I’m getting a bit sick of MSFS recently. I’m throwing so much money at this thing and it feels like 1 step forward and two steps back.
I feel like I’m not getting enough performance out of MSFS since SU12 mainly when landing. My FPS just tanks to about 15-20fps. I upgraded my graphics card just before SU12 and I’m sure my performacne was much better before the update. I only have some liveries and modules in my community folder that are up to date and my test is flying from Aerosoft EDDK to Macco EGCC.
My Specs:
5800X3D
4080 FE (Driver 528.49)
32GB 3200 DDR4
2TB NVme
Main Settings in MSFS:
2560 x 1440
DX11
Clouds: Ultra
TLOD: 205
OLOD: 200
Rolling Cache Off
PG: Off
Extras: FSUPIC, Axis and Ohs, GSX, Vatsim Traffic using AIG/FSLTL/Just Flight Model Matching, Rex Accuseason
I’m not sure if anyone else runs anything similar, so just after anecdotal evidence really, but with my specs/settings should I expect more at cruise flying in the Maddog MD88 over the busy area of EDDK/EDDF to EHAM? I’m currently only getting about 35-40FPS at cruise which i feel should be a lot more and when I land, it tanks to about 15-20fps, which is the main frustration really and seems really low for my specs.
I have tried with DX12 and Frame Gen, which of course doubles the FPS but still on landing i barely scrape 25-30 fps which isn’t great. I’ve watched streamers and they don’t seem to have any of the same issues.
Lowering LODs to 150, clouds to high and upping Render Scaling to 150 (to give GPU more to do) doesn’t really change things that much
Just flying over the sea now and it still doesn’t get over 50fps. I’m certain in the past i would get well over 60-70 fps over the ocean.
Anyone else see something similar?
expect less if anything! 50fps is quite good for flight sim in any part of the world
Frame chasing is ill-advised for the sim as the sim is not optimized to take advantage of high end hardware…at least in an efficient manner that actually benefits the user with increased performance. Aim for a consistently smooth experience. If you need a bottom number, aim for 30 fps, 24 fps minimum.
30fps is completely playable for flight sim. With 3 AI Traffic mods, high LOD/TLOD, a high fidelity complex airplane and cranked up graphics settings AND flying over cities you are otherwise having a completely normal MSFS experience.
If you have live traffic on while on vatsim you will get hit there with performance as it’s trying to do the MSFS live traffic (if you havent turned that off) and the live traffic from AIG/FSLTL/JF.
There is hardly a difference you will explicitly notice between 100 and 200 LOD and for that matter, there’s little difference between ultra and high end settings. It’s totally subjective in terms of appearance but you will get dinged in performance the higher settings you go. That’s the nature of computer gaming…
I run a 5800X, 5500 XT and 32gb of ram, i have most my settings medium-high at 1080p and the game runs smooth for me. It stutters at high end airports like DD EWR or Ini LHR but i expect that, especially if i have AI traffic running.
Hope this helps
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Thanks, i get what you are saying and the post probably does sound like i’m whinging about my 50 FPS! But I’m basing that as my baseline to help me get a smoother experience when landing, as that is the real annoyance. 50 fps at cruise is just fine like you say but if it should be higher, then that works its way down to better fps when landing…if you get my thinking!
Your baseline shouldn’t be at the point where its going to be the smoothest. To you, its more important your performance during landings are smooth right? So why set your baseline at a point where your GPU is doing the least amount of work rending just multiple shades of blue? The game is not rendering buildings bigger than squares or dots at 35,000 feet so the workload is far less during cruise. On approach it has to render the city, your plane, the airport, other planes both AI and human, calculate the weather and maintain radio navigation aids if you’re using them. There’s a lot going on during a landing behind the scenes, more than any of us know!
What i was trying to say is you need to turn your settings down. 200 LOD is what is killing your frames. Clouds, motion blur, Depth of Field, shadows settings all are big performance killers too. Running at 2K isn’t helping either.
But like i said, if you just focus on reaching a number, you’re going to spend more time tweaking your computer and getting frustrated than just enjoying the game. 15-20 fps on landing is about right for a complex airplane with 3 traffic mods and high graphics settings. If you want to improve this, you need to lower your graphics settings
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Hi, I’ve very recently also upgraded the same specs. I went from:
- a 1070 to a 4090 FE
- a 3700x to a 3800x3d
I also have 32GB of RAM (3600Mhz) and run on 1440p.
I’d love to hear I’ve you find out anything interesting config-wise. I only had an hour to tweak around a bit for now.
For the time being, I aim for 30 fps. I used ultra settings, but downgraded object & terrain LOD to 150 instead of 200. I also turned DLSS off and enabled vsync (50% monitor refresh rate).
