Could not be more disappointed with VR with a RTX 3080 & R9 3900X

Hello and good day,

Sorry guys, I can’t hold it back any longer, I have to express my utter disappointment with the performance of this sim :face_with_symbols_over_mouth:. It wasn’t good from the start but kind of acceptable on my 60HZ Full HD screen…(on which I could run everything else with ultra settings locked to 60 with a large margin) but now with VR in MSFS I can’t hold back my frustration any longer.

I have a Ryzen 3900X with 64GB DDR-4 @ 3600 CL16 and a RTX 3080. I build the system explicitly for MSFS last fall.

With the lowest possible VR settings (including render scale) I’m CPU (main thread) limited at ~28-32 FPS with at least 8 of my CPU cores doing nothing. The VR experience is just horrible compared to racing sims like for example Automobilista 2.

I’ve never regret more spending the 119€ for the premium version. I’d rather have burnt the money because that would be more fun than bothering about performance issues with this sim for hours and days trying to find a solution or compromise that just doesn’t exist.

@Microsoft and Asobo, sort this out, this is a complete joke. :sleepy:

And yes, I tried it out with the X-Box pass before buying the full version and put my full hope on you guys that you sort these things out quickly.

I’ll sleep one night over it and decide tomorrow if I’ll just delete that disappointment of a software and return my G2 as long as that is possible…

And now my rant is over :zipper_mouth_face:

3 Likes

You’d probably see a nice gain switching from the 3900x to the 5600x, which is a cheaper processor even.

You’re right. I’m planning on getting a 5900X as soon as the availability is better. Maybe until then there’ll also be DX12 and lets hope that will help too. Until then I guss I’ll just play racing sims… :upside_down_face:

To be fair though you’re choosing a very demanding plane with the A320 to test VR. I’ve got an i7 7700 and an RTX 3080 and I find all the airliners are unflyable in VR. Any plane with is a huge CPU drain is just unflyable for me. The smaller planes are all fine and the small planes without glass cockpit are super smooth, which proves to me how much my CPU struggles. Like me you’re going to need a new CPU to the most out of your 3080.

Try the simpler planes and see how you get on.

2 Likes

I’m running a Valve Index with a 9600K and a 3080 with a render scale of 100, high settings with a few things on ultra (textures, trees, something else…), and Steam VR supersampling at 150 (I have the in-game AA turned off). I have FPS locked to 30 and the only time it has a hard time staying at 30 is in big urban areas, and even then it’s still playable till I get altitude and it smooths out. I realize the Index is lower res than the G2 but you must have something set up wrong. Hopefully someone else with a G2 can get you sorted out because with that hardware you shouldn’t be having an issue, though I’m not familiar with how your CPU stacks up against the newer Ryzens or the Intel chips.

Disclaimer: I don’t fly the airliners - though I’ve done a couple flights with the Citation jets and they seem to work fine, and the smaller GA planes work even better, even the glass cockpit ones)

You didn’t mention openxr. I assume you have that running and if you do what are your settings there? Also are you starting the sim after those are running? So many things can cause issues. Also have you tried to empty out your community folder to see if something there is causing issue? I’ve seen that help someone else. You can just move the contents to another folder.

I’m running a pre-3*** video card with the first gent Occulus and while the sim is fuzzy, has choppy-ness and other “issues”, I gotta say - you CAN NOT get a more realistic feeling of flight on a home computer. Period. It’s unfortunate that some are not able to achieve this either due to their “older” computers or, in the case of the author of this post, their settings (tweaking will help) or expectations. More computer, video card and other types of “power” will continue to help flesh this sim (this GAME, yes, game) out, but I am enjoying the sim. I hope you can tweak your settings so you can too…

I don’t know if this is any help or makes you feel any better, but I’ve seen so many 30-series owners disappointed with what they’re getting vs. what they expected that I’m starting to wonder if there are flat up driver issues.

That’s not to say you shouldn’t seek out tweaks and/or other config settings or fixes that might help you, probably just to say that I personally expect Nvidia to come out with a better driver, and soon. I’m not even sure why I think that, but for whatever reason, I do, so help may be on the way soon!

