Thrustmaster T500RS vs TX 458

[Z OH 6]

In case anyone was curious, I own both the T500RS and the TX wheel and I play mostly PC racing games and sims which include iRacing, Assetto Corsa, rFactor 2, Stock Car Extreme, Race07, GTR 2, and Dirt 2 and Dirt 3, as well as some GT5, GT6 and Forza 5 on consoles.

My first impressions were that the TX was inferior, the FFB didn't feel quite as strong right out of the box, but then again admittedly, I never use the T500RS at full strength either. So after a week of playing with the TX, I've come to the conclusion that it is superior to the T500 from a FFB standpoint and I think my initial impressions were a bit mislead by the fact that my T500 feels very damped and somewhat heavy even with the control panel damping turned down. The included pedals are not as good as the T500 but thankfully you can use the T500 pedals on the TX and there's no H shifter available yet for the TX but you can still the TH8RS with the TX on the PC, just not with the Xbox One.

I'm not going to rehash what most others have already said except in summary I feel the TX is quicker than the T500 to react, it seems less damped and just makes my T500 feel slower in general. I can catch slides much easier with the TX than the T500. The FFB is about 10-20% weaker than the T500 at identical settings but the truth is, there's still FAR more than enough FFB in the TX than you'll actually ever use and the power is there if you choose to increase the gain settings in the Thrustmaster control panel. Make no mistake, its much stronger than a G27 which I also used to own. It certainly does have the power to snatch the wheel right out of your hands if you hit a wall in some sims. What I like most about the FFB in the TX though is the speed at which it conveys whats going on, it feels smoother and quieter than the T500, less cogging and less jerky, and you can feel subtle effects much more naturally. Also, for all the complaints about the cheapness of the TX 458 wheel, its true that it has more plastic on it than the T500 wheel and when you touch it, it does feel cheaper, but when you actually use it, your hands are almost always on the rubber grips on the wheel so you rarely ever notice the cheaper plastic parts. And of course there's the GTE wheel if you really dislike the factory 458 wheel. The TX paddles are wonderful as well, they are much smaller since they don't have to be as large due to the fixed position of the T500 paddles. They have a nice firm click to them when you use them and immediately, I felt quicker using them compared to my T500.

I do not plan to get rid of my T500 wheel as it may still has a purpose on the PS3 and may have a purpose on the PS4, which remains to be seen and I think its still an awesome backup if my TX should fail, but there's no question for me that the TX base is superior to the T500 base. I do of course prefer the T500 pedals and TH8RS shifter. The TX had a bad reputation for a higher than normal failure rate right after release. I do not know if that is till the case but I do know that during those early months, a firmware update was not just optional, it was a REQUIREMENT for TX users before using their wheel and I suspect a lot of people didn't do that before trying to use it and may have caused it to die prematurely. I notice far less reports of failure since the most recent firmware update and I feel like I've given mine a pretty good workout in a variety of games over the last 2 weeks and its not failed or done anything unusual yet. It also seems to run cooler than my T500 and the fan doesn't come on as much as it does in my T500. The noise of the fans are about the same to me, maybe the TX fan is slightly quieter. I highly recommend the TX for anyone buying a wheel and I can even recommend it as an upgrade to existing T500 users. I got mine from Amazon which is listing them now as shipping with the latest firmware so I assume that's the newest version available and mine did indeed have the most current firmware.

For what its worth, I've beaten almost every one of my previous lap records in my racing sims in the last two weeks since switching to the TX from the T500 and I honestly wasn't expecting that to happen but the TX just gives me so much feedback about what's going on and the speed at which the wheel reacts inspires greater confidence at the limit.

[pennarguy]

The T500rs pedals are rubbish, in keeping with Thrustmaster pedals in general. Had my T500rs about two weeks and the brake pedal spring broke. I was not surprised as it is a common fault. I have had several Thrustmaster wheel/pedal sets over the years and have always had to mend the pedals. Thing is the ffb with Thrustmaster wheel bases is always very good, even on the cheapies.
I chucked my pedals that came with myT500rs down the local tip. Bought a set of Fanatecs with load cell brake and now have a nice bit of kit. I use my old G27 "H" shifter with the help of a usb adaptor.
I love my T500rs it is the best wheel I have ever used; I know there are better, but they are out of my price range. :)
Also got the F1 wheel for the T500 just recenly and it is a nice wheel, which only takes about 3 minutes to mount.

