvement though can be addressed I think w/ some changes to FSX such as DX10 or using some of the visual enhancers, at which point visually you could be close.  There is also consensus that generally V2 is smoother performing than FSX, however on my machine they're comparable--both great.

 

It never hurts except financially to get the best GPU you can get, and this absolutely will allow for you to run V2 the best you can, and won't hurt FSX of course.  If you're on much of a budget, you might also think about holding off on V2 to see if LM can solve some of the basic problems V2 has that are related to 32-bit memory limitations, and see if maybe they do what most everyone summing would hope they will do at some point, maybe 2-4y down the road:  build a 64-bit version of P3D and incorporate better multithreading/multicore optimization.   At this point backwards compatibility gets lost, but frankly I would very happily pay for the new sim that offers these fundamental changes and loses backwards comp. 

 

Happy New Years to you Matthew,

 

Noel

Yes, P3Dv2 is definitely worth it in my opinion.  Since I bought it and started  using it, the improvements in scenery / autogen / weather visuals make it difficult for me to continue to fly FSX (I tried it today but the autogen popup in FSX is now more noticeable to me than it ever was, badly disrupting immersion). As for performance, I have a decent i5 based rig, a bit slower than the one you are planning to get, and yet I am not having any noticeable performance problems compared to FSX.

 

I would suggest that you read some of the many posts in the P3Dv2 heading in this forum, and you can see hundreds of opinions - but you may come away still undecided, as it seems that users either like it or don't like it.

 

You can try it for $9.95; buy the professional developer version for one month and see what you think.

People who love P3D are almost religious in their support of it! However, today, right now, in my opinion, there is little advantage in choosing P3D over FSX. FSX has far more working add-ons, and P3D as it is right now looks and flies a lot like vanilla FSX.

 

BUT, P3D is the future. Once developers start taking advantage of what P3D can do graphically it should supplant FSX. I have both and fly FSX 80% of the time right now. Six months from now I hope that is reversed. P3D should be the future of flight sims. Only time will tell if it lives up to that, but I believe that it will.

 

A 780 card DOES help a great deal. If you can afford one, splurge for it. I don't know how much better than a 770 it is, but it was certainly a huge help when compared to my 570!

 

Hope that helps.

In short: NO.

 

I think P3D V2 is still very much at beta stage. They released it just to stand up to their deadline. Lots of issues have to be fixed before it can become main-stream. You should check out Word Not Allowed's blog and see the comparison he made regarding autogen (major difference with fsx being superior). Besides of that, there are many small, elementary issues. I currently do not feel it's actually using my gpu properly (still, I'm afraid). It may do more things on the gpu, but it doesn't do them as efficiently as it should do. I say, wait until 2-3 patches come out, then have a go. In a nutshell, it's like JV (of orbx) said, it will take time to settle in. 2014 will be the official year of p3d breakthrough, hopefully.

 

 

....it's like JV (of orbx) said,....

 

Aaagh! Don't mention JV, the thread will go to hell!

As you can see, coming into here for an opinion is a waste of time because you will get conflicting points of view, some of them quite adamant in opinion. And it's always been like this with every release of the MS franchise !

 

The best advice I can give you is continue with FSX on your new machine and try one months subscription of P3Dv2 to run alongside it and judge for yourself. Then and only then will you be in a position to see if you think you will have a preference one way or the other. You never know, you might end up like me and happily run both side by side for different uses.

 

I know which one gets prime time from me, but I don't think I (or anybody else for that matter) has the right to tell you what to do. Only you can be the judge of what's right for your usage and the entry into P3Dv2 is so cheap, it may cost you more NOT to find out.

 

Good luck.

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As someone who has had a short love affair with P3Dv2 and has returned to FSX, I would say to anyone, at this moment in time, wait for 6 months until all, or most, of the issues have been dealt with. It will also allow time for many of the developers to release patches/updates to their sceneries and aircraft products to make them compatible with P3Dv2, which, at the moment, most are not!

I my most oftenly dismissed opinion, P3DV2 will become more popular than FSX once ASN for P3DV2 is released.  That is, for those that already have P3DV2 and ASN.

 

al

P3DV2 will become more popular than FSX once ASN for P3DV2 is released

 

Is this an opinion or is there some factual study to base the statement on? IMO, one addon isnt going to make that big of a difference. Personally, I find ASN and FSX to perform and look just fine.

 

 

Ron Attwood: Occupation, Retard. No, no, RETIRED!
Intel iSomething: some memory of one kind or another: fans and blue lights.

 

I love your occupation and especially your system specs!  You've got it down to the basics and the rest is just fluff!

Is this an opinion or is there some factual study to base the statement on? IMO, one addon isnt going to make that big of a difference. Personally, I find ASN and FSX to perform and look just fine.

 

Why dont you just read my full post instead of being so ...twisty

 

Yes it was a factual study done by the Wall Street Journal at the cost of 43 million euros

Is this an opinion or is there some factual study to base the statement on? IMO, one addon isnt going to make that big of a difference. Personally, I find ASN and FSX to perform and look just fine.

 

 

I also believe FSX is 'good 'nuf' and beats P3DV2 in several departments, but many users find themselves intrigued w/ the subtle differences in visuals & smoothness, enough to put up w/ its warts.  I also am not quite 100% in agreement w/ the optimism for the future of P3D.  Most folks here seems to consider a brighter, better future for P3D a virtual certainty.  I'm cautiously optimistic is as good as I can get at the moment. If the rendering engine continues to improve in certain ways, including better AA, and something very few folks mention and that is a zone of low resolution that is not that far out from the eye point.   As far as I know there is no parameter the user can change to affect this.   At night, in large metro areas w/ 3D lights shining, this translates to an unnatural looking line of demarcation between in focus and low resolution.   This is so in FSX as well but maybe because of the object higher density in V2 it's more visible.  Even so, the HDR lighting and dynamic shadowing add something that as I say makes one tolerate the immaturity of P3D V2.  I just hopped in the RA Turbine Duke and flew from KSBA Santa Barbara CA to Temecula CA at dusk and it was  quite amazing indeed.  And I don't have either ASN nor REX4.

I appreciate everyone's input. Seems like it is early in the game to make the switch and P3D, while promising, has a long way to go. However I do feel that eventually, P3D will be the future of flight simming.

 

I want to make sure I'm future proofing my system for that future switch to P3D, so is a GTX780 absoiltelt critical, or can I get away with a 770 and still have most things maxed out? For reference, the exact system I'm looking at is here: http://m.futureshop.ca/defaultpage.aspx?lang=en#/catalog/productdetails.aspx?ajax=true&sku=10254784〈=en-CA