Hardware Questions ( CPU GPU Joystick etc.. )

[Harfang]

Well after seeing all those great youtube videos about the sim , I'm really tempted to come back to it.

I have some questions about the setup I'm using right now..

 

Will I be able to play online with the setup below ? I know it's 6 years old but till I'm get myself a more up to date PC i'm stuck with it. Will be playing up to 1080p not higher.

Is there anyone who can provide some feedback about the VKB Gladiator Pro MkII ? i'm leaning toward that joystick mostly because of the Metal Gimbal and due to bad experience with cheap joysticks mainly Saitek one's.

 

ok here's the setup : 

CPU : i5 760 OC from 2.8 to 4.0 Ghz

MB : ROG Maximus Gene III

MEM : Corsair Vengence DDR3 1600 running at 1600

GPU : Powercolor HD 7970 replacing a GTX 580 3GB

Asus VE27Q Monitor 1080p Max Resolution

Saitek Pedals , TQ , X52 throttle TrackIr5

Joystick :  VKB Gladiator Pro MkII

 

Thank you ! 

 

Raven77

Edited May 2, 2017 by Raven77

[ShamrockOneFive]

Hi Raven,

 

Seems like a pretty decent system despite its age. You don't list how much RAM you have but I think if you have 8GB or more you should be fine here. The sim has improved in its performance dramatically for some and a little bit for others so its running fairly well these days with 64bit/DX11 engine upgrades. The AI has been tweaked and needs less CPU power too. Less of an issue online but still nice to have.

 

Your system is fairly similar to what I used to have and that ran IL-2 reasonably well so long as I played on High (not Ultra) and my expectations were that it would be a smooth and playable experience but I had to sometimes knock a few settings down like less advanced AA and AF in my video card control panel.

 

Also I can say that the Gladiator is a really great stick. I bought the regular one, the VKB Gladiator Mark I, about 6 months ago and I'm really really happy with it. I bought it to replace my failing X-52 (though I'm still using the HOTAS) and I was a little skeptical but willing to try it. In some ways it feels a little less substantial than the X-52 but that very minor gripe aside the stick itself is solid and the sensor precision is so much better than anything I got from my X-52. My flying got a lot better with this stick as its very smooth and very precise. I'm so happy with it that I'll likely buy the "matching" throttle system that VKB is bringing out sometime late this year or early next year.

 

The Pro takes away the twist axis and adds metal gimbals with the ability to swap the top of the stick for something different (like the modern combat oriented Modern Combat Grip also from VKB coming soon). EDIT: Also the Saitek drivers under Windows 10 these days are awful. They were bad under Windows 7 and they were a fight for me to get through now. The Gladiator is nice because its essentially driverless... all of the advanced programming happens on the ARM processor on the stick itself. Easily the most painless upgrade I ever made.

 

I wrote a whole review about the Gladiator on my blog which you're welcome to check out: https://stormbirds.wordpress.com/2016/12/11/%EF%BB%BFreview-vkb-gladiator/

Edited April 25, 2017 by ShamrockOneFive

[Harfang]

Thx ShamrockOneFive ! I have indeed 8 GB of ram in the system. I'm still running windows 7 64 SP1. Not a big fan of the windows 8 and 10 as I have them on a laptop. I did try BOS with ultra settings ( 1080p) last night on quick mission putting every plane and ground target that I could. On the ground level the lowest FPS was around 65 and in altitude I was reaching 72-80 all with v-sync disable. I used to have a x-52 stick and brand new it was a good one but the internal wiring was not well designed and results was a lot of wires broken. The last stick I had was a Saitek aviator and the last time I saw it, it was flying high in my backyard into the recycling bin. Your review was very useful and I did some research and couldn't really found anything bad with the Gladiators or at least they were corrected with the MKII's. I probably order the Gladiator Pro tomorrow cos the choice for good and reliable stick are pretty limited and the warthog price is out of my reach for now. 

 

Take care !