Stutters on final, lower end systems

i5, 16gb DDR4 2666mhz, SSD, GTX 1650 4g

Enjoying the sim - can anyone highlight specifically what setting(s) are the true cause of stutters on the final approach - usually at or below 1,000 agl ?

I’d like to address / “tune-down” settings that affect this portion of the flight - but unsure which ones are the most prevalent cause…

Thanks again !

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If its is an airport with photogrammetry turn buildings trees and bushes to medium or low before approach

If its a handcrafted airport, turn of photogrammetry
Same goes for flying over cities
Also u can use sliders as terrain and or texture detail and lower them on or before approach.

Make sure usercfg.opt is not marked as read only for the sim can not save settings
It is worth to try

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What’s your LOD set to? Do you know how to turn on your FPS counter in the Dev Mode?

Thks. Photogrammetry is off - but I do have trees bushes on high, terrain detail at 250.

I’ll check the usercfg.opt marking -

…thanks again.

“usercfg.opt” does not appear to be “read only” - but not completely sure how to confirm that -

yes - lod is set at 250 - yes, I can open DevMode - I usually use MSI Afterburner for FR testing

Ok, so your LOD is probably too high. You can use the fps dev tool to ensure your mainthread latency stays in the yellow.

For a reference, I have a 10700k @ 5.1 all-core, and 200 LOD is as high as that CPU can go before I get so mainthread limited that I get stutters.

Start with reducing your LOD, on the ground at the busiest airport you fly at, until the little yellow bar on your mainthread stays yellow. If you’re getting more than a tick of red every couple of seconds, your LOD is too high.

Once that is set, increase the load on your GPU until your render latency is as close to 30-32ms as possible.
You might have to increase render scaling to get the latency up that high. This will allow your CPU time to think between frames, and prevent stutters.

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Appreciated - I’ll give it a go.

Thank you !

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I also have a system similar to you (gtx1050i) and really do not experience any stutters…
I have my lod at 125… most other items are at medium except cloud volumetric at ultra.
I have photogrammetry turned on. I have NO MODS…None.

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Ok cool, and just to clarify, make sure your photgrammetry is on, and all of your traffic settings are as high as you want them to be (mine are all maxed out), and all of your other GPU-bound settings (everything EXCEPT LOD) are set at max before you start tweaking your LOD and GPU settings, then go up or down from that as a baseline.

This sim can run on a potato if you know which settings do what. LOD and traffic affect CPU (“main thread”), and basically everything else, especially resolution scaling, affect the GPU.

Credentials: I have the sim installed on both of my boys’ systems, in addition to my own rig. System 1 is a laptop with an Intel 4700 series CPU and an M770 GPU (3GB VRAM), 9 years old. System 2 is an Intel 2400 series CPU and a 1030 GPU (2GB VRAM), system age is probably closer to 12 years old, I don’t even know. Both run the game without stutters, albeit with a fair amount of in-game tuning and below FHD resolutions.

The point is, as long as you know what settings to adjust, the range of hardware this sim can run on is immense…despite what people on this forum would have you believe.

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Vote here

Hey!

You just make my day.

I was suffering stuttering problems since the beginning of this sim.

I run the sim in a AMD 5800X with 32Gb 3600 Ram and a RX6800XT, with W11 and the sim installed in a Sata3 SSD. Monitor is a LG 34GN850-B 34’ UWQHD.

After reading your post, I run the sim, maximized all settings to Ultra, put Render Scale up from 100 until 25-30ms of GPU, and start tweaking LOD and scale.

Ended with 150 LOD and 150 render scale. Getting about 28-30ms in GPU with the FBW A32NX around Madrid, and about 15-18ms in Mainthread.

Maybe I can fine tune more, but now I have a beautiful and incredible sim with maxed out settings and smooth like butter! With about 32-40 Fps depending on weather etc…but smooth smooth!

My error was lowering graphics settings to equal Mainthread and GPU times, but what makes my sim smooth is to have about the double of GPU time compared to Mainthread.

Again, thanks you!!!

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Right click on file usercfg.opt brings up this screen

150 LOD sounds about right for airliners on your CPU. Glad I could help, I’ve been telling people how to tune this sim for months, in various threads, and for the most part feel like I have gone unheard. Except for a few users, like yourself, who let me know my method works for them.

Sounds like you nailed your GPU load too. Enjoy your “new” sim experience!

And as a reminder to others looking for help: stop trying to tune using FPS or percent of load on your hardware. The only tuning metric you should be using is RENDER LATENCY and ensuring you are GPU-bound.

All of these settings must be made on the ground, where render loads are the highest.

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Understood - and clearly stated. The biggest obstacle is what affects what - your post helps direct us “non-pro-tech” pilots to the beginning to understanding the parameters. Thanks again - I’ll have fun reviewing the DevMode with the clarifications above !

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Just so I’m clear, when you refer to LOD, is that terrain LOD, objects LOD, or both?

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Both. If you want to spend the time trying to figure out which one impacts you more than the other, then you have more patience than I do. I set them to the same value.

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Grabber523 I have a couple of questions please as I’d like to try your methods - when you are talking about the “yellow bar” in the Dev Mode FPS counter I’m assuming you mean green as mine shows either green or red? Also which bar shows the “Render Latency”? Is it the large bar at the top where the FPS shows or the one labeled “RdrThread” or the one at the bottom? When you say to increase the load on the GPU is that a matter of just turning up the graphics settings? And all of this testing is done after starting a flight but sitting on the ground and not moving? Thanks.

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[quote=“Sonny3621, post:17, topic:474357, full:true”]
Grabber523 I have a couple of questions please as I’d like to try your methods - when you are talking about the “yellow bar” in the Dev Mode FPS counter I’m assuming you mean green as mine shows either green or red? [/quote]

-If you re-read my previous posts carefully, I refer to the one labeled MAIN THREAD. All of the bars go from green to yellow to red based on how “slow” each measured metric is.

-All of those colored bars show render latency. The one you are concerned with, as per my previous posts, is the MAIN THREAD. That shows CPU load, and is tied to LODs. If it is red, you need to reduce LODs.

-Yes. You increase your sliders (EXCEPT LODs) until your GPU render latency is as high as you can get it, but JUST UNDER 32ms. You may need to increase render scaling if all other sliders are maxed out.

-Again, as stated previously, all of these adjustments must be made on the ground, in a high-density scenery area, like a busy airport that you regularly fly out of. I use KJFK.

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@Grabber523 Hi, I’ve just upgraded my PC in order to enjoy more MSFS, however I’m still encountering some stutterings, especially in some payware airports like LEMD. My former rig was i7-7700k with an GTX1070 and 32 Gb RAM (2133 mhz), whereas my new rig is i7-11700K with a RTX3060 and 32 Gb RAM (3200 mhz).
I’ll try and follow your tips in order to find the right compromise.
The LOD settings you refer to are the two ones that are in the sim settings or should I edit some external file?

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You don’t need to tweak .cfg files. It’s a waste of time and overcomplicates things for absolutely no reason.

I’m talking about in-game settings only.

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