RTX 3070 upgraded to RTX 4080 SUPER - awful performance 20 fps, no visible difference

[JazzyWhistle506]

Dear All,

yesterday I upgraded my PC with MSI RTX 4080 SUPER and I have a feeling something is working wrong in MSFS, cause I do not see any difference and it seems to lack the performance as I still get around 20 fps, no matter if it’s 3070 or 4080 super. Is it in any way possible? My configuration is 3 x 1440p displays - does developer mode show FPS for all 3 monitors or for only 1? What did I do wrong? Is there any update needed? I got the newest Geforce drivers from 03/19. Don’t have any other sim/game to test the performace, but I am totally disappointed with MSFS performance. Can you help me out? I will greatly appreciate it. I have Ryzen 9 5900 and 32gb ram. Thank you a million
DX 11 and 12 does not make any difference, which should I use?

[ResetXPDR]

Your CPU seems to be what’s holding you back by a large margin (2:1). Do you have your motherboard’s latest BIOS installed? AMD chipset drivers? Is your memory running at XMP speeds?

Also, before you worry about running MSFS on three screens, how does it perform on just one?

[BegottenPoet228]

I would not expect a 4080 to significantly improve anything over a 3070 with that CPU, which is clearly bottlenecking your performance. It does seem excessive, though.

What kind of internet speed? Are you using WiFi 6?
Do you have XMP (EXPO in some BIOS) turned on?
Is Resizable Bar turned on?
Is Windows running in Game Mode?

I would try to establish a baseline for your General Settings.

Traffic OFF
Weather - Clear Skies preset.

[See pic in my post below for a more detailed explnation of my General Options settings]

Fly a simple GA airplane (I use my Bonanza G36 Improvement Project for this) in a simple area like the Sahara desert.

[JazzyWhistle506]

Thank you so much for taking time to get me all these hints and principal settings to start with. Will do it and report it later today. Appreciate it

Why do you think my upgrade would not change much? I thought my CPU was pretty much OK for this setup. Every time I run the sim on 3070 all it’s memory of 8gbs was used to the max, so I figured if I double the ram of gpu and get a next generation of rtx it will solve the problem on the spot… now a new cpu? new motherboard you think? geez

[PilotJennyD]

Simply put your PC is only as fast as the slowest component. so while you made a good jump in GPU power your CPU cannot keep up so is limiting you. This would have been less noticable with your older card as it didnt have to keep up as much. i suffer from same issue really and need a better cpu before i upgrade GPU.

[JazzyWhistle506]

Thank you ResetXPDR, neither BIOS nor chipset has been updated lately and I will check XMP too - thank you for that for now.

I have been using 3070 on 1 screen and was getting 30-40 fps on everything maxed out. When I added 2 more monitors, I was positively surprised, praising MSFS that it didn’t slow down much on 3 monitors. Wasn’t running FPS for that, but I still felt like everything is playable and smooth. But when I flew low over Barcelona, I said to myself - gotta change the GPU, cause the smoothness lacks. Indeed when in devmode, it was around 20fps. Invested 1100usd in new GPU (MSI 4080super expert edition) and no change or even worse… this is tragic and killing me…

[BigCow74]

You will lose cores and multi-threaded performance, but if MSFS is a priority, it’s rather painless to swap in a Ryzen7 5800X3D. That’s the best CPU for your motherboard.

[BegottenPoet228]

I didn’t think about the 8GB VRAM in the 3070. You made a good choice upgrading to the 4080. But I still believe we need to figure out why your performance is so poor.

The 5900X is a decent CPU. I didn’t mean to suggest otherwise. But it’s clear that for whatever reason, it’s holding you back. Maybe you are just reaching its limits within the framework of the current sim base code, as well as the plane you’re flying, and where.

I’ll do a flight in my FSR over Bacelona, and let you know my results.

For reference, with the settings I described, in my G36 over the Sahara, I get this.
(I cap my framerate @ 95 FPS using RivaTuner Statistics Server.)

Note that I’m GPU-limited with the more modest settings. If I turn traffic and Live Weather on, and bump a few of the settings up, I can get a good balance of CPU/GPU limiting, which is exactly what you want.

Your 4080 is better than my GPU, but the 5800X3D would be a definite step up. The X3D cache is a proven performer.

What motherboard do you have? If you did decide to upgrade your CPU, I’m guessing that it would accept the 5800X3D no problem (as long as you have the latest BIOS update.)

