Getting Started

[wmburns]

Another issue is that I am running FSX on an HDD as my 250GB SSD is already full so this could induce micro stutters when textures are loaded.

Expect a SSD to improve loading times to start the sim. Once loaded the sim makes relatively little use of the HD. The exception is when crossing from one major scenery tile to another and the sim must load a new tile. Overall this is a small part of the process.

Stutters often happen when the sim needs to load new textures into VRAM. The solution is to use less VRAM or have more VRAM. Not practical to add more VRAM to a GPU.

If unwilling to reduce draw distance or do things that reduce VRAM usage for your set up, the best bank for the buck is likely in the GPU area.

The GTX770 is just under the performance of a GTX970. By today's standards asking a GTX970 to process a demanding texture scenery at very high FPS is a long shot.

http://gpuboss.com/gpus/GeForce-GTX-970 ... ce-GTX-770

For your expectations, a GTX970 is a marginal upgrade GPU power wise (but way more VRAM). Obviously one of the pitfalls to avoid is buying new hardware only to find out it's still not enough to meet expectations. IMO it's a difficult sell $$ wise as it may not give the desired results. So that means going higher is likely safer to assure success.

[4535jacks]

Is P3D any smoother or does it perform better give. It use directx 11? I am trying to purchase addons that work with both Fsx and P3D so I can swap if required. The thing that put me off of P3D is that someone told me you had to pay for the upgrades, is this true?

[wmburns]

The thing that put me off of P3D is that someone told me you had to pay for the upgrades, is this true?

P3D patches are free. P3D new versions are not free. However is this any different than new flight sim versions from Microsoft (2000, 2002, 2004, FSX, FSE SE.....).

I'm sure there are people out there that are unhappy with how frequently P3D releases new versions. But there's nothing to prevent one from using the originally purchased version forever.

Expect some things to be a TON better under P3D. At the same time, expect the improvement to come at a cost (more HW). Expect other things to be unchanged with P3D. Remember at it's core, the sim engine is the same (otherwise the same add on's wouldn't work for both). Expect P3D to challenge your GPU even more.

If you want a bunch of free upgrades/updates, try X-Plane version 10. Version 10 is very different today as compared to initial release. For a while there it seemed like there was a new Beta released every week.

In 1982 my first PC with a color monitor, 10 MB hard drive was over a 4k investment! I remember being totally blown away by the $100 Sublogic flight sim running on an IBM XT clone. Spent hours and hours flying in/out of Meigs field. Learning what a VOR was.

Fast forward to today. Think about the cost of the basic sim software compared to the cost of the hardware to run it verses the sim experience. Yes I know it all adds up but look at just how much technology $60 really buys today. IMO it's a true bargain.

For way less than the price of a cheap used car I have a sim set up in my home that in 1982 I couldn't even have imaged. I can talk to other pilots from all over the world. How cool is that?

Let's now compare the cost of an hour of flight simulation to operating a real aircraft. Talk about value for the $$. Plus with simulation any of us can fly an advanced 737 if we wanted. Something that very few of us could ever hope to do in real life.

Bottom line; If you want to "chase the dragon", expect to make some sacrifices (time, money, effort).

Can anyone say, "start slow".....

I found this interesting read about the evolution of flight sim.
http://slashcomment.com/games/video-gam ... -software/

[BFG]

Is P3D any smoother or does it perform better give. It use directx 11? I am trying to purchase addons that work with both Fsx and P3D so I can swap if required. The thing that put me off of P3D is that someone told me you had to pay for the upgrades, is this true?

Lots of points of view on this, and no grand agreement. But here's my point of view: at least on my rig performance on P3D is smoother than FSX, so much so that I have uninstalled FSX. I fly Orbx SoCal with low autogen settings (and no AI traffic given that PE takes care of that for me), but everything else pretty maxed out. I have a powerful rig, but I have four monitors running four open windows, and that taxes frame rates in SoCal. But even when they drop to 11 or 12, as they did today on departure out of Fullerton with a broken 1,300 foot ceiling and otherwise high graphic settings, the performance is smooth. I get a stutter from time to time, but low frame rates still run smooth for me in P3D, and are very flyable. More so than in earlier versions of P3D and more so than in FSX. In fact, it's been my experience that the version of the GPU driver can do more to create stutters / smooth for me than the sim settings themselves. But smooth is the reason I now exclusively fly P3D over FSX.

[Dean33]

Hi Jacks
I'm in UK too.
Personally I'd get ASN first.
In my opinion REX is OK but ASN is an essential part of setting up good accurate weather system.
Cheers
Dean