The Thrustmaster T500RS Thread

  • Thread starter TomN
  • 9,924 comments
  • 2,160,971 views
Ranger099
Looks like stock is picking up again:

http://www.compsource.com/ttechnote.asp?part_no=4169056&vid=1122

http://www.costcentral.com/proddetail/Guillemot_Thrustmaster_T500_RS_GT5_Wheel/4169056/11277429/
Click to expand...

nice

looks like the prices have dropped by $25-$40, too!
:)


edit...wtf? costcentral will only provide free shipping if you order >$600.00 of items! haha So, if you only want the T500RS from cost central it will cost you $601.00 for the slowest option.

that makes the CompSource look like a better deal with their free shipping that says it takes 2-7 business days.
I never heard of compsource. Has anyone bought items from this company? how is the service?
 
Last edited:
.Hz
Where did you hear that? Standard cars have great FFB support I doubt the premiums were treated any differently.
Click to expand...

I actually think that its a possibility. Go drive a premium car, and then take out a non premium car. I'm about to try in a bit on my t500. I think the some premium cars have some extra code written for them, or at least some kind of FFB physics model in which the wheel will feel alot different than with a non premium car.
-This is just speculation on my end.
 
My plan was to purchase this wheel as soon as I recovered from all of the Christmas shopping, of course now that I have gotten it together the wheel cannot be found anywhere (Well someone was selling one on Amazon for $1,455 or something like that).

But I must say that I am not that happy with some of the reports that I am hearing on the wheel, I am not really buying this whole thing about break in because when people were getting the wheel, I kept hearing that the force feedback and everything else was Next Level stuff, now that people are reporting that they feel like the wheel is losing some of that, some are saying it now feels better than before, that just doesn’t make sense to me, if it was better before, why would less be better now??

The other thing that concerns me is that in one of the earlier reports, someone stated that they were less able to catch the car when it was starting to lose traction when they switch to the Thrustmaster T500 RS from the G25 or G27, and in recent post someone stated that this was actually easier to catch with the Thrustmaster T500 RS, it seems that there are some inconsistencies with the wheel (I could be wrong) and I am kind of happy that I didn’t get it right away, I would like to see the review from the inside sim racing folks (Why is that taking soooooo long, they also haven’t released the full review of GT5 yet either….Wow!) and also wait a little longer to see it this wheel actually hold up over time, I can tell you that I certainly don’t want to get it with expectation that performance will degrade over time, to me that is not a good thing.

Can someone else with the wheel chime in and shed more light on this???
 
IMZ14U2NV
My plan was to purchase this wheel as soon as I recovered from all of the Christmas shopping, of course now that I have gotten it together the wheel cannot be found anywhere (Well someone was selling one on Amazon for $1,455 or something like that).

But I must say that I am not that happy with some of the reports that I am hearing on the wheel, I am not really buying this whole thing about break in because when people were getting the wheel, I kept hearing that the force feedback and everything else was Next Level stuff, now that people are reporting that they feel like the wheel is losing some of that, some are saying it now feels better than before, that just doesn’t make sense to me, if it was better before, why would less be better now??

The other thing that concerns me is that in one of the earlier reports, someone stated that they were less able to catch the car when it was starting to lose traction when they switch to the Thrustmaster T500 RS from the G25 or G27, and in recent post someone stated that this was actually easier to catch with the Thrustmaster T500 RS, it seems that there are some inconsistencies with the wheel (I could be wrong) and I am kind of happy that I didn’t get it right away, I would like to see the review from the inside sim racing folks (Why is that taking soooooo long, they also haven’t released the full review of GT5 yet either….Wow!) and also wait a little longer to see it this wheel actually hold up over time, I can tell you that I certainly don’t want to get it with expectation that performance will degrade over time, to me that is not a good thing.

Can someone else with the wheel chime in and shed more light on this???
Click to expand...

All I can say is I use the wheel daily and I have had no issues (or changes in FFB). It is a fantastic wheel. As far as control, I find it FAR easier to control the cars with this wheel than my previous G25 and G27 that I used for years.
 
MisterStatic
All I can say is I use the wheel daily and I have had no issues (or changes in FFB). It is a fantastic wheel. As far as control, I find it FAR easier to control the cars with this wheel than my previous G25 and G27 that I used for years.
Click to expand...

