P3Dv4.5 - Best screen aspect ratio and resolution

[Sean H 3]

Hi readers,

I’m after some current (2021) advice please on getting a new monitor.  I am currently using a SONY TV 40” however I can’t read any gauges or fmc text without zooming in a lot.

I am going to buy a new screen.  It will be the main P3Dv4 screen.  There seems to be a suggestion that 16;9 is the way to go.  There is a 49” curved but it is wide and low.

Any suggestions/comments would help.

[Egbert Drenth 250]

2 minutes ago, Sean H said:

Hi readers,

I’m after some current (2021) advice please on getting a new monitor.  I am currently using a SONY TV 40” however I can’t read any gauges or fmc text without zooming in a lot.

I am going to buy a new screen.  It will be the main P3Dv4 screen.  There seems to be a suggestion that 16;9 is the way to go.  There is a 49” curved but it is wide and low.

Any suggestions/comments would help.

I wouldn't focus too much on aspect ratio if I were you. The aspect ratio more or less defines how much you see in your screen,
not how sharp/crisp you image is.
A 49" screen with 1080p resolution won't help you a bit. You need 4K resolution for that including an accompanying beefy system.
And even then you need sometimes to zoom in for reading text.

I have a 32" 1440p monitor and can read my PDF/ND/AP pretty good. But I defined/designed my own views (by means of EZDOK).
Also for using FMC (and other parts of cockpit), I have defined a specific view bound to a key-stroke.
I don't know if you have such an application, but maybe that should be you next step.
 

 

[Ray Proudfoot 9,030]

@Sean H, the first thing we need to know is your budget and your hardware specs. For 4K you need a minimum of a 1080Ti.

Next is whether you want immersion (large screen essential) or clarity (smaller screen essential). Only you can decide that. As the screen gets larger for a 4K resolution the sharpness will reduce. It’s all about how many pixels per inch there are.

TVs start at 40”. Monitors (16:9) end at 32”. The only displays in between those are ultra-wide but they’re not 4K.

The 32” 16:9 monitor is a popular size and lots of models are available depending on your budget. With TVs it’s essential to buy one that supports chroma 4:4:4 which makes text as sharp as monitors.

I’m moving this to the Hardware / Monitor section as you’ll get more responses.

[331BK 96]

I have a 32 inch 4k and Sinne yesterday a Samsung Odyssee g9 with  49 inch and 32:9 at 5120x1440

i have to day first i wash shocked behause the image in Windows Desktop was not as crisp as on the 4K but the immersion within p3d with the 49 inch is fantastic.

and with 8xssaa i dont See much of a difference to 4K 

Edited June 19, 2021 by 331BK

[Noel 4,546]

On 6/18/2021 at 11:54 PM, Sean H said:

Any suggestions/comments would help.

You do not need an ultra-high gigahertz refresh for P3D or any other flight sim.  I strongly recommend this curved Dell 3440x1440 screen with its peak refresh of 60Hz, but far more importantly at this point in time for me and many others, is its ability to run at 30Hz.  This allows one to vsync to 30Hz for a rock solid frame rate of 30 without asking your CPU and GPU to crank out any more frames than required, which therefore leaves you a lot of headroom, whereas when you don't do this, your CPU and GPU will try to crank out maximum.  Unfortunately the payoff for maximum frame is poor relative to the smooth, fluid video one gets with vsync to 30Hz.  Now, if one could run P3D 4.5 or MSFS or whatever always at a minimum of 60fps, one could then vsync to 60Hz.  Unfortunately, if you run complex planes like offerings from PMDG and wish to fly into large 3rd party terminals like KSFO-HD, you simple cannot do this, hence we use 30Hz.  I have done many tests to demonstrate vsync to 60Hz, by for example using the Majestic Dash 8 which is ultra easy on frame rates, in easy to fly thru areas where maintaining a frame rate of 60 is easy to do, only to discover the actual experience in all aspects, was absolutely no better than vsync to 30Hz.  All aspects means:  panning, taxiing, mouse cursor motion, everything. Unfortunately, in the craze to satisfy users who insist on ultra high Ghz capable screens, it's hard to find a 30Hz capable screen.  This is the basis of why I strongly recommend this Dell screen:

https://www.amazon.com/Dell-UltraSharp-34-Inch-LED-Lit-Monitor/dp/B00PXYRMPE

The screen does not support HDR, however has its own version called Dynamic Contrast, and I use it via it's 'game mode' option.

