Stutter diary! Join me

User Support Hub Virtual Reality (VR)
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Since SU14, the sim has worked amazingly on some days and, on others, given me intermittent (like every 15-60 seconds), very noticeable stutters. It really seems to depend on nothing other than “it’s a different day today, so you might get unlucky”.

Plane, scenery, server, most settings.. makes no difference to the type of stutters im talking about, where a big spike overloads the CPU now and again, quite often. To the point where an external audio stream I’ll be listening to cuts out for a split second. It’s not really performance related (7800x3D, 4090, Varjo Aero), more like a weird glitch in the software that overloads the CPU/main thread periodically.

The only thing that reduces the issue (on the day that it occurs) is reducing terrain LOD and, maybe to a lesser extent, object LOD.

On other days it just runs perfect (45fps locked at very high supersampling, like 5300xXXXX, DLSS Quality)

So I was curious whether there’s an online dimension to this inconsistent behavior and am planning to update this thread every time I have a “smooth day” or “stutter day”. If some people join in, maybe we can find a pattern. In that case it must somehow be online related. If it’s just completely random, I dunno..

So I’m just gonna start it off with the following info:

Sunday, June 30 = SMOOTH DAY
Time: Early Evening UTC (cant remember exactly)
Server: SEA

Monday, July 1 = STUTTER DAY
Time: Evening UTC (19:30-20:30)
Server: SEA

Thursday, July 4 = SMOOH DAY
18:30-19:15 UTC
Server: SEA

Saturday, July 6 = SMOOTH DAY
20:00-21:00 UTC
Server: SEA

SU
Sunday, July 7 = SMOOTH
15-16:00 Utc
Server: SEA

2 Likes
2

Probably help to add local time as well.

2 Likes
3

Good point, although UTC/Zulu would be even better

2 Likes
4

Are you using dx11 or dx12? Also, HAGS on or off?

I’ve found that I get smoother performance with dx11 and HAGS = off. This is with my i913900k/rtx4090/32Gb 6400ram PC. Using a QPro with official Link cable connected to my z790mb usb3.2 type-c port and my good old DP wired Vive Pro 1 (amoled screens, Etsy Gear VR lens mod, 2x2.0 base stations, and Index controllers). Also using the latest nvidia 556.12 driver.

I’m getting very smooth stutter-free results, unless I apply crazy Yaw, lol! Getting solid 40fps with my QPro and 45fps with my VP1.

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DX12, HAGS off. On good days it runs amazingly. As I mentioned, it’s not really a performance issue as such.

1 Like
6

Maybe try dx11 instead of dx12. I’ve found DX11 runs a lot smoother. I don’t really know but I think that dx12 puts a little more strain on your cpu cache which may cause the odd stutter.

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Try DX11 and delete cache.
How to

1 Start your PC in safe mode

  • Click start
    1start
  • Click power icon
    image
  • Press and hold left SHIFT key and click restart
    image
  • Select Troubleshoot > advanced options > startup settings > restart
  • Select 4 - Enable safe mode

2 Click start and type

%localappdata%\D3DSCache

Press Enter
Delete all folders

3 Click start and type

%APPDATA%\..\LocalLow\Nvidia\PerDriverVersion\DXCache

Press enter
Delete all files

4 Type

%localappdata%\Nvidia\GLCache

Press enter
Delete all folders

5 type

%appdata%\NVIDIAComputeCache

Press enter
Delete all folders

6 type

%localappdata%\Packages\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache\SceneryIndexes

Delete all files

Restart PC

7 Click “start” and type storage settings - press enter
8 Click temporary files > scroll down > check box DirectX Shader Cache
9 scroll up > click Remove Files

10 Restart PC.

1 Like
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Thanks but I clear cache regularly and I moved from DX12 to DX11 a while ago, because I thought it felt smoother.

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I don’t know for sure but I think that the 7800x3d cache may be more of an issue with dx12. Might be worth trying out dx11 again imho.

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Thanks for trying to help but as I said before, it’s not a really a performance issue as such. On maybe 2/3 of all days it runs perfectly with locked 45 fps and no issues at all. Roughly the other 3rd of sessions, there are intermittent CPU spikes that freeze the whole system for a split second now and again.

These are definitely caused by MSFS (as indicated by Process Lasso) and many people have reported them since SU14. They are somehow related to scenery loading in. In between them, performance is also near perfect.

Not sure what you mean by “the cache of the 7800x3D can be an issue with DX12”. What are you referring to here? Any sources?

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Setting my network to public has helped deal with a particular intermittent stutter. This stutter occurred every 3 to 5 seconds or so, and drove me mad. Once I changed the network setting things have been really smooth for most of the time.

That is to say: until today. I updated to the latest NVidia driver, and MSFS unstalled some kind of patch, so it could be either of those 2. I’ll try reverting to a previous driver and see if that helps :slight_smile:

ETA: It turns out that yesterday’s patch caused MSFS to set DirectX to DX12 again, and that caused some stutters and worse performance for me as well. I wish they’d stop doing that! Leave my settings alone! lol

1 Like
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Interesting, I’ll try that. Thanks.