I went from a 5800X to a 5800X3D on my MSI B550A-Pro and saw a 15-20% increase in performance right away. It still struggles a bit at times - in a complex aircraft flying over complex scenery, especially when I push my graphics settings. TLOD is a big frame killer, for sure.

EDIT: I’m not sure why my Render Scaling is showing 2227x1253.
I’m using DX12 / DLSS / Balanced.
I need to figure that out. I want to see 3840x2160, which is the native resoultion I set in nVidia Control Panel.

[BigCow74]

@BegottenPoet228

DLSS / Balanced

It’s upscaling based on you having “Balanced” selected. Gotta turn that off and probably restart.

I do agree that it feels like a 5900X should be performing better than it is, so maybe there are indeed system settings or BIOS settings holding it back a little.

[BegottenPoet228]

@BigCow74

It’s upscaling based on you having “Balanced” selected. Gotta turn that off and probably restart.

You’re right. I switched to DX11 / DLSS / Quality and got this.
Switching back to DX12 / DLSS / Quality maintained the 3840x2160 render scaling, with similar performance (89 FPS / 11.15ms.) So it was the DLSS Balanced setting that did it. Thanks!

[BegottenPoet228]

@BigCow74

I do agree that it feels like a 5900X should be performing better than it is, so maybe there are indeed system settings or BIOS settings holding it back a little.

Let’s see what OP gets with the recommended settings in a simple plane over the Sahara.

In the meantime, it’s off to Barcelona I go for another test.

EDIT: Bonanza 750 ft. over the city. Result pretty much as expected.

[AnkH828072]

Your screenshot shows this nasty “RDR Thread” issue. Read several times about it, but I can not find any good solution online. But those 45ms are for sure not right. After switching GPU, I would always delete all shaders, rolling and manual cache (if you use it) and it might also help to simply switch once from DX11 to DX12 and back.

Furthermore: is the data on the overlay in line with what you actually “feel” in the sim? I also read that it has its issue to properly show the correct information when using more than one screen… just to make sure not chasing a ghost here.

[BegottenPoet228]

@AnkH828072

After switching GPU, I would always delete all shaders, rolling and manual cache (if you use it) and it might also help to simply switch once from DX11 to DX12 and back.

Good advice.
I have two monitors. A 4K for the sim, and a 2K for charts, SPAD, etc.
Just wanted to add that info for OP.

[BigCow74]

@BegottenPoet228

Switching back to DX12 / DLSS / Quality maintained the 3840x2160 render scaling

That’s… Interesting, and not what I would have expected. At “Quality” I would expect it to be rendering at 2560x1440p and up-scaling to 4K.

4k:
Quality: 2560x1440p
Balance: 2227x1253p
Performance: 1920x1080p
Ultra Perf: 1280x720p

[AnkH828072]

Ok, found several posts claiming that after turning FXAA or MFAA off in the nVIDIA Control Panel, their RDR Thread limitation vanished. So @JazzyWhistle506 can you show us your global and MSFS-specific nVIDIA Control Panel settings? And do you use GeForce Experience to optimize your games?

[TotalMoon980154]

Second this. The 5800x3D is still a beast. Upgraded from a 6800 to 4080 super and got a significant performance boost.

That should be a simple swap for op.

[BegottenPoet228]

I’ll post one last benchmark for OP. I used the settings I gave you, and flew my FSR500 over Barcelona at 1200 ft. It was a smooth flight. No stutters.

[JazzyWhistle506]

Wow, thank you for that. I wish I would see something on green color rather than red 90fps I have never seen in MSFS on my configuration.

My motherboard is MSI X570 GAMING PLUS

15-20% increase is tempting and I would definitely put 5800x3d into my mainboard then. I only wonder, really? My 5900X has 12 cores, ryzen 7 5800x3d has 8, it’s only 30 mb difference on cache, but if you all say that for our MSFS it will be better, I will do it. The price is the same now of my processor and the other one… hm… you got me thinking now…

[JazzyWhistle506]

So here is my Geforce Experience settings. No I have not used opmitization yet, cause when I had 3070 it was recommending much lower settings than I had with smooth 30-40 fps. Now after changing to 4080 it is recommending better settings. Should I optmize it as they suggest?

[JazzyWhistle506]

So after your hints I did this already:

1. upgrade of bios
2. upgrade of amd chipset
3. XMP mode turned on in BIOS

Indeed, there is slight improvement, thank you guys, maybe with your help we will achieve here something. But it’s still RED and seemed bottlenecked… geez…

i have not tested yet with this sahara flight and basic settings - I still use this discovery flight over Barcelona as a reference… Please see