+1. Much better control than the G27. Pedals are superior too for more controlled braking. I cannot say enough about how smoooooooth this wheel is compared to the G27 where you feel the gears and at times get a lot of sloppy, harsh backlash. Never happens with the T500 - totally smooth and refined.
 
TestaRossaSTi
So how does the T500 compare to the GT2 or GT3 RS v.2 with CSP?
Click to expand...

As multiple people have said the T500 offers far greater control vs the Fanatecs though the CSP's have the edge over the T500 pedals but only for the break really it seems (haven't tried them myself yet either product, yet) even then people are saying the T500's pedal brake is great. Fact is the T500 was made to work w/ GT5 using special decoding technology offering far greater input and output data and resolution that no other wheel can do.


So I would say T500 > anything Fanatec or Logitech makes based on the responses by people here w/ first hand experience alone, and w/ the tech behind it there's no denying it.
 
Ranger099
+1. Much better control than the G27. Pedals are superior too for more controlled braking. I cannot say enough about how smoooooooth this wheel is compared to the G27 where you feel the gears and at times get a lot of sloppy, harsh backlash. Never happens with the T500 - totally smooth and refined.
Click to expand...

Must say +2. My g27 had to have something wrong with it from the get-go. That thing would be banging and clanking all the time. Not so with the T500....very smooth. Now if there was just an adaptor to use my new-in-the-box CSP's...that would maybe be even better;)
 
Amazon finally has an actual listing. It's out of stock, that's better than having no listing at all though. It's in my cart and when they do get them (and our tax refund posts), I'll have it next day for 4 bucks!
 
IMZ14U2NV
But I must say that I am not that happy with some of the reports that I am hearing on the wheel, I am not really buying this whole thing about break in because when people were getting the wheel, I kept hearing that the force feedback and everything else was Next Level stuff, now that people are reporting that they feel like the wheel is losing some of that, some are saying it now feels better than before, that just doesn’t make sense to me, if it was better before, why would less be better now??
Click to expand...

I am trying to make sense of this myself, everybody has different ideas of what is "better," we only have vauge and subjective ways to communicate with each other on the forum about the wheel characteristics, but this is just the nature of the beast. We generally don't have the means to say things like "oh the FFB at setting 10 imparts a force of x newtons under this condition" etc.

Some reports are unreliable or incorrect, I have been guilty of this too but I'm doing my best to communicate an accurate picture of what is going on with the wheel and hopefully figure out the reasons why some reports are so different. It's definitely NOT helping when people chime in and frame their words as authoritative when they don't even have this particular wheel.

For example, somebody said there is FFB variation between standard and premium cars? Sounds crazy, but OK i'll bite in the interest of science. I tried the nurburgring with a premium AMG and the standard nuvolari quattro last night, both with Hard Sport tires, and I couldn't tell any difference between FFB characteristics.

I also re-tested both FFB extremes with the above cars and I still do not notice any FFB strength variation when I adjust the "strength" from 1 to 10.

As for whether it's reasonable to consider that these wheels have a "break-in" period, I have no idea.
 
IMZ14U2NV
it seems that there are some inconsistencies with the wheel (I could be wrong) and I am kind of happy that I didn’t get it right away, I would like to see the review from the inside sim racing folks (Why is that taking soooooo long, they also haven’t released the full review of GT5 yet either….Wow!)
Can someone else with the wheel chime in and shed more light on this???
Click to expand...

I think the inconsistencies you are seeing are from the reviewers posting on this forum, not the wheel itself. Some people get this wheel and post first impressions based on a few hours so you get that level of detail. Others get the wheel and have never had a mid-high end wheel before to compare it to so you get their perspective. And others have a lot of experience with sim-racing and wheels and you get their perspective. All that adds up to inconsistency. And on top of that, most people aren't experienced in interpreting what they are feeling through the wheel and then writing about it in terms everyone can relate to.

The nice thing about professional or, at least highly experienced reviewers is that they have learned to communicate information clearly and have a lot of perspective to add to their experience with the product they are reviewing. Personally, I think ISR has come a long way in their ability to review products over the years and now do a very nice job communicating what they are seeing/experiencing. The review is delayed at least partially because they aren't rushing to judgment--something you see on the typical forum all the time. I appreciate them taking some time on the T500 review so what they say in accurate and in context.
 
traind
I think the inconsistencies you are seeing are from the reviewers posting on this forum, not the wheel itself. Some people get this wheel and post first impressions based on a few hours so you get that level of detail. Others get the wheel and have never had a mid-high end wheel before to compare it to so you get their perspective. And others have a lot of experience with sim-racing and wheels and you get their perspective. All that adds up to inconsistency. And on top of that, most people aren't experienced in interpreting what they are feeling through the wheel and then writing about it in terms everyone can relate to.

