Hey all,

Long time reader, first time poster, so here's hoping this is the right subforum. If it's not, please move it, I don't want to cause problems... Also, full disclosure, this is a pretty long post, sorry in advance.

Here goes: I have been putting off a decision on switching from FSX:SE to P3D for a while now, mostly as a matter of funding. With the holiday sales going on now though, there's too many sweet deals for me to pass up, and in many cases, this means a decision between the 32 and 64-bit versions. This has led me to question the upgrade on three criteria that I'm having trouble reconciling, and I've decided I need some help from the community.

1) I wonder how much of an advantage P3D would even be versus FSX:SE on my system (which is why I put this here in hardware). I run a relatively vanilla Dell XPS 15 9550 with:

• Intel i7-6700HQ not currently overclocked
• 512 GB SSD
• 16 GB DDR4 RAM
• Intel HD530 onboard GPU
• NVidia GeForce GTX 960M dedicated GPU

2) I don't currently have any add-ons that are 32-bit and non compatible, but I am not certain that I would realize much of a gain in transitioning to 64-bit versions. Other than the OOM errors and dynamic lighting, are there any major changes you all have noticed?

3) Lastly, many of the add-ons on my holiday wishlist are cheaper in the 32-bit version, most notably, the Aerosoft Airbus, which is currently $52.99 for all 4 variants in a bundle for the 'pre-professional' 32-bit version, and $69.95 for just the 318/319 in the 'professional' 64-bit version. This is also true, though to a much lower degree, of the A2A Bonanza, which currently sits at the top of my list. Is the difference between such models really great enough to warrant me paying $60 for P3D to then pay more for the add-on. I'm not a proffesional by any means, so I wonder how much I'd really get out of it.

Thanks for sticking with me and for any advice,

Robert

 

tl;dr: Running a vanilla Dell XPS 15 9550 and wondering if P3Dv4 is worth the $$$ in sim cost and add-ons given the limitations of this system.

It will run nice, follow these indications (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGOLxMvDkDk) like me and you'll get a really smooth sim also on your laptop