I feel since the CPU is a bit overpowered by the GPU, it might not always be easy to find the right in-game settings.
Please let me know if you find anything out !
In a nutshell, your resolution is way too low for that machine.
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I know. I do plan to buy myself a VR headset at a later point though. Or a maybe a 4k monitor at some point as well.
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If that’s the case it would certainly be worth increasing your render scale significantly. You need to get your GPU working much harder than it is as I’d imagine at the minute your GPU is sitting almost dormant whilst your CPU is struggling to keep up.
OK, so I’ve just landed. I have 20-25 fps with LOD 150, clouds on High, Shadows 1024/512, DoF is always off, Motion blur is low.
The only way I can get scrape 30 is putting TLOD and OLOD to 50. Something just doesn’t seem right.
GPU sits at a bit below 50%. The CPU seems not to be used that much. I think I might still be main thread limited in some cases though. Setting a higher rendering scale might actually help, yes 
please open up developer mode and open the performance monitor (idr the exact name right now). It will tell you if you are CPU or GPU limited. You can troubleshoot your settings from there
Last time I checked it was main thread limited I think. I’m not sure it was on the same settings though. I’ll run some tests in dev mode later on, when I’ll have time, maybe this WE.
Thanks for the advice
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Not all mods/apps are likely to have caught up with SU12 so check for updates. Also traffic settings can also have a big impact on mainthread
no worries. It’s interesting you might be main thread limited with a 5800X3D. That’s probably one of the best AMD processors out theres something bottlenecking at your CPU. Let us know what you find out!
I upgraded from 2700X to 5800X and noticed a difference, even though i couldn’t afford the extra for the better one. But now i’m GPU limited with my old 5500 XT
I understand your frustration! MSFS performance tuning is more of an art than a science.
My specs are similar to yours.
AMD Ryzen 9 3900X
32 GB DDR4 3000 SDRAM
NVIDIA RTX 4080 FE (GeForce 531.41)
ACER XB273K GB (4k monitor)
My graphics settings are different:
Screen 3840 x 2160
DX12
Clouds High
TLOD 150
OLOD 150
Rolling Cache On
PG On
I don’t have the MD 88 and I don’t use any of the addons that you use. I’m flying the new A320CEO from LVFR @ 4k.
Using the same departure and arrival airports, my average FPS while in cruise is 80 to 90. However if I change my configuration to enable Live Weather and Live Traffic, my FPS drops to 40 - 60. There is a significant performance penalty for Live Traffic and Live Weather. I’m sure this means the Main Thread is the limiting factor due to the additional network activity.
I don’t have any suggestions except that enabling additional features and add-ons have significant impacts, some more than others. Many users prefer to enable many features and add-ons in order to have a realistic experience.
5800X3D
Zotac 4080, driver 531.29
32GB 3600 DDR4
1TB NVME System
2TB SSD MSFS
other SSDs for other stuff.
Main Settings in MSFS:
3840 x 2160
DX12
DLSS Quality
Clouds: High
Other stuff mostly Ultra if it makes sense, High otherwise.
TLOD: 200
OLOD: 115
Rolling Cache Off
PG: On
FSLTL, Rex Accuseason, AAO, plenty scenery addons, eg 10m Alps DEM and such stuff.
80FPS unlimited… VSync 60. Smooth as silk, even on the ground, regardless of the airplane. Maddog, PMDG, A310…
I tweaked the BIOS a little bit, maybe there’s the difference.
Even when landing and taking off? What area and which sceneries do you use? Would like to compare to my system…
I’m not using DLSS as it blurs the displays. Thought about DLAA but apparently that gives the GPU even less to do so trying to balance that out and stuck with TAA for now
I am pretty much Main Thread limited all the time no matter what i do. I only use Vatsim for the traffic so typically the AI in play isn’t quite as dense as using the injector.
Usually everywhere, there are airports where it might go down to 50ish like Seattle or Hobg Kong but I rarely get less than 60 if I pay attention and I‘m completely rid of any stutters thanks to the X3D.
I can take a couple of photos of my BIOS settings tonight.
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Do you use 3rd party sceneries or default?
Photos of your BIOS settings would be great if you could, thank you!
Maccosim EGCC is 2 years old and isn’t well optimised for later sim updates, it’s normal to have variable fps at this airport - I have this airport. They are working on a complete rebuild, so I hear on the grapevine. I agree with @DensestSnail693 on not all mods catching up yet, try moving mods out of the community folder and starting vanilla. Use the default Asobo A320 on a test flight (hold back the tears) and see how you get on.
