resolved Xplane11-30. getting blurries

[meganser]

I have TE England South and Central. Flying over London I am getting blurries, Shimmers, and lots of flat buildings. Can someone tell me why and  what can I do to fix it please.

[david broome]

43 minutes ago, meganser said:

I have TE England South and Central. Flying over London I am getting blurries, Shimmers, and lots of flat buildings. Can someone tell me why and  what can I do to fix it please.

 

By "Blurries" are you talking about the ground because ortho will appear a little "blurry" at low altitudes because of the resolution of the orhto tiles.

Flat buildings? This again sounds like you are describing the Ortho scenery so it may be you are not getting the autogen on top which would probably be down to your scenery.ini being in the wrong order.

"Shimmers" Again I'm guessing but that sounds like AA being set too low in Xplane graphic settings.

 

To fix you need to rearrange your scenery_packs.ini so that is in the correct order. You will find threads on it here but of you want you can upload the file here and I will edit it for you and repost it.

You will find it in your Xplane/customscenery folder as a text file.

Also you could screenshot your graphic setting and upload along with your system spec and I can advise on best setting.

[John Venema]

Thanks David for offering to help Peter.

 

Peter, we stand behind our product and I am sure with David and other willing to help out we will sort out what could be wrong. As always, attaching a screenshot of what you feel is the problem will help us enormously.

 

 

[meganser]

12 hours ago, david broome said:

 

By "Blurries" are you talking about the ground because ortho will appear a little "blurry" at low altitudes because of the resolution of the orhto tiles.

Flat buildings? This again sounds like you are describing the Ortho scenery so it may be you are not getting the autogen on top which would probably be down to your scenery.ini being in the wrong order.

"Shimmers" Again I'm guessing but that sounds like AA being set too low in Xplane graphic settings.

 

To fix you need to rearrange your scenery_packs.ini so that is in the correct order. You will find threads on it here but of you want you can upload the file here and I will edit it for you and repost it.

You will find it in your Xplane/customscenery folder as a text file.

Also you could screenshot your graphic setting and upload along with your system spec and I can advise on best setting.

Thanks David for your reply. I have now put all sliders to max except for shadows and tested with the microlite and the result is that shimmers have improved somewhat but not entirely and blurries have improved slightly also but at the expence of frame rate. I now get between 17 and 20. would be impossible to fly and airliner at these settings. Incidentally, you will notice that in the scenery_packs.ini that the custom overlay has gone missing although it is still in the Custom Scenery folder, strange! As far as I could see, the order was initially correct to begin with, but check them anyway. I will be glad to receive any helpful input from you. CPU is i7 and graphics is Titan 8GB.

 

Regards

 

Peter

scenery_packs.ini

[meganser]

6 hours ago, John Venema said:

Thanks David for offering to help Peter.

 

Peter, we stand behind our product and I am sure with David and other willing to help out we will sort out what could be wrong. As always, attaching a screenshot of what you feel is the problem will help us enormously.

 

 

 

[meganser]

Thanks John for your reply to my post. Here is screenshot as you suggested. Please refer to my earlier post to David Broome. Thank you for your help.

 

Regards

 

Peter

[david broome]

2 hours ago, meganser said:

Thanks John for your reply to my post. Here is screenshot as you suggested. Please refer to my earlier post to David Broome. Thank you for your help.

 

Regards

 

Peter

 

Hi, I have reordered your scenery_packs.ini

Please download it and follow these instructions.

You did not upload the spec of your system so shall just give you the optimal settings for TE scenery (If your pc is not high end this may run slow and you may need  to adjust the settings down. The purpose of this is to ensure the scenery is functioning as it should.)

 

1. download the attached scenery_packs.ini and  scenery_packs_COPY.ini I have attached

2. Place the copy on your desktop

3. Place the scenery_packs.ini into your Xplane/CustomScenery folder and ensure it overwrites your original or simply delete your original first and place the new version into the folder.

