Finally, I think I have P3D 2.3 running at max on my system. I always felt it was on the "edge" and I was getting ctd often. I was seeing stutters and I had the sliders pulled back. The key was in changing a single line in the cloud.fx file.
From: GetScreenQuadPositions( quad, width, height );
To: : GetScreenQuadPositions( quad, width*0.5, height*0.5 );
The result, for my system was astounding. Increased frame rates, no stuttering, no crashes, beautiful cloud formations (using OPUS). I'm flying cross country at 10,000 feet to see how long I can go without a crash to desktop ... not even close, my CPU mem is around 35%, I was running in the high 40's and crashing in the 50's. So I think this was the solution to my problem. I've kicked up my sliders and graphics ... wow.
Doug