Afternoon All.

My current PC is about 4 years old and really stuttery when it comes to P3D.  I'm lucky if I get 15-20FPS.  Installed some scenery the other day and I think I've gone beyond what it's capable of, had quite a few freezes and CTD's.  This is what I currently have:

Processor: Intel Core i7-4790 @3.60GHz (8 CPUs) CPUs
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 745
Memory: 16GB RAM
Motherboard: HP Envy 700-570na
Storage Drive: SanDisk SDSA6DM-016G-1006, ST3000DM008-2DM166
Sound Card: NVIDIA High Definition Audio
Operating System: Windows 10 Home 64-bit
 

I'm a real novice when it comes to PC hardware, how each part of the PC is relative to other parts etc.  I'd like to have a go at building my own and have done some reading up but to be honest it's probably a lost cause, and by the time I've bought all the hardware, it works out pretty much the same price as buying one from a specialist company.

So far, I like the look of the Chillblast site and what they have to offer, I'm leaning towards this one:

Processor: Intel Core i7-10700K CPU  8 Cores / 16 Threads  3.8 - 5.1GHz
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti 8GB Graphics Card
Memory: 16GB DDR4 2666MHz Memory (2 x 8GB Sticks)
Motherboard: Asus STRIX Z490-F Gaming Motherboard
Case: Fractal Design Define C Case - Black
CPU Cooler: Corsair Hydro Series H80i GT Liquid Cooler
Thermal Paste: Standard Thermal Paste
OS Drive: 250GB Samsung 860 EVO Solid State Drive
Storage Drive: Seagate 2TB BarraCuda 7200RPM Hard Disk
Optical Drive: None
Power Supply: Corsair CX750 80 PLUS Bronze 750W PSU
Sound Card: Onboard High Definition Audio
Networking: Wired Ethernet 1Gb Only
Expansion Card: None
Operating System: Windows 10 Home 64-bit
Anti Virus Software: Bullguard Internet Security - Free 90 Day Licence
Warranty: 5 Year Warranty, 2 Years Collect & Return UK only

£1799.99

I have a few sceneries installed, mainly airports and add-on aircraft such as SimWIngs Heathrow, FSDT JFK, QW 787, Aerosoft Airbuses etc.  I also run AS for P3Dv4 (low settings), BAV Merlin, vPilot, avia Server etc in the background.  I would like to step up to the next level and use the likes of ORBX scenery for the south of England, North America etc, and get a decent FPS with no stuttering or the continued fear that I may get a CTD at any time.  I wouldn't really want to go any higher that £1800.

I'd really value your thoughts and suggestions on the systems, the price and any other thoughts you have about it.  I'm planning on sticking with P3Dv4 for now, may look to upgrade to MSFS once it's more established with better quality add ons, someone recently described it as a scenery sim rather than a flight sim at the minute.

Thanks in advance 🙂 

James

@JamesGrf

Hello

Firstly FSX, FSX SE and its evolution, P3D, are mainly simulators more dependent on cpu than gpu.

On the other hand, you must adapt P3D to the characteristics of your PC, you cannot demand ultra graphics when you don't have a powerful PC, you must look for adjustments consistent with the characteristics of your PC.

Settings that cause loss of performance or may end up in a CTD are a high value of:

ai traffic, water effects, bloom, High resolution textures(2048 or 4096), high autogen and complex scenery settings, high density and draw clouds..... etc.

In addition, the use of add ons in P3D reduces performance, whether if you use payware airplanes / sceneries.

On the other hand, you have low performance in P3D because your PC has a low-powered GPU, is too old and uses a very slow memory for graphics, the DDR3, when today is used GDDR5 or GDDR6, but also, in the case of flight simulation is advisable not to use or not buy PCs like LENOVO, HP.... etc, because they are not optimized for flight simulation.

Therefore, you have two options:

1.- the cheap option, to improve your pc

If you don't feel like spending a lot of money, and using some medium to high settings with some add ons, you can get a good result if:

a) You update your GPU:

I understand that you use a 1920x1080 (Full HD) monitor.

Your motherboard has a micro ATX format, therefore, I suspect that you don't have much space inside your PC, so, you need an ITX format GPU, that is, a small GPU, but more powerful than the one you have right now, I also suspect that your PC uses a generic 500W PSU without PCI express output cable, so the viable and cheap option to resurrect your PC to use P3D would be a GTX1650 (NOT SUPER model)

Of course, this GPU will be far top to what you have right now.

I leave you here information about it and some reference models:

https://videocardz.net/nvidia-geforce-gtx-1650

https://www.techpowerup.com/review/palit-geforce-gtx-1650-stormx/

https://www.techpowerup.com/review/gigabyte-geforce-gtx-1650-oc-gddr6/

 

take into account the interior dimensions of your pc to know if the gpu is going to fit inside, it is very important

 

b) buy a SATA 3 1TB SSD for exclusively P3D, this will help to load quickly the textures and of course P3D.

2.- The expensive option to buy a PC optimized for flight simulation

that mounted equipment you are looking at, is not bad, but if you have the option to change some components, I would change:

1.- Replace the 2tb HDD by two 1TB M2 SSDs, it doesn't make sense to use HDD anymore

2.- Replace the 16gb ddr4 2666mhz of ram by 16gb ddr4 3200mhz, but if you have your mind on MFS, 32GB ddr4 3200mhz would be better.

3.- Replace the PSU with a better one, for example the Corsair TX750M 80+ Gold 750W or the RM750 80+ gold.

of the three changes, the most important change would be from HDDs to SSDs

I would recommend you to learn how to design your pc, it is not very complicated, you just need to read and search, maybe you will be able to create the pc you like and for a lower price.

Here are some websites that can help you:

https://www.passmark.com/

https://pcpartpicker.com/

Regards

Brisafresca

@E69_Brisafresca

Thank you so much for your comments and suggestions. I really value them and will take them on board. 
I think my current machine is too old and beyond saving to be honest. I will look to a new machine to improve my simming experience. 
 

Many thanks

James

21 minutes ago, JamesGrf said:

@E69_Brisafresca

Thank you so much for your comments and suggestions. I really value them and will take them on board. 
I think my current machine is too old and beyond saving to be honest. I will look to a new machine to improve my simming experience. 
 

Many thanks

James

your welcome👍