Go into ADVANCED MODE (bottom right), then AI Tweaker (at the top). You should see the EXPO options there. That will get your RAM up to speed (automatic overclocking but it’s totally safe and actually required).
Try that first but there are also other things to change once you verified that still boots into Windows (and try Flight Sim first just to see if it made a good effect).
Main things I change are:
AI Tweaker → PBO = Enabled
Thermal Throttle Limit = Manual (89 degrees)
PBO → Curve optimiser = Auto (you can go further into optimising – by under-volting – “per core” but try Auto first)
Advanced → CPU Configuration → SVM = Disable (unless you need it for OS virtualization but I doubt you will hehe)
Advanced → AMD CBS → SMT Control = Disabled
Advanced → AMD CBS → UMC Common Options → DDR Options → DDR Memory Features → Memory Context Restore = Enabled
Advanced → NB Configuration → Integrated Graphics = Disabled
Advanced → Onboard Devices Configuration → Wi-Fi Controller = Disabled (unless you need it)
Advanced → Onboard Devices Configuration → Audio Controller = Disabled (unless you need it)
Use the Task Manager page with CPU showing all cores to check properly. I think you need to right click in the right hand side and enable the view for all cores first time you use it.
Have applied all those changes. Now I do notice an improvement when changing the detail settings, but only on the lower settings. On Low, I now get a nice 35-40 fps. Not great.. but I’d be happy with it if it wasn’t the Low setting. Medium gets around 30fps. High and Ultra.. both sitting in the low 20s as before. Doesn’t seem to be anything to choose between them in performance.
That’s where you start making individual changes instead of keeping strictly with default presets. Also, does it still show you as CPU/main thread limited in the sim? If so, what are your traffic settings like, including any third party traffic you may have installed?
No man something else is wrong here. Hmmm… You should easy get Ultra on 2D with a few things turned down perhaps, depending where / what you are flying.
Are you using Frame Generation? You should be able to get at least 72fps (so 36 doubled) in dense scenery with SOME traffic (maybe not fully maxed out) with that system.
Did you update the AMD drivers with the 5.08.02.027 revision?
Perhaps you should run a stress test. I noticed in your first screenshot that the clock speed of the CPU was not that high. Is that different since you switched PBO on?
Traffic hopefully isn’t the problem. It’s on AI Offline mode with all the sliders at 50 at the moment. That said, turning off the traffic entirely does give me a jump to 35-40 fps.
This is a screenshot with the traffic still on but with all the new settings in place.
I did download/install the AMD Adrenline thingy from the link provided in an earlier reply. Hopefully that had given me the latest drivers. Not sure how to check the version.
Turning Frame Generation on or off doesn’t appear to change the FPS noticeably beyond a spike for a few seconds at the start to about 50 fps before it settles back down to 25-30 or so
I found this official step by step guide on setting up the 7950 x3d. I would say ignore what we have been saying about the process (to avoid confusion), and follow it start to finish. Some of it is likely done already, like installing the Game Bar, but this would make sure nothing is missed.
In your latest screenshot, your CPU details are questionable to me, but maybe it’s because I don’t use that program. When you took that screenshot, was the sim in the background? I ask because your current temp looks to be very low for an active load like the sim, but I also see a max temp at 89°, which would be throttling you. It’s common for games to reduce system loading when in the background, which could explain this. If you have a way to turn on an overlay that shows system resources while simming, that would be helpful. If not, MSI Afterburner has a nice set of overlay options.
What I’d like to see is per core or per thread clock speeds, and hot spot temp during a flight. Seeing a max temp of 89°C at any time would indicate poor cooling unless it’s only reporting the max allowed temp and not what you’re actually hitting. If you have high temps while simming, let us know what case and CPU cooler you have.
Frame generation doesn’t show up in the sim because those frames happen after the fact, purely in the GPU. MSI Afterburner should report the final frame rate, which would be about double the sim reported fps.
In your last screenshot is still does not say EXPO Profile is enabled though!?
EDIT: Also I see you are on Steam version. Simplest way to see the REAL FPS is turn on the FPS overlay in the Steam main settings. You will get a little unobtrusive counter at the top left.
Hmm.. this has been a bit of a shock. As suggested, I turned on the Steam Overlay and FPS counter and stopped bringing up the in-game FPS counter… and I got a huge fps jump for the better with no other changes.
FPS is coming up as 50-60… and even around the 40fps mark in VR.
I don’t think it’s just different way of counting the frames either… the visual quality is visibly improved.
But I will go through the whole guide tomorrow also, see how much better I can get.
Sorry your performance is not as expected.
Certainly the numbers you are giving us do not make sense given how powerful your hardware is.
