Hello everyone, 

Im recently having a lot of problems with P3D v3 and i'm more and more being told that v4 is better and more stable than v3. But before I really switch, I'd like to make sure that its suitable for my pc specs. First of all  im wondering whether v4 is more demanding on GPU than v3, because thats what ive read very often in all the forums. if thats really the case, would that have a big impact on FPS? Im using a GTX940MX and while playing v3, its load is at 100%. My CPU is an i7 7500U and while playing its load is usually at ~75% depending on other programs that are running simultaneously. All in all, i get about 20 FPS in average, sometimes more, sometimes less. I use the PMDG 737NGX, quite a few scenery addons such as ORBX, aerosoft, T2G and also a weather engine. Would I be able to play on v4 with ~20 FPS too while using all these addons? Also, are there many addons that are compatible with v4 yet?

I can only give you my own experiences but hopefully they will help;

I run P3D v4 on an Alienware 17 gaming laptop and an external monitor, all drives are SSD, the processor is the Intel Core i7 4930MX, and the GPU is the GTX880M.

Once upon a time this was a leviathan of laptops, but is now 4 years old.

I hung back from v4 because in the past I have messed up badly by being an early adopter, and as everything worked reasonably well and a lot of add-ons were not v4 compatible.

I finally upgraded to v4.1 as more add-ons became compatible and some new ones were not useable on earlier versions. Having done a bit of homework it became apparent that the update was a no-brainer, although to hedge my bets I fully backed up v3 to an external drive and kept installed on my laptop, albeit compressed to reduce the size somewhat.

I'm glad I took the leap, as the improvement in framerates and fluidity was immediately apparent, especially in complex sceneries such as Mega Heathrow with detailed planes (PMDG 747, QW787, FSLabs Airbus) and GSX ground services.

Many add-ons were a free upgrade, some not, but overall I'm happy I made the change. Sorry I don't have FPS comparisons, but I would say that I have had no issues with blurries, stutters, or CTD's since going 64-bit. I've stepped back from v4.2 as I can't see any issues to warrant the risk of my favourite add-ons giving up the ghost.

OK, that's more about the practicalities of switching to v4 rather than any specifics or technicalities.

Regards

D.

 

GPU wise same if you disable dynamic lights, CPU wise 10-15% better.