My apologies if this has been mentioned already (the forum is a bit busy at the moment); but I found a site that provides a pretty good explanation of what the different settings do, how much computing power each uses, along with some general recommendations.  I may not agree 100% with their findings; but I think it's a very useful guide to get started tweaking.

Check it out here:

https://www.game-debate.com/news/29393/microsoft-flight-simulator-most-important-graphics-options-every-video-setting-benchmarked

In addition, the "official" MSFS support site has a decent performance optimization guide here:

https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/how-to-graphics-settings-and-performance-guide-8-18-2020/132407

(You"ll need to sign up to use the official forums)

I’ll have to check it out and see if I can dial things in just a hair more. I used Squirel’s video and the official site already and it’s looking good. 

Indeed,.

I have an Nvidia 2080 Super and yes.. MSFS is very hard on the card.  Grt's very hot even with AC blowing on it.  Almost 70 degrees C. And, almost always near 100% usage. So, I've had to lower several settings , once I put it on high. Running my sim.at 4K.

I wonder if a revised graphics drivers will help. I'm using the new drivers designed for this Sim, by Nvidia.

As expected,  to make this amount of graphics work, we'll  need  about a 10Gb + 

 

Edited August 22, 20205 yr by joemiller

2 hours ago, joemiller said:

Indeed,.

I have an Nvidia 2080 Super and yes.. MSFS is very hard on the card.  Grt's very hot even with AC blowing on it.  Almost 70 degrees C. And, almost always near 100% usage. So, I've had to lower several settings , once I put it on high. Running my sim.at 4K.

I wonder if a revised graphics drivers will help. I'm using the new drivers designed for this Sim, by Nvidia.

As expected,  to make this amount of graphics work, we'll  need  about a 10Gb + 

 

Mine is on water with EVGA's hydrocopper block and it's still hitting mid-50's.  Even Folding  24/7 on it only hits like 50.  I'm running at 1440 though not 4K.

2 hours ago, joemiller said:

Grt's very hot even with AC blowing on it.  Almost 70 degrees C. And, almost always near 100% usage. So, I've had to lower several settings , once I put it on high.

It’s supposed to get hot, and it can technically get hotter than that. It’s designed for it. I wouldn’t worry about it. If you like it to be quieter or run cool, water cool it. 
For years we’ve wanted our hardware to be used properly by flightsims, and now that it is, people are concerned about GPU temp? The mind boggles. 
A video card is not considered to be overheating until it exceeds 90°c under load.

52 minutes ago, Ianrivaldosmith said:

It’s supposed to get hot, and it can technically get hotter than that. It’s designed for it. I wouldn’t worry about it. If you like it to be quieter or run cool, water cool it. 
For years we’ve wanted our hardware to be used properly by flightsims, and now that it is, people are concerned about GPU temp? The mind boggles. 
A video card is not considered to be overheating until it exceeds 90°c under load.

While the last part is true, the cooler they are at least on Nvidia cards, the faster they run above base clock due to the boosting algorithms. That means potentially more FPS in the sim. 

1 minute ago, flyinion said:

While the last part is true, the cooler they are at least on Nvidia cards, the faster they run above base clock due to the boosting algorithms. That means potentially more FPS in the sim. 

You’ve gotta be talking 1 frame? Anyway a good fan at 80-100% will keep the card below 75C under load in MSFS, perfectly acceptable, stable and useable. 

While this guide is a good start, what is absolutely essential in understanding performance, is to know which settings affects CPU, and which settings affect GPU. Experienced users will have an idea based on what the setting does, but it's not so easy to get started. What one needs to do basically is optimize for CPU time first, and then load up the GPU. That being said, of course all terrain and object options are relevant for the CPU time. I think you can get away with lowering those unless you're in a heli (which you can't be ATM) and the comparison images in the article show that very well. Once your CPU isn't overloaded (I typically have 50% CPU load), you can cram in GPU features until GPU usage is around 70%.

I am getting away with 1080p at 150% resolution scale and TAA on a 1080ti, which is quite neat - on par with other, less taxing games. What amazes me that severe cloud coverage (ULTRA clouds) doesn't really seem to slow things down. Weather is always a variable, however I never saw my GPU lose a beat here.

Edited August 22, 20205 yr by Colonel X

3 hours ago, flyinion said:

Mine is on water with EVGA's hydrocopper block and it's still hitting mid-50's.  Even Folding  24/7 on it only hits like 50.  I'm running at 1440 though not 4K.

50 ?? That's nice. I 'll look into water cooling, too. Mine is also EVGA. 

3 hours ago, flyinion said:

Mine is on water with EVGA's hydrocopper block and it's still hitting mid-50's.  Even Folding  24/7 on it only hits like 50.  I'm running at 1440 though not 4K.

I'm thinking of getting one too.  Do I need anything else to make it work? Paste or anything else? Or, it comes with all you need?

4 hours ago, Colonel X said:

While this guide is a good start, what is absolutely essential in understanding performance, is to know which settings affects CPU, and which settings affect GPU. Experienced users will have an idea based on what the setting does, but it's not so easy to get started. What one needs to do basically is optimize for CPU time first, and then load up the GPU. That being said, of course all terrain and object options are relevant for the CPU time. I think you can get away with lowering those unless you're in a heli (which you can't be ATM) and the comparison images in the article show that very well. Once your CPU isn't overloaded (I typically have 50% CPU load), you can cram in GPU features until GPU usage is around 70%.

I am getting away with 1080p at 150% resolution scale and TAA on a 1080ti, which is quite neat - on par with other, less taxing games. What amazes me that severe cloud coverage (ULTRA clouds) doesn't really seem to slow things down. Weather is always a variable, however I never saw my GPU lose a beat here.

I agree. If you turn on the Developer Mode and select the FPS monitor to show it gives a lot of info including what’s limiting the sim in real-time whether it’s the GPU or CPU. Have just recently used it to help tune my settings so not to sure of its accuracy and validity yet but just thought i would share.

Joe

8 hours ago, joemiller said:

I'm thinking of getting one too.  Do I need anything else to make it work? Paste or anything else? Or, it comes with all you need?

Well, you need the water loop.  If you already have a card though, I'd look for a 3rd party block.  Turns out the EVGA ones actually don't perform as great compared to others out there on the same card.  I went with it because I was buying a card as well, so it was easy to buy the hydrocopper SKU'd card and not have to deal with swapping out the air cooler for a block.  Their block does come with paste and thermal pads pre-applied though.

15 hours ago, joemiller said:

MSFS is very hard on the card.

Yes it is very hard on all GPUs. Hopefully the next generation of hardware will be able to tame this beast.

3 hours ago, flyinion said:

Well, you need the water loop.  If you already have a card though, I'd look for a 3rd party block.  Turns out the EVGA ones actually don't perform as great compared to others out there on the same card.  I went with it because I was buying a card as well, so it was easy to buy the hydrocopper SKU'd card and not have to deal with swapping out the air cooler for a block.  Their block does come with paste and thermal pads pre-applied though.

Do you have anyone you could recommend? 

4 hours ago, joemiller said:

Do you have anyone you could recommend? 

EK and Heatkiller are supposed to be good blocks