Aluminum Donkey

Adaptive Refresh should be pretty much trouble-free by now. I use an Nvidia card with a Freesync monitor and it works well. DCS is hardly known for smooth and consistent framerates, but it's pretty decent when you get all your settings sorted out. Stuttering is extremely noticeable at higher framerates--the higher, the more noticeable. I'd suggest clamping your framerate to something more reasonable for flight simming, say, 60-75 FPS, and 'hitching' at high framerates will be less noticeable. On the lower end of the FPS range, you can use a program called Custom Resolution Utility (CRU) to edit the range of framerates at which Freesync is active. Drop the low end to 30 FPS, test it with one of the apps for doing so, and you're good to go. AD

It's not hard to change/replace the PSU, but remember to plug in both of the motherboard power cables. There's the 20/24-pin mobo cable, the big one, that's often 2 plugs that have to be inserted together. Then, there's also the CPU power connector--either 1 or 2 plugs, 4 pins each. It's sometimes easy to forget to connect the CPU power cables--especially if the PSU itself is fully modular and has sockets for both the main motherboard and CPU power cables (not sure why they do that in the first place, since you absolutely must have both and nothing works without them, so they're just a given, and don't have to be removable from the PSU.) AD

Shipping is knackered up because of all this Corona virus jive. Good luck getting anything shipped faster than a couple months. Consider so-called "shipping times" to be random wild guesses at best. Maybe your new drive will show up in time for the Typhoon module :D AD

That's funny, since dogfights (WVR) are generally done at full thrust, especially when the other guy's plane has more of it :D AD

It isn't really a dog, it certainly has great handling, but if you're used to powerhouse planes like the F-15, MiG-29 and Su-27 it's not going to have anywhere near as much thrust. That means you get to bank-'n'-yank for much less time before it feels like you're flying a city bus with a couple of cylinders out. Since the cannons are your main weapon instead of lugging a dozen missiles around and a long-range radar, you have to know how to fly it well. I'll be the first to admit I usually fall short in that last regard myself :) Remember: DCS AI is superhuman, and the AI flight models are based off of UFOs, so don't get discouraged too much flying against the AI, especially if you set it on the highest skill setting. You actually suck somewhat less at this than you think you do :thumbup: AD

You're trying to throw a bunch of golf balls into a small backyard pool from 1/3 of a mile away while running a 6-second mile. Nobody said it was easy :) AD

Why? The F-16 should be one heck of a dogfighter when very lightly loaded, since that's primarily what it was designed for... High thrust, LERX, tail-heavy FBW design and all that... AD

The Typhoon is a new-generation fighter with flight performance to own all the ones you just mentioned. It's not a stealth fighter, but will easily supercruise and has gobs of thrust. Performance-wise it could be considered to be in a similar class as the F-22, kind of like comparing a Su-27 to the F/A-18... Although, admittedly, the F-22 has a reputation for being a real powerhouse, just that nobody really knows except for the people that built it and the people that fly it, because it's all still classified. I think the F-22 is supposed to be good for Mach 1.8+ without afterburning, the Typhoon something like 1.5 or 1.6, mighty chunk better than the F-14/15/16/18 etc. AD

You're lucky, the only thing I ever get shot out is the radiator. Either that or the prop governor, or lose some control surfaces, or a whole wingtip. Never anything "fun" like a boost regulator failure! :) AD

Just copy the entire DCS directory on ya hard disk to your SSD. No 'advice' needed. AD

I've suspected for some time now that the Dora's flight performance has been 'dumbed down' somewhat, since the real-life Dora could produce 2,240 HP with MW50 turned on, making it an absolute *powerhouse*, leaps and bounds ahead of all the other fighters. The DCS version feels a bit doggy to me. It should be able to accelerate like a bat outta hell and out-fly (but not necessarily out-turn) the Allied aircraft. The Dora wasn't an ultra-lightweight purebred dogfighter that could turn on a dime, but it certainly was a horsepower monster, and I just have a suspicion that the DCS version has been 'gimped' to prevent complaints from owners of the other modules--in particular, the P-51D, which was fast and a decent fighter, but very average for its day. AD

Buy a gun and a chainsaw to help balance things out in life a bit more? ;) AD

No doubt! I wonder what anyone's gonna dogfight with the Foon if there's no AI latest-'n'-greatest hardware to kick around... We can probably just go up 1 against 5, or 4 against 20 etc., in a kind of end-of-the-world-but-not-nuclear-quite-yet scenario :) AD

If the graphics card FPS is higher than your monitor's max refresh rate (usually 60 Hz) then you will always get screen tearing. Don't bother with high refresh rate monitors, 60 Hz is plenty for flight sims. It's also fine for most FPS games too. If you're going to get a new monitor, get one with Freesync (Adaptive Refresh) and use that feature, instead of blowing your cash on one with a whopping high refresh rate, which probably won't get used in DCS very much anyway. It will make your screen update itself whenever the graphics card renders each new frame, so your monitor's refresh rate is always the same as whatever FPS the graphics card is producing. That way, you'll have no stutter or tearing even as the framerate varies. I'm using a Freesync (AMD) monitor with an Nvidia card, and the newer Nvidia drivers allow the use of their cards with Freesync monitors for adaptive refresh. Let me tell you man, adaptive refresh is the ONLY thing I've ever tried that allows me to run DCS reasonably smoothly. Absolutely nothing else whatsoever has ever helped. If you ever get a new monitor make sure it has Freesync, and get it working! It makes a night-and-day difference. Make sure you turn on VSync as well (only in the graphics driver) to prevent the graphics card from rendering faster than the monitor will allow so it stops tearing, and you're good to go--you use Freesync and Vsync together. AD