[Z OH 6]

Escrito originalmente por Seadust:

The T500rs pedals are rubbish, in keeping with Thrustmaster pedals in general. Had my T500rs about two months and the brake pedal spring broke. I was not surprised as it is a common fault. I have had several Thrustmaster wheel/pedal sets over the years and have always had to mend the pedals. Thing is the ffb with Thrustmaster wheel bases is always very good, even on the cheapies.
I chucked my pedals that came with myT500rs down the local tip. Bought a set of Fanatecs with load cell brake and now have a nice bit of kit. I use my old G27 "H" shifter with the help of a usb adaptor.
I love my T500rs it is the best wheel I have ever used; I know there are better, but they are out of my price range. :)

The Fanatec pedals are notoriously unreliable. Load cells die frequently and the Hall sensors on the Clubsports die even more frequently. If your pedal spring broke on the T500 pedals then its because you had one of the early model v1 or v2 T500's with torsion springs which would break sometimes within a year, although some people are still using their original torison springs 3-4 years later. The later model T500, v3 and above replaced those springs with compression springs which don't break. The compresison spring T500 pedals are far more reliable than any of Fanatecs pedals and far from rubbish.

[pennarguy]

Hate to disagree with you, but mine is a V4 and the compression spring broke within two months as I said.
Had the Fanatecs now for about a year with no problem, as it is all down to the setting of the load cell; you can set it so too much pressure needs to be applied to put the brake full on.
I have had maybe 6 or 7 Thrustmaster wheel/pedal sets and every one of them have had springs that broke in the pedals, including the T500rs that I have now. They are crap.
The base unit is brilliant.
Thrustmaster say that the V number only refers to the firmware loaded on dispatch and that there is no difference in the hardware between V 1,2,3,and 4. ?

[Z OH 6]

Escrito originalmente por Seadust:

Hate to disagree with you, but mine is a V4 and the compression spring broke within two months as I said.
Had the Fanatecs now for about a year with no problem, as it is all down to the setting of the load cell; you can set it so too much pressure needs to be applied to put the brake full on.
I have had maybe 6 or 7 Thrustmaster wheel/pedal sets and every one of them have had springs that broke in the pedals, including the T500rs that I have now. They are crap.
The base unit is brilliant.
Thrustmaster say that the V number only refers to the firmware loaded on dispatch and that there is no difference in the hardware between V 1,2,3,and 4. ?

Its fine to disagree since I will disagree since I'm going to disagree with you as well. The sim forums are littered with Fanatec hooror stories of broken wheels and pedals and terrible customer service to get them repaired. You will find FAR less complaints about the compression spring T500 pedals broken than any of Fanatecs pedals. Don't get me wrong, most Fantec pedal users rave about how they feel...until they break and they often do. Good luck with yours though. There's certainly better options on the market for pedal feel that the Fanatecs or T500's but I'll take reliability over a cheap load cell anyday. My T500 pedals have been going strong for 4 months now of hard use and I haven't seen any signs of wear and tear. I'm not sure which 6-7 sets of TM pedals you owned but a lot of the older TM products had torsion springs in them also.

Thrustmaster is obviously going to claim the only difference in the version number is only firmware, do you think they want a bunch of angry customers or a potential lawsuit over a product because they realized that the early versions had a design flaw and later versions were fixed? Apparently anyone that had early version pedals with torsion spring were told by TM that they can't upgrade pedals but TM diid ship them replacement torsion springs for free. Still sucks for those users that got the early versions but it makes complete sense why TM isn't going to admit to newer versions having nothing more than a firmware update, there would be a flood of calls and E-mails from angry users asking for new replacement pedals with compression springs which wouold be quite expensive for TM. Its just business.

We'll agree to disagree on the pedals and lets keep this on topic. This has nothing to do with Fanatec products.

[pennarguy]

Yeh, ok the same applies to Thrustmaster pedals on the forums, as I know you must know. :)
But just to confirm; my wheel is a V 4 and my now scrap pedals had compression springs.
My last Thrustmaster wheel was an F430 and it had torsion springs that bust within a short period of time; they sent me replacements that also bust within a short period of time (always the brake pedal), in the end I found a local supplier that fixed me up with springs that sufficed and lasted, as my old F430 is still in daily use by a mate of mine I gave it to.
My replacement pedals (the name of which I wont mention lol) are going strong and have lasted longer than any, (including my T500rs) Thrustmaster pedals I have ever owned.
Thrustmaster used to have terrific customer service, but now take their time; in my recent goings on with them at least.
There are + and -'s for all products and in my sim' racing set up of approximately £3,000, I am afraid Thrustmaster pedals are not included. Maybe I should have stuck with my G27 pedals too, as I am still using the "H" shifter; kept that back when I flogged the G27.

[Katten]

Oh yeah! Is the TX 458 Xbox 360 compatible? Or just Xbone/PC?

[Z OH 6]

Escrito originalmente por Lem:

Oh yeah! Is the TX 458 Xbox 360 compatible? Or just Xbone/PC?