The nice thing about professional or, at least highly experienced reviewers is that they have learned to communicate information clearly and have a lot of perspective to add to their experience with the product they are reviewing. Personally, I think ISR has come a long way in their ability to review products over the years and now do a very nice job communicating what they are seeing/experiencing. The review is delayed at least partially because they aren't rushing to judgment--something you see on the typical forum all the time. I appreciate them taking some time on the T500 review so what they say in accurate and in context.
Click to expand...

Solid points-very good points- but I think as much as you deal with inconsistency on a forum, you are at least hearing from some users of the product as purchased in the store, just like you may be. A site like ISR has the time and motivation to perform more objective testing, but I tend to put more trust in practical comments made by a real user of the wheel over a period of time, as inconsistent as those comments may be.

And for the record, none of my comments should be considered authoritative. I simply post impressions on here to help with other people's decision making.
 
.Hz
As multiple people have said the T500 offers far greater control vs the Fanatecs though the CSP's have the edge over the T500 pedals but only for the break really it seems (haven't tried them myself yet either product, yet) even then people are saying the T500's pedal brake is great. Fact is the T500 was made to work w/ GT5 using special decoding technology offering far greater input and output data and resolution that no other wheel can do.


So I would say T500 > anything Fanatec or Logitech makes based on the responses by people here w/ first hand experience alone, and w/ the tech behind it there's no denying it.
Click to expand...

You can plug in the Clubsport Pedals through USB instead of PS/2. I remember when they said you get like 16k resolution instead of 256 when connected directly to the PC. I gotta get another USB cable because I lost mine.
 
Hi,

well i played a few hours after in firmware update and i honostly have to say that it solved my problem.
The communication of the wheel is strong and accurate and i can feel the road agian like i used to with the wheel when i purchased it almost 3 weeks ago.
Further it seems that the firmware smoothed out the force feedback in a positive way.
yesterday i mailed thrustmaster about this (now solved) problem to hear what they think .

Bryan.

Ps: misterstatic thx for your advice:tup:
 
ara
I am trying to make sense of this myself, everybody has different ideas of what is "better," we only have vauge and subjective ways to communicate with each other on the forum about the wheel characteristics, but this is just the nature of the beast. We generally don't have the means to say things like "oh the FFB at setting 10 imparts a force of x newtons under this condition" etc.

Some reports are unreliable or incorrect, I have been guilty of this too but I'm doing my best to communicate an accurate picture of what is going on with the wheel and hopefully figure out the reasons why some reports are so different. It's definitely NOT helping when people chime in and frame their words as authoritative when they don't even have this particular wheel.

For example, somebody said there is FFB variation between standard and premium cars? Sounds crazy, but OK i'll bite in the interest of science. I tried the nurburgring with a premium AMG and the standard nuvolari quattro last night, both with Hard Sport tires, and I couldn't tell any difference between FFB characteristics.

I also re-tested both FFB extremes with the above cars and I still do not notice any FFB strength variation when I adjust the "strength" from 1 to 10.

As for whether it's reasonable to consider that these wheels have a "break-in" period, I have no idea.
Click to expand...

The fact the FFB was the same with 2 completely different cars is a bad thing. That means the game, GT5, is designed looking at some basic coding. Coding that is similiar with all the other cars not not exclusive. In the PC world the FFB changes dramatically with each car in the same game.

The fact you cannot have headtracking when there is AI or racing online means the FPS would take a significant hit if it were enabled in those settings. With that said, that shows performance of the PS3 to calculate such task is on the border. On the PC world, with a fast enough PC the FPS wouldn't drop at all below 60 even with 3x monitors with 1920 res on each with 3D and headtracking.
 
ara
I am trying to make sense of this myself, everybody has different ideas of what is "better," we only have vauge and subjective ways to communicate with each other on the forum about the wheel characteristics, but this is just the nature of the beast. We generally don't have the means to say things like "oh the FFB at setting 10 imparts a force of x newtons under this condition" etc.

