First things first, I really like this sim and had been excited for over a year now for it to launch.
But unfortunately my FPS just isn’t doing it for me,Iv used every flight sim I can get my hands on and I’m not expecting even 40fps just something smooth like the other sims.
I’m running a i7-7700, GTX1080 8GB & 42GB of DDR3 Ram and a very good wired connection.
I’m running on basically a mixture of low and high nothing between that and all fancy effect off. My question is am I expecting too much here for my system? All I get is really bad stutter and low FPS especially in airliners.
Thank you all for reading looking forward to all your thoughts
I installed MSFS 2020 to an external USB 2 drive This probably horrifies most people here, but it’s been running fine for me since day one. Of course, I’ve had slow load times, but from what I’ve seen on YT my load times don’t seem significantly longer than those experienced by people loading from super-fast SSDs. It’s certainly nothing I can’t live with.
I set up my cache disks on my internal 2TB HDD. They seem to be working fine.
I can run MSFS 2020 at a reasonably steady 60fps@1080p on custom settings between ‘High End’ and ‘Ultra’. There are some occasional stutters, but I’d say overall gameplay is more than acceptable. Framerates hold up very well over prolonged periods of play. Data streaming seems to work fine over my wireless connection - some minor hitching while new areas stream in, but nothing unacceptable. Very few CTD incidents since release.
But I realize my rig, as capable as it appears to be, is outdated. The GTX 1080 is a wonderful GPU but it is now eclipsed by both the 20 series and the brand new 30 series. I could do with a newer CPU, too (and more RAM!). Maybe next year, once MSFS 2020 has matured significantly, I’ll consider an entirely new rig. For now, what I have seems to do the trick as well as might be expected.
I did forget to mention that I also run with v-sync enabled. Does it make a difference? I dunno, tbh. I’ve seen people insist that v-sync should never be enabled, but my experience suggests (very strongly) that it appears to be holding frames steady for a (relatively) smooth experience. I assume that’s because I’m not trying to run the sim in all-Ultra, nor am I aiming for 4k. I don’t have a 4k-capable monitor so it would be pointless.
Consistent, stable 60fps@1080p with v-sync enabled might be worth trying on your rig.
I don’t have anything overclocked, no special set-ups. It’s just a bog-standard Dell XPS workstation.
I set v-sync in-game. I wanted to try using it via Nvidia Control panel but because I have the Microsoft Store version of MSFS 2020 there doesn’t appear to be any way to locate the sim’s .exe file to make the setting in Nvidia CP. If you have the Steam version of MSFS 2020 you might be able to get around this. Microsoft insist on encrypting and locking all their game files. Still, the in-game v-sync setting appears to be working well enough for me.
I have here i7 4790K / Z87 / 32GB DDR3 / GTX1070 / FHD resolution.
CPU is max boost 4.5GHZ, RAM is OC to 2000MHz, GPU is OC +200MHz, GPU MEM +200 too, GPU Power Limit set to 112% in MSI Afterburner.
What i did was to disable vsync ingame, but enable it in RivaTuner.
As i have a 144Hz screen, i limit FPS there to 36 FPS and i set Scanline Sync x/2 -1.
NVIDIA panel has Quality set to HIGH PERF, Energy is set to MAX PERF.
Graphic ingame is set mostly to ULTRA, Texture Synth is LOW, Buildings,Trees and Grass is HIGH, Terrain and Object LOD are both set to 10.
With this i get steady smooth 36FPS, no stutter, 50% CPU load, 80% GPU load.
Maybe you want to give this a try
PS: i fly mostly GA, no airliners…the one time tried i had 15FPS or so…they are broken performance wise. I have the FPS panel fix installed which sets the refresh rate for the cockpit panel screens to 15FPS. It should help especially with airliners.
PPS: make sure to disable gsync/freesync…it does no good here
48gig is an unusual amount and i wonder if you are not hindering performance by having it. When i bought my 2 16gig sticks i left my 2 8 gigs out because the extra RAM would not be worth the impact on dual channel performance.
Make sure your power usage slider in MSI Afterburner is all the way up to get the most out of your card and RTX voice is not open in task manager.
1080p is essentially a 2k resolution anyway. 1080 refers to the vertical, the horizontal is usually 1920. Strictly anything over 2000 horizontal is 2K so there are only 80 pixels in it. But it’s not like 1080p is going to be a lot faster than most 2k resolutions. 4k of course is another matter.
Im not saying RAM IS the issue btw, just that having the extra ram may actually slow down your system over 2 16gig sticks with a good XMP profile (im assuming you are 2x16 2x8)
That would depend on how the channels are used and whether the system is still running at a high frequency/low latencies (CL and so on).
I have 2x16 GB and 2x8 GB with 24 GB per channel, at 3200 MHz CL14, which is certainly faster than having 2x8 GB only with 3200 MHz CL14 which is what I had prior to the upgrade.
AFAIK, due to having more memory ranks, this should be faster (in terms of memory bandwidth) than simply having the two modules.
Of course, if you go from e.g. 2x16 GB 3200 MHz CL14 to 2x16 + 2x8 2400 MHz CL16 then you can almost certainly expect a drop in MSFS performance.
Run performance monitor while the sim is running in windowed mode and see if there are any other processes on your machine using cpu or gpu that is unnecessary. It doesn’t take much to hurt performance. I had something using about 3% gpu in one game and it cut my FPS form 40 or so to 20. I kid you not.
Unbalanced ram can hurt performance but when I did it once (a very long time ago) it was a fraction of 1 FPS in practice. I could only tell using synthetic benchmarks.
This probably horrifies most people here, but it’s been running fine for me since day one. Of course, I’ve had slow load times, but from what I’ve seen on YT my load times don’t seem significantly longer than those experienced by people loading from super-fast SSDs. It’s certainly nothing I can’t live with.