4. Run Xplane but do not go past the first menu screen.

5. Go into settings and check your graphic settings.

6. Make sure you have the following settings which will ensure all TE autogen is displayed and hopefully reduce any "shimmering"

A. Visual Effects =High(HDR)

B. Texture Quality = Maximum

C. AntiAliasing = 4x SSAA/FXAA

D. Number Of World Objects = High (Maximum draws every object but is very draining ion a system, high should show almost all custom objects. If you have a high end system set this to max)

E. Ensure draw shadows on scenery box is not checked and reflections are set to ~MINIMUM (slider all the way to left)

7. Click done which should take you back to the menu screen.

8. IMPORTANT quit Xplane from this screen without proceeding!

9. Bring up your scenery_packs.ini copy that you  saved to desktop and compare to the  one you now have in your customscenery folder

10. If there are any differences then edit the one in your customscenery folder to exactly match the order of the copy (Cut and paste whole line is best way)

11. Ensure you SAVE the sceenry_packs.ini again if you have made any changes.

12. Run Xplane once more choosing the same region as your screenshot and see if anything has changed.

 

I would guess you issue was with TE central form your ini but I'm not sure. Again some ground textures will appear blurred close to the ground, this is normal and restriction of current technology. It should look nice from 500 feet+ above.

Please let me know and also upload your system spec so you can get the best settings for your system.

 

If this does not fix your issue then official OrbX support will be better placed to help you.

 

scenery_packs.ini

scenery_packs_COPY.ini

[david broome]

Too late to edit my original post but I would put these two lines in your scenery_packs.ini just below your TE custom and just above the Demo areas as well.

SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/Orbx_B_GB_Central_TrueEarth_Overlay/
SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/Orbx_B_GB_South_TrueEarth_Overlay/

 

Just highlight the two lines, right click and choose cut, then make a space where you want to paste, right click and paste them.

Remember to save.

[meganser]

Sorry for the late reply David but I have had reinstall my OS and consequently all my software. My system specs are as follows.

 

i7 3930 cpu running at 3800 mhz

GTX Titan 8Gb graphics card

32gb G.Skill Ripjaws 1866 mhz ram

OS win10 Pro, X-plane 3.30r3

I have edited the Scenery-Packs as you suggest in your edited post and have set graphic settings as suggested with exception of World Objects which I have on low as in the past if I set it higher I see trees on motorway. I remember that when I was on FSX I had this as well. The shimmers are not so bad and framerates are good so I will try Texture Quality and Antialiasing to max to see if it gets better (or worse). Thanks a lot David for all your help so far. I will let you know how I get on.

 

Cheers

 

Peter

 

[Jon Clarke]

@meganser

Looking at this topic and your latest response I feel i can offer some advice for you to think about.

First off I assume the blurries you are having are in TEGB since this is an Orbx forum for XP11 Orbx addons.

Your PC specs seem good although the weakest link is your CPU running at 3.8.

I suggest as a test you do the following. Create a folder in your XP directory and name it as Custom Scenery(Disabled)Take all your non Orbx airports if you have any plus ALL other addons and cut and paste into the new folder.

This should leave you with just TEGB and any Orbx airport addons you may have.

Fire up XP and then close it down to check your scenery ini layering.

I will attach another ini for you so just make sure that only the sceneries in this ini are in your Custom Scenery folder e.g. remove your Landmarks except London. You will see from the ini the only sceneries I want you to have in the Custom Scenery folder for now.

 One of the reasons I suspect you are seeing blurries is due to the fact that you have your World Objects on LOW which leaves an awful lot of low resolution orthophoto from TEGB exposed as it is not covered in autogen and objects.

 So remove all your non Orbx stuff, put into the Custom Scenery(disabled) folder, place the new attached ini into your Custom Scenery

 In your graphics settings  make sure you put World Objects to the highest setting. With TEGB you will not see trees on the motorway because all the trees are hand placed. You tend to see trees on roads and building with some default scenery but much more with Orth4XP  with an Overlay.

