While reading topics around latest NVIDIA drivers, tweaking hardware, tweaking the sim etc. it suddenly struck me: as a consequence of the sim always having been pretty much rock solid for me and with what I consider to be excellent graphics quality, I am now too scared to touch anything lest I mess it up! And in thinking about it, I am not sure if this is good or bad:
Is it good because I am completely happy with my sim experience when I see so many people having major issues or
is it bad because I am missing out on some (possibly significant) further improvements?
Being a glass half full kind of person, I will go for “A: it is good”, final answer!
For perspective: my system is:
Asus Prime X570-P MB
Ryzen 7 3700X, no OC
Asus RTX3080 10GB
NVIDIA driver version: 528.49
2x16GB DDR4 3200 no tweaks
WD Black SN750 250GB nVME (System)
WD Black SN750 500GB nVME (sim data)
So nothing special, just a nice, medium level system I think. I run in 4K, 100% render scale, pretty much all Ultra with TLOD 300, OLOD 200. I normally fly light GA VFR low level. I get >40 FPS over New York, 40 - 50FPS most anywhere else at 1000 - 5000 ft AGL. Worst case: FSimStudios CYVR with FSLTL gives around 30FPS with very occasional dips into high 20’s when moving around on the ground.
An example of the quality I get can be seen in this recent video:
Every now and then I think of updating my video driver… and then I chicken out! Looks like I will just have to accept I am rather (ultra?) conservative. Or maybe just satisfied with being average?
If you make a note of your current video driver version (and make sure you can get an Install for it), BEFORE you update/change it, you should always be able to go back to that previous version, if you decide you want to.
But then again, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix ( Break) it.
One of life’s many decision – and you learn to make good ones by your previous mistakes …
You can try to update driver. If no improvement just roll back. I can run dx12 now after updating. Happy flying. Had to disable virus protection to update driver tho
Hello there, Thank you for your post! Your topic has been moved to a subcategory of General Discussion & Community Support. The General Discussion category is meant for discussions that fall outside of our other sub-categories.
Please check out these other categories for your future posts:
Aircraft
is where you discuss current or future planes coming to MSFS.
World
is where you discuss scenery, airports, and weather.
Tech Talk
is where you discuss graphics, drivers, performance, CTDs, and hardware.
Menus & Activities
is where you discuss activities (landing challenges, bush trips, etc), plus anything accessed by the menus including the Marketplace, settings, logbook, cameras, etc.
Your post hit home for me. I’m exactly the same way - I read these forums daily and I see that people have a lot of trouble, and (knock wood) I’m doing fine. But what if that shiny new driver or NVCP change made a world of difference for me? Am I missing something???
My resolution for that is to save every single setting in NVCP and MSFS in a spreadsheet. When I make a change I record the new settings on a new tab and date it… just in case. I also keep every NVidia driver that I download in its initial state (unzipped exe) so I can go back if necessary.
I’m in the same boat as N6722C when it comes to drivers - I’ve never had a problem reversing one, and to be honest, if you stick to an old one, some day you’ll almost certainly be required to upgrade it to keep your plane in the air - so you might as well master the reversal process
A 3080 with a 3700X is a little lopsided so if you haven’t done so already then simply enable PBO in your bios, this should get you a small but welcome boost for mainthread.
I have not found it lopsided at all. Depending on the scene, my system can be either main thread or GPU limited but mainly GPU limited. Remember: I am running at 4K, ultra with TLOD300 and OLOD 200.
It’s OK I believe you, MSFS is much better optimised of late. However I also guess you’re not flying into large airports or low over large photogrammic cities using LOD 300 and default traffic but if so then sure I’d love to see a video.
Just leave it be if you are already happy. The grass isn’t always greener on the other side. I’m not one to sit there watching the FPS counter like so many others. What’s more important to me is a smooth crash free experience. The number will be what it will be. Many are totally obsessed with getting the highest when to me that is just one metric.
I think perhaps you missed the comment in my initial post:
“Worst case: FSimStudios CYVR with FSLTL gives around 30FPS with very occasional dips into high 20’s when moving around on the ground.” Both of these are known FPS impact scenarios.
Here also a screenshot low over New York with FPS in the bottom left corner. The original was obviously at 4K resolution but the forum limits the size of screenshots to 1920 x 1080. I am totally happy with 40+FPS over NY.
If you like to tweak you’re in game graphics settings I made a video how to do it for different systems, just screenshot you’re original settings or take pictures from it and you might be able to get a little more detail, or not but then you know for sure that you’re getting the best already.
Yes that’s pretty excellent and so it should be with a 3080, all I saying is with the PBO enabled those dips under 30 might be avoided. It can’t push your cpu beyond it’s limits so there’s absolutely no harm in trying.
Thanks, but in looking at your video our objectives are clearly different. Yours are emphasising frame rate while I am heavily focused on quality. I KNOW I can increase frame rate by compromising on quality but that is not what I am interested in. As mentioned: I am using essentially all ultra in 4K with uncommonly high LOD settings and still getting what I find to be acceptable frame rates.
Leave things as they are!!
I’ve sort of stopped trying due to constant unreliability. If you have it rock solid, do not change a thing because once it gets unreliable, there goes your enjoyment!
Easy to say but if you tried to use the same drivers that were current when MSFS was released it probably wouldn’t even start … and if it did I’m sure you would have a mountain of issues.
Which video? there’s two, one recorded at 1440p x 30fps and the other 1080p x 60 showing a 540p render. I don’t know your set up Andy but I would be disappointed with either.
5800X, rtx 3060
Yup graphically perfect but I guess a few more fps to smooth it out wouldn’t hurt. I’ll just upload my latest to YT athough it’s using DLSS (TAA in 4k is little too hot for my rtx3060).
Needless to say this isn’t how I fly but just a demonstration of what can be achieved with somewhat mediocre hardware.
Recorded using OBS Studio, edited with Avidemux (both are freeware)
