DirectX 12

I7 7700k at 5ghz.

In a flight sim, a lot of calculation have to be done, and by the CPU. physics, weather, all traffic etc
I’m not sure DX12 could be magic and give you a lot of fps. graphics cannot go faster than calculations, there are dependant.

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Thats the same processor as mine, but im only running it at 4.5ghz but find it only hitting 60% max.
I have a 10080 ti, and than hovers right up to 98%, so i think its my gpu holding me back.

I run the game at 1440p on ultra settings.

32gb ram
1TB m2 nvme drive

Dont know if that helps

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I have the same CPU, too:
ASUS ROG Maximus IX Hero, i7-7700K o/c @4.9, 32GB RAM, GTX1080Ti FE, Dell S2716DG 1440p monitor, 1TB Samsung 960 Pro M.2 (x2), CH Eclipse Yoke, CH Throttle Quadrant, CH Pro Pedals, Windows 10 Pro (current updates), Track-IR 5 Pro

My MSFS settings are mostly Ultra with a few things turned turned down 1 step like shadows. (I’ll add screen grabs of my config in a bit)

I use RivaTuner (comes with Afterburner) to cap my fps at 30, which still gives me nice smooth flying while keeping my GPU at 65-85% or so and CPU under 60%. There are little spikes when new scenery is getting downloaded and uncompressed - I think that part should maybe use (n-4) threads for that part so it doesn’t get in the way of MSFS’s main thread.

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Someone had been watching Digital Foundry :laughing:

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What resolution and is any downscaling on?

1440p native w/o downscaling. Also, I have Vsync turned off and its fine.

That analysis is
 not exactly as good as I’d expect from DF.

Running tests by jumping between planes to make the video look pretty isn’t exactly good when different aircraft have radically different hardware impact.

Helpful but came across as an advert for Origin PC.

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I am guessing 6 months from now, we will have dx12 along with dlss.

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Low level API like dx12 or vulkan greatly improved p3d v5 and it is now the smoothest sim for me

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DX12 will not do magic, but per mode of operation and in case of a capable cpu and a mediocre to good code transfer it releases that one world thread that limits @ present everyone that is cpu bound and not gpu or memory/bus/network bound. Parallelisation is key here

Sure if your CPU is used better the fps increase and the load on other components like bus/network/memory/gpu will rise accordingly, so it is possible that DX12 is useless for you, again, if youre then bottlenecked by a second component e.g. your slow (or faulty) memory modules. :blue_heart:

Look @ the whole system, and never underestimate the possibilitiy of user errors!
Or take it easy and play XBOX X! :wink:

Parallelisation is nice but if thread nead data from each other (you can’t process the next picture if you don’t know the next aircraft position according to physic, weather, user input etc
, all cpu related) , all sync needed break the advantage of parallelisation (and sometimes it’s less efficiente than one thread, sync cost a lot). I develop multithread app and engine in C++ since 20 years, parallelisation is not so easy as it is to say.
But you’re right, the whole system has to be homogeneous. Mine is, but in a low performance point of view ;).

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DX12 will not do magic

Or take it easy and play XBOX X! :wink:


Yes, I feel the same as you about DX 12. Some people seem to think that it will just about solve every problem known to mankind and then some. I think that when it does eventually come out it will help but I also think that there will be a lot of disappointed simmers with unfulfilled expectations. Either way, I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for a release date.

As regards, ‘take it easy and play XBOX’, well that should be interesting. Not quite sure yet how they will set the game up on console or the sort of experience we are likely to get. Anyway, looking forward to seeing what they eventually come up with. :relaxed:

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Realistically, if the goal of getting DX12 is to more easily implement paralleization for Draw Calls, then people with lower core count CPUs would likely see barely any benefit.

Again, we can have this parallelization with at least Nvidia GPUs on DX11, but Asobo did not implement it. DX12 would be better for the features it brings, not necessarily the performance.

I would not expect FS to suddenly run as well as DOOM does, since DOOM is a very niche example. It comes down to how the application is developed. Not what API they are using.

I am excited to see what the performance optimizations next patch with bring. It specifically targets low core count CPUs as well.

Like we all know, DX12 has been worked on since it became available. This sim was started before that but all in all from what they said on one of the few video conferences I saw they’ve been staying ready, meaning making the transition easier when that time comes.

My only comment is those (like me) who have their expensive ray tracing video card and think ray tracing implementation will be all that, it won’t. It won’t because they managed to do impeccable results without it so other than just knowing it now has it, and that’s an if they even implement it since once it goes to dx12, which it will, it doesn’t mean ray tracing is automatic. People should look at what is right in front of them and awe in it’s beauty because ray tracing isn’t going to do anything better than what they somehow managed to pull off already. I know this because I have all the titles of games that have it and still yawn in awe, rather than what I do to the reflections in this sim :slight_smile:

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I’ve spoken about this before — DX12 was released in 2015 (Alongside Windows 10) - That’s 5 years it’s been out
 and being that Microsoft have put their name on this product, I find it highly unusual that Microsoft would have been developing this for at least a couple of years before it was released, which takes us back to at least 2013.

Getting away from all the discussion about the benefits or drawbacks of DX12, I find it unusual that a Microsoft product released 5 years after DX12 was released, isn’t built around DX12. Ray Tracing tech is admittedly only 2 years old, but I imagine moving up between DX12 versions is easier than moving between 11 and 12.

It just seems strange that Microsoft wouldn’t be pushing their own latest 3D and Gaming technology, given how many other new technologies have been put into MSFS.

I’m sure there’s probably a plausible reason. (I’m not sure I really believe the “They were too far into development to go back and change it” but I also don’t want to start an array of conspiracy nonsense)

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That is surprising at first, but after thinking about it makes sense seeing how the development went. Microsoft just contracted an independent studio, probably based on their previous offerings, so it’s not like it’s “Microsoft’s own flagship software” but more like something on which they’re simply slapping their name. And one of the primary goals seems to have been getting the product to market as fast as possible, which is why every aspect of the game feels so rushed. This process probably started a couple years back, and when given X number of months to reboot Flight Simulator (when X number of years were probably needed), Asobo probably had to reuse existing graphics from its previous titles. Those were probably produced even more years back still. So they probably just didn’t have the time or means to go to DX12 right off the bat.

But then that still raises the question of why they had to rush so much in the first place. It’s been more than a decade since a Microsoft flight simulator title was on the market and in active development. What was another year or so?

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Any thoughts on if the jump to DX12 will shift the balance of power between GeForce and Radeon, or Intel and AMD? Too early to tell with new hardware line-up or how DX12 is implemented? I’m still sitting on the sidelines here waiting to upgrade my 10 year old i7.

Perhaps MS wanted to cash in on the fact that the world is in lock-down, and this is a way for the population to go out and explore the world virtually. If they waited much longer, people would be going back out in the world for real. That’s the cynical side of me coming out, I know.