Manipulators increase in latency and FPS decrease at High Altitudes

[avgeeek]

#pc

Microsoft Store Version

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Tested on Developer Mode and Normal Mode

Tested on Medium, High, and Ultra Presets

Tested with Online Functionality Enabled and Disabled (PG, Multiplayer, Bing, etc.)

Brief description of the issue:

Substantial FPS decrease (from 70+ FPS to 27~36 FPS and #Manipulator latency increase (2ms to 20+ms) when flying at high altitudes FL230 ~ FL300++ (it varies but often happens somewhere above FL300) and goes back normally when flying below those altitudes

Provide Screenshot(s)/video(s) of the issue encountered:

FPS Decrease

Goes back to Normal

Video

https://streamable.com/806suc

Detailed steps to reproduce the issue encountered: Set-up flight, Take-off, Climb to altitude, Observe FPS and Altitude

PC specs and/or peripheral set up if relevant:

CPU: Ryzen 5 5600x
GPU: RTX3080
RAM: 32GB 3600Mhz
1TB NVME SSD

Windows 11 21H2
Build 22000.527

Happening since SU7 and now SU8

Additional Info:

• GPU Usage goes down as well at the same time it occurs.
• Tried reverting to Nvidia Driver version 472.12 - Same result
• Performed full re-install - Same result
• HAGS On or Off - Same result

[CptEvillian]

For me it also happens with both PG on and off but when it happens and i change the PG setting the performance is restored for a while.

[avgeeek]

Will try to replicate that.

It’s just so counter-intuitive as you are expecting better performance when at high altitudes because there is less stuff to render, then you get this kind of issue.

[CptEvillian]

Yes you also have this topic:

After playing a few hours, FPS drops from 40 to 5FPS

Hello all I’m back again with more information and footage of this issue. I recorded a little clip showing the experience and also how long I have been on the flight. unfortunately, the recording system only recorded the flight sim window. but I will attach a screenshot regarding system performance. SYSTEM SPECS |GPU NVIDIA 4GB GTX 1650 |Processor|AMD Ryzen 5 3400G with Radeon Vega Graphics 4.10 GHz| |Installed RAM|16,0 GB| SYSTEM PERF [image] AND also a video trying to explain …

There seem to be more performance problems while in cruise, normally it took hours before performance got very bad and i couldn’t fix it in flight by changing settings and now i have this problem with ‘Manipulators’ and toggling PG worked for a while. So i think this is a separate issue.

[avgeeek]

yeah, I was also closely monitoring that thread.

while this issue does not need to observe a certain amount of time to see its effect, and just need to climb to that certain altitude and you will immediately see the performance degrade.

[CptEvillian]

Can you reproduce it 100% of the time? With the high altitude?And all aircraft?

That’s a weird issue, how would altitude affect performance like that?

[SKEEF420]

Yes indeed, because I tried this fix for this particular problem and it didn’t fixed anything for the degrading FPS problem.

Anybody knows why my system Isn’t fully utilized? I really need answers

[CptEvillian]

Your system is always fully utilized (without FPS limiter). The GPU usage goes down because the system is limited by the main thread. The main thread runs on 1 core so that’s why your CPU usage can be as low as 20%. Your GPU is waiting for that one thread to complete before it can draw the next frame.

Something is wasting a lot of CPU resources, and it seems from the forums there are multiple problems causing the bad performance with slightly different symptoms. Asobo says it’s hard to find the issue if they can’t reproduce it on their machines.

[SKEEF420]

I assume they have a system in house like ours to test it on.
But have they tried to put on a 12h flight go to home to come next day and investigate it?

[CptEvillian]

Yes i assume they have a selection of different hardware and a full time testing team, but they say they can’t replicate it.
They use their own graphics engine in combination with old FSX code mixed up with some of their own code, and probably some duct tape. Very hard to debug and maybe that’s why we have so many bugs.

[avgeeek]

I have tried with the following aircrafts:

default a320
F18
747
787

A while ago i was doing further tests, and this time degradation triggers above FL340 (flying the F18) then normalizes again when descending below that

[avgeeek]

Further test,

Took off at KSEA in a CJ4 (default)

Climbed, then at FL260 Manipulators shot up

video in the link below

Manipulators is too ■■■■ high!

[CptEvillian]

Did you try to change the PG setting when it happened?

[avgeeek]

Turning off Photogrammetry did not help at all.

From the same screenshot above (just cropped)
note the altitude and the transition of the Manipulator from Low Latency to High Latency

[CptEvillian]

Did you turn off the PG beforehand or when it happened? For me it only works if you turn it off or on during the performance problem.
Did it happen exactly when crossing FL250?

[avgeeek]

yup it was turned off beforehand.

What is interesting is that on Higher Latitudes, the degradation starts at a much lower altitude,

on a CJ4 in Antarctica, it starts to degrade at FL 200~210

[CptEvillian]

Changing the setting fixes it temporary for me. Doesn’t matter if you turn it off or on. When i press apply it takes a while to turn it on/off and then the performance is good again, but only for a while.

Turning PG on/off seems to reset something related to this issue i think.

[NeonFS2020]

I think this might tie in with the general stutters issues people have been getting, it is also possible that lower-end pc’s could be affected sooner depending on what is actually causing it.

[avgeeek]

Further testing, it seems that It’s only affecting aircraft with glass cockpits (airliners, G3X) with the exception of G1000Nxi,

tried to slew the Cessna 172 Classic/G1000 and TBM930 up the Flight Levels and it did not drop FPS

[avgeeek]

Turned off the following:

Weather (offline/clear skies)
Online Functionality (All Settings)
Traffic (Aircraft, Vehicles, Boats, etc)

while climbing, the Main Thread will bog down first, bring the FPS from 70 down to 51 as shown

then followed by the Manipulators, bringing the FPS much lower