Just try my suggestion and see how you get on.

Remember this is just to see if your blurries are covered up by autogen and objects.

scenery_packs.ini

 

[meganser]

Hi, thanks for you post however I have followed David Broome's suggestions and the blurries seem to be sorted now but I am still getting some shimmers but nowhere near as bad as before. Thanks for you help.

 

Regards

 

Peter

[meganser]

On 1/7/2019 at 6:31 PM, david broome said:

Too late to edit my original post but I would put these two lines in your scenery_packs.ini just below your TE custom and just above the Demo areas as well.

SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/Orbx_B_GB_Central_TrueEarth_Overlay/
SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/Orbx_B_GB_South_TrueEarth_Overlay/

 

Just highlight the two lines, right click and choose cut, then make a space where you want to paste, right click and paste them.

Remember to save.

Hi David. I have done as you suggested and now no blurries and good framerates. Still getting a bit of shimmering but I can live with that. I guess it must be an X-plane thing that maybe will be fixed in future updates. Thanks again for all your help. Very much appreciated.

 

Regards

 

Peter

[david broome]

21 hours ago, meganser said:

Sorry for the late reply David but I have had reinstall my OS and consequently all my software. My system specs are as follows.

 

i7 3930 cpu running at 3800 mhz

GTX Titan 8Gb graphics card

32gb G.Skill Ripjaws 1866 mhz ram

OS win10 Pro, X-plane 3.30r3

I have edited the Scenery-Packs as you suggest in your edited post and have set graphic settings as suggested with exception of World Objects which I have on low as in the past if I set it higher I see trees on motorway. I remember that when I was on FSX I had this as well. The shimmers are not so bad and framerates are good so I will try Texture Quality and Antialiasing to max to see if it gets better (or worse). Thanks a lot David for all your help so far. I will let you know how I get on.

 

Cheers

 

Peter

 

 

I have not had the issue of trees on motorways so that is odd. I do get the occasional tree or building encroaching on roads but barely noticeable.

You should at least try upping the object count as this will give you much nicer visuals and all the lovely custom modelled buildings that come with OrbX, you can always reduce it again later if it doesn't suit or performance is too bad.

 

As far as shimmering goes it really should be little if you have Visual effect setting on High (HDR) and antialiasing at x4 SSAA/FXAA.

If you are still getting good performance at those settings you can crank it all the way to max (x8) which would give rock solid visuals.

If these settings are too high for your system (should be okay) then you can lower the visual effect setting to medium and crank antialiasing up to x16 which should give better performance.

 

With all these settings always go into settings menu from the first Xplane screen so that they take effect when start a flight.

 

Lastly if the shimmering is more important than frames for you then you can try enabling vertical sync, either use Xplane setting or you could experiment the vertical sync options in Nvidia control panel. 

Because Xplane is so resource intensive it pays to fiddle about and get the best quality/performance payoff for your system.

 

Once Vulkan is implemented into Xplane then hopefully the extra performance that gives will enable you to raise your graphic settings another notch.

Glad I was of some help.

 

 

[meganser]

On 1/14/2019 at 6:20 PM, david broome said:

 

I have not had the issue of trees on motorways so that is odd. I do get the occasional tree or building encroaching on roads but barely noticeable.

You should at least try upping the object count as this will give you much nicer visuals and all the lovely custom modelled buildings that come with OrbX, you can always reduce it again later if it doesn't suit or performance is too bad.

 

As far as shimmering goes it really should be little if you have Visual effect setting on High (HDR) and antialiasing at x4 SSAA/FXAA.

If you are still getting good performance at those settings you can crank it all the way to max (x8) which would give rock solid visuals.

If these settings are too high for your system (should be okay) then you can lower the visual effect setting to medium and crank antialiasing up to x16 which should give better performance.

 

With all these settings always go into settings menu from the first Xplane screen so that they take effect when start a flight.

