Hi CptLucky8,
congratulations for the very professional and clear guide !
Was trying to rise my problem in other thread unfortunately without success
My issue is related to “custom render scale” in OXR, or rather lack of this option in my case 
There are no updae options available for OXR in Windows Store (as others have suggested)
WMR is up to date:
Of course i have G2
Rgrds
I have 5950x and 3090FE and I made one simple change that allows me to crank up pretty much every setting to max with 30fps+:
Turn off SMT in your bios for your CPU. It effectively turns your 16C 32T into 16C 16T. I have PBO enabled with negative 15 in curve optimiser also.
I’m running openxr at 70%, reprojection off with 120TAA, ultra everything. G-sync off.
I’m going to try cranking up the custom render scale and may turn down some effects to see if I can push it more but honestly it looks amazing now.
2D mode is pure butter now too at 60fps.
Let me know if this works for you.
Golden Tip! I have virtually the same setup and this made all the difference in the world to me. This combined with the 457.30 (which as OP said runs fine with 30XX) and all other tips gives me a stutter free 45fps experience (in the air at Sedona, with Cessna 152, 70SS, 100TA). This is up from 30FPS. Maybe others with the Zen3 architecture have the same performance increase?
For Steam users, is the executable not located in the Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\MicrosoftFlightSimulator folder?
I have very similar specs to you, except that I only have 16GB of RAM instead of 32. RAM is pretty cheap to upgrade; how much of a difference would an extra 16GB make?
I have a couple of nvidia settings I don’t see in yours: “Background Application Max Frame Rate”. It’s set to Off. Also, “Preferred refresh rate (my main monitor)”, set to highest available. Are any of these important?
I’ll join in the chorus of appreciation for all your hard work and help.
This is perfect ! g1 with rtx2080 super ,i9 9900k @5,0 ghz and hyper threating to off in bios brings me 3-4 extra fps and real smoothness. Thank you Sir !
This guide worked well. Is there a way to know which settings affect CPU usage vs GPU? This would help us optimize to match frame times between CPU and GPU. Also, if I’m at 43 FPS, would it be a ideal to get it to 45 (because it’s a multiple of 90)?
Wouldn’t it be better to aim for solid 30fps instead and crank up those settings for an overall smoother and better visual. Chasing FPS seems to be a false economy with VR it seems.
I’ve come to the conclusion that 60hz is best for me. I’d rather have silky smooth 30fps with better eye candy. G2 is way better than the G1 for this.
Many thank for posting this information. I have followed it to the letter and has made my G2 run very very smooth. I fully recommend following thses instructions. Perfect…
First, the performance (measured with OpenXR Dev Tool frame timing overlay):
38 FPS stable flying over the Brooklyn Bridge at 500ft while looking at the Freedom Tower on an overcast day in an ICON A5. Frame timing is CPU bound with just a little bit of GPU headroom.
System:
Headset: HP Reverb G2
CPU: i9 10850K stock
GPU: RTX 3080 stock
RAM: 32G
FS2020: 1.12.13.0
Windows: 1090 (Feature update: 20H2)
Nvidia Driver: 457.51
OpenXR: 105.2012.21002.0
Runtime version: 105.2012.18003
API version: 1.0.13
Settings modified (from Cpt’s baseline):
HAGS: I don’t have this setting with my Windows
Res: TAA 70%, SS 100%
Terrain LOD: 150
Terrain VD: High
Grass: Low
Cloud: High
Occlusion: Low
Reflections: Med
Light Shafts: Low
Bloom: On
Guys,
Thanks for all your tips, I think I’m finally set!
In case of GA VFR flying (smaller cities and remote locations) I can easily turn motion reprojection on and get perfectly stable 30fps which is all you need to get a buttery smooth experience:
With airliners, I’m perfectly fine with motion rep. off. I can then crank up some settings.
The clarity you start to see with G2 at 2452x2400 res. is phenomenal, I can easily read the EFIS from the distance , no need to zoom in.It’s still pretty smooth up in the air but it may go down to 26-27fps on the ground at KSFO (high res and medium, high settings)…:
It might be true that with SMT off you can have some benefits , but I need to test it a bit more to give any definitive answer. Obviously I couldn’t set everything to Ultra and forget it:)
Btw, If I could change my GPU now, the only choice would be 3080TI with 20gb VRAM…
TAA 100/110% SS 60%
G2/5600x/32GB/RTX3070
Time to do more flying!
Wisła, Polska pozdrawia!
Cheers!
I’ll join with everyone else to thank you hugely for all this work. These threads have greatly helped my understanding of these issues. I’m running a G2 with an i7-8700k (no overclock, though I’m considering it given how much MSFS is CPU limited) and a 1080Ti, so I’m in the ballpark of your performance (though a little lower all around).
I’m still stuggling with reprojection. It visually seems better for me to have reprojection on, but I lose some real performance. In another thread you described “configuring the simulator to force it down to a fixed 30 fps/90Hz.” What are the settings to do that?
Thank you so much!
Thanks! I will experiment further.
I’ve been trying out your settings and I’m seeing horrible frame-time oscillations while just looking at the menu, not even in an aircraft.
I have an Index and a 2080ti OC’d, i9-9900K (@5GHz), 32GB ram and the latest nVidia driver (460.89), although that’s a problem for the index specificaly in its own right because nVidia won’t fix the stuttering issue: Google “Valve Index missing / dropped Frames since NVIDIA Driver 451.48, Video Inside”
Game Mode is off. Can no longer disable Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling or variable refresh rate because those options simply aren’t there anymore. There is no option in graphic settings to change default settings either.
