Back to FSX SE and testing P3D

[bjwilliams230]

After hearing all the bell and whistles about P3D , i decided to give it a try. I tested P3D v3.4.9 and v4.2 using different in-game settings and 1 or 2 tweaks in the CFG file during a whole week and i came to the conclusion that FSX SE performs better and is much more stable and very smooth on my system. I'm running FSX SE at a locked 25-30ps during major thunderstorms with payware addons and during fair weather fps goes up to 50 under DX10. Mind u, i fly mostly turboprops from and to regional airports.

I tried to replicate the same under P3D using the same settings and addons and i get much lower fps ranging from 15-20fps and quite a lot of stutters. I dare not try more complex addons such as PMDG or Mega airports after seeing this.

Intel Core I5 7th Generation CPU 3.1ghz
GTX950m 4GB GDDR5
8GB DDR4 2400mhz
3 SSD : 128GB OS, 250GB Data, 500GB Games

Anyone having the same issues with P3D??? Thanks

[TextRich]

Prepar3D v.4 is designed for modern hardware. If you look at the recommended system requirements your CPU is too slow and your video memory and RAM is too low. You wil need to upgrade if you want P3D to run as well as FSX:SE does on your current system.

https://www.prepar3d.com/system-requirements/

[Rogen]

Actually I've found both have their pros and cons, however 64bit is the future as 32 bit is at its limit.

I've found with FSX-SE and P3D at similar settings tend to give similar performance with P3D coming out on top, however P3D is noticably better with a higher grade GFX card where as FSX will not use it to the same proportion as P3D.

So a little of column A and a little of column B...

cheers

[3 Wire]

1) As someone who runs both FSX SE and P3D v4.2 I strongly disagree with the idea that FSX SE is "more stable" than P3D. With P3D crashes to desktop, out of memory errors, and files integrity checks, among other things, are a thing of the past. All you have to do is read the support forums here and every day a half dozen people are having this or that error, probem, or issue with FSX SE, and that alone should tell you which platform is more stable.

2) You really don't need any tweaks in the cfg file in P3D, and depending what you are using they can actually cause more harm than good. These are the only ones you should ever use, and try them one at a time to see what, if any, difference they make, if they make little or no difference delete them.

https://www.prepar3d.com/SDKv2/LearningCenter/getting_started/performance/tuning_guide.html

I recommend (and use) only the Affinity Mask and Fiber_Frame_Fraction tweaks, if any at all.

3) make sure you have Triple Buffering and Vsync enabled, not having these enabled is perhaps the single greatest cause of stutters in P3D.

4) Computer hardware... I get it, people have budgetary constraints to contend with, but there's no free lunch here, and IMHO your setup is on the meager side for running P3D v4.x Your system meets the minimum requirements but is well short of the recommended requirements in memory, graphics and CPU. Minimum hardware doesn't equal best performance, there just isn't any way around this.

https://www.prepar3d.com/system-requirements/

With your setup you're going to have to keep your sliders in the mid to low range if you expect to get your frame rates much above 30 fps. Figure out what your best average frame rates are and lock framerates at the upper end of that range. The Fiber_Frame_Fraction tweak works well with framerates locked below 50fps.

4) A better graphics card would benefit your system considerably, a GTX 1080 with 8gb would be a major step forward.

I'm running Windows 10 64 bit with an i7 8700k CPU, 16gb of DDR 4 2600mhz, and a GTX 1080Ti with 11gb of DDR 5 with P3D v4.2, I have the framerate locked at 50fps with a Fiber_Frame_Fraction entry of 0.16 in the CFG file, I have most of the sliders at Very High or Ultra High and even when running complex aircraft like the Aerosoft A320 or Quality Wings 757 & 787 at dense airport sceneries like Heathrow, Chicago O'hare, and LAX my framerates rarely drop below 40fps and it's silky smooth with zero stutters, and this is with all the ORBX Global, Landclass, and Vector sceneries installed. I realize every system is different, but this should give you an idea of what's possible with P3D v4.2

[Rogen]

I too have most of my sliders for both FSX-SE and P3D at or near their max, with a few notable exceptions (Traffic and Water).

I also prefer to run at unlimited frame rates and control the maximum rate outside of the app (~60fps) and the same applies for anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering (for both FSX and P3D).

For P3D I've not really found many tweeks needed, e.g. the Fiber tweek and even setting an AffinityMask are somewhat redundent as P3D makes good use of cores and the GFX card with the UI allowing a finer grain of control compared to FSX-SE. I do apply the following though .

TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP=10
UseGlobalTerrainView=True
MaxRegionsPurgePerFrame=12

For FSX-SE I run Steve's DX10 fixer and the most important tweeks I find are of use are.
HIGHMEMFIX=1
TextureMaxLoad=120
WideViewAspect=True
MESH_RESOLUTION=23
WATER_EFFECTS=4
smallpartrejectradius=0
UsePools=0
AffinityMask=65534

Of course all is dependent on the system itself and for myself I find the above tune just fine for my Win7, Ryzen7 and 780Ti card.