 

Lastly if the shimmering is more important than frames for you then you can try enabling vertical sync, either use Xplane setting or you could experiment the vertical sync options in Nvidia control panel. 

Because Xplane is so resource intensive it pays to fiddle about and get the best quality/performance payoff for your system.

 

Once Vulkan is implemented into Xplane then hopefully the extra performance that gives will enable you to raise your graphic settings another notch.

Glad I was of some help.

 

 

Hi David once again. a couple of days ago I did the things you suggested and all was fine. I was delighted to see ALL the wonderful scenery for a change and frame rates were excellent also. However, next day the frame rates dropped dramatically, like 9-11 in cockpit views and 17-23 in outside views so I had to reduce world objects once again, HDR on high, Texture Quality high, World Objects low. I benchmarked and stress tested CPU and GPU with Xplane running both with excellent results and Memory also working as it should. OS is healthy. I can't understand why all was so perfect and then go so bad. If you have any ideas on this please let me know.

 

Regards

 

Peter

[david broome]

3 hours ago, meganser said:

Hi David once again. a couple of days ago I did the things you suggested and all was fine. I was delighted to see ALL the wonderful scenery for a change and frame rates were excellent also. However, next day the frame rates dropped dramatically, like 9-11 in cockpit views and 17-23 in outside views so I had to reduce world objects once again, HDR on high, Texture Quality high, World Objects low. I benchmarked and stress tested CPU and GPU with Xplane running both with excellent results and Memory also working as it should. OS is healthy. I can't understand why all was so perfect and then go so bad. If you have any ideas on this please let me know.

 

Regards

 

Peter

 

Hi Peter, that is odd.

I would have said the new settings must not of fully taken effect the first time which is why you had good fps but you state you could visually see the improvements so that mustn't be it.

Were you using the same aircraft and flying the same area?

If not you could experiment again where you originally had good performance.

The more built up and detailed an area is the more demanding it will be on your system.

First I would try with objects at medium and see if you can get decent performance with that.

Otherwise I would drop from visual effects from HDR to medium, crank up AA x8/16 and then experiment with objects, first staying with medium and if all okay trying high as these will have more visual impact flying low than having HDR and disabling HDR will lower the LOD values so that scenery further away is not drawn giving you performance headroom to increase objects.

 

Ultimately it is all about tinkering and getting the sim look as best as you can while still getting playable frame rates.

Unless a distant Uncle leaves you a few grand for a spanking new system

 

PS

Remember it is important to change settings in the first screen when loading Xplane rather than after selecting a flight as some don't take effect until you restart the sim.

 

[Jon Clarke]

Sorry to hear again of your woes. I don't want to interfere in your dialogue with David but need to know if like Davis=d asks, was the performance drop in exactly the same place with the same plane? Have you added anything> Have you checked your ini layering since inserting the copy David gave you?

I must repeat that your CPU is underwhelming in comparison to your remaining hardware. It's a bit like having a Ferrari with a Mini engine

 Remember that in your Graphics Settings page in XP the items on the Left are GPU and the settings on the Right are CPU related.

Also if you check the XP forum https://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?/forums/ you will see that many are reporting a problem with AA. Many including myself report halving of FPS with a high AA setting in XP and a halving of FPS with 8x. These reports are relating to XP11.v30.

 Try what David suggests and then try leaving your World Objects at High but having your HDR to one notch from  maximum, reduce AA to 2xFXAA. See what the results are FPS wise in a comparison test. Your GPU is strong but your CPU is very weak to run XP with high settings.

[meganser]

7 hours ago, david broome said:

 

Hi Peter, that is odd.

I would have said the new settings must not of fully taken effect the first time which is why you had good fps but you state you could visually see the improvements so that mustn't be it.

Were you using the same aircraft and flying the same area?

If not you could experiment again where you originally had good performance.

The more built up and detailed an area is the more demanding it will be on your system.

First I would try with objects at medium and see if you can get decent performance with that.

