Low FPS with High End System

[drose9836]

Hoping someone might have experienced something similar and knows how to solve this (or at least reassure me this is the best I can get running the settings I am). Also pretty new to MSFS so please forgive me if I’m missing something obvious!

I have a pretty high end system but struggling to get a framerate over 20-30fps, and trying to figure out where the bottleneck is on the CPU.

Is this completely normal for a setup like this, or is there likely something not configured correctly?

My system specs are:

• Processor: AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D
• Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 32GB VRAM
• RAM: 64GB 6400mhz
• Motherboard: MSI MAG X870E Tomahawk

These are the settings / add-ons I’m using:

• 4k resolution with all graphics settings at Ultra / max possible (am not using frame gen)
• MSFS live traffic
• Live weather
• Flying Inibuilds A350-1000
• GSX pro
• Say Intentions AI for ATC (I’m not using their AI traffic injector)
• FSLTL base models for liveries (but not using their traffic injector)

Flying out of a busy airport (ORD) I’m limited by mainthread (~45ms) and just getting around 20fps. Out of LAX it was only 15fps.

I’ve tried the following to see where the bottleneck is, but the performance still doesn’t seem great (just changing one setting at a time i.e. not additive):

• Switching off all traffic adds about 4fps on the ground at ORD (total 24fps), with 40ms on the mainthread
• Flying a Cessna instead of the A350 adds about 8fps on the ground at ORD (total 28 fps) with 30ms on the mainthread
• Changing the graphics settings to low-end adds about 10fps on the ground at ORD (total 30 fps) with 30ms on the mainthread
• Flying in the middle of the Pacific Ocean (i.e. same Ultra settings just not on the ground at ORD) I’m getting 50fps with 20ms on the mainthread
• Flying around the Bahamas and just off the coast of Miami is getting 40fps
• On the ground at less busy airports is getting ~25fps at SYD and ~30fps at JAX

Have screenshotted the fps below.

Appreciate any thoughts people have (or just reassurance that this is the best I’ll get)!

[Champ3154]

I have almost the identical system except my ram is DDR5-6000 instead of 6400.
First try running your ram at 6000 instead of 6400.

Second make sure your Win 11 OS is set to balanced performance. It seems to be the best setup for the 9950x3d.

Next set ALL of your graphics settings to high instead of ultra and see if there is a big jump in FPS. If so, you then need to start upping each setting in the graphics setting separately to Ultra to see what setting is causing the drop.

Is your RTX 5090 running at stock speed? If not set it back to that.

I have an April 2025 BIOS running on my MSI Mag X870E Tomahawk and it is solid.

What PSU unit are you using?

[Frank240374]

Your screenshot shows 10700 Allocs per Frame. My system is around or below 1000. The value is red from 1500 upwards. Most of the time your system tries to allocate memory. So bad mainthread times are no surprise.

I don’t know the reason for so many allocs per frame. But you should try to figure it out. Reduce settings, remove addons, lower your graphic settings, reboot before starting the sim.

[WingWarper1]

@drose9836

Appreciate any thoughts people have (or just reassurance that this is the best I’ll get)!

I have a 9950x3d with 48GB DDR5-8000 memory & an AMD 7900xtx gpu (click on gamer pic for full PC specs). I have attached a screenshot similar to yours for comparison purposes with a Cessna 152 at ORD in 4k TAA no framegen & Global Rendering Quality at ultra. As you can see the frame times and fps is much better - with your 5090 the numbers should be better yet so something is amiss. I just realized while typing this post my HDR-10 was turned on and you were using SDR so again, lots of room for improvement.

First of all, I would start by turning off/removing all 3rd party software, liveries, etc and post another screenshot to help determine what is dragging your frame times/fps down. I had no 3rd party add-ons running and was using the SU4 beta.

Below is a screenshot of the Task Manager at the time I took the screenshot above. I use the ultimate power plan which loads the sim on the vcached cores but also allows the sim to utilize the additional cores. As the sim evolves it is utilizing the cores more efficiently.

[drose9836]

Thanks for you thoughts!

I have a MSI MAG A1250GL PCIE5 1250W PSU.

Am on the balanced power setting (changing to ultimate didn’t make a difference). 5090 is running at stock speed (have not overclocked anything).

