Dynamic Lights performance V4.2 vs V4.4

[Deltaair1212 53]

When DL first came out, I didn’t really bother with the new technology. Partly because I was still rocking a GTX 960 which wouldn’t have been able to run the graphic intensive light setting anyways. But I did sit back and look at various feedback from users who did partake in DL. The reviews were all over the place. Some say their sim literally went to a crawl whenever DL was on, and some said it was the best thing that ever happened. But that was a little over two years ago. Now fast forward to today and we have V4.4 on our hands with a laundry list of improvements but I was curious as to where DL stands. From when it was first rolled out, has it improved any performance wise? Or is it still not worth turning on? I have sense upgraded to a GTX 1060 Gaming X which is moderately OC’d and it is pared with a i7-8700K @4.7. Are you folks that use DL still having those 20fps drops? Or is it more tolerable now like only a 5fps drop? 

[CFIJose 5,485]

6 hours ago, Deltaair1212 said:

When DL first came out, I didn’t really bother with the new technology. Partly because I was still rocking a GTX 960 which wouldn’t have been able to run the graphic intensive light setting anyways. But I did sit back and look at various feedback from users who did partake in DL. The reviews were all over the place. Some say their sim literally went to a crawl whenever DL was on, and some said it was the best thing that ever happened. But that was a little over two years ago. Now fast forward to today and we have V4.4 on our hands with a laundry list of improvements but I was curious as to where DL stands. From when it was first rolled out, has it improved any performance wise? Or is it still not worth turning on? I have sense upgraded to a GTX 1060 Gaming X which is moderately OC’d and it is pared with a i7-8700K @4.7. Are you folks that use DL still having those 20fps drops? Or is it more tolerable now like only a 5fps drop? 

Significantly improved, but it depends on the airport. At some airports fps fps are still unacceptable. You need to check your favorite airports. Overall it's improved.

[Sartanius 399]

Hi Deltaair1212.  I was using a GTX980 when v4.2 was released and could not use DL at virtually all the 3rd party addon airports.  Was truly frustrating since I couldn't disable DL and have normal landing/taxi lights in my PMDG aircraft.  I moved to a GTX1060 and the situation was better, but still horrible at most airports, so I stayed away from DL, and still lacked landing/taxi lights with my PMDG products.

After updating to v4.4, I created a scenario at FlightBeam's KMSP (Gate F10) at midnight with the FSL A320 with DL enabled (both P3D and scenery) and could only manage 4.7 FPS, and I run medium to high settings in P3D.  So, I moved up to a 2080Ti and now I'm getting 40 FPS with that exact same scenario.  I hate to say this, but it appears DL need a very powerful GPU to do them justice.  What I can't say, though, is what kind of jump you'd get with a 1080Ti (vs the 2080Ti).  You would certainly do a lot better than your 1060, but only you could judge if performance was adequate at your favorite airports.

[CFIJose 5,485]

I have a 1070 and I have much better fps with DL enabled since 4.3. You don't need to spend 2K on a video card to get good fps.

[joepoway 241]

2 hours ago, DJJose said:

I have a 1070 and I have much better fps with DL enabled since 4.3. You don't need to spend 2K on a video card to get good fps.

I as well run a stock overclocked GTX 1070 at 2025 MHz and can now turn on DL and it’s much better in v4.4 but I rarely turn on the addon airport DL option because that can cause bad stutters at most airports that have that feature. Under each addon airports configuration setting you can toggle all kinds of GPU (and CPU) hungary features to experiment with. 

The 1060 will work better in v4.4 but you’ll have to see what the load is on your GPU with all your other settings, just monitor it with GPU-Z and see if you can trade off something else.

Good luck

Joe

[Boeing or not going 578]

Improved in 4.3 but only in areas not getting dynamic light reflections if you are on the ground at a big airport that has dynamic lights the performance is very VERY bad and nothing changed I think it is worse performance in dynamic light situations in p3d4.3 and 4.4