Moving on from GT7 to iracing

[MotorHammer]

I’m planning on switching over to iracing and leaving GT7 behind. I have a DD Pro w/load cell. I am considering an HP Omen 45L w/32GB RAM, and using a high end TV as a monitor (for now). I’m leaving GT7 due to the terrible penalty system I’m just tired of the brake checks, push to pass, exploitation of the penalty system, way too many people on burner accounts, yea you know all the things that are wrong with sport mode. Ok here’s my question(s) will the HP Omen 45L, AMD RYsen7 5800X, Nvidia 3060 be good enough to keep me happy with the graphics? And is the penalty system actually better on iracing? Thanks in advance!

 

[GingerBredMan]

I’m using a low-end Armoury PC, my graphics card is a GeForce GTX 1660 Super just to give perspective. It doesn’t take a lot for iRacing to run, but to have it look good would take a little more than what I have.

For the penalty system, I might say it’s marginally better, but it’s important that you know what you’re in for:

The racing by design is a little bit cleaner compared to my experience on gt sport, but there’s less real-time accountability. There’s no in-race penalties related to contact, just incident points. If you get too many of those you’ll get a penalty.

There is a protesting system for dirty behaviour, but the bar is pretty high for what would get punished. It takes some pretty clear and deliberate dirty driving for something to be penalized. Anything short of that will be dismissed.

Hope that clears things up a bit. If you have any other questions feel free to ask. Enjoy!

 

[Daz555]

Your specs are more than enough for iRacing. I suspect you will be able to run comfortably at 1440p with a mixture of high and medium settings.

I much prefer the penalty system in iRacing to that of GT. iRacing dishes out equal punishment for all contact regardless of who is to blame. It feels harsh sometimes but at least it prevents gaming of the penalty system by troll players. My only gripe with iRacing penalties is the slow-downs. They are a little too harsh.

I hope you have plenty of £ in your bank account. First year in iRacing can get pricey!

Discounts are available for new members and subscription costs are discounted further if you buy a long term licence rather than pay monthly. I pay 2 years upfront each time as it is most cost effective.

 

[JaapGrolleman]

Penalty system is fair but get out of rookies ASAP. Rookies isn't a skill test, you don't need to win, just survive the race and get out of there ASAP.

 

[Veinz]

The penalty system is very good, but my favorite part is the protest system. It’s not like GT where a player can just crash everyone else and only take a hit to their ratings. You can get a temporary or permanent suspension for that in iRacing.

I’ve never felt the need to protest anyone yet though. Most people are pretty courteous.

 

[cjsrt4]

I’m planning on switching over to iracing and leaving GT7 behind. I have a DD Pro w/load cell. I am considering an HP Omen 45L w/32GB RAM, and using a high end TV as a monitor (for now). I’m leaving GT7 due to the terrible penalty system I’m just tired of the brake checks, push to pass, exploitation of the penalty system, way too many people on burner accounts, yea you know all the things that are wrong with sport mode. Ok here’s my question(s) will the HP Omen 45L, AMD RYsen7 5800X, Nvidia 3060 be good enough to keep me happy with the graphics? And is the penalty system actually better on iracing? Thanks in advance!

Be prepared to pay more money than you're used to for a video game. iRacing can be quite expensive. The handful of cars and tracks are ok at first, but become very dull after some time. It cost me around $200 to do a GT3 time trial and that's only buying 1 car. It's still the best SIM out there regardless, but I'm just warning you now about the potential cost.

Penalty system is fair but get out of rookies ASAP. Rookies isn't a skill test, you don't need to win, just survive the race and get out of there ASAP.

This 100%. If you try to win a race in Rookies, chances are you're going to get destroyed. Just hang back and avoid any contact and concentrate on just finishing the race.

 

[GingerBredMan]

It’s a pretty good time to start with only a few weeks left in the season. If possible try to avoid buying anything until week 13, that’s when new content comes out.

There’s also a test drive session just before the release where you can test out cars/tracks without buying them. If you’re able to I highly recommend taking advantage, it might save you a few purchases

 

[MotorHammer]

Just a follow up after 1 month into iRacing. It’s way, way, way cleaner. You’re placed into races based on both SR and DR. So of your clean, your racing with clean drivers and your placed into very competitive DR. I’m loving the experience with the online racing so far. The game chat is fantastic, hearing a voice is significantly better than reading a text/ sending a text via GT7’s message system. As far as the penalty system goes… IT’S LEAPS and BOUNDS better than Poliphony Digital’s horse—— system! 17negative incidents equals a disqualification. I had a totally disastrous race and I only got 10 negative points. I felt like I was on the verge of being disqualified for MY POOR performance but yet only 10 negative points, I feel iRacing putting an emphasis on placing you with equal SR and equal DR drivers is why it’s so clean. GT7 doesn’t penalize you enough in my opinion to have bad actor get there SR reduced to an appropriate level.I have seen no one driving recklessly throu corners or punting just to punt, fake accounts where the player started a new account just so they could crush everyone and win, crashing the whole field just for fun.. I do not miss GT7 one bit!
On the negative side I had to drop some serious cash to buy a PC and iRacing is more expensive but if clean racing is something you’re desperate to find I recommend iRacing. Also the graphics are quite lacking compared to GT7, I don’t want to understate this, it is not super noticeable during a race as you are focusing on the actual race. But replays, UI, general look and sound is borderline terrible compared to GT7 but the online racing makes up for it by a long shot.I am running Rysen 7, 32 GB Ram, Nividia 3060, triple 32” curved monitors. Maybe not top of the line but certainly pretty good stuff so I just think the graphics are not up to par.
I truly still wish PD would get their act together and fix their penalty system. But I guess that’s just wish casting. I got into sim racing because I loved Gran Turismo 1 way back in the day. But my love has faded as they clearly don’t care about the vast majority of there fan base and only aim to appease the 10% of there racing field who are dirty, they preach sportsmanship but they do not promote sportsmanship through a good penalty system.

