Why is FS 2020 not fully utilising my RTX 2060?

I’m running FS 2020 on a Dell XPS 15 7590 with i7-9750H and 16 GB DDR4 at 2667 MHz, with an RTX 2060 installed in Lenovo BoostStation connected over Thunderbolt 3.

The game’s inbuilt fps overlay in Developer mode shows me that I’m getting 15-20 fps in Ultra, and says that it is limited by the GPU. I did some tests and found that when I’m running FS, the RTX 2060 doesn’t exceed 60% of the TDP and the performance is capped by VRel according to GPU-Z. I then tested my system with Furmark a couple of times at the same resolution (FHD) and found that with Furmark the performance is capped by available power because it reaches 100% of the TDP (last two lines in the GPU-Z window):

Due to some reason, FS 2020 is not utilising my RTX 2060 to its full capabilities while Furmark can. Why would this happen? Has anyone else experienced the same?

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this is because furmark is a synthetic benchmark specifically designed to stress out GPU’s to the max. You’ll never see that kind of load from any real world application.

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I tried running Hitman ™ Free Trial from Steam in 4K to check if it stays that way for all real world applications:


Power consumption stayed around 95% TDP for the duration of my test, which seems like a more reasonable limit for real world applications than leaving almost half the capacity unused and running at 15 fps.

Secondly, BreizhAiles in the topic below (sorry I can’t seem to attach links) can run it on the same GPU at 30 fps at 2560x1440 while I can’t run it at 20 fps in 1920x1080.
[RTX 2060 6GB VRAM usage in MSFS? - Self-Service / PC & Hardware - Microsoft Flight Simulator Forums]

I would really like to understand why FS 2020 is not utilising my GPU when other games/benchmarks can. Thanks!

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I had this happen to me once and it was because I accidentally set a temp limit on my gpu with the MSI Afterburner app. But it should affect every game not just FS2020.

MSFS is a CPU limited game. Have you looked at that? You have a 9750h. I have a 10875h with a 2080S maxq and I’m still CPU limited.

Have you checked MSFS dev mode to see what your bottleneck is in the game? Edit - my apologies - I can’t read. My only theory is that you’re somehow bottlenecked by the CPU still, having to process the game AND process the eGPU.

Also - Running a video card over Thunderbolt will reduce performance by 10-15%.

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Thanks @GeekyGameDad, just verified that temperature a temperature limit is not the issue - I’m running at 62 C and the limit is 83 C.

Yes @sttovo, see the attached image above, while one core seems to be at high utilisation, none of them are maxed out while the power draw sits at less than 60% TDP. Considering BreizhAiles’s minimum of 20fps at 2560x1440 and discounting 20% for Thunderbolt, etc. I should still be getting 28 fps at FHD by a quick back of the envelope calculation. What I get is about 60% of that, which is also curiously the power draw as a percentage of TDP.

We need to see CPU load and GPU load side by side.

You are expecting the impossible - equal CPU and GPU load at 95% or more.

It is unlikely to happen, weather, camera and other factors affect the CPU/GPU balance.

Benchmarks can skew towards CPU or GPU by design. They are for comparing many different PCs.

@TaurineCorn668 I’ve put one screenshot above of CPU/GPU load side by side, additional screenshot below with 13 fps and GPU running at 60% TDP with none of my cores running at over 70%.

I don’t know if this is any help, but I run msfs on the xps 17 9700, which I believe has the same 2060MaxQ part as your xps 15. I don’t use any external tweaking software and have not downloaded any of the benchmark programs in this thread, but here is a typical load that I see while gaming:

The CPU will speed up its clock as needed, but I see the 2060 running at 95 to 100% pretty much all the time. MSFS graphics settings all at high, I’m driving an external 2560x1440 monitor.

Thanks but I’m actually using an external, desktop powered RTX 2060 connected over Thunderbolt 3, while yours seems to be internal?

What’s your graphic settings in Msfs? I have the nearly the same CPU RAM and mobile GPU without the max Q as you. But I get around 30 to 50 fps

I’m using Ultra, just like many people using the same GPU in this thread on the same board: [RTX 2060 6GB VRAM usage in MSFS? - Self-Service / PC & Hardware - Microsoft Flight Simulator Forums].

Why is the Intel UHD graphics running at the same time?
The two gpus could clash for resources

Afaik SOP is to disable the (slow) motherboard gpu; a Bios setting might disable it

You’ll have to tone down the VRAM usage by lowering your texture resolution, since you have a 1440p monitor. It may be going over the vram limit. I found out with my rtx 2060

Just to add. You’ll never ever get full CPU TDP for more than 10 seconds or so. I watch TDPs on my Razer and I get max TDP (short TDP) for maybe 5 seconds then long TDP for maybe 15 sec, then it stays varied at roughly at 50% TDP while gaming. If you sustained full TDP for long periods your laptop would melt.

Using full TDP really only works for workloads that cycle every few minutes.

Edit. What’s with me today?? I can’t read again. You said GPU TDP. Ok well my addition is right, but not related to your case. I’m sorry. Maybe I need a nap.

My laptop has the integrated Intel GPU which you see and a discrete GTX 1650. As I understand it, you need to disable the discrete GPU, so the above tests were performed with the GTX 1650 disabled and the integrated Intel graphics chip and the external RTX2060 enabled.

As a test, I tried disabling the Intel GPU too for the screenshot below, it isn’t an improvement. Curiously “VOp” now becomes a constraint too, but the power consumption still remains around 60%.

EDIT: My test with Hitman where I had power consumption averaging 95% TDP and the benchmark where it reached 100% were also performed with the Intel GPU enabled and the GTX 1650 disabled.

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I actually have a 1920x1080 monitor and tried reducing texture resolution from Ultra to Medium but it didn’t significantly improve the framerates.

Just a question, do you have this issue since the first minute you fly or does it decrease? Do you have any “virtual” screen connected for PFD/MFD or something from the game?

For me it is the same with ATI, that the graphics card is not utilized but only if I use virtual screens for the game. While in other games I do not have this issue. I also get “limited by GPU” and GPU is running at 60%… there is something wrong… somewhere.

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It happens since the first minute I fly and persists for the entire flight, maybe the power consumption will spike to 65% TDP but not much more while the fps struggles at 15. I don’t have any virtual screens connected.

Do you have the VSync stetting and the frame limiter enabled in the graphic options of MSFS? It will reduce the produced frames and also limit the GPU to that frame rate.

Of course it does not make sense to produce more frames than your monitor can handle and have high fan RPMs and heat your room with your graphics card. Things are diffferent if you use a GSync or FreeSync monitor.

I use VSync and prefer the noise reduction over extra frames my non GSync monitor cannot handle.