Thinking of taking the plunge form FSX to P3D v4

[CFIJose 5,485]

2 hours ago, Mengy said:

cloud shadowing is such a huge feature for immersion.

Cloud shadows do make a big difference, but there are some issues with disappearing cloud shadows when panning and sometimes you will see a straight line shadow with some aircraft. If you have a fix, please share. Thanks!

[IanHarrison 521]

Stated above " you need PTA to make P3D look awesome". No you don't. it looks awesome "out of the box".

I have dumped PTA as it seems less relevant now that EF is just about working. 

The differences were minute to my eye. (1080p monitor and 1080GTX card).

Perhaps if you have a top end 4k monitor and top end card to match, the story is different.

[CFIJose 5,485]

26 minutes ago, IanHarrison said:

Stated above " you need PTA to make P3D look awesome". No you don't. it looks awesome "out of the box".

I have dumped PTA as it seems less relevant now that EF is just about working. 

The differences were minute to my eye. (1080p monitor and 1080GTX card).

Perhaps if you have a top end 4k monitor and top end card to match, the story is different.

If you use EF with SF then PTA is redundant.

[untoweechja 35]

4 hours ago, Mengy said:

To give you a counter point to the "must have a 1070" thing, I've been flying in P3D for years with an i5-2500K paired with a GTX970 just fine and dandy.  Sure I can't max the sliders out, and yeah the frames could be better in big cities, but it's certainly flyable and runs just fine.  Your 1060 would do even better than my system has for all these years. 

As for the FSX vs P3D topic, cloud shadows alone makes the jump worth it.  P3D does many things better than FSX but the cloud shadowing is such a huge feature for immersion.

Same here with a GTX980, but I'm not averse to scaling back the eye candy a bit and I do 90% of my flying in the Majestic Q400, which is very frame rate friendly.  Even as a perfectly happy user of FSX:SE for several years, I'm glad I made the jump to P3D.

[Boeing or not going 578]

22 hours ago, forshaw said:

If you look at my last post you will see my add-ons. I have and run the biggest resource hogs add-on out there. The reason I don't get any OOM is because I have learned over the years how to tweak my FSX (settings not Config file) my graphics and displays are great. One thing I don't do is after a long flight London to NY I don't keep switching views (wing, engine, 1st class, Econ Class views) back and forth, that can cause some issues, especially if it's bad weather. Other than that I don't ever get OOM. Hence the reason I am reaching out to get good and informative information about switching since I am not unhappy with FSX. But get a sense as to what to expect in terms of improvement if I switch now. I don't want to be disappointed because my expectations were incorrect.

Cheers.

Forshaw

Not being limited and afraid of changing your camera because of an OOM is important to me. No ptsd from the ding of the memory manager. You can run AI and fly to London and NY and never care about too many textures loading in. You have PTA and Tomatoshade and REX to get the shaders looking very nice and DX11 features making the cockpit shadows and cloud shadows all look great!

Edited August 11, 2019 by Boeing or not going

[forshaw 47]

43 minutes ago, Boeing or not going said:

Not being limited and afraid of changing your camera because of an OOM is important to me. No ptsd from the ding of the memory manager. You can run AI and fly to London and NY and never care about too many textures loading in. You have PTA and Tomatoshade and REX to get the shaders looking very nice and DX11 features making the cockpit shadows and cloud shadows all look great!

I hear you...LOL yes it does have great looking textures. BTW. I do get cockpit shadows since I use DX10 with Steve Fixer which does a fantastic job with shadows so I am not totally in the primitive world.

 I am not too big on the camera views just a few during takeoff and a few during landing works for me and for that I don't get any OOM. I fly the heavies and all of my flight are above 340, not much to check out with the cameras for me, again that's just me.

Thanks for the added info I appreciate it.

Cheers.

Forshaw.

 

[forshaw 47]

10 hours ago, untoweechja said:

Same here with a GTX980, but I'm not averse to scaling back the eye candy a bit and I do 90% of my flying in the Majestic Q400, which is very frame rate friendly.  Even as a perfectly happy user of FSX:SE for several years, I'm glad I made the jump to P3D.

Just on the topic of adequate GPU, interesting fact about the GTX 1060 6GB which is what I have, it is not as good as the GTX 770 - 2GB which is what I had before. My 770 died so I purchased the GTX 1060 thinking it was a better card and to my surprise my performance dropped in FSX. Someone on this forum posted the specs showing that the transfer rate speed is faster on the 770 than the 1060. I didn't get the next step up from the 770.

I am sure I would be happy with the switch but I will wait until next year when I get a  my new rig and who knows maybe, MS Sim 2020 will be out. I am also not prepared to buy a new version of PMDG 747 since they don't offer a bundled version (FSX/P3D) version.

Who knows if for some reason my FSX starts to crash I will just buy the bloody thing and get on with it 

Thanks.

Cheers

Forshaw.

[Dazkent 113]

I am in a very similar position as yourself. I run FSX though and have dabbled a bit with P3D V2 and V3.

