Like you I was very nervous about spending money on P3D especially since the Canadian $ has took a nosedive. I bought it on the weekend and kicked myself for not getting into it sooner. Smoother graphics at higher settings. My add-ons look and feel so much better. I have installed AS A319-321, Carenado 1900D, Ultimate Terrain Europe V2, ASN, and FreeMeshX, plus a couple of freeware airports. All of those worked without a hiccup!

 

...and I will enjoy it until the credit card bill arrives at which time I suspect my wife will bar me from FS'ing... but until then... woohooo!

I know it's a bit late, but it's been busy digging out from a blizzard (temporarily in Baltimore for work) and then work.  Thank you all for your input.  I decided to go for it.  I was able to pick up both P3D for my simulation as well as a clean 250 GB SSD to install it on.  It'll be a few days before I can play with it enough to fully have my impression, but I'll report back when I do. 

I know it's a bit late, but it's been busy digging out from a blizzard (temporarily in Baltimore for work) and then work.  Thank you all for your input.  I decided to go for it.  I was able to pick up both P3D for my simulation as well as a clean 250 GB SSD to install it on.  It'll be a few days before I can play with it enough to fully have my impression, but I'll report back when I do. 

Commiserations about all the snow on that side of the Pond Eric - but the remnants of your storm have just arrived in the UK - in the form of torrential rain. After all the precipitation that we have had over the past few months (and now this) I suspect that several of our Major Airports might just be re-designated as Aircraft Carriers!!   

It's been a few days and I'm still getting P3D 3.1 setup all the way, but am very happy with the switch.  I'm a fairly big fan of the graphic improvments (cloud shadows, cockpit shadows, HDR, etc), even if the HDR is a bit strong and I needed to turn that down a bit.  

 

I haven't fully stressed the VAS yet, but can fly around OrbxNCA with FlightBeam KSFO HD, Orbx airports and the Majestic dash 8 for at least a few hours without problem.  I'll have to test out the NGX soon.

 

The performance has been excellent on my system.  I've locked the FPS at 24 and have never seen a number other than 23.9 or 24 on the FPS counter with that setup.

 

I'm looking forward to carrier ops with all the water systems, but looks like that will have to wait a bit for VRS to catch up and/or the update to the Aerosoft F-14X.