Thoughts on Prepar3d V4

[davidzill 8]

I've been using FSX since it's release. Prior to V4's release, I've never used any version of Prepar3d. Using a Windows 7 system, I purchased V4 and was perplexed at the poor performance. I inquired in the forums, a rare minority of people reported the same issues. At the same time, I was experiencing frequent crashes in FSX; APPHANG 1b crashes virtually every time I started a flight in the NGX. 

I determined my Windows 7 was corrupted either by my own user error or other means. I upgraded to a I5 7600K at 5.3ghz, fast DDR4 memory, and two 1080 Ti's. I also installed Windows 10 Pro 64, and one single M.2 pcie 2 TB SSD.

I installed Prepar3d again. My settings are configured pretty high, although I set autogen to normal and dynamic lighting off for now, I'm using 4096 textures in 4K, 4SSAA. With the PMDG NGX, REX TD, AS4, I'm getting a solid 60fps at Flightbeam's KSFOHD V2. The terrain looks so much better than FSX, and flying looks and feels much smoother, immersive, and realilistic. 

[Les Parson 99]

David,

i have been looking for realistic comparison between FSX and P3DV4. Like yourself, Ive been on FSX for what seems like forever with Win 7/64, having spend a good deal of money over the years. If i understand correctly, you are very impressed with the differences. Can you further elaborate?

[Guest]

7 minutes ago, LDP1949 said:

If i understand correctly, you are very impressed with the differences.

Don't forget to be impressed with his brand new MONSTER PC...! I think a lot of the enthusiasm comes from that too! CPU at 5.3, two 1080 Ti's, a M.2 pcie 2 TB SSD... no wonder he is happy with performance!

[vgbaron 3,496]

6 minutes ago, J van E said:

no wonder he is happy with performance!

LOL. If he wasn't, I'd have some serious doubts about him AND P3D!!

Vic

[reecemj 144]

Please change topic to Thoughts on Davids monster rig.. Awesome David!

[davidzill 8]

52 minutes ago, LDP1949 said:

David,

i have been looking for realistic comparison between FSX and P3DV4. Like yourself, Ive been on FSX for what seems like forever with Win 7/64, having spend a good deal of money over the years. If i understand correctly, you are very impressed with the differences. Can you further elaborate?

A lot of visual differences come from the DX11/12 rendering internal HDR textures, volumetric fog rendering, etc. Textures overall appear sharper, higher resolution. Runs much smoother than FSX (Which I swore by religiously for years). Prepar3d V4 takes advantage of the most current DirectX, and is also SLi capable. In FSX to even come close I have to create an Nvidia control panel profile, Nvidia Inspector profile, and the DX10 fixer. I was very hesitant at first, however at this point I don't see how I could go back to FSX. 

[Les Parson 99]

6 hours ago, davidzill said:

A lot of visual differences come from the DX11/12 rendering internal HDR textures, volumetric fog rendering, etc. Textures overall appear sharper, higher resolution. Runs much smoother than FSX (Which I swore by religiously for years). Prepar3d V4 takes advantage of the most current DirectX, and is also SLi capable. In FSX to even come close I have to create an Nvidia control panel profile, Nvidia Inspector profile, and the DX10 fixer. I was very hesitant at first, however at this point I don't see how I could go back to FSX. 

That's very interesting and helpful. Thanks sir. 

[MrSpeaker 121]

I was going to ask p3d users if I should use w10 instead of w7 any real advantage??? 

[davidzill 8]

3 hours ago, MrSpeaker said:

I was going to ask p3d users if I should use w10 instead of w7 any real advantage??? 

My differences are explained in my initial post, however I will say Windows 10 appears far more optimized for performance than Windows 7. No editing or performance tweaks needed, it's good to go out of the box.

[JoeFackel 760]

4 hours ago, MrSpeaker said:

I was going to ask p3d users if I should use w10 instead of w7 any real advantage??? 

Not to mentions you often don't get good drivers for newer hardware. AT LEAST you should have Win 8 if you plan with new software and hardware.

 

[Guest]

12 hours ago, davidzill said:

A lot of visual differences come from the DX11/12 rendering

Prepar3d V4 takes advantage of the most current DirectX

P3D v4 uses DX11, not DX12! Support for DX12 would be awesome but I don't think we will get DX12 support anytime soon. v5 maybe.  Take note that DX12 would limit use of P3D v4 to Windows 10. Which btw wouldn't be bad because Windows 10 rocks. 

[swiesma 625]

I use P3D since v2 now.

V4 is the first time that since weeks I fire up the sim, load my flightplan and go flying. No fiddling around with settings or bugs or sufferings from CTDs... I love V4. It lets me do what I want: Fly and not think about all other stuff around it.

[davidzill 8]

I love not anticipating an OOM

[Ray Proudfoot 8,929]

On 30/08/2017 at 6:40 AM, davidzill said:

My differences are explained in my initial post, however I will say Windows 10 appears far more optimized for performance than Windows 7. No editing or performance tweaks needed, it's good to go out of the box.

I trust you have turned off all the security 'features' of 10. Some are extremely undesirable. As for the mandatory updates... that is still the reason I will stick with 7 for as long as possible. I am still running v3.4 but should I switch to v4 I don't anticipate worse performance than v3.4 gives me.

[Jim Young 2,356]

On 8/30/2017 at 1:40 AM, davidzill said:

My differences are explained in my initial post, however I will say Windows 10 appears far more optimized for performance than Windows 7.

You also had a recent topic about the very poor performance of P3DV4, now 4 pages in length.  Why are we starting a new topic?