OK I know there Betas, but constantly loading new versions of games just isn't turning out to be my thing. CARS was a blast at first until the first new build, when it all turned into a slide show. I thought with changes things are supposed to get better not worse.
I tried for a few weeks to get things going right, and eventually just got fed up. I haven't used it now for 3 or 4 weeks, basically pretty much a waste of money, or maybe a learning experience. I mostly got it for the early F1 cars hoping to see what would amount to be Grand Prix 2, sounds were great but graphics are just wayyy too muc. I could have lived with less detail, and more FPS.
Rfactor 2 seems much better, except for the handling,especailly again with the early F1 cars, or F2 cars, didn't seem to matter too much, they understeered more like front wheel drive cars, supposedly waitng for the track to rubber up.
Now I have driven a Formula vee, and they don't drive like that at all, they steer very precisely matter of fact.
So it looks like I'm not much of a beta tester afer all, when I did try and give some feedback I was basically ignored, probably because I don't have a force feedback wheel I suppose, just an old TSW2 converted to USB.
I still have iRacing and enjoy it quite a bit, OK it doesn't have the detail, but it runs very smooth.
BTW this is on a I5-2500K , 3.3Ghz machine with 8 GB of RAM, with a Geforce GTX 560TI Video card.
Guess I'll just wait for the Lotus 49B in iRacing.

I don't have it, but it does sound like you're being a little hard considering, like you said, it's a beta (CARS that is). It's a work in progress, not a demo, for a new product. I wouldn't expect it to run like the (cash hungry) iRacing that's been out for years now.
I have my doubts about all of these publicly funded games being talked about these days, but CARS does seem to be a good example of the process from what I've seen.

It's a shame that's happened Bruce but I have to say that's not my experience with pCars. Each build has got better for me, but they will go up and down in quality as they add new things I guess. To even buy the beta membership you have to agree at sign up that this process is about providing feedback to them and that it is very early days. It might be worth another shot describing your issues to them?

It's also worth mentioning that the money you put towards the beta counts towards the final release, so I can't really see how you see it as wasted money. For $25 or so I've had lots of value out of it and it's nice to see the sim take shape.

Is there anything I can do to help in terms of your graphics settings, as in is it the same whatever you do or with a new driver etc?

It's very odd that you're finding such poor performance with pCARS, I have the same CPU and 8Gb RAM, but the GTX 570 (So not a huge difference) and I can run smoothly with the game maxed out!

If you haven't already I'd suggest you ask the question in the Graphics forum over at WMDPortal. With regards to your input being ignored I can assure you this is not the case, but please try to remember the scale of the project. I've seen a few members come over and make one post, then getting into a rage because their one post in a fifty page thread didn't end up in the next build a day later. Not at all accusing you of this, just an exaggerated example. All I mean is that the devs are always reading, but they can't catch everything - The forums over there move a LOT faster than they do here (Which I can assure you can be a big job to moderate!)

Hope you get it sorted!

Bruce, you have done a great job in highlighting the risks of releasing 'beta' code to the public. On one hand you get access to early builds but also have to put up with all the problems. It's risky stuff for developers as they wash their dirty linen in public and they do need to be aware that releasing builds with persistent problems or lack of any updates can damage public perception of their product.

For several weeks pCARS was unplayable for me due to controller issues. Thankfully they seem to be slowly turning things around and it's heading in the right direction again. You certainly can't accuse the guys at SMS of standing still, while on the other hand i'm starting to wonder if ISI are just going to let the modders finish rF2.

Joking aside, both teams have unquestionable pedigree and i'm sure both products will evolve into great sims, but the road to glory is never easy, and we are all guilty of expecting too much too soon. It just goes to show how thankless and tedious software development really is. Patience may be a virtue but it's not always easy.

Thankfully we we still have iRacing, GTR2, rFactor1, Race07, GSC et al to keep us busy while we wait.

I look at both sims as huge potential:

1. I'm also looking forward to pCars as a fix for a GPL2 type of experience.
2. I'm looking for rFactor2 to be used as a platform for the new IndyCar sim as well as other updated sims such as Game Stock Car.

I was really blown away by the great sounds and handling with the first release. But as I said it got worse with every release. It did bring a few things out in my system that needed help. I downloaded and ran 3DMark and my figures were a little low. So I downloaded new drivers and after cleaning my system up, the figures improved dramatically.
Only problem was CARS did not, matter of fact it didn't improve at all. Funny part is according to just frame rates it should look smooth, but it didn't. I lowered everything, and it just never looks smooth. Not as smooth as iRacing or Rfactor2.
I posted quite a few times at the forums asking questions , and tried quite a few of the suggestions, I'm afraid none worked however.
When things got worse after a new release, I really literally spent weeks changing and trying new things.
This is actually little time spent compared to actually designing and putting the game out I realize, but at the same time I do expect things to change for the better and not the worse. I also don't have unlimited amounts of time to be changing things in my system, and other things as well, so for now, it'll have to wait, I ' don't really expect to do much with it.
My DSL line as well limits the amount I can download, last one I did for CARS took almost 6 hours, I think the bandwidth is used up, because on weekend sometimes I can't get on at all. So least to say theres lots more than just CARS thats a frustration right now.
All I can say is for those who have it working well enjoy it.

Its likely that it has already been suggested, but have you explored the 'Jitter Tweak' option? A lot of users found that this caused stuttering and its pretty common practise to disable it while its being investigated and repaired.

What nVidia drivers are you running? People have been noticing good improvements with each update so it'd be worth exploring that.

You'll also be glad to know that builds are now released in patches now, greatly reducing the file size. Hopefully that will make testing new builds a little easier for you

What OS and how long have you had this build running?
Could be something other than the game and drivers.
I couldn't run Shift 1 unless I rebooted before launching a while back. Shift 2 ran horrible, and even on the hardware I had before I think it should have been fine.

New build (other than graphics card), clean install of Win7----but the same installations of Shift 1 and 2 on another untouched partition----and they both run beautifully now. I'd updated DirectX, checked every running process, all start up items and everything else I could. Everything else was fine, my issues were just these 2 games. Just something out of whack that got corrected in the clean install. I don't think it was necessarily W7, and clearly not the games, but something else in the works.

Win7 64 bit, and had it running for a few months now, have to check on Nvidia driver, but as far as 3Dmark its now up to snuff with the best as far as running speed goes, where i was a little short before.