On this thread, OP had a lot of performance problems, on a brand new PC as well.
We went through a lot of troubleshooting steps, and in the end, he was advised to reinstall Windows as a last resort before starting an RMA process.
Turns out that even though the computer was brand new, his Windows installation was at fault: after a fresh OS install, MSFS started performing much better, and in line with expectations.
I understand you also got your computer brand new, but you did not mention whether you did the OS install yourself, or if Windows came preinstalled.
Unfortunately this link points to the incorrect chipset drivers. It was stated above that the motherboard is ROG Crosshair X670E Hero, not a X670. Here is a link to the correct chipset drivers.
I’m willing to bet the bios is an older version and needs to get updated. AMD has just recently made significant improvements in memory compatibility/retraining with XMP/EXPO/DOCP so I would highly recommend to check the bios version on the PC with the version on the manufacturers web site.
I recently upgraded my AM4 build to AM5 with a 7900x3d and I am getting excellent performance with the sim. I saw no no performance difference when turning off SMT and I would highly recommend to leave it enabled.
I wanted to make a quick comment on this as I know AMD has had their struggles with memory. I believe the majority of the memory issues have been resolved with AMD’s recent versions of AGESA v1.0.0.7+.
Also, think many people do not purchase memory that is on the motherboards qualified vendors list (QVL) of tested memory for compatibility. On my recent upgrade to AM5 with a 7900x3d I purchased 32gig of DDR5-7200 memory on my motherboards QVL list. First time booting up the PC with the most recent bios and memory speed set to XMP DDR5-7200 it just worked and with no stability issues. I’m currently running the memory slightly overclocked and am very happy.
Re: SMT
But with MSFS currently not being truly multithreaded isn’t it better to give it less cores but ALL the speed and capacity of them. Especially for Core0 where it’s hitting mainthread limitations. Rather than splitting that in half which it can’t use properly anyway?
Sorry, I was misremembering slightly. The graph showed a 1 FPS improvement vs the 13900k for the 7950X3D in 4K. Like I said, that was just the first red flag for me. Not to say that the 7950X3D is a bad CPU, in fact it’s brillinat in a lot of scenarios, but it certainly sounds as if it’s not yet user friendly, in particular with MSFS and DCS in VR, which was the main reason for me getting a new PC in the first place. I figured with the 14900k being slightly faster than the 13900k, and the downtrend as resolution increased with that graph, the Intel would be a safer bet than the 7950X3D when trying to build a system for a hi res VR HMD.
I think you have a misconception on how things are running on the cores. When I’m running the sim, all 12 threads of my 7900x3d with the 3d cache are active, 2 of the non-3d cache threads are active, and the rest of the non-3d cache threads are parked. This is with no other programs running. One of the 3d cache threads is running 70-80% but none are running 100%. Temps for the cpu runs in the high 50’s during flight. Everything is smooth with the typical micro-stutters around detailed terrain and airports (see my system specs in my profile). I have not tweaked Win 11 core usage with any 3rd party software - I set it up as per AMD’s recommendations.
The multi-core usage on my 7900x3d while running the sim is pretty much exactly the same as it was on my older 5900x except for one core running 80-100% utilization. I attribute the lower max utilization for the main thread on my 7900x3d to the v-cache.
MSFS 2020 is multi-threaded - it’s just not efficiently done with one thread being overburdened. Hopefully, MSFS 2024 will utilize the cores more efficiently.
A 1 fps difference is within margin of error and not going to be noticeable in practical use. Shouldn’t be a red flag at all.
The 14th gen CPU’s are practically identical when it comes to gaming. You get a very small bump in frequency, but it’s still the same 13th gen architecture, and gaming benchmarks have borne this out. I’ve seen some where the 13th gen were actually better than the equivalent 14th.
Regarding that downward trend between 13900k and 7950x3d, that’s to be expected. As resolution increases and you become more GPU bound, the gaps between CPU’s close. If those tests were ran at higher resolutions, it’s unlikely you’d see any meaningful difference between the CPU’s because you’ve remove them as the limiting factor.
Maybe but I don’t think I do. Turning SMT on would double the logical cores (in Task Manager for example you’d see 32 cores instead of 16 on the 7950X3D). But it can only do that by “sharing” each one. Dividing it in two (aka splitting).
So my understanding is that with the sim being so greedy and dependant on this main single core being the vital point defining how fast the whole thing can operate, surely it would make more sense not to cut that down?
And yeah last time I checked during gameplay, I could see that all my cores were being used, including the non v-cache ones. But each one a little less than the previous. I do have a fair few other things running along side the sim.
Anyway I will try with it in again and see if that helps my VR stutters. Thanks for the suggestion!