Xbox One and PC

[Martin Edmunds |ESR|]

Escrito originalmente por Z OH 6:

Escrito originalmente por Lem:

Oh yeah! Is the TX 458 Xbox 360 compatible? Or just Xbone/PC?

Xbox One and PC

Hey Dude i got a couple question for you.

Not sure why i cannot find this info directly with Thrustmaster but oh well.

Ok so i got a set of T500 rs Pedals. ( I am currently waiting to get a t300 rs once avail in north america ) So i want to know if my pedals can connect to the Thrustmaster TX Ferrari 458 Italia steering wheel. You mention above something about working on pc only because of USB ??
I am confused about that statement as my pedals do not connect with USB they have that phone jack connector type thing that goes in the wheel.

So the bottom line of my question T500 rs pedals -> connect directly to Tx Ferrari 458 can i play on Xb360 and Xbo with that ?

[Z OH 6]

Escrito originalmente por MeMotS:

Escrito originalmente por Z OH 6:

Xbox One and PC

Hey Dude i got a couple question for you.

Not sure why i cannot find this info directly with Thrustmaster but oh well.

Ok so i got a set of T500 rs Pedals. ( I am currently waiting to get a t300 rs once avail in north america ) So i want to know if my pedals can connect to the Thrustmaster TX Ferrari 458 Italia steering wheel. You mention above something about working on pc only because of USB ??
I am confused about that statement as my pedals do not connect with USB they have that phone jack connector type thing that goes in the wheel.

So the bottom line of my question T500 rs pedals -> connect directly to Tx Ferrari 458 can i play on Xb360 and Xbo with that ?

The T500 pedals connect directly to the wheel so they will work with the TX 458 on PC and Xbox One and the T300 works with PS3/PS4. Neither of these wheels work with the Xbox 360.

[Martin Edmunds |ESR|]

Escrito originalmente por Z OH 6:

Escrito originalmente por MeMotS:

Hey Dude i got a couple question for you.

Not sure why i cannot find this info directly with Thrustmaster but oh well.

Ok so i got a set of T500 rs Pedals. ( I am currently waiting to get a t300 rs once avail in north america ) So i want to know if my pedals can connect to the Thrustmaster TX Ferrari 458 Italia steering wheel. You mention above something about working on pc only because of USB ??
I am confused about that statement as my pedals do not connect with USB they have that phone jack connector type thing that goes in the wheel.

So the bottom line of my question T500 rs pedals -> connect directly to Tx Ferrari 458 can i play on Xb360 and Xbo with that ?

The T500 pedals connect directly to the wheel so they will work with the TX 458 on PC and Xbox One and the T300 works with PS3/PS4. Neither of these wheels work with the Xbox 360.

Ohh ... looks like it got the Tx f458 confused, i was sure it was working on X360 and Xbo

[76561198110643810]

Question for anyone that has some expensive wheel. Can you rest your hands on it? What do I mean? In real life when I place my hands on the wheel, my arms weight is on the wheel. If wheel was magicly to disapear my hands would fall down.
I have a cheap gaming wheel and I can not do that ( added presure on the wheel makes it harder to move and i am not sure it would not damage it ). Because of that my arms are tense all the time and that is not good for me.

[Katten]

Scopsion - It's pretty easy to find wheels where they can take the weight of your arms. The G25 I'm using right now can handle me resting my arms easily, and my T500 can take it too.

You can probably pick something up below there which can take the weight of your arms too. I've not tried in a long time, but I believe the Logitech Driving Force GT I started on a few years ago was okay with it.

[76561198110643810]

Ok, thanks man.

[Jayrodathome]

Escrito originalmente por Scopsion:

Question for anyone that has some expensive wheel. Can you rest your hands on it? What do I mean? In real life when I place my hands on the wheel, my arms weight is on the wheel. If wheel was magicly to disapear my hands would fall down.
I have a cheap gaming wheel and I can not do that ( added presure on the wheel makes it harder to move and i am not sure it would not damage it ). Because of that my arms are tense all the time and that is not good for me.

Yeah man these wheels can definitely handle your issue. Some of them are strong enough to rip the wheel right out of your hands when you hit s hard enough bump. Most people never use them at max ffb (on pc) bc it would be too tiring. They are built very well and can support you pulling and pushing and supporting your strength trying to hold on to the feedback even the g27 is an excellent wheel these days however they aren't as quiet and quick as the newer thrustmaster and fanatec wheels.

If your looking to get a great wheel for the money I would get the fanatec csr. Works on every platform. Just need pedals tho. You can normally find some csr pedals for under 100 on eBay. Good luck.

[mayhew3]

I notice you mention you play Dirt 3. Does your TX 458 work with Dirt 3? I just got one, because people said it worked well with almost all PC games, but neither Grid 2 nor Dirt 3 is recognizing the wheel. Do you know if there's something special I have to do with those games?