Two example pics below, one from P3D and the other from FSX-SE, both of the Salt Lake area USA, just shows how similar they can be with a little massaging, however P3D tops FSX-SE many areas, inc. speed of texture loading which is way in front of FSX-SE.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1400900787
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1355555984

Cheers

[3 Wire]

Originally posted by Rogen:

For P3D I've not really found many tweeks needed, e.g. the Fiber tweek and even setting an AffinityMask are somewhat redundent as P3D makes good use of cores and the GFX card with the UI allowing a finer grain of control compared to FSX-SE. I do apply the following though .

TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP=10
UseGlobalTerrainView=True
MaxRegionsPurgePerFrame=12

For FSX-SE I run Steve's DX10 fixer and the most important tweeks I find are of use are.
HIGHMEMFIX=1
TextureMaxLoad=120
WideViewAspect=True
MESH_RESOLUTION=23
WATER_EFFECTS=4
smallpartrejectradius=0
UsePools=0
AffinityMask=65534

Of course all is dependent on the system itself and for myself I find the above tune just fine for my Win7, Ryzen7 and 780Ti card.

As you noted, each system is a little different and only the individual user can determine what works best with their unique setup through trial, error, and considerable experimentation.

My P3D and FSX SE CFG settings are largely the same as yours, with the notable exception of the TextureMaxLoad setting in FSX which I have set to 4096. If your hardware can handle it I've found this to be preferable to get the most out of add ons that make use of HD textures such as Rex 4, ORBX sceneries, and some aircraft. I don't limit framerates in FSX SE and my fps range from the upper 60's in very dense scenery areas to upwards of 150-200 fps in very sparse areas. DX10 fixer is a must have utility for anyone who wants the best performance and visuals in FSX SE. I also use (and highly recommend) the Nvidia Inspector Profile settings outlined in this guide, however these are only applicable to those running Nvidia graphics cards...

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=560426533

The only CFG tweak I'm currently using in P3D v4.2 is the Fiber_Frame_Fraction @ 0.16 with frames locked @ 50fps within the sim. After much fiddling around I've found this to provide the smoothest possible experience with my particular setup.

An excellent and very revealing test of smooth stutter free performance in either P3D or FSX is to do an instant replay of a landing with a complex aircraft at a large busy airport in locked spot plane view. If anything is lacking in your settings, configuration, or hardware, it will rear it's ugly head in this scenario very clearly. If you can get smooth mostly stutter free performance in this situation you can be almost certain you are going to get excellent overall performance in normal common flying situations.

[bjwilliams230]

Thank u everyone for your replies.

I will give P3D v3.4.9 another try with your recommendations as i understand that v4.2 is too demanding for my pc and i cant afford to upgrade anytime soon.

i will report back if i see any improvements.

[FPStewy]

Originally posted by Rogen:

I've found with FSX-SE and P3D at similar settings tend to give similar performance with P3D coming out on top, however P3D is noticably better with a higher grade GFX card where as FSX will not use it to the same proportion as P3D.

I have both and settled on P3D and I agree with your comment, On my old system I couldn't tell the difference but I just built a system with Ryzen 5, X470 board, DDR4 and Rx-580 8Gb I have to say that going back and forth, it's much smoother on P3D and it's noticeable.

[bjwilliams230]

Hello everyone,

So after spending a whole day reinstalling and researching on how best to optimise P3D v3.4.9 in regards to my specs, i 've found that the following tweaks improve quite a bit the overall smoothness compared previously where my fps were in the mi-teens during major thunderstorms with addons. I can now maintain at least 28fps, going up to 42-44fps.

To achieve this i had to:

1. resize, compress and optimise all of my textures folders: Effects, ORBX, Scenery, SimObjects, Textures using Ordenador Optimiser Textures tool designed mostly for Skyrim and DXTFixer.

2. Adjusting other downloaded freeware textures in regards to trees, clouds and additional scenery textures

3. add and readjust the values of those tweaks in my CFG file: Affinitymask=14, TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=800, FIBER_FRAME_TIME_FRACTION=.01, UseGlobalTerrainView=True, SMALLPARTREJECTRADIUS=4.0, OPTIMIZE_DENSE_CLOUDS=1, OPTIMIZE_PARTS=1

4. Lastly i had to adjust some settings in NVIDIA Control Panel and set them to high performance.

With these tweaks i 've got my in-game settings pretty much high with the exception to v sync and triple buffering turned off and using unlimited fps and the load on the GPU and CPU has improved quite significantly. So far i dont have any stutters and i didnt notice any tearing or lag at all.

However FSX SE will remain installed on my pc for the time being. So far i'm very much happy with the setup and soon i'll be doing a tlonger and proper test flight.

Thanks to everyone once again.