I have a variable refresh rate monitor yet when I’m at an airport frame rate drops to around 45fps.
I’ve seen footage at these frame rates that still looks smooth, so I was wondering why it’s so jerky for me.
Here’s the video https://youtu.be/nFlEU8VmXac. That’s with a 12900, and even that drops down in CPU intensive scenarios. Is there anything else that contributes to smooth frames at this FPS?
The VRR works fine above 60fps,.
I have a i7 9700 CPU with a RTX3080.
Moved to #self-service:install-performance-graphics from #self-service:wishlist and title edited for typos so this post may appear in future searches.
Gsync hardware monitor or compatible one? VRR range? These two points are extremely important.
I have a g-sync compatible monitor that I’ve got g-sync configured on; it’s set for 144 Hz base refresh rate, and when I get ~45 fps in sim it feels perfectly smooth here, including when panning.
So it should be able to work, if all the pieces are talking to each other. 
Note that some monitors have a minimum refresh rate, below which VRR doesn’t work right and it may alter the actual frame timings. 45 seems kinda high for a minimum though?
Sounds like inconsistent frame times which are usually casued by a CPU bottleneck. VRR won’t do anything to help in that situation.
Enable dev mode and turn on the FPS display. Should offer some hints if you post that.
@Ianrivsmith @Vibstronium Sorry should I have said, the monitor is Gigabyte M28U. It has AMD FreeSynch but this is compatible with Nvidia GSync. According to displayninja it supports 48-144Hz and does its job well over 60fps.
That could be the reason, but it doesn’t look like the tearing you get at higher refresh rates when VRR is turned off. It’s just really choppy.
It’s definitely CPU bottlenecked at airports. In the sky the CPU is capable of over 80fps.
Reason for my curiosity is I was looking to upgrade my CPU to a i7-13700, but after seeing this video it looks like I might have the same low framerate at airports. And that would be a really annoying waste of money.
So I was wondering whether, VRR aside, there’s something affecting smoothness of frames that VRR won’t address, rather than just the pure frame rates. Is this what you’re referring to when you say inconsistent frame times, @BeardyBrun ?
Would a better CPU generate consistent frame times, albeit at the same low frame rate?
This is your reason why. Its disengaging below 48 FPS. Does it support LFC?
The video in the OP is mostly smooth but has noticable stutters, for example in the BAE 146 at London City clip. You can see the stutters in the video have corresponding spikes in the frametime graph.
I don’t think this issue is anything to do with framerate - 45fps should look perfectly smooth in something with as little movement as MSFS. ‘Jerkiness’ suggests the frametimes are spiking frequently.
I’d expect the CPU updgrade would help, but it needs some more diagnostic info to confirm that the current one is causing the problem.
Display the Task Manager on Performance tab, CPU display as all logical cores. Run the sim at an heavy airport where you have those stutters and your fps is around the 45fps. Now watch your core in task manager, one of them should be near maximum. Lower slightly your TLOD until this same max core go down. the fps should go up. Try to reach more than 48fps and you should be good to go.
Agreed, there is no jerkiness in the video. Just some minor stutters.
Is that video with the 4090? Just at the bottom of your post you say “I have a i7 9700 CPU with a RTX3080”
The GPU is showing 99% a fair bit that’s all, what it’s like in DX12?
I think the intention of the video was simply to demonstrate that ~45 fps could look smooth.
OP is getting similar framerates and trying to find out why theirs is jerky.
Thanks all, good point about about TLOD, @CodeLoran69. I’ve done some tests, also with OLOD.
The only noticeable difference is visual quality from the below screenshots is the detail of distance buildings when TLOD was set to 10.
Interestingly, according to the developer mode overlay, I was always GPU limited, even when I set the resolution to the lowest setting. That doesn’t sound right - GPU usage was well below 100%.
OLOD 100, TLOD100
OLOD 10, TLOD100
OLOD 100, TLOD10
OLOD 10, TLOD10
OLOD 50, TLOD50
Low res
Looking at reviews of DLSS 3 in the 40 series cards I think that might be the best solution, frame generation should overcome the CPU bottleneck issue
