......as you're probably aware, P3D is now on version 2.4. I've only been using it since 2.2 and have been pleasantly surprised with the performance on my machine.
i5-4430 @3 Ghz
Gt 640 for panels monitor
GTX 750 Ti for main monitor
Dedicated HD for P3D
8 gig ram
win 7
I'm not saying it's perfect but compared to some folks (who have better rigs) I've been lucky. Some sliders maxed, most others toward the high end. No hdr or terrain shadows. I can't have much traffic either, my CPU being the bottle neck.......I now get 30fps in most situations and it drops to mid 20's at Heathrow and over London. I was running vanilla but have now installed ORBX England. My flying tends to be VFR in slower aircraft.
2 niggling problems I've had with my setup have been consistent micro stutters and texture lag, only slight but irritating non the less. I tried everything: turning sliders right down, different aircraft, drivers, cfg tweaks but they remained. I tried diagnostic software, switching off useless start up progs and services......many of these things helped slightly but I couldn't get rid of the issues completely.
Today I started back tracking on how I set the machine up when I built it, after a couple of hours I found the issue
The CPU I have will turbo boost to 3.2 ghz.........I didn't have turbo boost switched on in the bios....doh. My P3D is now running like a swiss watch, smooth as a babies bum