Getting the best performance on a mid level system using Nvidia Performance Monitor (what I did)

I have an Asus G15 laptop that has a Ryzen 7 4800HS, 1660ti, 16gb, nvme. It can drive a 4k monitor. After a LOT of experimenting, I found this setting to be optimal…

Limit 30fps in the Nvidia control panel
Native 1440p resolution from desktop
Full screen 1440p resolution in the sim that matches my desktop resolution
Reduce to 85% render
Generic “Medium” setting with clouds set to “Ultra”

As you can see, I get 30fps (everywhere… including taking off and landing… that part you’ll have to take my word for it), my GPU stays in the 90% - 95% range and my GPU temp stays in the low 70’s. I found that by increasing various things, the only thing that really changes is an increase in the GPU power and voltage which does nothing except make my GPU temp run hotter in the low 80’s. Same with “more FPS”. Same with increasing sim resolution from 85% of 1440p to say, 90% or 95%. No noticeable difference visually but the GPU power and voltage go up considerably which raises the GPU temps into the 80’s.

Hey also…

I normally run my day-to-day resolution at 4k for what I do. I make sure to change to 1440p before launching the sim but I wondered if leaving my desktop resolution at 4k would cause my GPU to work any harder if the sim ls limited to 85% of 1440p. Answer: Yes! My GPU temp averaged almost 10 degrees hotter (in the lower 80’s).

So for me, I have to make sure to change my desktop resolution to 1440p before launching the program and as long as I do that, using the settings I mentioned, I can get pretty decent quality while also keeping my laptop GPU from catching the whole neighborhood on fire. :+1:

PS - I don’t know much about the clock(s) and latency but I’m guessing I’m in the ballpark given my setup. Any comments to the contrary or suggestions are always welcome.

Obviously with a laptop there’s a big reason to keep things cool so I think you should not change a thing. However I would be interested on what the performance would be without the 30fps cap, in my experience you need to be at least in the high forties to get 30fps at some of the bigger and busier airports.

Well, I can tell you that my GPU temps go up into the low 80’s by increasing FPS just into the 40’s. So I’d get 40fps up in the sky instead of 30fps (which who can notice that?) and maybe the same 30fps at an airport but my GPU temp average would be in the low 80’s overall rather than the low to mid 70’s overall.

I should say that I started monitoring my FPS on the ground, taking off, landing. So these settings, I’m getting 30fps taking off, landing, etc which pushes my GPU temps up into the high 70’s during that brief taking off/landing/maybe taxiing moment which is fine, but when I’m cruising I’m still at 30fps but my GPU is running a lot easier.

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Nice! … And more people should be happy with what their hardware is actually comfortable with.

You should try your rig at 4k at 100% render scale. Turn off Antialiasing, Texture Supersampling, Anisotropic filtering, and sharpening. These settings are designed to remove the jagged lines, but higher resolution has the same affect with less overhead. Also try Texture Resolution LOW, terrain shadows off, and ambient occlusion off. These things make the frames smaller and perhaps easier to process.

Ahhhh…

Well you know, now that I have a “baseline” that I’m pretty happy with, trying out suggestions like this is a lot easier to A/B against what I have now. I’ll give it a whirl. Thanks!

I gave it the ol college try. I think my current settings are as good as can be had while still keeping things cool. I took a screen shot just sitting and as you can see my framerate is low, temps are high, one of the settings makes everything float rather than looking like it’s on the ground.

For my setup it seems that 85% of 1440p at medium (with clouds on ultra though!) is right in the sweet spot for consistent 30fps and low to mid 70’s GPU temps.

Thanks for the suggestion! Always worth a try. :+1:

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For information:

Decreasing performance playing !SOLUTION! - Community / General Discussion - Microsoft Flight Simulator Forums

Just finished an excellent sushi lunch. Perfect time to give the NDU thing a whirl.

Thank you for reaching out! I’ll update with results :+1:

Well no soap for me. But I haven’t been experiencing stutters. Just that I’ve got my system prettt much dialed in through trial and error. But hey! Who knows? It’s always worth a try to get better performance and thanks again for reaching out.

I did manage to go from 85% 1440p on Medium (clouds on Ultra) to 100% 1440p with same settings by buying a $35 laptop cooler. Before I had to limit my GPU percentage to high 80’s, low 90’s because my GPU temp would climb into the 80’s. Now it’s low 70’s temp wise at the most and my GPU is steadily in the high 90% sometimes to 100%. Just about perfect :+1: