I didn’t do thorough recorded benchmarks or anything, but I did do some baseline performance comparisons to see the performance difference between the RTX 3080 10GB and the RTX 4090 24GB on my existing system, with a 10900K, 32GB RAM.
In heavily CPU-bound situations (settings on Ultra, poor performance areas like NYC/London/Seattle), the sim is completely CPU bound even under DX12, and my frame rates were basically identical (within 1-2 fps) without the DLSS Frame Generation turned on. Once I turned that on, FPS mostly doubled. From 40ish around NYC to about 75 on average in the same area/plane/weather. (5,120x1,440 monitor, so essentially similar rendering demands as a 4K display.)
There’s a been a lot of talk about visual glitches with frame generation turned on. I have never seen/noticed such a glitch. I could probably find some if I video-captured a flight and frame-by-framed, but I’m not seeing/noticing them in actual flying.
In VR, though, I did see a pretty big increase in frame rate over the 3080, even without DLSS 3.0/Frame Generation being available. Because I’m less CPU-bound there (I had the LOD turned down to 100 to maintain a good frame rate on the 3080), I went from around 45 fps to about 70-72 on a Reverb G2, which is dramatically faster. This is with motion reprojection off. (MR artifacts bug me.) Enabling DLSS quality gave me about the same frame rate as 80% resolution scaling but a little sharper image.
No regrets on the upgrade, but in my limited testing of a couple of hours of playing around with the card, my initial impressions are:
In games, which are usually GPU-limited, the 4090 is a beast. In MSFS, which is easy to CPU-limit, it’s still a beast, but only because of the frame doubling. If you’re CPU-limited, you may not see much difference over a 3080 unless you run DX12 with frame generation enabled.
Given that all the real increase is coming from the frame doubling, rather than rushing to get a 4090, watch to see what kinds of frame rates people get in MSFS with 4080s or even 4070-level cards. If you’re seeing your base performance CPU-limited, those cards will also offer DLSS Frame Generation, and you may get identical performance at a lower price.
The moral of the story is you’re gonna need both a killer CPU and a 40-series video card to get the most out of MSFS.
I have a 13900K on order, so it’ll be interesting to see how much that combo increases performance.
Thanks for this info, very interesting! I also have a i-9 10900 & RTX 3090, and a Varjo Aero.
I got lucky with an TUF4090 OC on release day, but it’s not installed yet. I read that there are problems with the Aero/4090 combo (heavy stutters, screen tearing).
Varjo is hard at work to produce a fix. So, any day now.,… fingers x-ed!!!
Will report on results!
With DLSS 3.0 and FG on, no VR, did you notice cockpit blurry? I’m running a 2060 12GB and with DLSS 2.0 can’t stand the cockpit blurryness. Using TrackIR worsens things a lot.
Did you notice any change in vram usage? I’m about to get a 3080 but those 10GB worry me a lot
I’m on 12900K + 3080 10GB, and I’m upgrading to 13900K. I’m sure it’ll help with minimum fps at 4K, and it’s a cheap/easy upgrade after selling the old CPU.
I’m waiting for the 4090 upgrade because it’s more expensive and I don’t think a 13900K will keep up with 4090 anyways. It’ll still drop below 60fps sometimes.
Can you cap the fps when using frame generation? For example I have a 60fps monitor, and get betweeen 35 to 60fps. Can you use it to only generate the missing frames to get 60 all the time?
In MSFS, I can run DLSS 3.0 with no scaling, just DLAA with frame generation, and I see about the same frame rates as with the scaling enabled. And at that setting, there’s zero quality loss. That said, I don’t find the cockpit blurry at DLSS Quality setting on the 3080/4090, but I’m running a 5,120x1440 monitor, which might be part of that.
Yep, I’m pretty consistently using 17GB in DX12. And that makes DX12 feel a lot smoother than my 10GB 3080 did. My 3080 would typically show about 9GB in use in demanding areas.
but I’m running a 5,120x1440 monitor, which might be part of that.
Most certainly. I’m running a 1920x1080 monitor scaled up to 140. When I enable DLSS even in quality mode cockpit blurryness is unbearable, I need to get really close to instrument to have a clear reading. This is most visible on digital instruments, not on analog gauges. I believe that using TrackIR worsens things because as pixels are constantly moving (because my head is), makes it harder for DLSS to make an accurate guess.
Yep, I’m pretty consistently using 17GB in DX12. And that makes DX12 feel a lot smoother than my 10GB 3080 did. My 3080 would typically show about 9GB in use in demanding areas.
Alright, thanks a lot. That pretty much confirms my concerns. In demanding areas and/or custom airports I’m seeing my 12GB VRAM regularly maxed out, so the fact that you’re using 17GB on demanding areas and it makes it a lot smoother rules out spending my cash on the 3080.
I think the 16GB 4080 is going to be the sweet spot for MSFS; guessing you’ll see almost all the performance benefit of an insanely priced 4090 for a merely ridiculous price with that card.
Remember when the high-end mainstream (ie: second fastest) card was $600 not that long again? Sigh.
Hi, so I currently have a I9 10900 K processor along with a RTX 2080 TI graphics card, what I was trying to work out was am I best to wait and buy the RTX 4080 over the RTX 4090 as I will probably be using DLSS 3.0 and was thinking would I get the same results using this combination of the RTX 4080 and the i9 10900K than spending the extra on the RTX 4090, if I’m going to be keeping the same processor am I likely to hit over the 60 FPS with the frame regeneration on using this combination. Thank you.
What ? i am heavy cpu limited in KLAX or London with 200+ view distance and low FPS. DLSS3 Drame Generation gave me like 60-120 FPS and the FPS , paning, trackir, fast movement is super smooth.
That being said, as long as the 4070 has frame generation too, it’s looking likely a RTX 4070 with DLSS 3+FG will surpass the 3090 with DLSS 2 in terms of resultant FPS!
Which is amazing really!
I look forward to people testing this comparison in the future
