Been thinking of purchasing X-Plane 12 since I have 11. However, I wonder if it would heat up my computer like the 'other sim', I have an i9 10th gen processor with a 3070 and only use a 1080P monitor. Flying during the day right now heats up the room something fierce and I was hoping this one may not do that.

Another question, is a navigraph sub needed for navdata? 

And lastly, are there any quality free study level airliners out there for xplane?

Thanks in advance for any info you guys can give. It's much appreciated.

19 minutes ago, Lotharen said:

Been thinking of purchasing X-Plane 12 since I have 11. However, I wonder if it would heat up my computer like the 'other sim', I have an i9 10th gen processor with a 3070 and only use a 1080P monitor. Flying during the day right now heats up the room something fierce and I was hoping this one may not do that.

Another question, is a navigraph sub needed for navdata? 

And lastly, are there any quality free study level airliners out there for xplane?

Thanks in advance for any info you guys can give. It's much appreciated.

If heat is you biggest concern yes it will heat up your computer with those spec depending on how you run the sim and how you pay careful attention to your graphic settings. But it also depends on how you manage you heat with adequate cooling, proper bios setting for running your systems for the demands that the sim will place on you computer, the amount of system memory and if you use overclocking. 

I think you cpu is adequate although your RTX 3070 only carries with 8 gigs of Vram. The way things going these days, Vram becomes important if you want better performance if you run lot of scenery or aircraft that contains a lot texture detail, monitor displays, VR or in general becomes a factor that help in reducing some of the load on the CPU if utilize properly. Not having enough certainly with incorrect graphic settings certainly will cause a CPU bottleneck that can hurt performance and generate more heat. Reducing you setting to help improve performance will certain reduces the heat as a cost to losing scenery details or antialiasing.   

IMO 12 to 16 gigs are becoming common although I use to have 12 gigs for sometime before moving to the 3090 with 24 gigs of Vram, a few years ago.   

1.) Any 3D game or simulator will use your hardware to the maximum possible extent. It is like driving a car with the accelerator stuck all the way down. No game will "slow down" to not make your processor too hot.

2.) You only need a navigraph sub if you really want to fly with the very latest dataset. There is a dataset included with X-Plane, it is usually a year or two old.

3.) Yes, several!

Tip: Download the free demo and try for yourself before you buy!

Edited March 23, 20251 yr by Litjan

My experience: X-Plane 12 is using the available processor power  much more efficient than version 11.

I run on older hardware than yours and found that I have much more detail, better reflections, better clouds, ... with 12, and on top, my frame rate is better. 

Note that I do use a framerate limiter plugin for those cases where the impact is too high. I try to maintain 25fps.

(Yes, I know for some of you that is unacceptable low, but I am saving up for a new rig).

21 minutes ago, soaring_penguin said:

Note that I do use a framerate limiter plugin for those cases where the impact is too high. I try to maintain 25fps.

(Yes, I know for some of you that is unacceptable low, but I am saving up for a new rig).

That is interesting!

So do you want higher framerate (in that case, why are you using a framerate limiter??) or do you not want higher framerate (in that case, why are you saving up for a new rig??).

I limit FPS to 30 using Riva Tuner, and have started using Lossless Scalling with excellent results.

IMO 12 is a major step forward from 11. Compared to MSFS 2024 regarding the most important aspect for me it is superior flight dynamics wise.

If I were you I would take the plunge 😁

26 minutes ago, Litjan said:

So do you want higher framerate (in that case, why are you using a framerate limiter??) or do you not want higher framerate (in that case, why are you saving up for a new rig??).

@soaring_penguin wants consistent framerates, hence the limit, which is presumably close to the minimum experienced during a session.

 

I always have the processor at 99% so if it is going to heat up, modern computers are prepared to heat up to a certain point without problem, but if it is already a problem for you you should see how to improve the cooling. I live in Alicante Spain in a very hot area and I have not had real temperature problems.

2 hours ago, soaring_penguin said:

framerate limiter plugin

Any reason you don't use XP's built in limiter?

Thanks for the replies so far! It's much appreciated. I forgot to mention I also have 64gb of onboard ram. I also currently use Riva tuner to limit MSFS 2024 to 30FPS which helps keep it much cooler than if I let it run free. 

My case is a Mid tower with a radiator that cools the CPU, all-in-all I have 5 fans keeping it cool. Now it isn't over heating and is operating within limits I just don't like it when it heats my room up which it does with the other sim. If I reach down and touch the glass and its super warm to me that's 'to warm'. I can play Balders Gate 3 maxed out with no issues or Final Fantasy XIV maxed out. It's just flight sims that do this. 

I cant remember if xplane 11 made it a hot box lol. I do remember having 3 screens operating at once made it very hot but that was 6-7 years ago when I tried that and back when I had a 1080 graphics card.

After I posted I also found the Zibo mod which seems very good. Any other recommendations for a freeware study level airliner?

Edit: Downloading the demo now.

Edited March 23, 20251 yr by Lotharen

Run the 15 min free demo https://www.x-plane.com/desktop/try-it/  and see what happens first. 

4 hours ago, blingthinger said:

Any reason you don't use XP's built in limiter?

I wanted to say frame rate optimiser. There are several fly-with-lua scripts that adapt the autolod. 

(Note to myself: read before posting).

 

1 hour ago, Sims Smith said:

Run the 15 min free demo https://www.x-plane.com/desktop/try-it/  and see what happens first. 

I did, but my god that isn't long to test something out. Is also a very small area that it is contained to, if I started anywhere else it was under water. 

All-in-all I felt my PC didn't get near as hot. Was able to program the included a330 and get it airborne after a bit of orientation. The first obstacle was the sim setting toe brakes on, on non-existent rudder pedals. Once I fixed that I was able to actually move. Controller set up was actually fairly easy. 

I can see it would need some add-on love to look decent. I believe I saw something for streamed satellite imagery? and I'm not sure if something for weather wound be needed. 

Will think on it for sure. Hate to spend money on tons of add-ons again. 

Thank you all for your input thus far. It's been appreciated. 

5 hours ago, Lotharen said:

all-in-all I have 5 fans keeping it cool. Now it isn't over heating and is operating within limits I just don't like it when it heats my room up which it does with the other sim. If I reach down and touch the glass and its super warm to me that's 'to warm'.

It's not so much the number of fans you have as it is about where they're installed, which way they're blowing, and how the MoBo BIOS sets their speeds.

IoW, you could have 5 fans and still overheat your case.

And your room is just a secondary really big computer case, too. If your room heats up overmuch, you need to open your door and a window or something to transfer the warm air elsewhere.

9 hours ago, Lotharen said:

I wonder if it would heat up my computer like the 'other sim',

ToS uses more cores/threads than XP, which probably has to do with your perception of heat.

Interesting thing is that LR are heading in that direction as fast as they can go (which is a good thing because it'll mean better performance on the same hardware).

I'm paraphrasing, but IIRC, there's a quote from Austin saying his goal is to make your CPU and GPU run at 99% all the time. 

If you can't get your temps down, couple more things to check are physically moving your tower to another position to ensure the heat is flowing out of its immediate area (e.g., you dont have it under your desk stuck in a corner)...

And things like looking into an AIO liquid cooler for your CPU. They're a LOT cheaper and more reliable than they used to be, and they'll outperform nearly any Air Cooler hands down.

Airflow management is always a big deal with Hi Po computers, and many times you have to get creative/be flexible with your setup in general.