Am thinking of upgrading to P3d V5, but need some info first.

I have 4.5 already. Is v5 a free upgrade? If not, what's the price? Am on a limited budget.

How will it affect aircraft already have? PMDG, Aerosoft, Carenado, stuff from Simviation, etc. I really don't want to have to re-purchase or re-download everything? 

This is my current system : MSI Z390 Gaming Edge, I7 8700 3.2Ghz, EVGA RTX 2060 KO, 32Gb Corsair "Vengeance LPX" 2666, Win10 64.

 Will this system handle it OK? In general, what kind of framerates or settings can I expect?

Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Thanx.

1. No, the upgrade is not free. LM considers each major version (4.x, 5.x) as separate products, so you would need to pay for 5.x, though you then get the 5.x point releases as free upgrades.

2. In terms of existing aircraft - some will just work as-is, but many require a patch or in some cases a re-install.

3. In terms of your system, the GPU will be the weak spot. P3Dv5 has moved to DirectX 12 and this is very different from DX11 in terms of the programming. 5.0 and 5.1 were both a little buggy because of this. Although the point updates to 5.2 have improved this, P3D still eats VRAM for breakfast and 6GB may not be enough. 

4. Performance is significantly improved, so you can expect a significant FPS uplift. Overall the sim feels smoother and faster. There are new options, particularly the (optional) Enhanced Atmospherics, which can cost significant FPS though. I get better performance on 5.2 than I ever did on 4.5. 

Many people have chosen to stay with 4.5 because of the GPU and EA issues, but it's doubtful that 4.5 will get any further hotfixes and so the only way to get current is to upgrade. OTOH, given the current situation with developers ending or slowing down P3D support altogether, the future is unclear. Basically you need to decide between being conservative and sticking with what you have if it works for you, or going for the upgrade but realising that like any major version upgrade to P3D it will require time and maybe money to get completely right.

Edited August 17, 20214 yr by neilhewitt

Good points by Neil. However, my GPU is an Nividia 1660ti with 6G Vram....works fine. I have most sliders at full or near full right and hardly ever see more than 3.5 VRAM used.

Also, I fully recommend V5. It is an excellent upgrade improvement.

 

Sherm

3 minutes ago, shermank said:

Good points by Neil. However, my GPU is an Nividia 1660ti with 6G Vram....works fine. I have most sliders at full or near full right and hardly ever see more than 3.5 VRAM used.

Also, I fully recommend V5. It is an excellent upgrade improvement.

 

Sherm

VRAM issues are more likely to be apparent if you run at higher resolution (you didn't say what your display is), if you use aggressive settings, and/or if you use certain aircraft. (The Milviz PC6 for example uses a lot)  You may or may not have issues depending on these factors.

 

I run at 2560x1080x32, native resolution for my monitor. As you point out, Kevin, the difference may be in the aircraft I fly....primarily a Manfred Jahn DC3, A2A Cessna 182 or Carenado Cessna 185. I am not much of a tubeliner fan. 

 

Sherm

4 hours ago, Hammer308 said:

 

This is my current system : MSI Z390 Gaming Edge, I7 8700 3.2Ghz, EVGA RTX 2060 KO, 32Gb Corsair "Vengeance LPX" 2666, Win10 64.

 Will this system handle it OK? In general, what kind of framerates or settings can I expect?

Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Thanx.

I would check that your Turbo Boost is enabled (usually a BIOS setting) given that's a locked multiplier version of the CPU you have. The base frequency is 3.2Ghz which is likely on the weak side since P3D is still CPU dependent.

Ideally your CPU cores want to be running above 4GHz which is possible with that CPU and Turbo Boost enabled.