Can someone please explain to me in simple terms (I do not have a degree in computer engineering or nuclear physics) the differences between P3D and FSX and why one is better/worse than the other?

P3D stutters - FSX does not (given similar hardware and settings).

 

That said, P3D has more visual potential. Once the stuttering is resolved I would say there will be no reason to be on FSX anymore, save for any add ons that aren't yet P3D ready.

Matthew ... if you were to spend just a little time in this forum researching, the answers to your questions would become apparent.

Stutters ?,my P3dV2.2 does not Stutter and just looks far superior to fsx ,no oom ,no crashes ,no graphic issue,s at all, it is a mystery to me how people end up with so many issue,s with P3dv2.2,maybe they should just stop tweaking and take time to establish their correct setting,s,when I used fsx i  had lovely crashes and blue screens and I was lucky enough to have a few graphic issues as well! great days,fsx is 8yrs old and simply going nowhere no improvement,s,nothing being sorted at all,P3dv2.2 works well without lot,s of tweaks what more do you want?

A quick and simple comparison.

 

Out of the box they both look similar but it wont take long to notice the difference between the two.

 

In P3D Fog and HDR work with out to much of a performance impact where in fsx both can give you nasty performance hits.

 

P3D is being developed where fsx development ended a long time ago. The next patch for P3D will mainly focus on performance improvements than new content added.

 

DX11 vs DX9 or 10, DX11 does some funky things with your textures so it only needs to load part of them in to memory which can free up your vas and help reduce the chance of an oom error.

 

P3D has a reduced need to tweak as most tweaks you would use in fsx can be found in the settings menu for P3D while you still might need to use the Affinty Mask tweak in the Prepar3d.cfg but you wont know until you start using the sim if you need to use it or not.

 

Nvidia Inspector, only part of it works in P3Dv2.2 but this is a driver issue and not a sim issue. In fsx NI works with no issues.

 

P3Dv2.2 is more gpu dependent where fsx is more cpu dependent but work is being done on P3D to better balance cpu/gpu usage we hope so if you have a low end graphics card you might not see good performance also i would recommend you have a graphics card with 2gig ram on it as a minimum but 4gig is better for the sim

 

I would recommend you do your homework on your addons as some may work while others wont, while 2.2 has backwards compatibility with fsx addons its not a guarantee of compatibility and some you wont be allowed to use.

 

P3D support from the developers, most support is done by the forum members but LM will help with bugs if you find them if you find a bug that has not been reported try and give as much detail as you can as they will need to reproduce it to fix it.

once LM fixes the issue with NE (any day now) ^_^
you can consider P3D the heir to FSX throne

I personally have decided to stick with FSX. P3Dv2 looks indeed a bit better, but given the long time LM had to develop P3D beyond what they inherited from FSX I am actually disappointed.  If I recall correctly, they didn't even fix the erroneous time zones or improved default ATC. I believe both of these features are more relevant to training/education than having shadows in the cockpit, so I really don't get what LM is trying to achieve.

 

The main reason I go with FSX is that it is very stable on my system and that some of the best addons (such as PMDG aircraft) are not really available for P3D, or you have to pay again to use them.

 

Peter

given the long time LM had to develop P3D beyond what they inherited from FSX I am actually disappointed.  

 

If I recall correctly, they didn't even fix the erroneous time zones or improved default ATC. I believe both of these features are more relevant to training/education than having shadows in the cockpit, so I really don't get what LM is trying to achieve.

 

Peter

 

You are joking right?

 

You need to understand that LM did not develop P3D for you and me.  They have developed it primarily for commercial and military training audiences and therfore enhancing 'canned' ATC is unlikely to have been on a 'must do' list.  There are other interfaces and simulated environments available to the platform which outstrip any benefit they could possibly have added to ATC. Think broader

No stutters for me.  Upgraded my graphics card (GTX 760) - still running on a Q6600 @ 3.2 and very happily flying Majestic Q400 with Orbx scenery.  Never going back.  FSX is now in my museum box and I will no longer purchasing anything unless it's P3D compatible. 

P3D advantages for me:

 

Continuing development. Non-popping more realistic looking autogen. Much smoother than FSX with minimal tweaking (in the GUI not the cfg file).

 

P3D disadvantages:

 

Cloud/terrain shadows, HDR etc all make a big difference to my FPS so I run with them off for now. It doesn't ruin the look for me.

 

I have a smooth, fluid 60fps flying experience most of the time in P3D. I never really did in FSX or FSX DX10.

 

Hope this helps you make a decision!

Are you a hobbyist for entertainment purposes or are you a make believe professional training enthusiast? Besides the two, I never saw a big difference other than shadows that can kill performance.

P3D stutters - FSX does not (given similar hardware and settings).

 

Oh, now that's hilarious!  You can also configure a machine where FSX stutters (shocking, I know) and P3D does not.

 

Not to mention the stutter issues inherent to long-standing FSX bugs that LM has actually fixed in P3D.

I think, yes, there are many nice features about P3D...visually it's much better and it is under ongoing development. But there are some, including myself, who continue to have stutters and/or jaggies in P3D that we don't have as much in FSX.  Some people don't and are happy.  LM is working on performance and they're also working with nVidea. Personally, I have both.  I continue to work on P3D jaggies and stutters.  But, I'm still flying FSX for now. 

Totally not trying to start a war here re: Stutters

Just thought it should be mentioned to the OP, as it clearly is a documented problem, as acknowledged by LM.

 

Would love to see some YouTube links from you guys with the 60fps, no stuttering and sliders up high with cloud shadows on.  If for nothing else than to lust after!

 

And if P3D can't be smooth with the new features on, then the point of using P3D (over FSX) gets greatly diminished and thus my comment that P3D has an issue with stuttering.

 

...Again, was all to catch the OP up on things

 

Would love to see some YouTube links from you guys with the 60fps, no stuttering and sliders up high with cloud shadows on.  

 

Here you go. 

 

I don't have the best of computers....I only use a dated i7 920 @ 3.2ghz, but I have a super clocked EVGA GTX680. All sliders are max apart from water. Cloud shadows enabled as well as all the other shadows.

 

I set my limiter to a modest 25fps using Precision X

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ol5dcwlImgY