 

[Daz555]

I am running Ryzen 7, 32 GB Ram, Nvidia 3060, triple 32” curved monitors. Maybe not top of the line but certainly pretty good stuff so I just think the graphics are not up to par.

Yes the engine has very old origins and much of the content was created a long time ago which is why you get such massive swings in detail, model, texture and lighting quality across different tracks and also why the car models vary so much depending on when they were added to the service. Compare the models for the recent LMDh and GT3 cars to say the Street Stock - they look a decade apart apart because they practically are.

Being such a long running service iRacing treads a careful line between engine upgrades and not cutting their existing user base from the game.

 

[Yard_Sale]

Last I heard Iracing was upgrading their engine once they bring rain into the game? If this is the case, I might buy a PC and take the plunge

 

[2112]

Last I heard Iracing was upgrading their engine once they bring rain into the game? If this is the case, I might buy a PC and take the plunge

If you are going to get into iRacing I would not wait until rain comes out, for a few reasons:

1) The physics are different from most other sims except, perhaps, rF2. It takes awhile to learn how to drive the cars and you do not want to do that in the rain.

2) They have been promising rain for years. Personally, I don't care about getting it as there is enough problems with drivers losing it on dry pavement. My tactic in every public race (IMSA- I run GTP) is to hang back for the first two laps and let the "faster drivers" get up close and personal with each other or the wall. This will usually gain me four or five spots by the time the second lap is complete. Then I turn up the wick and actually race.

Imagine that with rain...Yeah, not a good thing IMO.

3) You will want to learn how to drive the cars before rain comes out so that you will not be bogged down trying to fight your self out of Rookies, D or C license races. When rain comes out those drivers are going to have to not only learn how to drive the cars, but may have to do it in rain. Imagine if you get in a D24 split with those guys...

 

[Daz555]

If you are going to get into iRacing I would not wait until rain comes out, for a few reasons:

1) The physics are different from most other sims except, perhaps, rF2. It takes awhile to learn how to drive the cars and you do not want to do that in the rain.

2) They have been promising rain for years. Personally, I don't care about getting it as there is enough problems with drivers losing it on dry pavement. My tactic in every public race (IMSA- I run GTP) is to hang back for the first two laps and let the "faster drivers" get up close and personal with each other or the wall. This will usually gain me four or five spots by the time the second lap is complete. Then I turn up the wick and actually race.

Imagine that with rain...Yeah, not a good thing IMO.

3) You will want to learn how to drive the cars before rain comes out so that you will not be bogged down trying to fight your self out of Rookies, D or C license races. When rain comes out those drivers are going to have to not only learn how to drive the cars, but may have to do it in rain. Imagine if you get in a D24 split with those guys...

There will be plenty of dry races even after rain eventually comes.

Personally whilst I think every sim SHOULD have rain, I personally don't really enjoy racing in the rain, so I'll probably avoid a lot of the wet races when then eventually land.

 

[Veinz]

iRacing is so good that it will make you not want to race online in any other game. It’s expensive but it cannot be beat atm, you don’t have to take it super seriously to have fun despite what most people say.

That being said, all the R and D SR series are going to be an absolute gong show when rain gets introduced. I will avoid those like the plague.

 

[xDriver69x]

the netcode seems to be getting worse and now UDP telemetry sending is bugging out in iRacing. WTH. I can race for hours in GT7 and going to iRacing or any other racing game and it's always an immediate slap in the face how far ahead GT7 is. I appreciate some of the iRacing mature handling with ability to drive entirely in full control before the race, in the pits, etc, but when cars just vanish and you hit them, or they fly off into the sky and then insta warp back... This is becoming extremely unacceptable.

If GT7 had a Pro mode subscription, especially with a the closed PS5 Pro eco system to significantly eliminate cheating, there would be a big shake up in this space for the better and open a lot of eyes.

 

[Daz555]

From my experience playing both, GT7 seems to smooth out the visual appearance of netcode issues and fakes it to an extent whereas iRacing shows them in all their horror. I don't get the impression from driving that the positions of cars on track is any better in either of the titles to be honest.

 

[Veinz]

I don’t have much issues with netcode collisions unless the other guy is from a region on the other side of the planet.

I can’t stand is how cars disappear when they start lagging though. Too many people still use a wireless connection for gaming, wireless just sucks. It doesn't take much to slow it down or make it inconsistent.