Medium settings to low seem to have no impact. In fact, there isn’t much I can change that seem to positively affect performance for me. This is the most odd behavior for VR. Elite Dangerous, DCS, XP11 … they all respond to changes in these settings. Something in this code isn’t wired correctly. I suspect quite a bit, actually.
Found this early review on VR and I’m in complete agreement. He touches on some of the lack of performance impact that results from adjusting settings and particularly hits on the nerfed Medium settings compares to non-VR mode.
Google “Microsoft Flight Simulator in VR: A turbulent start for wide-open skies”
All very disappointing. Can’t return on Steam because I played past the max 2-hour limit downloading content all night long.
Yes, even in non-VR mode, that is something that has confounded some reviewers since the beginning in MSFS. Right at release I remember specifically some videos where people mentioned that adjusting graphical settings that one would expect to make a measurable difference in frame rate having none at all in actuality.
Big thanks to @CptLucky8 for your recommendations and reasoning behind decisions. Today I found my 9700K wasn’t running at 5Ghz as I’d previously thought, so I’ve put that back in place and also applied some overclocking to my 2080 Ti (some further stability testing needed). I’ve been able to push a few settings higher, and can sit on Innsbruck runway with the broken cloud (Ultra volumetric) preset in the A320 sitting at 30/31fps in my G2. When flying at around 13000ft in/out of the clouds it’s pushing 34-35fps, and in both cases showing GPU-bound. With the visuals looking this stunning (OpenXR 70, TAA100) and smooth, I think I’m unlikely to improve it any further unless MS are able to make further optimisations (and even if they do, I think due to the headset syncing at 30fps (divisible into 90Htz) it’s really best to push detail levels up to still get as close to just above stable 30fps as possible).
I noticed that when I followed your directions to install older drivers, it uninstalled GeForce Experience. Is that intentional, or did I do something wrong?
Also, I was wondering if you had any recommendations regarding the SteamVR implementation of OXR. I understand that the WMR OXR is preferred, but there are certain factors that would make the SteamVR version an attractive option (use of third party software, ability to use per-application settings).
Man, I don’t know how you’re doing that. I have a i9-9900K at 5GHz and an Oc’d 2080ti with these same settings and I just sat on the runway at Denver in a 747, overcast, not even moving and my frame times times were in 50s. Tried 90Hz and 80Hz refresh rate. 90 was worse, but neither was acceptable, obviously.
When you manually install an older driver, there should be two options in the installer launcher: 1 to install just the driver and 1 to install geforce experience as well. If you don’t select that, it installs the driver and will uninstall your existing geforce.
Thank you all again for all your kind words!
@GiftedVoyage273 Fortunately you don’t have to invest much time anymore, I’ve done this for you! 
Let me know how it goes on your system.
@stekusteku The CAS Shader setting is in fact PostProcess > Sharpen. Because there seems to remain probably a bug with the UserCfg.opt file where some VR settings are saved in the non VR section, I’d suggest you disable/enable Sharpen in both PostProcess sections.
NB: during my tests I’ve tried comparing disabling it, given the G2 pixel density. Although I did find it gave probably a better look and feel for distant mountains (less sharp like you’d see through air turbidity far away), it was not saving any fps at all in my tests and given I sometimes change the TAA+SS ratio depending on the aircraft, I didn’t wan’t bothering changing this one also each time.
@Aspelta I don’t know what advice I could give you for this except uninstalling and reinstalling the OpenXR Dev Tools, eventually WMR as well?
@Tensorflow1113 Thank you for the tip, I’ve added a link to your post in the OP!
I also believe like you it is wasting time trying to chase higher fps in VR because unlike 2D where you can compensate with FreeSync/G-Sync or dispense with it because you’re already higher up in the fps, in VR, there is a huge gap between the few available steps:
30fps → +30% → 40fps → +12.5% → 45fps → +33% → 60fps → +50% → 90fps
30fps → +50% → 45fps
etc…
For this reason, either you’re trying to maximize everything at 30fps which is sufficient if there are no stutters, or you’re balancing everything trying to reach at least 45fps which is hard to reach unless you have the top of the line hardware today.
@Spammy1010 Hard to compile a list because more often than not both are involved. I’m not sure I’ve detailed some of this in “My 4K Settings” post but in practice, you should be able to find out which is affecting the most of the CPU or the GPU if you’re cranking up fully one by one. Please note however it is not just a matter of what individual setting is doing, it is more about what the combination of settings is doing together. This is why although useful to see in isolation what each setting is doing, I don’t recommend much using the information in the “break down settings” discussion for finding what you can turn up or down for optimization purposes.
@Kreutzberg The idea is to push the ideal quantity of GPU work so that FS2020 is barely able to go beyond 30fps, effectively saturating it to a known refresh rate the VR stack will try to stick to.
@rassy7 I’d suggest you post this in the other discussion “My VR Settings - Index”
As a matter of fact I’ve just posted something helping a lot a few minutes ago:
Eliminate most stuttering with SteamVR with this
NB: you’ll have to use 457.30 as well.
@Mike5285 I’m not even OC the CPU nor the GPU yet although I’d like to try (water cooled CPU here). I’m just unlocking all cores at 4.6 and pushing them to the fullest with the Power Config trick. Do you have any recommendation/tool/clock settings to push the CPU to 5Ghz?
@IkeV I don’t install GeForce Experience. It is interfering with FS2020 settings behind your back and I don’t need any of its features. (update: I’ve just read @ODirtyMike0 answer which is correct).
As for the executable path, I’m not sure whether the Steam Store version is not just a bootstrap or the full exe. In any case, it should show in the “last used” list in the NVidia CPL isn’t it?
As for SteamVR OpenXR I’ll revisit this later but honestly, I find no need right now.
