Solution for Stutters & Pauses (updated for SU5)

[redwave65]

I really liked this part too:

“What we have found over the last few years is that users will drag every slider all the way to the right, and then be surprised that the sim has poor performance. While I have in the past dismissively claimed that they are doing it wrong (“don’t put every topping on your pizza”) the inevitable truth is that we are violating an industry UI norm by having the highest possible settings run beyond the scope of the fastest possible computers our users can get their hands on.”

[CptLucky8]

@redwave65

I really liked this part too:

What I really like is they communicate with their customers in such open ways with deep and interesting technical articles.

[TeenageBloom0]

after 10 years tweaking in fsx ,I am now try to do some tweaking for msms2020. But I cannot get my finger behind the problem.
like you I fly a320 but also the justflight p28 and where ever the sim sees an airport it is over and done with smooth flying. Normally i have a smooth fly with 35 fps and near the airports it suddenly jumps down to 18-20 fps which is unflyable. I tried everything also the last one with scaling disable window optimization in a latter thread .I thought it was maybe my hardware but others have a much better card and they have the same problems. So i dont know what to do more.maybe try x-plane 11 again but that one it so scenery ugly.

[AC52399]

Dear TeenageBloom0, I agree completely!
Indeed, also with my hardware, (see specs below),
similar problems arise, no matter what.

Mainboard: ASUS Maximus X Hero Intel Z 370
CPU: Intel Core i7-8086K @ 4.0 GHz
Memory: 32GB Corsair Dominator Platinum DDR4-3000
Graphics Card: ASUS NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 10GB
Monitor ASUS PA 329 32" @ 4K
1 SSD Samsung 860 PRO 256 GB
1 SSD Samsung 860 PRO 4 TB
Windows 10 - 64 V. 2004
CH Pro combatstick, throttle and pedals

[TeenageBloom0]

last night I have decided to step out of msms 2020 till the end of year and will have a look how the statis quo is at that time. I fired up x-plane11 with all my usa orbx sceneries. I got 50 fps and everything is smooth as butter.
Happy to fly again without problems. no fps drops in big airports and so on.
see you later.

[PliantWings5288]

Your problem is the CPU.
Most people buy highend GPU’s and forget to upgrade there CPU.
The bottleneck are the spikes in delivering data form CPU to GPU.

Stuttering
These seem to be accompanied by short peaks in the CPU load, whereby the video card apparently cannot continue until new information is available. A monitor with a high or variable refresh rate helps somewhat, because you can shorten the time of the hitch, but that is not a holy grail. For the highest performance in Flight Simulator, you need a processor that has many cores at its disposal and can deliver fast per-core performance.

[AC52399]

Fine PliantWings5288, Now my CPU is obsolete…
Can you tell me why DCS and a half dozen other games, all maxed out and
running at 4K 60FPS solid run perfectly on my very same rig?
It might be that the MSFS graphics engine and / or the terrain loading
caching system is badly programmed?
Just a thought…

[hobanagerik]

@AC52399

Can you tell me why DCS and a half dozen other games, all maxed out and
running at 4K 60FPS solid run perfectly on my very same rig?

Because they are different programs, using different engines for one.

[MichaMMA]

@AC52399

Can you tell me why DCS

please…

MSFS 2020 and stutters

Dear Devs, I am well aware that modeling the whole world with stunning detail, is a HUGE undertaking, and this has been achieved for the most part admirably. My warmest congratulations. Though, among other things, the main goal has not been achieved, a fluid flying experience. Even with my high-end rig (specs below) and even cranking down the settings to the lowest levels, MSFS stutters. Even at lowest settings, and no traffic, it is not capable to hold and maintain SOLID, FIXED 60 FPS, which …

[PliantWings5288]

Your CPU is not!
There is no program that needs more hardware resources then a flightsim.
It’s not only the graphics but also the large amount of calculations that has to be done.
Flightsims has always been the most demanding peaces of software.
The new MSFS has al the calculations of other sims on the market but as extra also the most detailed graphics. Therefore you need a good CPU and a good graphics card.
A good and fast graphics card you have already, but not a good and fast CPU.

Your CPU is below the mid-range of the high-end scale (index: 14720)
Look at > PassMark Intel vs AMD CPU Benchmarks - High End

Your GPU is overpowered in comparison to your CPU.

Here you can see that the difference of performance between high end GPU’s is not so big is you think. CPU upgrade has more effect on the performance.
GPU performance is only better on higher resolutions.

