So I currently have a 1070 FE and am looking to upgrade my GPU to something better.  Does anybody use a 3060 12GB in P3dv5?  I realize it is an entry level card, but it has 12 GB VRAM.  I keep running into VRAM limitations with the 1070 only being 8 GB of VRAM, but also not sure if I want to drop $800+ on a 3080.  I am not running in 4K p3d in 4k so a 3090 seems unnecessary .

 

Thanks 

I have had one for the last three months and was just amazed at the difference.

My previous was a GTX 1070 and it could barely cope with P3D 4.5.

Upgraded to the 3060 12gb and P3D v5.3 and what a huge difference. DX12 working, high frame rates, no CTD's and all with my 5 year old CPU 6700K.

If you can afford it then go for it, unlikely to let you down.

Regards

Thanks for the feedback Terry.  What resolution are you running V5 in?  Out of curiosity, how high have you seen seen VRAM climb to on the 3060? 

1080p,   1920 x 1080 native on all three monitors. Refresh 60Hz

Max VRAM was 8 on approach to EGLL Aerosoft Mega Heathrow with 8-9 frames per sec. only get such low frames at EGLL and Dreamteam KLAX  everything else is well above 20 frames on approach to large airports and 60-70 departures and enroute.

Normal VRAM is around 5 other than the mentioned EGLL & KLAX.

Have to say this card and 5.3 have given the best sim views ever.

I have most of ORBX products all of Flightbeam and large amount Dream team airports & GSX V2  as well as VHHH (TaxitoGate) (and WSSS (Imagine).

I have the latest NVIDIA Driver 526.47 and set NVIDIA Open GL Rendering to RTX3060 and Power Management to Prefer Max performance.

Hope all that is of assistance, I know many are waiting for the 4080/90 but out of my pay scale and cpu power!

Regards

Wow no offense but 8-9 frames doesn’t sound to appealing. I don’t have those issues at the same airports using the 1070, but maybe my settings are lower than yours although I am running in 2K

I came from a 1070 Ti to a 3080Ti and the difference is quite extordinary.

I VSync @ 30 Hz which means a very smooth 30 FPS max thus allowing enough GPU and CPU headroom to ramp up GPU functions so essentualy I run with almost all P3D (4.5) settings enabled and at max and by smooth I mean this sort of smoothness.

I can still max out the GFX card at times which then results in loss of FPS, where to counter act I have an alternate profile with Cast Vegetation shadows off.

I'm actually looking forward to trialling a 4000 series GPU just to see if I can always run at max settings.

And it's not only flight simming that benefits, as other GFX intensive apps like video transcoding and other games of course will all use it.

Interestingly memory use is typically about half the card's max in general use although it is very possible to use it all up, might be different in 5.3 though.

Cheers 

I was running a 1070Ti  on my old rig and did not have many issues with VRAM (I remember one instance!) however I ran most of the time with the 1024 texture resolution and some other sliders turned down and was getting quite good, smooth performance FPS-wise with a few occasional micro stutters based on a 1440p Ultra-wide 34" monitor.

 

Now I have a Alder Lake PC with a RTX 3070 and while there was a small increase in FPS (maybe another 8-10 FPS) I am able to use higher graphics settings elsewhere without any detriment to the FPS. I do run 2048 as a texture resolution now as I see no perceivable difference in running the 4096 texture size.I am also running two monitors .. a 34" for the main sim/VC and a 24" each for Volanta and IVAO apps. G-sync also helps.

 

The 8Mb VRAM on the GPU has not been any hindrance to me so far.

Note: One of the things I am doing which may make a difference is, I have over a hundred scenery add-ons, but I dont load them all up in the sim. I selectively have some enabled via Lorbys Addon Organizer,  so I think this helps ameliorate the VRAM limit issue if you have 8Gb memory on your graphics card.

 

I had a GTX 960 (4 GB VRAM) with P3D v. 5.3 HF2, and upgraded to a 3060 2 months ago, since I saw a good deal on it. An enormous difference! I have most graphic settings maxed out now, and over very complex terrain (DD's New York City is one) my frame rate does slow down to 8-9 FPS. But given the improvements otherwise I can live with that, although I might turn LOD radius back a little.

Jorgen

I have had the RTX3060 12 GB for well over a year now and all i can say is wow,never ran into any VRAM issues at all,the performance is amazing,i would highly recommend the card for P3Dv5.

Gary Jones.

12GB is very interesting but does the card handle 2K and/or 4K well?

I'm flying in 4k using a 1080Ti and performance is perfectly acceptable, with settings almost maxed other than EA which I have on medium. The 3060 is significantly better than the 1080Ti so I expect it would be a good choice for those on a budget. Other than high EA settings, P3D is mainly CPU limited so I would suggest a card with plenty of VRAM like the 3060 rather than the 3070.

Appreciate everyone’s feedback. It is concerning to me that some are getting single digit frames in certain areas. My concern is I would have to reduce settings to get acceptable smoothness in p3d where the 12 gb of vram wouldn’t even be necessary anymore. 

Looking at some benchmark tests, the 1080ti actually beats the 3060 in several areas, especially in higher resolution settings.

may just have to bite the bullet and go for a 3080, assuming prices will continue to decline once the 4080 is released. 

The biggest improvement I made was buying a 30Hz monitor which allows me to maintain 30fps at most airports bar the usual suspects with VSync enabled.

Yes, I could get 60+ when airborne but I have no real need for that and maintaining 30 means the CPU is not working flat out most of the time. I also like to have lots of AIG Ai to make flights and airports more interesting.

Where the 1080Ti shows its limits is nighttime flights or using EA so I avoid both.

2 hours ago, simfan1983 said:

P3D is mainly CPU limited so I would suggest a card with plenty of VRAM like the 3060 rather than the 3070.

Have you tried Dynamic Lighting with SSAA? That alone made me move to a 3080.

44 minutes ago, okupton said:

It is concerning to me that some are getting single digit frames in certain areas.

The question is whether the GPU is maxed out in such a situation, or whether they are CPU-starved. There's not enough detail or data provided to determine, from them or from you.

Cheers!

9 minutes ago, Luke said:

Have you tried Dynamic Lighting with SSAA? That alone made me move to a 3080.

I use 4* MSAA and performance is fine in 4k if I keep EA at medium.