Let me start by saying that I am a long time simmer and technical.
I’ve been using FS2020 for 5 months on the following hardware:
i7-8700K delidded and all cores clocked to 5GHz including with AVX.
ASUS Mobo with 64GB RAM
M.2 boot/Sim drive and SSD drives - no spinners.
ASUS Strix GTX980Ti OC
1920x1080 monitor
100Mbit Internet - reliable.
On this hardware I got decent performance, but always noticed the CPU was at around 40-60% utilisation and the GPU almost always at 100% utilisation.
I have done all the tweaks for performance. I’m running High Performance power profile.
CPU and GPU are running perfect, overclocked and 100% reliable in stress tests
So, thinking I was GPU bound, I just tried a ASUS Strix 1080Ti with the same monitor.
I am getting better performance, but not that much greater. Maybe 10-15 FPS more max.
BUT I notice that my GPU is mostly still only at 50-60% utililsation and the GPU is only doing 50-65% utilisation. And it’s obvious it’s not working very hard as the GPU temp is only 55degC.
So when I am at a busy airport with traffic etc I am only seeing 22-27 FPS, yet the hardware is only at ~50% utilisation.
How on earth do you convince this sim to use your hardware to it’s full ability?
Sounds like a driver issue to me, my RTX2070 uses 99% pegged GPU 100% of the time, especially to render that wonderful menu video :P.
I have the same CPU as you, it uses about 60-70% of the CPU and all cores evenly.
As a “techie” i hope your not expecting the CPU to run at 100% all the time, they don’t work the same as GPUs and would considerably reduce its lifespan.
FSX had the same scaling issues with the service pack, they never actually modified the core engine which was released more than a decade ago. You can still wtiness some fsx level bugs like jagged shadows and oversized objects. What you are getting is a new skin pack and nothing more.
Exactly. I expect the GPU to be at 100%, and the CPU to be less.
I do notice that some sessions it is using all cores evenly, and other sessions one core is maxed and the rest are much less.
I’m using the latest 452.06 driver, the exact same one which managed to drive the GTX980TiOC at 100% almost all the time.
This 1080Ti is not working hard at all. The fans are only spinning at 58%ish.
Weirdly, I’m just flying the TBM. When I was at LAX with traffic enabled, the GPU was ‘idling’ along at 60% when I really needed it to do some work. Now I’m at 31,000ft over desolate countryside with apparently far less graphics work to do and the GPU is going between 60-80% use.
Hard to say, i found a few things helped me which was to use MSI Afterburner to ensure power limit was at max, RTX voice terminated in the task manager, no popout windows for ATC etc and definitely no “High” or “Realtime” priority set.
Might be worth trying a rollback on driver just to see how the previous handle it but i think other 1080ti users are probably better placed to help with this than me.
All you have to do is FLAG the post of someone that you think is violating forum rules. But replying in kind (ad hominem remarks) might get you in trouble, too. On other Discourse forums, I’ve been flagged for going off-topic, so I know how it works!
Sounds like the same thing that has been discussed many times before on the forum. To begin with, enable developer mode and bring up the fps counter. This will show you if you’re CPU or GPU limited. From what you’ve said I suspect you’re CPU limited when you run the 1080ti and that the fps counter will show the main thread being the limiting factor. No-ones CPU will be running at 100% even if that is the bottleneck. The main thread is likely to be jumping between multiple cores which total up to 100% of the available CPU workload. It can’t split the thread into multiple parts which run in parallel so it still takes the same about of time as If it was maxing out a single core.
As for the 100% GPU usage in the menu that’s easily explained. In the menu your CPU isn’t having to do much as it’s not running any of the simulation tasks therefore it isn’t the limiting factor to performance. That allows the GPU to run at 100% but it doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong, it’s just how the balance between CPU and GPU workload works depending on type of workload.
I’m in a similar boat to you OP. I was one of the lucky ones whereby my download and install went without a hitch and the game ran amazingly. Everywhere I flew (TBM) I was pegged at 99% GPU and 50-60% CPU.
FYI - i7-7700k @4.7. 32g ram and Gtx1080ti running ultra preset on 1440p ultrawide. Consistent 30-40fps and no stutters. Although it does dip to mid - high 20s over NYC sometimes.
After reading these and other forums of all these magical config file tweaks and windows settings and special programs to gain fps, I was starting to think maybe I was short changing myself out of some performance so I started trying them. Things have gone downhill from there. I’m now stuck at same CPU usage as before but never get above 60% GPU. Dropping from ultra to low preset gains me 0 fps increase. Dropping res gains me like 2-5 fps at best.
Flying over NYC now I’m struggling to get 12-15 fps. And my GPU is just idling.
Too many “tweaks” and magical fixes. I realize now that I’ve spent more time tweaking than actually just enjoying flying. Time for me to wipe my flight Sim drive, windows restore back to the 18th August and re-download and re install.
What changes in particular did you see with HAGS enabled? I didn’t notice any increase in framerate or evening out of frametimes, so I disabled it again, since it seems to on average have a slightly negative effect across the games I saw benchmarked with it on/off.
it varies with hardware, plus im using a lot of NV CPL overrides to visual quality and settings.
i had a much more stable and fluid display. during scenery loading, before HAGS, GPU util, would drop to almost minimal idle state and CPU would spike 100% for at least 10-15 seconds then resume back to typical numbers.
when HAGS got introduced with Win 2004, during scenery loading, GPU util would spike, and CPU would rise, but not spike.
without having the NV Kernel debugger, i cannot see exactly what HAGS is tasking to the GPU, but the rise in GPU usage coupled to the non-spiking CPU usage, also a particular reduction in overall FPS Drop to just a 10-15 FPS Drop from my global average compared to the prior drop of anywhere from 25-35 FPS drop during scenery loading, leads me to believe that HAGS is actually allowing the GPU to assist the CPU in scenery loading and compensating the spiking CPU.
