Question about upgrading to P3D v5

[Hobart Escin]

Hi,

I've been a longtime user of P3D v4.5 and was wondering what most here think in regard to upgrading platforms to that of P3D v5. I'm currently running a Core I5 (4 cores) @4.2 ghz and using a Nvidia 1060 GTX video card with 4gb ram. My biggest concern in upgrading is that I don't have enough video memory to run a DX12 platform and I'll experience CTDs when flying in dense scenery conditions and/or using complex add-ons. I know this was a chronic problem with earlier version of P3D v5 but I seem to remember that the latest patches perhaps addressed the video memory requirement so that 4gb of ram is possibly enough now?

Should I be able to actually meet the hardware requirements for P3D v5, what particular advantages would I see over that of P3D v4.5? Smoother framerates, better atmospheric effects, etc?

Thank you for any insight you can provide!

[bullfox]

While it is true that you video ram is a bit low, most of the time flying in P3D5.2HF1 my video ram is below 4 gb, total ram is about 6 to 7, and this is with nearly all the sliders one notch below the top settings. I went over 4 gb of video ram twice, once in Orbx San Jose and once in Orbx Tacoma Narrows. At that time I had an 8 gb video card. Both time I actually went over 8gb of vram. I just reduced the settings and flew out ok. You can probably do it with 4gb but it would be something you would always have to watch out for which would be a bit of a drag.

[bullfox]

Also, I never had P3D 4.5 so I don't have any point of comparison.

[bladerunner900]

I used to run v4.5 on an overclocked i7 3970X @4.8GHz, with two GTX 980 cards in SLI on Windows 7 and was very pleased with it.

Now I run the latest v5.2 on an i9 9900K @ 4.8GHZ, with a single 11GB RTX 2080Ti. Memory management was dire in the early days of v5 and I had regular OOM VRAM crashes with this spec. Fortunately, that no longer happens, no doubt to improvements made in memory management. No crashes to report yet.

All sliders are set back one step from MAX, except Level of detail radius, which is at MAX. Dynamic Texture Streaming on or off seems to make no difference in VRAM usage.

I usually fly over Wales and have FPS locked @ 60. This is easily achieved over such a rural area but drops over large cities like City of London, to around 40 - 50 generally and has dropped to the mid to high 20s. Although this is still very smooth thanks to, I suspect, my G-SYNC compatible monitor.



Steve.

[bullfox]

Bladerunner,
That's an excellent shot. I mostly fly in the western US and Canada with A2A and Carenado aircraft. I have all the Orbx True Earth regions and most of the western airports. My slider settings are about the same as Blanderunner's. The specs of my system are below. I can easily get 60 or more fps in rural areas and about 20 to 30 in highly built up areas like San Jose and Portland . I have my frame rates locked at 30 because for reasons I am not sure of I still get a few stutters in built up areas on take off and approach. Its very smooth at 30 fps with basically no stutters so I don't change it except when I am experimenting with settings. I'm guessing an even faster processor will eliminate the few stutters I still get. I 'm just hoping for prices to come down. I am considering a Ryzen 9 5950. I think I can goose it up to 5.0 ghz. Seems like we are always looking for more. When I bought the RX 6800 I got it at a good but still unreasonable price. I could have gone with an even faster card for several hundred dollars more but the faster cards use even more watts and produce more heat.