Prepar3d v5 to the Max - These Sliders go Up to 11!

[Malcolm Street 74]

Following the example of the OP I thought I'd try cranking up the settings on my multi-monitor 4k P3D rig..

The PC has an AMD 3800X CPU, overclocked from 3.89 to 4.15GHz, and a 2080Ti, both water cooled.  It drives three 43 inch Hisense S8 TVs in 4k. 

With my normal relatively mild settings I can sustain 30fps in country flight on the three monitors at 4k.  I use three separate cockpit images using New View/Undock Window.  I use VSync, set frame rate to 30fps and select triple buffering.  I disable Dynamic Texture Streaming. 

To test cranking it up I used the latest leg of a long-term tour of the Western US and Canada - from Orbx Spokane (KSFF) to Orbx Kelowna, over TrueEarth WA and NA Central Rockies.  Only add-on running is Chaseplane.  Season was Autumn.  Aircraft was Carenado C210M.

Followed the example of maxing nearly all the World settings, and at KSFF the frame rate dropped from c. 20.4 to 14.  CPU went from 30% to 35%, but GPU went from 38% to 57%.  VRAM increased from 5 to 6.1 GB.

I then selected 4096 textures, numbers were now 13.9. 40%, 56% and 6.7.

Started taxying and the frame rate didn't affect things as much as I'd expected - most of the slowdown seemed to be on the side monitors.  It was certainly usable.

Took off and as I climbed away the frame rate improved along with CPU/GPU utilisation.  By the time I got to the cruise altitude of 12,500 ft the numbers were 24, 78%, 88% and 6.5.

Last change was to select Hi Resolution Textures and it changed to 22, 78%, 92%, 6.5.  With the water cooling despite the very high GPU utilisation its temperature stayed steady as a rock at 73 degrees Celsius.

Approach to Kelowna was uneventful and while I didn't take readings, the frame rate was better than at Spokane.  

I was *very* impressed overall at how far I could push a 4k, triple monitor setup with a 2080ti and retain controllability.

It will do until 20 GB 3080 Tis are available in quantity 🙂

Edited January 31, 2021 by Malcolm Street
typos and repeats of text, last sentence added.

[Mace 1,929]

I'll have to pass on 8xSSAA, but other than that, I can run all sliders right.

My 1080ti is just not up to running 8xSSAA at 4K.  or even 2K.   But I can run all sliders right with 4xMSAA and 2048 textures, and surprisingly it pegged 60 fps at MHLM.  So the real test was LatinVFR KMIA, and there I went, and there I got 30 fps steady, and vram pushed the limits but held strong.   So really, pretty good!  I was surprised a little.  

I think a lot of us got gun-shy with sliders in v4.x and still haven't gotten into the mindset of DX12 and v5 as it relates to settings.  They can be higher.

[spilok 1,136]

31 minutes ago, Mace said:

I'll have to pass on 8xSSAA, but other than that, I can run all sliders right.

My 1080ti is just not up to running 8xSSAA at 4K.  or even 2K.   But I can run all sliders right with 4xMSAA and 2048 textures, and surprisingly it pegged 60 fps at MHLM.  So the real test was LatinVFR KMIA, and there I went, and there I got 30 fps steady, and vram pushed the limits but held strong.   So really, pretty good!  I was surprised a little.  

I think a lot of us got gun-shy with sliders in v4.x and still haven't gotten into the mindset of DX12 and v5 as it relates to settings.  They can be higher.

My 1080ti is also better off with staying away from SSAA after all.  I'm setting it to 8xMSAA and it works great with my 4K LG monitor.  All sliders to the right and I am having fun.  V5 never flew this well before.  Had some really excellent flights since doing this. Thanks again for proving that there's more to this sim than just VRAM problems.  Turning down sliders is OBVIOUSLY NOT the solution!

Stan

[TurboKen 221]

On 1/29/2021 at 1:56 PM, spilok said:

I DON'T GET IT!!!  When I first read this thread about maxing out settings in P3dv5, I thought, "how crazy is this guy?"  I cannot believe these results because I have been so diligent and careful with my settings. I tweak this setting and that setting and lower this setting and that setting, and every day I think about what I can do to make things smoother and crash proof in this sim. AND this guy maxes out everything and flies successfully?

I have a 2 year old Jetline system that was loaded for 2 years ago, and I really enjoy it for just about everything.  V5 did cause some problems initially because of DX12 I presume, so I've had to play with the settings much more than any previous versions.  I have an Nvidia 1080ti which has 11gb.  From time to time, my sim stutters, pauses, crashes occasionally, and sometimes near the end of a flight, the scenery might "blur up".  All of these things happen...but not on every flight.  Why?  I don't know. Anyway, I live with it, and like many others, I look forward to the next P3d hotfix or version change.  I'm satisfied and realize that from everything I read on these forums, I'm not alone.  I still enjoy flying V5 every single day, and some days are much better than others.  I delete shaders from time to time, change Nvidia drivers and even delete the CFG when I get to a certain point.

Max out the sliders?  Really?

Well, I did that today.  I maxed out every one except resolution which I kept at 2048.  Even though I have a 32" LG 4K monitor, 2048 seems to be more fluid for me in this sim. I still kept my 30 fps in Nvidia Control Panel but set my frames to Unlimited in the sim.  Everything is turned on...FXAA, VSync, Triple Buffering, 8 MSAA, etc.  All sliders are to the right, all traffic is to the right, water, special effects, EVERYTHING!

My GB reading got as high as 5.7/10.1 (it usually stays in the 4's), but guess what? NO CRASHES, NO BLURRIES, NO PAUSES, and NO STUTTERS.  I couldn't friggin' believe it!  Why is this happening?  It doesn't make sense in the sim world.  It's crazy, and I would have never done it unless I read this thread.  What a rush!  The sim looked beautiful and the scenery was amazing.  All was right with the world.  I saved my settings under the title "Max Out" and I can't wait to keep trying this insane approach.  I sincerely thank you for this idea, and I really hope that this wonderful experience continues.  If it does...what does that say about VRAM crashes?  

Thanks, OZWhitey!

Stan

Thanks for posting Stan, you gave me a good laugh. I know its hard to imagine until you see for yourself. Prepar3d looks amazing fully maxed out. Again I have ORBX true earth installed and it looks incredible. LM really did a good job moving the load to the GPU. You just need lots of vram, but if you do, wow.

[OzWhitey 3,353]

On 2/1/2021 at 3:50 AM, spilok said:

My 1080ti is also better off with staying away from SSAA after all.  I'm setting it to 8xMSAA and it works great with my 4K LG monitor.  All sliders to the right and I am having fun.  V5 never flew this well before.  Had some really excellent flights since doing this. Thanks again for proving that there's more to this sim than just VRAM problems.  Turning down sliders is OBVIOUSLY NOT the solution!

Stan

Ha, I'm glad you're having a good run now with v5, Stan, as I know that you've had a few problems with P3D along the way. 

I don't know about you lads, but I'm really enjoying the current P3D v5.1 iteration. I fly MSFS a bit as well, but P3D still gets most of my sim time.

The world has moved on since the original post, and we now have bigger and better graphics cards than "back in the day" of June 2020. I'm still on the 2080Ti, but someone with a 3090 needs to try the same sort of test, and see if the sliders now go up to 12!

Happy flying all,

Rob