I'm fine with the maps we have, but a full-fidelity F-22, J-20, and Su-57 to go along with the Typhoon would be mighty kickass

Not to mention the dev team going "Whew!! It's finally out!" and making a little dough for the first time, then having no major motivation to hunker down and finish it. The last 15-25% of the module's features (radar, nav, etc) take 3 times as long to complete--if ever. It's like fixing a leaky radiator in your car with that Stop-Leak stuff you pour into the coolant. Ever done that? Yeah, it dribbles a little still, and it might be getting worse every few months. No big deal, just top it off every 6 months or so. But it gets you to work, so good enough :) Still, a Typhoon for DCS would be mighty cool :D AD

No kidding!! It's a graphics card for your computer. A $1200-1500 graphics card at that! Should go 5+ years flat out with constant heavy gaming no problem at all. If it fails even after 3-5 years, I'd consider it defective. These suckers are all solid state electronics and should last forever. Fan bearings don't count (even though they kinda sorta should, but they're mechanical, and as such, will eventually wear out) AD

Dang guys, these suckers are expensive! Stop crashing 'em all the time! That's what DCS is for :) AD

Try DCS out for free. Just download it and install it on your SSD (not a mechanical hard disk!!) and try it out for yourself. You get two free aircraft, an un-armed P-51 trainer and a heavily-armed Russian ground attack jet, the Su-25. When trying it out, you'll be able to see for yourself if it's for you or not. It doesn't cost you anything but storage space. If you're interested in the F-14, you'll probably love it :) It's a great module, but expect it to same some time to get the hang of--the jet modules (except FC3) are extremely detailed and complex, which is a big part of why people around here really dig them. Some modules come with a campaign, some don't. The campaigns you can buy (you must have the respective modules already) are not expensive though, and are supposed to be excellent. So, instead of humming and hawing, just download it and give 'er a go. AD

Depends on what you consider better. It has to have an exhaust turbine that runs very hot, and it has to reach very high speeds. So, it's a much more finicky and expensive piece of equipment. It's only major advantage is it doesn't absorb crankshaft power--so it performs better at high altitude. The shaft driven blower was reliable and straightforward, and served well up to the end of the war, though. AD

That's right--it's about 14.7 PSI, or ~30 inches of mercury, but only if you're at sea level. If you're at 20,000 feet (roughly 6,000 meters), the air pressure outside is only about half of what it is at sea level, so the gauge reading zero would actually be about 7.5 to 8 PSI boost, even though the gauge says zero boost. If that sounds weird, the Spitfire "boost" gauge actually shows manifold Absolute pressure, not just boost. So, it's only accurate at sea level. At higher altitudes, the manifold pressure regulator increases boost to maintain a constant manifold pressure, and the actual boost pressure produced by the supercharger is higher than what it reads on the gauge. 18 PSI boost on the gauge is actually 18 PSI boost (above outside atmospheric pressure, ~14.7 PSI) if you're at sea level. At 20,000 feet, the outside atmospheric pressure is only about 7 PSI, so if the gauge shows 18 PSI, the boost pressure is actually 25-26 PSI. All of the other 3 warbirds have manifold pressure gauges that show Manifold Absolute Pressure, so they're accurate at any altitude. But, the Spitfire's "boost" gauge is only accurate at sea level, unless you consider it to say "Manifold Absolute Pressure Referenced to Sea-Level Atmospheric", and not "Boost" :) AD

The gauge that says ATA measures intake manifold pressure. It's the pressure of the air-fuel mixture entering the engine, after the supercharger, which means it can be higher than atmospheric because the air is compressed by the supercharger ("blower") to increase engine power. ATA means Atmosphere, Absolute. 1.0 ATA means the air pressure in the intake is exactly atmospheric, which is roughly 14.7 PSI if you're at ground level. However, the "absolute" part means the gauge measures pressure relative to an internal standard, not the outside atmosphere. So, if you're at 20,000 feet altitude, the outside air pressure is only about *half* an atmosphere, and the engine's supercharger has to pressurize the air to develop 1.0 ATA manifold pressure. If you're on the ground, close to sea level, the supercharger doesn't have to develop any pressure rise to produce 1.0 ATA at the intake manifold. The Bf-109 engine runs at a max of 1.8 ATA, which is roughly 12 PSI boost pressure ("boost" means above outside-atmosphere intake pressure) if you're at sea level. The Fw-190 run about 1.9 ATA maximum, or just over 13 PSI at sea level. As altitude increases, the boost pressure (intake air pressure above outside atmosphere) must increase to maintain the same total, or absolute, intake manifold pressure because the outside atmospheric pressure drops with altitude. The supercharger absorbs more engine power to develop this higher pressure ratio, which is why engine power drops off as altitude increases, even though the manifold absolute pressure (ATA) stays about the same. That's why they went through all the trouble to develop expensive & finicky exhaust-driven turbochargers, to get around the problem of absorbing more and more engine power to drive the supercharger as altitude increases. AD

Strange indeed, I thought French fighter pilots were trained to fly near the combat zone before ejecting! Hehehehe just a little joke there, no offence if you're French

I'm still using an archaic 1080 Ti. :D Seems to be about right for a 2560 x 1440 single monitor, mostly at all-high settings except for Flat shadows and SSLR turned off. After flying 2.5.6 for a few missions, stuttering seems to have gone away. AD

Hehehehehe welcome to DCS World man, where people blow more money on their gaming rigs than many people would ever spend on a car, then come on here and complain about lousy performance :) If your top-of-the-line system isn't choking and wheezing, and your GPU isn't running hot enough to start a nuclear fusion reaction on your desktop, then you just ain't playing DCS. :thumbup: AD