Here's an example of what I mean by the benefits of CPU/GPU headroom by asking them to only ever render 30fps.  Note the first shot is running on a 60Hz display, not vsynced.  Frame rate is 41, CPU load is 52%, and GPU is 99%.  This was done in MSFS but the identical logic applies to P3D:

And now vsync'd to 30Hz:  frame rate is 30, CPU load nearly half at 27%, and GPU load down to 76%:

I can tell you without equivocation that you will prefer the latter in terms of smooth, stutter-free video.  The caveat is you still must be able to maintain at least 30fps, else stutters will ensue.  That is a case of setting up sliders in P3D/MSFS accordingly.  Some will chime in and say they can't stand 30Hz as a refresh rate but they're not looking at this display.  In any double-blinded test I would bet anyone $100 if they could tell the difference with normal operation of their flight sim, all aspects of it, but without doing special tricks to tease out differences.  Even so-called mouse lag is no different on this display when set at 30Hz or 60Hz.

[Ray Proudfoot 9,030]

Just to add to Noel’s excellent write-up you can help the system maintain 30fps at busy airports with AIG Ai aircraft.

Use the Traffic tab in FSUIPC to set a minimum number if Ai and the fps you want. 30fps of course.

Approaching LFPG for example there might be 120 Ai in the area and your fps May have dropped below 30. That’s where FSUIPC comes to the rescue and deletes 4-5 Ai then checks fps and if still below 30 does the same again until 30 is achieved.

You set a minimum number of Ai below which no more should be deleted. I find 50 is okay for EGLL. P3D only of course and AIG package required for enough Ai to be managed.

[JRMurray 214]

On 6/25/2021 at 9:02 AM, Noel said:

 Even so-called mouse lag is no different on this display when set at 30Hz or 60Hz.

Thanks, Noel. Great explanation. So if I understand your signature correctly, setting the monitor to 30Hz would entail changing the settings for the monitor Hz refresh rate setting via NVidia Inspector ... or via the monitor settings themselves? Within P3D 5.2, the setting would be unlimited framerate, but Vsync on, correct? How about the frame buffer (or whatever it's called)?

[Noel 4,546]

3 hours ago, JRMurray said:

Thanks, Noel. Great explanation. So if I understand your signature correctly, setting the monitor to 30Hz would entail changing the settings for the monitor Hz refresh rate setting via NVidia Inspector ... or via the monitor settings themselves? Within P3D 5.2, the setting would be unlimited framerate, but Vsync on, correct? How about the frame buffer (or whatever it's called)?

I set the monitor to 30Hz using NVidia Control Panel > Desktop Resolution > 30Hz.  The setting in P3D 4.5 (don't use 5.x) would be Unlimited w/ Vsync on as you note.  The other setting in nV Control Panel when you vsync to 30Hz display, is Low Latency which should be set to Ultra.  I get ~12% lower GPU utilization thru this pathway w/ no downside, and in my system the GPU is almost always the limiting factor, especially in MSFS but also P3D 4.5 to a lesser degree.

What I can't say is how one goes about finding a display that can do 30Hz.  The documentation for the Dell referenced above does not say it's 30Hz capable but it clearly is

12 hours ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

That’s where FSUIPC comes to the rescue and deletes 4-5 Ai then checks fps and if still below 30 does the same again until 30 is achieved.

Wow, a runtime modulator.   This is something I've hoped for forever.  MSFS *should* be much more amenable to this but alas no one's published anything yet that i know of.  For me, w/ my somewhat marginal GPU, I'd love to have one that dialed back Volumetric Clouds and a few other GPU-intensive sliders as GPU utilization started to approach 100%.  It would be so nice not to have to stop and adjust...

[Ray Proudfoot 9,030]

8 minutes ago, Noel said:

Wow, a runtime modulator.   This is something I've hoped for forever.  MSFS *should* be much more amenable to this but alas no one's published anything yet that i know of.  For me, w/ my somewhat marginal GPU, I'd love to have one that dialed back Volumetric Clouds and a few other GPU-intensive sliders as GPU utilization started to approach 100%.  It would be so nice not to have to stop and adjust...

You could mention this on the FSUIPC forum but whether it’s possible only John or Pete could say. Not yet would be my guess given there’s no 3rd party access been given to the weather the last I heard.

The Ai have to be in BGL files too rather than injected. But I see you have P3D v4.5 so you can tweak your Ai there.