There are definitely a couple of things for your to consider. The first thing is what resolution you wish to run at. If anything higher than 1080P then you will definitely need a pretty high end graphics card. The other thing is to check is the refresh rate your monitor supports, many people have monitors that can refresh at 30hz which will enable a smoother experience (though i am not sure what this does to the mouse cursor when moving around the screen). If like me 60hz is your only option you may be hard pushed to get that smooth experience

My biggest reason for not switching is P3D does not have a true full screen mode so getting a buttery smooth consistent 30FPS is something i have never managed to do. With FSX i have it set to 1/2 refresh for my 60hz monitor and it's really really smooth.

Personally, I would stick with FSX and then take a look at what V5 has to offer.

 

[Simicro 247]

HI Forshaw,

I don't want to make you write too much, but in the end, what is your (maybe temporary) decision? 😉

[asustech 5]

And dont forget the new offerings from Microsoft next year , so maybe, hang fire until the new FSX  launches and you will have even more options to consider.... never had so much choice .... yay 😁

[forshaw 47]

Finally Folks;

Everyone has been so nice and patient with me and provided valuable and very informative information and I really appreciate it.

I have decided to hold off on switching to P3D for now, and for the following reasons:

1. I am happy with FSX, I don't get any OOM and haven't gotten any for years, my performance is pretty good. So no pressing reason to switch. I am still enjoying flying my heavies with my add-ons.
2. Since P3D v4 is approaching it's end of life for v4 I don't want to switch now and then have to purchase V5 shortly there after, also I will have to purchase a new PMDG 747 for P3D. I just got it earlier this year for FSX.
3. I will be changing my rig next year so might as well wait until I change, by then V5++ will be out, Intel may have their new Chip set out and I can have a well put together rid. The jury is still out on my hardware (questionable if some components of my hardware are up to par).
4. As everyone knows MS is planning on launching their new sim next year so that's another option in the mix as part of the overall decision.

Is P3D better; absolutely, I don't think that there is even a question about that. But given my current position there is no need for me to switch now if I don't have to.

I will definitely be getting off of FSX no question, it's just a matter of the optimal time and the available options at that time I take the plunge.

If my PC crashes tomorrow and or for some reason I start getting OOM frequently, I will definitely switch since it wouldn't be worth my time to troubleshoot this stuff. 

I have learned so much about P3D vs. FSX and what it has to offer from you folks. I am glad I reached out and am happy with my decision to hold off for now.

Thanks again Folks.

Cheers.

Forshaw.

 

[forshaw 47]

6 hours ago, Simicro said:

HI Forshaw,

I don't want to make you write too much, but in the end, what is your (maybe temporary) decision? 😉

Hi Tony;

Yes I decided to hold off for now, see my latest post. will be getting off FSX but for now will stick with it until other factors come into play.

Thanks again.

Cheers.

Forshaw

[forshaw 47]

7 hours ago, Dazkent said:

I am in a very similar position as yourself. I run FSX though and have dabbled a bit with P3D V2 and V3.

There are definitely a couple of things for your to consider. The first thing is what resolution you wish to run at. If anything higher than 1080P then you will definitely need a pretty high end graphics card. The other thing is to check is the refresh rate your monitor supports, many people have monitors that can refresh at 30hz which will enable a smoother experience (though i am not sure what this does to the mouse cursor when moving around the screen). If like me 60hz is your only option you may be hard pushed to get that smooth experience

My biggest reason for not switching is P3D does not have a true full screen mode so getting a buttery smooth consistent 30FPS is something i have never managed to do. With FSX i have it set to 1/2 refresh for my 60hz monitor and it's really really smooth.

Personally, I would stick with FSX and then take a look at what V5 has to offer.

 

100% with you on this and I am in the same boat with you on my monitor. I have exactly the same set up as you have and the same concerns. My last post states some of the reasons I am holding off one of which is as you stated, let's see what V5 has.

Thanks again.

Forshaw.

[Simicro 247]

Forshaw ,

It is always a pleasure to help people like you who take time to give a feedback* 😀

Taking into account all data, your decision seems wise.

Good luck and happy flying with FSX, mate, until the right time comes for the change.

* unlike folks who 'throw' their request quickly typed and with poor infos and never come back to the thread

Edited August 11, 2019 by Simicro

[forshaw 47]

22 hours ago, Simicro said:

Forshaw ,

It is always a pleasure to help people like you who take time to give a feedback* 😀

Taking into account all data, your decision seems wise.

Good luck and happy flying with FSX, mate, until the right time comes for the change.

* unlike folks who 'throw' their request quickly typed and with poor infos and never come back to the thread

Hi Tony;

Thanks for your kind words, no worries at all. 

I was the one who needed help and reached out and everyone took time out of their personal schedule to provide valuable information in general and also based on my needs. The least and honorable thing I can do to show my appreciate is to carefully read and provide my feedback to the posts and finally let everyone know my decision and why. Also to let everyone know that their inputs really helped someone who needed it.

Will see you soon in the P3D Forum when I switch😄.

Cheers.

Forshaw.