After a complete crash I have reinstalled Win7 Ultimate and am getting overclock testing complete. I have FSX Gold and tons of scenery and aircraft (ORBX Global, Vector, All regions, etc., Milviz, PMDG, RealAir, etc). Before installing/reinstalling FSX this is a good time to ask for advice:

Is a move to P3D better than sticking with FSX? Any REAL advantage or disadvantage?

I realize that there are strong views from both sides and do not intend to start a great debate...just asking for some down-to-earth advice.

Thanks to all

Regards

Neal Howard

After a complete crash I have reinstalled Win7 Ultimate and am getting overclock testing complete. I have FSX Gold and tons of scenery and aircraft (ORBX Global, Vector, All regions, etc., Milviz, PMDG, RealAir, etc). Before installing/reinstalling FSX this is a good time to ask for advice:

Is a move to P3D better than sticking with FSX? Any REAL advantage or disadvantage?

I realize that there are strong views from both sides and do not intend to start a great debate...just asking for some down-to-earth advice.

Thanks to all

Regards

Neal Howard

 

 

If you can afford P3D and can afford to repurchase your PMDG and RealAir planes (MilViz installers work on both platforms) you should go with P3D. If that cost is something that may not make sense for you, then I would recommend staying with FSX. 

 

P3D performs better, without a doubt. Its still 32bit but the frame rates and VAS is measurably better. Its all really up to you if the cost/performance calculation makes sense for you. 

 

Option 3, is to wait to see what DTG offers later this year and the addon developers that pledge support to the new platform. May save you some money in the long haul.

I agree with Josh.

 

If you're starting from scratch, go for P3D. The real advantage is you will have a up-to-date, fully soported simulator. Today the market share is still on FSX; but in 2 years time it will probably be on P3D and that will mean that the whole community will slowly shift towards that (the move has started already).

 

I (and I think many people as well) just use FSX because of "comfort". Migrating to a new sim and getting it to full working condition is a job in itself and takes weeks... Money is another important issue of course.

Hi Neal,

 

I have been on FS9, FSX and now on P3Dv3.2 since January. The latter was a real leap forward for me regarding visuals and performance - even on my geriatric machine (Core i7-870). As Josh stated, if you are happy to re-invest in certain addons do the jump - go directly to P3D.

 

Cheers

Frank

Stick with what you know - FSX Gold

You'll have 100% compatibility with all of your existing investments and the benefits of a nice clean reinstall. Nothing really changes for you.

 

Improve on what you know - FSX:Steam Edition

You'll have 99.9% compatibility with your addon investments, the benefits of a nice clean install, and the newfound stability and memory management improvements of the Steam Edition. It will look exactly like FSX, and cost you the purchase, but it may be worth the look if you're interested in more stability and have hit memory snags in the past.

 

Take the Step - Prepar3D

You'll have less compatibility with your addon investments and flat out lose the ability to run certain addons. You may need to re-purchase some of them to obtain a P3D capable version (PMDG comes to mind). In exchange for that, you will get a very robust simulation platform which provides a more smooth and rich visual and atmospheric experience. The reflections, shadows, HDR lighting, and other rendering improvements all make a noticeable impact for the better in my opinion.  There's no single exhaustive list of addons which work and don't, so do some forum searching to check on the addons you feel are essential to your flying. (*Most issues arise with aircraft addons, not scenery - but check to be sure).

 

Note that Prepar3D does offer a 30 or 60 day refund policy, so you can check it out. If it doesn't meet your needs, you will have the option to return it.

 

Good luck!

I think DGFS will be big. I have a feeling its userbase will outgrow that of P3D very soon because of the exposure it will get through Steam. I already am a user of Prepar3D, but if I were still on FSX today I'd wait and see how DGFS turns out when it's released and what the status of P3D will be compared to this.

One very big advantage of choosing DGFS will be the installation process. If you build your addon list over time a reinstall of the sim with addons is a breeze in Steam as opposed to P3D with all the individual installers, purchase details etc.

To make a long story short, in your case I might consider sticking with FSX and make the switch to a new sim later.

I think DGFS will be big. I have a feeling its userbase will outgrow that of P3D very soon because of the exposure it will get through Steam. I already am a user of Prepar3D, but if I were still on FSX today I'd wait and see how DGFS turns out when it's released and what the status of P3D will be compared to this.

One very big advantage of choosing DGFS will be the installation process. If you build your addon list over time a reinstall of the sim with addons is a breeze in Steam as opposed to P3D with all the individual installers, purchase details etc.

To make a long story short, in your case I might consider sticking with FSX and make the switch to a new sim later.

Exactly. Stick with FSX for now and see what happens with DTFS and also the upcoming Flight School as a way of seeing how much they are improving (hopefully) the platform. Unless you have a lot of cash to spend, this would probably make the most sense in my opinion.

Agree with the above.

 

Additionally, I imagine LM will be keen to move to 64 bit as soon as is practical, so buying P3D now may result in it being out of date within a year or so and having similar 32-bit addon compatibility issues.

I made the switch to P3D in December and have been 100% happy about doing so. The increased performance and visuals have made it easily worth the cost to me. The only thing I really miss are the Reality XP GNS units.

 

Dovetail has no firm release date for their new flight sim, and LM hasn't even announced a 64-bit version of P3D, so playing the "let's wait for the next big thing" game should not be a factor in your decision in my opinion. Even if one or both does actually get released this year, you will need to wait months or years for there to be a sufficient number of compatible add-ons to raise the level of either of those sims to where P3D is today. It will take a bit of start-up cost to get going in P3D, and whether or not you can afford it is something only you can answer, but I can pretty much guarantee you by the time the next big thing comes along you will have more than gotten your money's worth out of P3D.

If you go to P3D now and repurchase addons then find the DTG's next Sim is worth investing in when it does come out then you will end up repurchasing things all over again for a third time. For now everything works fine on FSX so maybe a good idea to ride it out and see what the next generation sim has to offer.

 

I have stuck it out with FSX because I didn't want to purchase addons again for P3D, I think it is better to spend the money on adding more to FSX then buying things again and having less in P3D.

FSX?. Apart from the investment needed for moving to P3D, what is FSX?, that old simulator?

Ed

I'm still on FSX boxed and with ASN and DX10 fixer it looks and runs well and still has the greatest breadth of addon support and compatibility. I have plenty of addons but my new addon purchases have slowed dramatically as I'm in a holding pattern waiting to see how DTG's flight sim pans out.  If there was no DTG sim then I'd probably be looking at P3D but for now I'm very interested to see how DTG pans out considering its got 64 bit support and they seem very committed to flight sim and moving their development along at a good pace.

Just to say (perhaps I was doing it wrong but....) I had worse performance in P3D v2 than in FSX.

I bought P3D v2 and used it for a while with scenery, planes, weather etc.

 

Then a year or so later, v3 came out and I needed another $200 to upgrade.

I moved to FSX SE and the performance is better I find.

I've A2A's C182 and Flight1's GTN750 that are stuck on P3D, so I can't use those.

I've still plenty of other stuff to use.

 

Anyway, my point's just that P3Dv2 still felt like an old simulator to me.  (which ironically it is now).

I have FSX/DX10 and P3D v2.5 installed, P3Dv3.2 went back for a refund.

I fly mostly FSX/DX10 It runs better and has better VAS usage , clouds,water, AA etc and overall colouration of FTX Global just looks better in FSX/DX10.

 

I will look again when P3D v4 comes along

P3D or bust.. You cant get the product support/updates with FSX. It was hard for me to let go also and re-buy everything, but it was well worth it! Im sure you will enjoy it as well..