If I turn all the settings down to low-end I get about +10fps (so 20fps on Ultra goes to 30fps on low-end settings). That seems pretty terrible with the system I have.

[DeathBySybian]

I had the same problem with a 5080. Turns out it was related to corrupted rolling cache / shader/gl/dx cache.
You can try this: https://flightsim.to/file/92765/msfs2024-cache-removal-tool

Or uninstall FS24, delete any remaining cache folders and reinstall.

I also set rolling cache to 0, restarted the game, then set it back to 64GB. Make sure the setting sticks.

One of these steps made a world of difference.

[drose9836]

Thanks - I’ve done what you suggested but still struggling to see where the bottleneck is :(.

1. Using what I think is the same settings as you with no add-ons, no traffic, preset weather and a Cessna 172 (on SU3) I’m only getting 33fps with a mainthread of 25-30ms.
2. Adding live weather takes it down to 29fps (-3).
3. Then adding live traffic takes it down to 25fps (-4).
4. Then swapping the Cessna for the Inibuilds A350 drops it to 17 fps (-8).
5. Then installing the FSLTL liveries actually increases it slightly to 21fps (+4).
6. Then installing GSX pro drops it slightly to 19fps (-2).

So combination of add-ons, aircraft, and live traffic + weather is dropping the fps by around 14. That I’m ok with, but it’s the starting point of only getting 33fps compared to your 62 that makes me think there is something still amiss somewhere.

[WingWarper1]

@drose9836

but it’s the starting point of only getting 33fps compared to your 62 that makes me think there is something still amiss somewhere.

Yes, along with your mainthread that is double mine is leading me to believe that something is amiss outside of the sim. A few things I would recommend:

• Check if your Cinebench and other standard benchmark results align with other 9950x3d PC’s
• Do you happen to have msi afterburner monitoring software or Process Lasso installed? Try deinstalling it.
• Use Revo uninstaller (free version) to uninstall your chipset drivers and reinstall the most current version.

[Frank240374]

The Allocs per frame and the time for large allocs are still way too high.

[BegottenPoet228]

@WingWarper1

Use Revo uninstaller (free version) to uninstall your chipset drivers and reinstall the most current version.

One really nice thing about Revo (maybe only in the Pro version?) is that it has an option that supports installation monitoring, meaning it keeps it’s own log. I use it whenever possible.

[SpacePhil]

That’s really strange…

Either MSFS2024 is much less optimized than we all thought, or there’s something wrong with your hardware.

How about other games? You should be able to play the latest titles in 4K with no problems. Maybe you have a game like that and can test it, or you can get one from Steam to test (no longer than 2 hours so you can return it).

Or, as someone here already said, just use Cinebench to compare your score with others who have your hardware. If you’re significantly below that and you can rule out software problems (maybe reinstall Windows so that drivers etc. are all brand new), then I would bet that a part in your PC is defective. Of course, it’s not easy to say exactly what it is, as you would have to check each component individually.

But before we go that far, I would first compare your hardware with others of the same kind.

[SpacePhil]

I just thought of something else. If you have MSFS2020 or Gamepass, it might be worth trying that out. Since the 2020 version is significantly better optimized than the 2024 version, it should run extremely well for you. But if it runs just as poorly or only minimally better than the 2024 version, then we’re one step closer to finding a solution.

[drose9836]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions and help!

Unfortunately I’ve still not been able to find the bottleneck / problem.

I’ve done all of the following:

1. Cleaned up the rolling cache and increased the cache size
2. Reinstalled the sim with no add-ons
3. Updated the chipset drivers

I’m not using MSI Afterburner or Process Lasso.

Still only getting ~33fps at ORD with the Cessna 172.

Cinebench scores are 2144 on the multi core and 133 on the single core. That is about ~10% lower than the averages reported on the multi core, and about 5% lower on the single core (but I’m not overclocking anything). I wouldn’t think that would be a big enough difference to be only getting ~half the FPS as @WingWarper1 ?

I’ve not tried any other games (I only bought the system for Flight Simulator) but I can get a Gamepass trial so will use that up and try a different game and also give MSFS 2020 a go.

