I ask this because FPS is a regular complaint on this forum. Up until last night I have had a FPS counter in the corner watching it way more than I should have been. I decided to turn it off, and you know what? I enjoyed the experience so much more without it! Now maybe I just don’t have the sharp perception of some, but if you had asked me if I thought FPS was in the high 20s, 30s or 40s or above I would have been hard pressed to tell you. I am not saying that there are times when the FPS is unacceptable and spoils the experience, there have been real issues and still are for many. I am just saying try TURN OFF that counter and just enjoy the experience. I bet without seeing what it’s running at you will worry way less about it.
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I’ve locked fps to 30 for most flights and since my PC can easily handle this (easy to note due to the low fan RPMs) I don’t need an fps counter.
Once microstutters start, I know that fps dropped below the set v-sync limit.
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I do think there’s something to be said for this - as far as I know the fps counter doesn’t account for stuttering, which is generally more obvious than a bit of a FPS dip. I guess it would be nice if everything worked like a movie where the FPS was constant (it’s typically 24 fps btw). I know w/ something this complex and varying degrees of load on the CPU & GPU it’s going to fluctuate, but obsessing over fps does seem like a bit of going down a rabbit hole unless it’s really obvious and your trying to document it.
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FPS doesn’t ruin the experience at all. 30+ is acceptable or even 25ish range for simmers.
what DOES kill the experience are the microstutters, stutters and freezes.
For example 30fps locked on any other optimized game will look smoother than 30fps locker on MSFS
Why you’d ask?
This is the frame graph you should see : _____________
MSFS on the other hand has so many spikes in micro seconds like this: ––----__ – _ - _ - --------_
This way 30fps will feel like low 10’s.
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I also keep my FPS off. Having it on breaks the immersion for me and I find myself watching it too much.
That said, it can be very useful when trying to diagnose issues or when setting up graphic settings.
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Turned my FPS display off months ago, and my experience was much improved.
Jim-Sim
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Definitely keep it off. Besides, how do you know how accurate it is anyway? Especially if you use the one in dev mode.
I couldn’t agree more with the OP.
I simply use the dev FPS tool to tune the sim to my rig. After that, I turn it off. The only exception is when that dumpster fire known as WU3 was forced upon us. I noticed a severe performance hit. After the patch was released, which solved my issues, I turned it off again.
It’s not necessarily about frames for me, but, smoothness.
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Absolutely agree with OP. I really don’t understand how top-notch FPS numbers can dramatically improve overall experience (maybe except of VR headset). STABLE 30FPS should (and is, based on my experiments) enough for having really good feel of smoothness.
So let’s establish a new initiative MSFS - SMOOTHNESS AGINST FPS 
I have it capped at 20. After getting used to it the stutters don’t stand out anymore. With a 144hz screen, v-sync is always close at low fps, no big variations. Flying only gets tricky below 5 fps. SU3 had my fps go down to 30 frames per minute at 76T!
I’ve landed at 2 fps in heavy stuttering, view it as a challenge… (then restart the sim to get back to 20fps, bad memory leaks causing those extreme drops now and then)
PG areas I only get around 15fps since I prefer visuals over frame rate. Still plenty to do stuff like this
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Definitely just turn it off and anything else that monitors your computer. People on here are driving me nuts with their obsession with Fps
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Don’t agree at all. MSFS is one of the games for me where 30fps are really smooth.
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you don’t have to agree or disagree, it’s a fact mate 
I somehow understand their perspectives - they usually spent a lot of hard-earned money for top-class rigs / top-end graphics cards / high refresh rate 4K HDR displays and automatically expecting FPS of average AAA shooter game. But this is not a shooter…
Yeah I agree…BAD FPS can ruin your experience… the difference between landing at 24 and 60 will astonish you.
It’s why the Xbox “goal” of 60FPS gaming is a thing.
It’s why all modern games and reviews of hardware uses 60FPS as a benchmark.
It leads to a much more fluid experience. The people on here saying 25 fps is fine for simming are geriatric relics of the old times. “24fps is what your eyes see” was legit said by people at one point. We’ve moved on since then. These same folks will say " It’s not a shooter" as if that is in any way relevant to the discussion.
30-40 I find acceptable and I don’t have a problem playing it that way because it’s all my hardware can handle, and i enjoy the experience…but of course the closer you can get to 60 the more enjoyable your experience will be and the more fluid/real to life it becomes. Control input becomes more natural.
If you’re simply talking about constantly whining and monitoring your FPS counter and bemoaning the drop from 55 to 52 then yes, that’s just pointless.
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That’s nonsense.
Yes. Turn off the meters, go for smoothness. If you don’t have it, adjust settings and try again. At some point, yes frames matter but for me at least, the aim is smooth flying. If I get that at 20 FPS I’m fine with it. You can have 30+ frames and a stutter show every few seconds which ruins the immersion and smoothness. Smoothness > frames.
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It’s not i’m stating a simple fact that frame graph spikes are simply showing the sim isn’t putting through a stable 30 frames per second.
Show me your frame graph in dev tools being linear.
Or anyone for that matter, if ANYONE has it i’ll shut my mouth forever about it.
It might feel smooth to you as you are used to bad performance, i’ve been actively gaming and doing tech reviews here in the netherlands for over 14 years now.
I am not talking about things to feel correct or a mr know it all, just stating facts.
These go hand in hand. You need a high frame rate to have a “smooth” experience. This is why HFR is so vital for VR .
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Man, you completely missed the key point of my post while “attacking” my thoughts - price spent for HW vs expectations was my basic argument. This ratio is definitely different for shooter game and for such complex sim as MSFS is. 
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