Some reports are unreliable or incorrect, I have been guilty of this too but I'm doing my best to communicate an accurate picture of what is going on with the wheel and hopefully figure out the reasons why some reports are so different. It's definitely NOT helping when people chime in and frame their words as authoritative when they don't even have this particular wheel.

For example, somebody said there is FFB variation between standard and premium cars? Sounds crazy, but OK i'll bite in the interest of science. I tried the nurburgring with a premium AMG and the standard nuvolari quattro last night, both with Hard Sport tires, and I couldn't tell any difference between FFB characteristics.

I also re-tested both FFB extremes with the above cars and I still do not notice any FFB strength variation when I adjust the "strength" from 1 to 10.

As for whether it's reasonable to consider that these wheels have a "break-in" period, I have no idea.
Click to expand...

Tests are being conducted using spring scales.

The force required to initiate a turn of the steering wheel as measured at the wheel rim is 6N when the wheel is power off. 25N+ when the wheel is powered on.

For GT5 the force required to initiate a turn of the steering wheel as measured at the wheel rim in game is the same for all cars, Premium/Standard, on all tyres on all tracks and at all in-game FFB settings - FFB1 through FFB10.

16N to initiate a turn of the steering wheel from a static position on straight flat road.
19N to initiate a turn of the steering wheel from a 50mph rolling position on straight flat road.
6N to initiate a turn of the steering wheel from a static position on grass/runoff.
6N to initiate a turn of the steering wheel from a rolling position on grass/runoff.

Forces generated by the wheel as FFB is applied will be provided as they are collected.

p.s. I don't discuss things anymore, just provide facts and step away.
 
RC45
Tests are being conducted using spring scales.

The force required to initiate a turn of the steering wheel as measured at the wheel rim is 6N when the wheel is power off. 25N+ when the wheel is powered on.

For GT5 the force required to initiate a turn of the steering wheel as measured at the wheel rim in game is the same for all cars, Premium/Standard, on all tyres on all tracks and at all in-game FFB settings - FFB1 through FFB10.

16N to initiate a turn of the steering wheel from a static position on straight flat road.
19N to initiate a turn of the steering wheel from a 50mph rolling position on straight flat road.
6N to initiate a turn of the steering wheel from a static position on grass/runoff.
6N to initiate a turn of the steering wheel from a rolling position on grass/runoff.

Forces generated by the wheel as FFB is applied will be provided as they are collected.

p.s. I don't discuss things anymore, just provide facts and step away.
Click to expand...

So basically you just backed up my theory about the wheel looking at similar basic coding of every car. It doesn't really watch for load on the front wheels when braking and turning or the increasing downforce on the Oval of Daytona with an X1 of each mph or even the difference between setting maximum wing to minimum wing of cars with a complete aero kit, it just watches for speed threshold and conditions such as bumps and grass/runoff then determines how much FFB to apply.

What I just said is where GT5 has hit it's limitation. The PC has been doing the FFB conditions with downforce, front load weight, tire pressure density, suspension rate, all that stuff for years. GT5 is just a game for the masses of people who can't really afford to own a true racing simulator. Everyone saying every PC racing game is at standard or inferior to GT5 don't really know what they are talking about. To make matters worse, GT5's sound reproduction sounds nothing like real life. To get into detail it's because the PS3's sound reproduction capability is not really there. You need a dedicated sound card and/or a seriously fast processor to calculate such task or you can say bye bye to your constant frame rate when you have a lot of high quality audio going on at the same time.
 
Last edited:
AntDX316
The fact the FFB was the same with 2 completely different cars is a bad thing. That means the game, GT5, is designed looking at some basic coding. Coding that is similiar with all the other cars not not exclusive. In the PC world the FFB changes dramatically with each car in the same game.
Click to expand...


Well, to clarify, I'm not saying that they felt like the exact same car at all, just that I could not tell that the "premium" car has any kind of extra programming or detail in the FFB characteristics that a standard car does not. Also, I deliberately selected two cars with similar performance and tires in order to ensure any difference between standard/premium was more noticeable. The biggest difference between the cars was 4WD vs FR.
 
RC45
Tests are being conducted using spring scales.

The force required to initiate a turn of the steering wheel as measured at the wheel rim is 6N when the wheel is power off. 25N+ when the wheel is powered on.

For GT5 the force required to initiate a turn of the steering wheel as measured at the wheel rim in game is the same for all cars, Premium/Standard, on all tyres on all tracks and at all in-game FFB settings - FFB1 through FFB10.

