My situation.

I am a old sport pilot, ground last year for medical, trying to take rust off with old sim and hardware.

Using FS9 and FSX SE, but wondering if X Plane might be better for me shooting approaches for realism; if my old hardware can support it.

Has anyone experienced a radical difference for light Piper, Cessna? I can see on larger stuff that the physics would be appreciated. 

The scenery is not key for this application. Thanks in advance for any input.

Dave

CYEL

Hello Dave,

X-Plane 11 is great,but quite demanding on hardware resources.  X-Plane 10 (if you can buy it, might be a better option)

 

https://www.x-plane.com/product/x-plane-10-digital-download/

https://www.x-plane.com/kb/x-plane-10-system-requirements/

X-Plane 10 requires, at the minimum,

• Dual Core, 2.5 GHz or faster
• 4 GB of RAM
• A video card with at least 1 GB of VRAM.

See here for graphics card compatibility.

However, for the best experience, we recommend the following:

• a Quad Core, 3.0 GHz or faster processor,
• 16-20 GB of RAM,
• a high-performance, DirectX 11-capable video card with at least 4 GB of on-board, dedicated VRAM.

The UI (User Interface) is not as friendly as X-Plane 11 or FSX/P3D, but you quickly get used to it.

 

Hi Dave, you can easily find out how XP11 flies on your current hardware by downloading the free demo here: https://www.x-plane.com/

It's time-limited and only features one area (Seattle), but you can launch the demo as many times as you want, adjusting settings for best performance. The demo includes all the default planes, including a Cessna 172.

 

I would advise against buying XP10, the flight model has undergone many changes since then. Moreover in a matter of months, with the switch to Vulkan, performance of XP11 should improve.

Since you already have FSX, you could directly compare the two by downloading the free XP11 demo from www.x-plane.com. It's time limited to 10 mins for each run (after which you must close and restart).

Be advised XP11 is currently going through some flight model changes, so you can use the "stable" current flight model, or the "experimental" new flight model (there's an option to switch between them).

And of course, just like for MSFS, some 3rd parties aircraft may have a more accurate flight model compared to default, but you would need to buy them of course.

I agree, with same visual settings xp11 should perform better even on older hardware. And the flight model for a complete overhaul.

Please stop recommending XP10 to anyone.

Is it not still the case that if you buy XP11 you get XP10 as well (i.e. The product key works in both). This was the case when I bought it.

Either way, I'd recommend not going with XP10.

I read somewhere that Austin failed his instrument test so built a simulator to ensure that he passed the next time.  This is where XP11 really shines.  The default aircraft come with mostly complete/clickable panels and the avionics are close to state of the art.  Some payware aircraft are approaching study level and can teach all you ever wanted to know.  In the outside the plane environment scenery is default - just that but some payware scenery is good enough to put a real hurtin' on your hardware.  IMHO they look better in XP than the other.