Otherwise I would drop from visual effects from HDR to medium, crank up AA x8/16 and then experiment with objects, first staying with medium and if all okay trying high as these will have more visual impact flying low than having HDR and disabling HDR will lower the LOD values so that scenery further away is not drawn giving you performance headroom to increase objects.

 

Ultimately it is all about tinkering and getting the sim look as best as you can while still getting playable frame rates.

Unless a distant Uncle leaves you a few grand for a spanking new system

 

PS

Remember it is important to change settings in the first screen when loading Xplane rather than after selecting a flight as some don't take effect until you restart the sim.

 

Hi David, yes I always test using the same place, Manchester Airport at gate 12. I will experiment with the settings as you propose and let you know the result.

 

Regards

 

Peter

[meganser]

1 hour ago, jjaycee1 said:

Sorry to hear again of your woes. I don't want to interfere in your dialogue with David but need to know if like Davis=d asks, was the performance drop in exactly the same place with the same plane? Have you added anything> Have you checked your ini layering since inserting the copy David gave you?

I must repeat that your CPU is underwhelming in comparison to your remaining hardware. It's a bit like having a Ferrari with a Mini engine

 Remember that in your Graphics Settings page in XP the items on the Left are GPU and the settings on the Right are CPU related.

Also if you check the XP forum https://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?/forums/ you will see that many are reporting a problem with AA. Many including myself report halving of FPS with a high AA setting in XP and a halving of FPS with 8x. These reports are relating to XP11.v30.

 Try what David suggests and then try leaving your World Objects at High but having your HDR to one notch from  maximum, reduce AA to 2xFXAA. See what the results are FPS wise in a comparison test. Your GPU is strong but your CPU is very weak to run XP with high settings.

Thank you for your reply. I will try your suggestions and see what happens. You are correct about weak cpu and I am intending to upgrade it. Do you have any ideas on what would do the job on an Asus Sabertooth X79 mobo?  I have searched online many times but so far come up with nothing better.

 

Regards

 

Peter

[Jon Clarke]

Here is a link to what Intel CPU's are compatible with your motherboard.

https://www.intel.co.uk/content/www/uk/en/support/articles/000005592/processors/intel-core-processors.html

You could also phone Scan PC on 01204-474747 (UK). They build my PCs for me and I always extremely helpful. If you ask to speak to the sales or tech dept they will give you the best advice. There is no commitment to buy from them.

[david broome]

6 hours ago, jjaycee1 said:

Here is a link to what Intel CPU's are compatible with your motherboard.

https://www.intel.co.uk/content/www/uk/en/support/articles/000005592/processors/intel-core-processors.html

You could also phone Scan PC on 01204-474747 (UK). They build my PCs for me and I always extremely helpful. If you ask to speak to the sales or tech dept they will give you the best advice. There is no commitment to buy from them.

 

All good advice but,

If it is a socket 2011 MB depending on version then that limits the upgrade path significantly and the next upgrade would require another MB anyway.

He may be better waiting it out and getting a new Mobo CPU combo and then when then later down the line  upgrading the GPU that will not bottleneck on the new CPU and MOBO.

 

It is always very had to advise someone on a system upgrade because there are so many factors, not least budget but I agree the CPU is the current weak link (and the RAM is a little slow for today's standards - doesn't make much difference once you get to above 2.6/3.2Ghz or you have a slower system but it will hold back faster systems a little - still that is the last thing to upgrade.

As an aside when the RAM is a bottleneck it offloads to HD/SDD instead of CPU so having a fast SSD can mitigate somewhat.

But I digress.

 

My advice would be if you have a small budget and you are not too worried about  future upgrades then get the the best gaming CPU for your MOBO that price allows.

If you have a larger budget then look at upgrading your mobo as well so you can get a better CPU and also future proof somewhat - may veen be worth waiting to see how the new Zen2 AMD chips come out this year - on current evidence it looks like they will have a good $/perf edge over Intel.

