Is the performance of the FSL A320 similar to PMDG aircraft?

[Edward Berkley]

Hello, 

I'm curious about this question as I wish to buy the A320 but I'm more concerned about my graphics card. I'm using a GTX 650 Ti and when running the PMDG 777, with UK2000 Heathrow scenery, the GPU utilises about 44% of the memory when in the cockpit, and 50% when outside. Is it possible to have similar results with the A320? I have checked the requirements and they all meet the minimum criteria. And I guess speaking of minimum requirements, does anyone own the FSL A320 under the minimum requirements? Is the performance okay or is it bad? I've heard about the updates you guys put out, improving performance and all, but I wish to see what people here have to say.

Ed

[John James]

Hello Edward,

Are you talking about FSX, FSX-SE or P3D?

I have the GTX 1080 Ti and I use FSX-SE.   The A320 is excellent and in my opinion, seems to be slightly better than the PMDG 777.  I also have the PMDG 737NGX (about the best so far) and the 747-400 QOTS - the latter actually is better than the 777 but not as good as the A320 X.

Gary's UK2000 Heathrow is certainly a tough scenery.   Gatwick I find is better, as is Stansted and Manchester.   At Heathrow, I get a VAS reading of 1.0GB available with the A320 X.   It drops further down to perhaps 0.75GB but as soon as I'm going down the runway and climb away, it increases to about 1.2GB and in the cruise with ActiveSky 2016 and Cloud Art for my weather, I still get anywhere between 1.3GB up to 1.58GB of VAS still available.   Frame rates are smooth for me (in the high 45's) and I use a texture size of 1024 in the FSX.cfg file and I still get amazing graphics!

Some sceneries are better than others.  With careful VAS management, you can have the A320 in all it's glory at a good simulation speed.

Just my thoughts - hope it helps.

Cheers,

 

Lee

[Edward Berkley]

Hi Lee,

Thank you for the response. I use P3D and since you've mentioned other airports, I should have tested Gatwick as well for performance. I have noticed that setting an fps limit helps my GPU a lot. If I was to leave the frame rate at unlimited, the GPU would be using about 85% of the memory when in the outside view the PMDG 777. At the same time, I may end up sacrificing some settings just to get some better performance.

I may give the A320 a shot and if my GPU can't handle it, then I'll probably end up upgrading my graphics card. (I'm in a need of new one anyway.)

I'm still open if anyone else has other answers.

Edward

[Jose Francisco Ibañez M.]

If you use P3D V4, this aircraft have stutters and Fps drops. In V3 it was perfect.

[Edward Berkley]

That's interesting. I use P3D v4 but why would there be stutters and fps drops in v4? Is it a bug or something? 

[Markus Burkhard]

Ed,

if you're able to run the PMDG B777, you should see similar results with the A320. It has been a while since I did comparison performance tests, but I remember one I did at the SimWings Heathrow scenery. In that test case I had 27FPS in the B777, and 25FPS in the A320-X. Every system is different, on MY system it is virtually identical.

On our team's PC systems we are unable to reproduce any unusual FPS drops and stutters like José reports, I can only say that the A320 performs very similar compared to the PMDG 777 and 747.

[Simon Kelsey]

Hi Ed,

My specs are in my signature below. They are a source of much amusement for the team...

...but I do get quite acceptable results with the A320 in P3Dv4, which I find far smoother and more stable than FSX.

I've never in 20 years of simming looked at the FPS counter so I can't tell you any numbers, but I can say that it is smooth and flyable. I do normally get a few stutters immediately after takeoff departing LHR (UK2000) in an easterly direction, but that resolves itself after a few seconds.

Of course, I don't have oodles of Orbx scenery, super-high-res textures etc etc etc, and I'm quite cautious with my graphics settings in general. I also have Dynamic Lighting OFF (I gather that LM have quite a bit of optimisation work to do there) but I find that a small price to pay for an otherwise outstanding experience.

[J_U_A_N__R-A-M-O-S]

Hi @Simon Kelsey

Just to let you know that you forgot to give us new updates on the A319. The last one was nearly 10 days ago.

Will we get more updates?

If you ask me, a link to purchase and download will be enough

[Simon Kelsey]

 - events over the weekend have naturally taken a bit of a front seat over the last few days but we hope to have some more updates for you soon!

[J_U_A_N__R-A-M-O-S]

Thanks @Simon Kelsey

I hope to see that link soon since i need that aircraft.

Well, i really don't "need it", but i NEED IT if you know what i mean

[Edward Berkley]

@Simon Kelsey I'm extremely impressed that you have a GTX 570 and being able to run the A320. The same applies for me as well as settings. I don't have max settings and for the majority of the time they're kept on low, and I'm not bothered by that at all. Thanks for the help!

[stephen speak]

I have an AMD A8 6700k..16gb ddr3 ram..I had an nvidia gtx750ti 2gb ddr5 that worked great with p3d v3..upgraded to p3d v4.2..the A320x stutters all over the place  usually 20 minutes or so after take off..thought the graphics card was the bottleneck so I spent a small fortune to get a gtx 980ti 6gb..guess what..still unflyable..I just hope this update sorts out all of this or I won’t be able to get the A319 as I’ll have no money left ..imo this should run as smooth as a baby’s a**e being 64 bit..I have had to stop using it due to frustration 

[Markus Burkhard]

@stephen speak

Send an e-mail to support@flightsimlabs.com if it is unflyable for you with the upcoming update. Describe the issues and include your settings, then the support team might be able to help, either by giving suggestions or by doing a teamviewer session.

[Lefteris Kalamaras]

41 minutes ago, stephen speak said:

I have an AMD A8 6700k..16gb ddr3 ram..I had an nvidia gtx750ti 2gb ddr5 that worked great with p3d v3..upgraded to p3d v4.2..the A320x stutters all over the place  usually 20 minutes or so after take off..thought the graphics card was the bottleneck so I spent a small fortune to get a gtx 980ti 6gb..guess what..still unflyable..I just hope this update sorts out all of this or I won’t be able to get the A319 as I’ll have no money left ..imo this should run as smooth as a baby’s a**e being 64 bit..I have had to stop using it due to frustration 

I can't find your particular CPU in the CPU mega page but AMD A8 CPUs max out at 5470 CPU Mark and our minimum specifications call for 6500 with a recommended 8000 at least. Unfortunately, an upgrade is in order here... Sorry!

[stephen speak]

Lefteris..I don’t know if this is feasible..but the only way I can upgrade anything at the minute is by way of a cpu upgrade..the best one I can see that is socket fm2+ is an AMD A10 4 gb 7860k 4 core..could you advise me whether this will be worth the upgrade or not..I neither have the funds nor the time at present to be messing around with new motherboards etc..a new cpu is only a hour maximum to fit..I think I can manage that

cheers 

Steve 

 

[Lefteris Kalamaras]

Hi Stephen,

I checked that CPU in the mega page and the CPU Passmark also comes back at the bare minimums. I don't think you'll have a very pleasurable experience to be honest...