GPU vs CPU performance

[Zeppos]

Apparently stuttering can have several causes, CPU being one of them when acting as a bottleneck but may not always be the culprit. I was running MSFS for 4 months on an ancient i5-2500k (in low/mid graphics settings) and I never had stuttering like the one lately described by most users. Low FPS (20-30) yes, but no intermittent stuttering. So there maybe many parameters to consider.

[PliantWings5288]

That’s true much things playing a roll.

• The Graphic resolution.
• The in-Game settings.
• The GPU driver settings.
• Optimal Windows Game settings.
• The speed of the Windows harddisk (pref. SSD M2).
• MSFS 2020 (pref. on separed SSD M2 disk).
• The rolling cache file not on Windows disk (pref. on separed SSD M2).
• Fast CPU (pref. > 6 cores).
• Fast GPU ( pref. better then RTX 2070 super)
• Fast min. 32 GB memory.
• Fast internet speed min. 50Mb/s and stable (pref. 250Mb/s).
• At last a stable and capable Power Source for your hardware.

[DomeMs]

But even with Intel i9 10900K (over 5ghz) or AMD 3950x, stuttering appears …

[PliantWings5288]

What resolution and in-game settings?
The problem is that we want higher settings then what the hardware can deliver.

[DomeMs]

4K Ultra (scale 100, others 200) but even 1080 p and “light” settings, I have stuttering (Personnaly I have a old CPU I9 7900X 4,5 Ghz All cores and 3090) … I have micro stutters, the program is usable …

[PliantWings5288]

It’s the combination of all the hardware CPU, GPU, Motherboard (bus speed), memory, type of disks versus the resolution and Game settings.
A High-end GPU cannot deliver when the rest is also not fast and stable enough.

I had problems with my memory when i set my ram to run on a higher profile in the bios.
No other game had problems with that setting only MSFS. When i turned it back to standard profile the problems where gone.

[OldGamer5356]

@Nickflight0959

Everything above 25 frames/sec is fluid for the eye.

The thing about how many FPS are needed is old, but I need to bring something up that nobody else had, or at least, I haven’t ran into the post. When you look forward or far in the distance, not straight to the left , right or down, things will look smooth at 25 FPS, but the further you look down and at lower altitudes, things move faster, far beyond 25 FPS .
If I am flying at 5000 ft and look straight down, everything looks smooth, even at 25 FPS, but the closer you get to the ground the need for more FPS is apparent. That’s why a faster refresh is needed when you are watching sports on your TV and we went from old 60 mhz to 240+, for the fast action sports/movies to be smooth with no stutters. The closer to the ground the more FPS you need, period. I like to enjoy the city landscapes at 2000’ and look straight down and have a smooth experience. Another factor is when you are in a situation when your main thread starts to choke up. It is easier for my PC if it is running at 45-50 FPS to handle the FPS drop because it can take a good 25 FPS drop before it begins stuttering and if I was at 25 FPS then the FPS would be single digits.
When I fly with VR I do want to have the option to be outside my plane looking straight down at the scenery or buildings when I want to without looking like a slide show. If all you do is fly Commercial jets at high altitude, then forget everything I said. The clouds look good at 25 FPS .

[hobanagerik]

I just noticed, for me at least, a new source of stutter. I don’t tend to get them now, since a recent hardware upgrade, but this one I haven’t noticed before.

When I come in to land at an un-towered airport, I follow a simple procedure to ensure that both my landing, and take-off are recorded. Deviating from it tends to break things.

Land on the respective runway, decelerate to <15kts, then taxi off the runway, paved or grass doesn’t matter.
In the ATC box, the options have changed, and I can announce I am clear of the runway.
Taxi back on to runway, but do not touch the ATC window. You will see the dialogue choices will change, and you can now announce take-off.

All that works great. What I noticed repeatedly yesterday was a very brief stutter as I enter the runway just as the dialogue choices change.

My suspicion is the difference between a towered, and untowered field.

At a towered field, I hold short, and the ATC dialogue choice changes so I can request take-off clearance. But I am not moving at this time, and then taxi on to the runway.

At an un-towered field I am not holding short, and moving as the ATC dialogue changes.

It could well be that it does stutter at a towered field, I just don’t see it as I am not moving at the time.

I don’t observer that stutter when interacting with ATC in the air, only during that taxi operation at an un-towered field.

[AC52399]

Well there you have it… Thanks DomeMs!
Even with Intel i9 10900K (over 5ghz) or AMD 3950x, stuttering appears …
So as already innumerable times stated in this forum and in others,
the problem lies with the badly programmed MSFS graphics engine and
terrain loading / caching system.

[AC52399]

Right, hobanagerik,
Some have a well, lean, graphics and terrain loading engine,
and some not…