Depending on whether you RAM was an issue or not (likely would hold back a faster system at just 1600mhz) I would upgrade that next in a new system, either 2600mhz and OC to 3Ghz or 3.2Ghz depending on price, any faster is a a waste of money.

And of course the most important and most expensive part for gaming the GPU, an old generation Titan should be okay for now but there are now much faster cards - it is all money!

And really you need to be an avid gamer to want to spend so much on a top end rig and to get worthwhile use out of it - or a VR enthusiast.

 

[meganser]

Hi once again David. I will be taking your advice re PC upgrade in the near future. I have got xplane running the very best I can, not as good as I would have liked but will just have to suffice for now. Seems to run best at these settings in attachment. I have one other query. When I start FTX there is a message "an update to the Orbx Libraries is available. Click here to view details about the update." If I click on install I get another message as in attachment. I had Orbx when I used FSX which had libraries but I am not aware of any in Orbx in Xplane. Could you enlighten me on this subject please.

 

Regards

 

Peter

 

 

[Nick Cooper]

Hello,

you will need to return to your X Plane 11 product page at Orbx Direct and scroll to the bottom of the page.

There you will find a link to the Orbx X Plane 11 libraries.

Click on it, add them to your acount and then you will be able to install them using FTX Central.

[meganser]

Hi Nick. I managed to install the libraries. Thanks for that. now I have other problems. 1. I have set objects to max and frame rates are not too bad but there seems to be missing buildings and bungalows that are half sunken into the ground as shown in attachment. This is Heathrow Airport at runway 27 and yet it shows what appears to be a public road with traffic. I have tried non Orbx scenery to compare with and no missing buildings. 2. I can no longer move most switches in the cockpit as the mouse pointer remains an arc type. I uninstalled Orbx a couple of days ago and reinstalled it last night. Another problem is I now have no nosewheel steering nor yaw even though my joystick is properly calibrated. I would appreciate your help with these things if you can. Maybe best to uninstall again?

 

Regards 

 

Peter

[meganser]

Doesn't matter now. Got it all sorted out. Thanks anyway.

 

Regards

 

Peter

 

[meganser]

On 1/16/2019 at 6:03 PM, david broome said:

 

All good advice but,

If it is a socket 2011 MB depending on version then that limits the upgrade path significantly and the next upgrade would require another MB anyway.

He may be better waiting it out and getting a new Mobo CPU combo and then when then later down the line  upgrading the GPU that will not bottleneck on the new CPU and MOBO.

 

It is always very had to advise someone on a system upgrade because there are so many factors, not least budget but I agree the CPU is the current weak link (and the RAM is a little slow for today's standards - doesn't make much difference once you get to above 2.6/3.2Ghz or you have a slower system but it will hold back faster systems a little - still that is the last thing to upgrade.

As an aside when the RAM is a bottleneck it offloads to HD/SDD instead of CPU so having a fast SSD can mitigate somewhat.

But I digress.

 

My advice would be if you have a small budget and you are not too worried about  future upgrades then get the the best gaming CPU for your MOBO that price allows.

If you have a larger budget then look at upgrading your mobo as well so you can get a better CPU and also future proof somewhat - may veen be worth waiting to see how the new Zen2 AMD chips come out this year - on current evidence it looks like they will have a good $/perf edge over Intel.

Depending on whether you RAM was an issue or not (likely would hold back a faster system at just 1600mhz) I would upgrade that next in a new system, either 2600mhz and OC to 3Ghz or 3.2Ghz depending on price, any faster is a a waste of money.

And of course the most important and most expensive part for gaming the GPU, an old generation Titan should be okay for now but there are now much faster cards - it is all money!

And really you need to be an avid gamer to want to spend so much on a top end rig and to get worthwhile use out of it - or a VR enthusiast.