I’m using a 1250W PSU (MSI MAG A1250GL PCIE5) and cooling with a Fractal Design Celsius+ S36 Prisma AIO.

Please let me know if you have any other ideas! I’m thinking it’s something with the sim over a hardware issue but can hopefully confirm that with some different games (I’ll try next weekend).

[AkaiOrca]

I too am having issues and I have a very similar setup to you… Ryzen 7 9800X3D, RTX 5090, 64gb DDR5-6000, 1000w PSU… I have tried literally everything. Drivers, clean OS install, clean FS2020 install, making suure there’s no conflict with nvidia inspector settings, changing in-game settings, using DX11 versus DX12, changing TLOD and OLOD to their bare minimum… literally nothing has worked. I will probably make a post of my own, to be honest.

[FlyHighDude7]

What 3Dmark score are you guys getting with these systems, thats normally a good check to see if system is working well in games?

also if you have an RTX5000 series why not use MFG, works well with the DLSS 310.4

[SorestMars16287]

Hi, Iv’e been reading about FPS in this thread and does anybody actually know what is wrong ? my comp specs are not as good,

Nividia RTX 4090 24gb

AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D

64Gb ram

windows 11 home

500Mbit broadband connection.

When i load some aircraft the sim just freezes before you even see the aircraft on the tarmac

when flying the fps isn’t great …to be honest iv’e invested so much money into this hobbie im wondering if its worth the hassle anymore.

[Frank240374]

With the hardware you should have good FPS. So it is a matter of optimising the settings. Maybe you should start with some screenshots of the FPS Window in different situations. And show your settings in the simulator.

[SorestMars16287]

ok i will do that ,BTW loaded a aircraft this morning throttle not working restarted and had my first CTD.. honestly msfs 2024 is a joke… what the hell is causing this its so bloody annoying !!!

[BegottenPoet228]

This helped me achieve better and more stable performance:

Make sure you create a System Restore point (better yet, a disk image) before moving on.

Download and run ‘LatencyMon’. In Tools–>Options select ‘Kernel Timer Latency’ in the ‘General’ tab. Let it run for 20 minutes with no other programs running. Avoid any mouse/keyboard/etc. inputs while LatencyMon is running.

Once the test is finished, select the ‘Drivers’ tab and save a screen shot of the results for comparison.

Step 2 - Manually assign your GPU interrupt to a single CPU core. First we need to test per core latency: Download and run autogpuaffinity.zip

You need to run the extracted .exe file as administrator.

CAUTION : The provider of this tool includes a disclaimer.

“I am not responsible for damage caused to your computer. There is a risk of your GPU driver not responding after restarting it during the tests. A possible fix for this is to set the PCIe link speed to the maximum supported in BIOS.”

I ran this test several times and had no problems. It’s suggested to run the test 3 times and find what you think is the best performing CPU core. It’s a bit of a guessing game, because the test will show different results each time. But you really can’t make a mistake, as long as you ignore Core 0.

After the tool has benchmarked each core, a table will be displayed with the results. Green values indicate the highest value and yellow indicates the second-highest value for a given metric. You are looking for the CPU core (OTHER THAN CORE 0) which has the best combination of Avg, STDEV, and 1% Low latency.

It will look like this:

(Higher numbers are better - they represent throughput.)

CAUTION : No matter the result of this test, do NOT assign the GPU interrupt to Core 0 in the next step.

Step 3 - Download and extract interrupt_affinity_policy_tool.zip

Read this for an explanation of how to use the tool.

(I assigned my GPU to the best single core. I also assigned my USB Controllers to the 2nd and 3rd best cores. Whether you choose to assign interrupt affinities for the USB Controllers is up to you. I recommend it, but again - DO NOT manually set any affinities to Core 0.)

I realize that this is diving pretty deep into the inner workings of your system. My system had the same high latency associated with my GPU. I also saw nvlddkmd.sys with execution times in the 80ms range. After manually assigning the GPU interrupt affinity to a single core, my LatencyMon test looked like this:

Improving the GPU driver latency made a HUGE difference.

Good luck. I hope this helps.

[SorestMars16287]

I would rather delete msfs 2024 and find a new interest. TBH i’m seriously thinking about it.