Rather than clog up existing Crystal related threads that do not specifically relate to settings for MSFS, I thought a dedicated thread would help new and existing Crystal owners to share their experiences with getting the most out of their headset, plus hopefully resolving any settings related issues.
So with that in mind, here are a few things I have experienced with my rig (5800x3D, 4090, X570 mobo, Win 10, DX11) plus where I am at now.
For starters, I had some weird and disturbing performance issues when I first tried the Crystal in MSFS. With HAGS on and resolution set to a modest 3500 by whatever in the Toolkit and using PimaxXR instead of SteamVR, I had the most awful tracking stutters. It was unplayable and acted like I had the resolution set so high that my system could not cope, yet the FPS counter was actually showing good framerates. Turning HAGS off fixed that.
Now, after about a month of fooling around, I have been recently having good results cranking up the resolution in the Toolkit bit by bit, until yesterday I tried it out at the full resolution given with the Client set to Max (or 1.0 in custom) which from memory is 4315 x 5101. I wasn’t expecting much, but with DLSS Quality I was getting mid to high 50’s and exceptional sharpness. This with TLOD at 125, OLOD at 150 and a mixture of ultra, high and some settings off. Full details if requested. In a glider flying near the Matterhorn in the Alps, the scenery was just stunning and even with TAA I could get around 40 fps although a bit too stuttery. I had CAA sharpness in MSFS settings at 100, none in the Toolkit. Turbo mode on.
Today I tried the same settings, but changed the refresh rate to 120, the first time I have tried this. Low over Rome, again in a glider (of all places, given the dense photogrammetry) I was getting mid 50’s and most surprisingly had greatly improved smoothness, without any locking of framerates. Early days yet, but 120Hz really did work well. Switching back to 90HZ crashed the sim however and the headset then didn’t want to switch off. So probably still some bugs there. Still, with a 4090 at least, 120Hz and max resolution can be done and my results were pretty impressive at this stage.