 

Hi again David. Thank you for all the help and advice you have given me to date. I have decided to upgrade my system and have been doing some research online as to what is the best available within my budget. I want a system where I can max out all settings and still give me good fps and smoothness. What I think would do the job for me are the following specs:

 

MB. Asus Rog Crossfire V1 Extreme

 

CPU. Ryzen 2700x

 

GPU. NV 2080 8GB

 

Mem. 32GB G.Skill Ripjaws 3200 DDR4

 

How do you think that would stack up to achieve my goal?

 

Regards

 

Peter

[david broome]

14 hours ago, meganser said:

Hi again David. Thank you for all the help and advice you have given me to date. I have decided to upgrade my system and have been doing some research online as to what is the best available within my budget. I want a system where I can max out all settings and still give me good fps and smoothness. What I think would do the job for me are the following specs:

 

MB. Asus Rog Crossfire V1 Extreme

 

CPU. Ryzen 2700x

 

GPU. NV 2080 8GB

 

Mem. 32GB G.Skill Ripjaws 3200 DDR4

 

How do you think that would stack up to achieve my goal?

 

Regards

 

Peter

 

I think that if you want to max out Xplane settings and get good fps you had better first write to NASA on advice how to build a super computer.

Of course it depends what you mean by smooth fps and "max out" means. 

With that system you could max out everything (except have shadows on buildings and reflections turned off) and in detailed city scenes get over 30 fps but you won't be anywhere close to 60

OF course it also depends on what resolution you are running at, 4k would cripple that system for example.

 

It is really tough to give advice with other peoples money but honestly I would be patient and wait for the new AMD zen 2 CPU's.

If I was upgrading right now to get best fps from Xplane I would go for an intel CPU such as an 8700k and pay the extra but I absolutely do not advise that for a few reasons.

Skip if you like,

 

Firstly the upgrade path does not look as open as with AMD, intel tend to like to fleece by making buy a new mobo everytime you want a new CPU - if you were unlucky enough to upgrade to Skylake for example you can't even get a 8700k without anew coffee lake mobo. AMD tend to take much better care of their customers in this regard.

 

Secondly, and this is a biggy, Xplane 11 will soon (Hopefully by end Q2 this year) be moving to Vulkan which will move the goalposts somewhat and it is hard to know what the best CPU/GPU price/perf combos will be when that happens but it should close the gap more between AMD and Intel as it will theoretically rely less on single core max clock speed.

 

Thirdly, and for reasons previously stated the new zen 2 chips and mobo's look like they will have very good price/perf ratios and cleaner upgrade paths - this is based on current information. There is always bigger and better around the corner but not all upgrades are equal. Some are very worthwhile, others can be a waste of money.

 

The Ryzen 3000 (zen 2) chips should be out by end of Q2 which would tie in nicely with Xplane moving to vulkan.

Now if you researched you could ensure you get a current AMD Ryzen 2000 mobo that will support the new chips when they are out (some will, some won't) but if they support you will may miss out on some chipset upgrades such as PCIe 4 that new ryzen 3000 CPU/boards will likely support.

 

Honestly though, I know the money will be burning a hole in your pocket but I would wait until Xplane Vulkan and zen 2 are out as you will be able to make a much more informed choice and get much better bang for your buck to suit Xplane and if all else fails you will be able to buy your current system much more cheaply as once the new chips are out last gen prices fall quickly. (also a good reason to not buy just before a new chipset releases)

Yes there will always be a new shiny thing coming out but a new chipset rather than just a new chip on existing chipset is a big deal with big performance differences and new tech rather than paying through the nose for just a few percent here or there.

 

If you are desperate for a new build right now you can PM me on how much want you to spend and will advise you on the best possible current setup for Xplane for what you want to spend right now but I strongly advise you to wait this one out.

 

 

 

 

[meganser]

Hi David, thanks for your advice and very detailed information. I have decided to go for the specs I have outlined as these will perhaps be satisfactory enough and maybe whenever Vulkan is here it might  prove to be better. In the end, it's all down to what one can afford or be prepared to spend. Thanks again for your good advice.

 

Regards

 

Peter