Graphics Display - What you see depends on your hardware and specifications of it to FS2020

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I have been following tis Forum and it’s massive Posts for few months now.
This subject has not been addressed as far as I know.

I started my FS2020 journey via several hardware levels back.

  • Intel and Nvidia
  • i7-6700 CPU, Z270 motherboard, Nvidia GTX 1660 TI GPU, 32 GB SDRAM at 3400 Mhz, Mech Hard drive (memory will only run at 3200 Mhz)
  • New i7-9700K CPU, Z370 MB (purchased in error - no Hyperthreading)
  • New i9-9900K CPU, Z390 MB
  • New Samsung 970 EVO Plus 500 GB M.2 NVMe SSD
  • Additional 32 GB Memory 3600 Mhz (MB won’t run at 64 GB, only 32 GB)
  • New replacement 3600 Mhz 16 GB stick for bad stick
  • New Z390 MB - Gigabyte Aorus Pro Wifi (running 3 16GB 3600 & one 16 GB 3400)
  • New Intel 665p 1TB NVMe SSD
  • New replacement 3600 Mhz stick to replace the remaining 3400 stick

The only hardware that has stayed constant is the Nvidia GTX 1660 TI GPU
and 4K 65" TCL Roku TV.
Flying has always been 4K Ultra with Render Scaling = 100 as the only change.

Today at this point, I received the 4th 16GB stick of 3600 MHZ memory.
Installed it, set the memory speed to 3600 MHz (from 3400) in the Bios and started FS2020.

Edit: Proven not correct. Memory speed did not cause a large improvement.
< ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->
(Finally, the point of this Post.
With this change (and only change in hardware and configuration)
from 3400Mhz to 3600 Mhz only,
there is now displayed, a brand new graphic picture.)
< ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------>

Sitting on Runway 31 at JFK, New York, USA, it is different and improved.
I can “Slew” up and look around at JFK AP and it is different and improved.
Different meaning more detail, more buildings, runway is improved, more buildings, more detail in all buildings, more ground detail, more colors.
(I’m not talking about FPS or resolution.)

I flew from KJFK to KEWR (Newark, NJ) IFL/ILS at 3,000 feet.
The scenery is completely different than it was last night.

Flying toward KEWR with La Guardia AP on the right, over Central Park, NY with NYC on the left and turning at Teterboro toward KEWR.
The graphics have improved again with this hardware change.

I have seen this over and over.
At each improvement in hardware.

Somehow, FS2020 is looking at the PC’s hardware configuration and deciding what level of graphics detail to send.

Again, I’m not talking about resolution or FPS.
Edit : This sentence was removed by author.

Anyway, the new graphics displayed looks so good. I’m very pleased.

Or, I’m going nuts (crazy).
I wrote in a previous Topic/Post about graphics improvement from going from an
i7-9700K to an i9-9900K.

I am so surprised to see the new graphics.
I expected speed improvement only and not much at that.

Has anyone else noticed this?

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Hoping to see some feedback here, and wondering if my motherboard will support an increase in ram speed. I think I have 3200?

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Very interesting string of hardware upgrades, there…
I am just curious as to why you stuck with the 1660ti and didn’t upgrade that along the way, too?

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Just what happened.

This GTX 1660 TI GPU is producing some very good graphics.

And seeing many of the replies from people that have bought new and
expensive cards and were not getting much better FPS and graphics,
I have been waiting.

Especially due to price.
I’ll buy a RTX 3080 tomorrow (maybe RTX 3080 TI) at MSRP. So, I’m waiting.
I paid $249.00 USP for the GTX 1660 TI.

As I said, I’m flying at 4K pure Ultra with Scaling at 100.

I don’t really need a newer\better\faster graphics card.

Note:
I have never in person seen FS2020 on a 3070, 3080, AMD RX 6800.
So, I don’t know what the difference is.
I know it will be better. I don’t know how much.

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I would also think what you see depends on your internet speed too otherwise if that’s slow things specifically photogrammetry won’t load in properly. The only thing I noticed from switching from 8th gen i5 to a 10th i7 is smoother performance and a slightly more fps but you will definitely get a lot more performance on 4K out of a faster GPU compared to upgrading the CPU.It could be as much as 20-30fps difference depending on where you fly.
Someone has the same CPU like mine but they had it with a 3090.While I am getting 40fps in that area there 3090 is hitting 65fps on even higher settings.

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6

Can you try changing the speed back to 3400Mhz and see what happens? Does the graphics revert back?

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Some comparison Screen Shots would be interesting to see as well …

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8

This is exactly the test that he should do

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I always wondered this. Msfs looks absolutely breathtaking on my rtx 3080, 5900x. It looks marginally better than most of the screenshots and vids I have seen. Definitely needs more testing though…

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I was not surprised by your comment above. I’m on a GTX 1050ti and have been kind of holding out for similar reasons. I expect that I’ll bite the bullet later this summer or fall perhaps after more of “the dust settles” and upgrade to a new PC with both a better CPU and GPU.

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A 1660 Ti doesn’t have the VRAM required to run the game at 4k ultra (~9-11 GB VRAM required). That would largely explain why the graphics are different sometimes as to accodate the fact that the GPU is out of memory, some LODs and textures will get discarded. That tends to be a bit hit and miss as to what stays and what doesn’t, so you may have occasions where the graphics happen to look a bit than a previous flight.

This also shows in the comment about your performance being better than expect against more expensive cards. It probabaly is - because your GPU probably isn’t rendering half the stuff the more expensive cards are.

In the older days of gaming you’d have seen a game crash here, but modern game engines do indeed accodmate hardware that is simply not capable of running the required settings selected to some degree. That is a good thing for the most part, but it does lead to these situations where someone is running ‘4k ultra’, except not really. It’s 4k and whatever the engine manages to fit into memory after that.

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I’ll edit the original post also.

CORRECTION
The speed of the memory does not make a difference in the
graphics displayed.

Yesterday, I changed the memory speed back to
3200 Mhz from 3600 Mz.
Nothing changed in the PC & FS2020 & nothing in the BIOS but memory speed.

Here are the screenshots. 4K screenshots. Can’t upload a whole screen. Too big.

3600 Mhz

JFK AP 3600 Mhz
JFK AP 3600 Mhz1458×351 90.8 KB

3200 Mhz

JFK AP 3200 mhz
JFK AP 3200 mhz1290×354 77.5 KB

But, the graphic improvement has occurred. I still don’t know why it appeared
after the speed change was made.

I can think of 3 possible reasons:

  1. FS2020 is changing graphics displayed by analyzing hardware
  2. Nvidia Driver update causing the improved graphics
  3. ASOBO/MS Assure servers sending improved graphics.

Note:
There is a lot of difference in the fine detail of these 2 screenshots.
I can see it but cannot express it in words.
They are not identical.

But it is not the improvement this Topic is about.
As in new/more detailed scenery.

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I think a lot of pilots on here have a love/hate relationship with MSFS, which gives me flashbacks to the early days of FSX.

There are days I’m completely amazed how this sim looks on my screen, then there are days I’m tempted to throw it in an engine intake of a GE-90-115.

It took me 2 PC hardware upgrades plus numerous tweaking to get FSX running the way I want. I suspect MSFS will get better as hardware evolves too…

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