I guess it’s probably a good thing I can’t find a 30-series yet, I don’t want to spend all that money only to be disappointed. Perhaps I’m guilty of hoping that by the time I actually find one, these issues will have been long fixed?

Eh, whatevs, I guess time will tell.

What headset are you using?

To balance the discussion with vast world rendering in flight sim vs cars might have different issues. It happend in DCS though they might have early run to resolve their issues still not optimal cpu utils. VR with reverb G2 are already amazing compared ro my older samsung oddysey even better but it brings new demand on pc which result in catch up games between the two. If you dare to use VR and also in MSFS also realize its still in the final frontier of the new ways of playing games where the tech is not yet reach acceptable condition. If you accepted the fact there still enjoyment in using it. Its still providing different experi3nce not without a lot of learning curve​:grin::grin: peace …

I don’t think its so much a driver issue (although it may well be in part that for some people) its more to do with people upgrading their system and pairing up an RTX 3080/3090 with an older CPU/motherboard/RAM combo. Thats my problem anyway and I’m sure I’m not alone there.

VR in FS2020 just kills my FPS and there’s nothing I can do with my current set up to optimise things further. Like I said in my earlier post the smaller simpler planes are all flyable in VR so I just have to stick to those for the time being.

Such a shame there are all these issues with VR for some people.

I’m running an i9-9900K with a 3090 using HP Reverb G2 and its so good I am completely ruined trying to play this on my 38" Ultrawide Monitor now. Flying over Paris in the Extra 330LT is jaw dropping, literally.

Scaling set to 100, I run most things at Ultra and only drop down to High on a few things. I don’t check FPS, I just go by what looks good when using VR and its very impressive. Could it improve, absolutely, my biggest gripe is the focus sweetspot, but even then its still managable.

Below are my specs.

Have you tried other flight games like Aerofly 2?
The VR is amazingly clear for me in Valve Index, and super smooth. Im running i9 / RTX 2080TI

Just would be interested to see if the 3000 series cards are still stuttering in this program.

I have MSFS running pretty well. Noticed Volumetric Clouds will tank VR if I go past Medium, but other than that its pretty playable.

I am just about to finish my VR flight around the world in MB339A in real time, no warping, which has flown fine with no issues in all sorts of weather, a lot of rural areas on my flight path, but went through some cities, and all was fine.

I haven’t tried other flight sims in VR but I don’t know how much of a fair comparison they are anyway. They don’t data stream the entire planet as you’re flying along. FS2020 puts a ton of strain on the CPU.

Volumetric clouds and most of the other graphic settings make no difference with my RTX 3080 and FPS. The card will handle that sort of rendering without breaking much of a sweat on ultra settings. Lowering graphics settings for me doesn’t win back any FPS anyway.

The MB-339 is a good plane in VR. Its not a big CPU hitter.

I could be maxed ultra on everything on PC screen mode, but not in VR.

Just glad I have TAA at 100 so I can read all the flat panels really well, for some reason my Vive pro would not perform well past 80.

I remember playing MSFS when I was young, the frame rates would be all choppy on screen with my PC, but in 5 years the next PC did really well…

Wonder if the computers of today, just can’t do it all, but the future ones will?

When FS2020 came out last August a few reviewers I read made the observation that every once in a while a game comes out thats a generation ahead of the current hardware and I think thats probably spot on for the sim. Certainly for VR.

that’s a really nice setup you have there :money_mouth_face:
I think it’s probably cheaper to buy a real Cessna 152 haha, just teasing you, I’m jealous :wink:
I want to buy a 3080, no stock anywhere, I want to buy a 5600x , no stock anywhere. I guess i’ll have to wait. But at least I get decent VR experience using virtual desktop with my Quest 2, Ryzen 7 2700 and RTX 2080.
And I’m with you about the 2D flying, no more for me…having a blast in VR.
I bought every single Oculus device that came out since DK1 and I can finally enjoy a good quality image with no screendoor effect and it’s absolutely great for the price tag. I recommend it 100%

Would you try C172 if it runs better? I have 3800x, 1080ti, 32Gb, SSD and Reverb G1 and VR is playable even urban areas. I have maxed out roads, trees and clouds but using render scale 60 with TAA. Most other options are in medium. Glass cocpit is high, object and terrain lod 100, no anisotropic filtering ot texture supersampling. I usually fly low, about 600-2000 feet.

I have not flew with airliners, that could be reason.

Scaling set to 100, I run most things at Ultra and only drop down to High on a few things.

What is your OpenXR render scale?

@all of you:

Thank you very much for taking the time to respond to my rant :star_struck:

I slept one night over this and want to bring up some “evidence” why I think it is still justified to be dissapointed although I understand all or at least most of your points and excuses for the poor job of MS/Asobo.

  1. Have you heard about the sh*tstorm about CD Project Red regarding Cyberpunk 2077 because of poor performance and bugs? May this be deserved or not (for me it is running smoothly at ~80 FPS, Ultra Settings including Ray Tracing). Still the flight sim community seems very grateful for tiny bread crumb that is given to us while we’re actually still starving. I think in the context, that MS built up a huge hype for MSFS 2020 over a long period, wrapped in mysterious NDA, and then can’t deliver decent performance on a system that exceeds their “ideal requirements” by quiet a margin is inexcusable.

  2. Some say: Well… yeah… you have to fly GA planes… not airliners… then you can run it. Yeah, they are right… GA kind of work… but, they made extensive advertisement with an A320 and this is just unusable for me… with my CPU that exceeds their ideal specification. Any my CPU isn’t defective, it has its expected performance in cinebench and other benchmarks.

  3. I’m new to VR and wasn’t aware, that you need to super sample about 140% of the native resolution to get the full potential of the panel in the headset because of distortion correction etc. Adding 140% on a Reverb G2 which has native 2160x2160 is a huge task for any GPU in existence. So buying this headset was maybe a bad choice.

  4. Maybe I shouldn’t have tried Half Life Alyx which runs in Ultra Settings at these 140% SS in 90 FPS and just looks mind blowing clear and awesome. I can’t super sample sim-racing games that much, but I still don’t have to even undersample them like in MSFS and everything looks really sh’itty in MSFS through the headset in comparison to the other things I’ve tried.

  5. @Mobias7 “Try simpler planes” - They sold me a sim for 119€ with an A320 in it and I want to run it! My CPU exceeds their ideal specification and I’m stuck in a CPU limit at barely 30 FPS. At the time of release of the game (although it wasn’t VR) the 3900X was the top end AMD CPU for gaming. Maybe the 10900K would have been a wiser choice but because I also render videos etc. the 3900X trumps the 10900K in everything but MSFS and I certainly didn’t expect that it would be that “bad”.

I’m stuck at that ~30 FPS CPU (main thread) limit at every VR graphic setting set to low or off, render scale only 30% which is 847x828 pixel (in every standard airliner). The load on the GPU is almost 0… but I can’t put any other setting higher because that will also increase CPU load.

@bdshort550 : Valve Index has only 1440×1600, G2 has 2160x2160 which makes a huge difference, but the problem is the main thread limitation. Your disclaimer: I want to fly airliners, MS/Asobo sold me a sim with an airliner. My system exceeds their ideal specification significantly and it still doesn’t work. In the past many people (“Gamers”) have been mocking me about still being happy with a 60 HZ monitor and that I find games in 60 HZ smooth enough. I stick to that claim but I must admit, that I can’t live with 30 FPS in VR and the blurriness re projection does create. I’ve tried DCS which runs at 90 FPS and this is an awesome experience.

@VapeVader : OpenXR doesn’t do much for main thread limitation.

@O1Lobo : I still feel like they made extensive adverts to sell me a Mercedes with the Premium package, I bought it but I’m now finding out, that its only ok to cruise a little in the neighborhood but they are still working on it, that it might be able to drive on the highway one day in the future, if we’re lucky.

@KevyKevTPA : I’d be happy to use the potential of my GPU but main thread limitations makes that impossible. When I look at cyberpunk, it uses all of my 24 CPU threads while I’m stuck at 30 FPS in MSFS with 16 threads doing nothing. Shame on MS/Asobo.