Less fps, but smoother

Hello everybody,

a question from the technical GURUs of the forum.

With my system (5800x3d, RTX 3700) I have the perception that a lower monitor refresh rate improves performance.

My monitor (MSI Optix MAG322CQR) has a native frequency of 165Mhz. With this frequency, at the native resolution of 2560x1440, setting the in-game limiter to 50%, I get about 60fps more or less stable, but, above all on the ground, a greater stuttering sensation. Even if I limit the fps to 33% it doesn’t improve the perception much.

By lowering the refresh rate of the monitor to 85Mhz with the limiter at 50%, I get an almost fixed 42.5 fps, and an absolutely greater sensation of fluidity.

The question is: am I letting myself be conditioned or is my perception real? And what is the reason?

Tks

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For MSFS, unlike some action games, an increased monitor refresh rate doesn’t mean a better performance unless the graphics card can cope with it, and with respect the RTX3700 is being pushed to meet your settings. It’s all a matter of how it all works together - I watched an excellent Utube (sorry can’t recall it now) which fully explained it all and then went on to suggest what settings to try.
I ended up setting my monitor rate to 60fps in the Nvidia settings for MSFS then 100% in the game graphics. I now get a solid 60fps in general open country, dropping to around 45fps in heavy graphic areas, but for me the most important result was the incredible smoothness with no more stuttering at any stage of the flight. Considering most people cannot tell the difference above 30fps (yes there are exceptions if you believe everything posted on here) for me that’s a perfectly satisfactory result. I’ve even been able to turn most every other setting to Ultra; my specs are pretty close to yours.

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I think it depends. I have an ultrawide with 100hz, tried 60hz and even though im getting 30-40 fps setting the refresh rate to 60hz made it much less smooth and jittery.

I havea gsync compatible monitor so maybe that has something to do with it.

I’ve tried to play with these settings in the past.

My monitors native refresh rate is 144. If I lowered it I noticed I got tearing when looking around the cockpit.

I set a monitor refresh rate to 120, then set the game Vsync to 50%. That gives me a smooth 60 fps.
I might go from 50 to 60 fps, but I can’t really see a difference.

vSync fixes the tearing when I lower the resolution but it kills the frames if you use pop outs.

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Loss off perfomance when using pop-out panels has been a long standing issue, that is not being addressed for some reason. (who knows why) :upside_down_face:

Oh ok well aware :slight_smile:

DX12 has made it better but vSync still kills it.

I think this is the Youtube clip you are referring to. I found it very useful and its recommendations have greatly improved my smoothness. [MSFS] How to get a SMOOTH experience in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 - YouTube

I think Terrylawdinn is correct about this. It has to do with all hardware bits and pieces being in sync, not about necessarily streaching performance limits. I would use the settings which provide more smoothness. If the result is good for you, then that is all that matters.

Your perception is absolutely real. With your monitor refresh set at 165Mhz and your in game vsync set to 50%, this will force your video card to work to achieve 82.5 fps. That’s a tall order for any system and hence you noticed only around 60 fps being actually achieved (and with a little stuttering).

By setting your monitors refresh rate at 85Mhz and setting in game vsync to 50% forced your video card to try to drive the sim at 42.5 fps which was well within its capabilities (with a little to spare). Since your video card was now more balanced with your sim settings and PC CPU, your perception of a greater sense of fluidity was the result.

I’m surprised a little that setting your refresh rate at 165Mhz and your in game vsync at 33% did not provide the same fluidity at 54 fps as that is still under the ~60 fps you were achieving previously. From what I have seen in the past, utilizing vsync based on the monitors native refresh rate seemed to work best. Was your in game resolution set to the monitors native resolution?

The bottom line is that you have achieved some balance all of us strive to find which is extremally difficult as no 2 PC’s are the same.

Yes that’s the one.

Thanks everyone for the replies.

Yes, I finally think I’ve found the balance point; but I was interested in understanding why, since if I lose it, I can know where to look for it.

It seems clear to me, at this point, that the run-up to the highest possible fps makes no sense. Compared to video, with 30 fps (monitor refresh rate 60Mhz and fps locked at 50%) I don’t have a smooth experience; but this I think depends on the fact that this frequency is too low for my monitor. However, if I switch to 80 or 85 Mhz my system guarantees me a fixed 40 (or 42.5) fps and excellent fluidity.

At this point I can push the settings until I see that my system is struggling to reach that number, but I must say that at the moment I can run the SIM with ULTRA settings in almost all parameters, limiting the TLOD to 160-200, depending on the aircraft and the scenery.

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I believe anything over 40 fps is quite acceptable. Like you say, as long as there is no stutters.
I run most settings at high-ultra, except trees and bushes. I keep those at medium.
My TLOD is only at 100. I can push this little 2070 too hard. lol

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However, TLOD affects the CPU, not the video card (at least not directly)

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That’s good to know. Maybe I might bump that setting up a bit then. :+1:

I think so. To tell the truth, between 160 and 220 there is not much difference.
I add to the previous discussion an important detail. By limiting the fps to 40 (or 42.5) I noticed a marked drop in temperatures: CPU 60-62°, GPU 60-64° (before the CPU was around 70°, the GPU between 67 and 68°)

So ive done this myself on my laptop vsync on in game 50% frame rate also and turned my screen refresh rate down to 76 from 144 and in high settings with a rtx 3060 it locks the frame rate to 36 fps which is good however i do feel like i can push for more frames… does anyone think turning vsync off in sim and vsync on in ncp would help achieve more fps? Not tried yet but was gonna try it out tomorrow…

I have a 144hz monitor and ended up just setting Vsync to 33%, which is 48fps and everything is butter smooth.

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I just did the same thing. Solid 48 fps and very smooth.

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