16N to initiate a turn of the steering wheel from a static position on straight flat road.
19N to initiate a turn of the steering wheel from a 50mph rolling position on straight flat road.
6N to initiate a turn of the steering wheel from a static position on grass/runoff.
6N to initiate a turn of the steering wheel from a rolling position on grass/runoff.

Forces generated by the wheel as FFB is applied will be provided as they are collected.

p.s. I don't discuss things anymore, just provide facts and step away.
Click to expand...

This is great, perhaps I should invest in a spring scale to see if mine are the same :)
 
I just tested my T500rs using a Nissan GTR on the toscana dirt track (time change) and the FFB is like butter :) Vibration coming from the motor is smooth without the gear knock from my G27. Completely satisfied with this product and highly recommend to future owners.
 
RC45
Tests are being conducted using spring scales.

The force required to initiate a turn of the steering wheel as measured at the wheel rim is 6N when the wheel is power off. 25N+ when the wheel is powered on.

For GT5 the force required to initiate a turn of the steering wheel as measured at the wheel rim in game is the same for all cars, Premium/Standard, on all tyres on all tracks and at all in-game FFB settings - FFB1 through FFB10.

16N to initiate a turn of the steering wheel from a static position on straight flat road.
19N to initiate a turn of the steering wheel from a 50mph rolling position on straight flat road.
6N to initiate a turn of the steering wheel from a static position on grass/runoff.
6N to initiate a turn of the steering wheel from a rolling position on grass/runoff.

Forces generated by the wheel as FFB is applied will be provided as they are collected.

p.s. I don't discuss things anymore, just provide facts and step away.
Click to expand...

RC45,
It is great to see a post from you, I thought you gave up on us and I wouldn’t blame you, keep the great information flowing, I look forward to your post!!!!!
 
Reguarding the Firmware updates: Is this needed when using the T500RS playing soley on the ps3? Is this something I need to do as soon as I unpack?
 
New Firmware "V33" available:
http://ts.thrustmaster.com/eng/index.php?pg=view_files&gid=1&fid=2&pid=316&cid=1

Changes:

- PEDALS: Improved Precision

- “MODE” BUTTON: Now necessary to press this button for one second to invert the pedal set position (to avoid unintended inversion during gameplay)

- FLASH MEMORY: Added protection to avoid potential flash corruption

PS: This firmware includes the previous changes = Wheel’s calibration optimization + Wheel’s central value detection optimization
 
GainSym
New Firmware "V33" available:
http://ts.thrustmaster.com/eng/index.php?pg=view_files&gid=1&fid=2&pid=316&cid=1

Changes:

- PEDALS: Improved Precision

- “MODE” BUTTON: Now necessary to press this button for one second to invert the pedal set position (to avoid unintended inversion during gameplay)

- FLASH MEMORY: Added protection to avoid potential flash corruption

PS: This firmware includes the previous changes = Wheel’s calibration optimization + Wheel’s central value detection optimization
Click to expand...

Interesting that the Vendor made that change... and here it was suggested the Mode Button was an exaggerated none-issue.

I am willing to come out of 'self-imposed-retirement' to offer that vindication is rather sweet...
 
Last edited:
RC45
Interesting that the Vendor made that change... and here it was suggested the Mode Button was an exaggerated none-issue.

I am willing to come out of 'self-imposed-retirement' to offer that vindication is rather sweet...
Click to expand...

Now gloating isn't nice now is it. ;) You did tell them so though. :)

What are your thoughts after a months use and having a week or two to play around on PC?
 

Similar threads

W
Thrustmaster T300 wheelbase with Fanatec Clubsport V3 pedals?
Replies
22
Views
3K
Oshawa-Joe
Oshawa-Joe
Famine
Thrustmaster Reveals New “Hypercar” Wheel Rim for Direct Drive Bases
Replies
9
Views
2K
Parenji
Parenji
T
Drivehub Can I recognize Simagic TB-RS and Thirstmaster TH8A on PS5?
Replies
4
Views
776
touge_meister
T
Famine
Thrustmaster Reveals New TH8S Shifter Add-On
Replies
8
Views
4K
BWK_TERROR
BWK_TERROR
L
Thrustmaster T500 rs Why cannot support on PS5 and GT7?
Replies
5
Views
7K
Famine
Famine

Latest Posts

Back