My philosophy (1080Ti with a fast processor) is to lock at 30 frames using RTSS (this will be smooth enough and you will get less stutters), but then this also lets the card run just below 100%.  Less fan noise, less heat, less stress on your system.

But then you have more headroom to run better visuals as well.  For example, I have my cockpit shadows at 8192 now by editing the config file - they look great, and also LOD radius at maximum.

Works a treat for me.  I was getting really hot next to the computer and the fan noise was spoiling things a bit.  On above settings, in most circumstances, I can keep the fan locked at 50% (not very noisy at all), and it touches about 72-73C; it was right up at 84C and stuttery trying to run higher frame rates.  👍

 

Edited September 22, 20205 yr by bobcat999

Well, if noise is an issue then I guess you should throttle the PC back until it's quiet enough.

Personally, I could never do that and in Winter my PC heats my gaming room! 😄

To do otherwise feels like tying a rope around a cheetah's leg then sending it off for a run.

I said it before, I say it again; UNLEASH THAT POWER!

After all, you paid enough for this hardware - let it earn it's keep.

Three years from now I'll put the card and the CPU on ebay and be lucky to get £50 for the two. Right now I want my £1500 quids worth!

Do you know what I mean?

Edited September 22, 20205 yr by Will Fly For Cheese

42 minutes ago, Will Fly For Cheese said:

Well, if noise is an issue then I guess you should throttle the PC back until it's quiet enough.

Personally, I could never do that and in Winter my PC heats my gaming room! 😄

To do otherwise feels like tying a rope around a cheetah's leg then sending it off for a run.

Well noise isn't really that much of an issue just a bonus of running it limited

Unlimited I am just wasting money on more electricity, less enjoyable flying experience i.e more stutter, not so smooth and more wear and tear on the card.

So what do you gain by running it at 100% apart from thinking you are getting all you paid for?

Back to the Ferrari analogy, would you really not enjoy it unless you could constantly run it at max rpm for 100% of the time?

 

 

1 minute ago, Blat14 said:

Well noise isn't really that much of an issue just a bonus of running it limited

Unlimited I am just wasting money on more electricity, less enjoyable flying experience i.e more stutter, not so smooth and more wear and tear on the card.

So what do you gain by running it at 100% apart from thinking you are getting all you paid for?

Back to the Ferrari analogy, would you really not enjoy it unless you could constantly run it at max rpm for 100% of the time?

 

 

Sorry - but that's a ridiculous observation.

Your GPU should run at or around 100% to ensure through-put of data to your display.

If you're getting more stutters on 100% than, say, 50% then you have serious issues elsewhere in the pipeline of your PC deploying the sim.

Start here with your diagnosis:

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

 

O yer you follow that guild. OK just one e.g.

Texture Supersampling

His pictures. With AFx16

OFF

8x8

So everyone turns it off right?

If you did the test yourself you might find this..my own test AFx16 ON

OFF

6x6 not even like his with 8x8

yer a great guild...as good as the idea running unlimited FPS all the time as well.

But each to there own. 🙂

Edited September 22, 20205 yr by Nyxx

Oh well, maybe it's just a matter of opinion. You can run your PC and it's software anyway you like of course.

I was just trying to figure out why people keep saying you must have GPU at 100% when as far as I'm concerned it's not necessary in order to get a good experience in MSFS or any other software.

Limited for me, it runs smoothly, cooler and quieter.

Unlimited it runs at higher fps but not very smoothly and much hotter.

What benefit do you see from running at 100% all the time?

 

33 minutes ago, Nyxx said:

 

But each to there own. 🙂

THEIR own. 😉

But yes, broadly correct.

Edited September 22, 20205 yr by Will Fly For Cheese

16 minutes ago, Will Fly For Cheese said:

THEIR own. 😉

But yes, broadly correct.

You will always have to forgive my grammar and spelling am dislesik and to old to learn a way round it, it was not even in the dictionary when i was at school, it simply was the "thick" table in English, I always wondered why I was so bad at it and so good at maths. Yes there really was tables for the "thick kids" no snowflakes in my day lol.

Edited September 22, 20205 yr by Nyxx

3 hours ago, Will Fly For Cheese said:

Don't do it!

The GPU should be pegged at 100% - it's what it's been designed to do and designed to run at.

You're getting your money's worth from it.

You're in the sweet zone if your GPU is at 100% and CPU at anywhere between 45-65%

Wrong. It is impossible to always be in a situation where the GPU works at 100%. If you are flying above complex scenery with heavy AI traffic, and you use a complex airliner, your CPU will severely limit the FPS, and your GPU will relax, since it has fewer frames per second to process than what it is capable of (and this is true for all sims, not just MSFS). You are still getting your money's worth, though, because it leaves more overhead for GPU intensive features (AA, clouds, shadows, resolution, etc.). The "sweet zone" that you mentioned may only be achievable if you dial down CPU intensive settings while moving the sliders of GPU intensive features to the right. But even then the GPU and CPU load will vary during your flight (depending on factors like weather, scenery coverage, and so on). Usually, the CPU is the limiting factor at huge airports, while flying above the sky with lots of dense clouds relieves stress from the CPU and puts a lot work on the GPU.

I would say that limiting FPS absolutely makes sense if you want the FPS to be equal to the monitor refresh rate, or the refresh rate to be a multiple of FPS. Only then can you achieve frames of equal length, which is an important foundation for smoothness. If there is a mismatch between the FPS and monitor refresh rate (unless "Refresh rate / FPS = whole number"), you will always have small stutters. In my case, my monitor runs at 60 Hz, and I limit the FPS to 30 in the Nvidia control panel while setting "Adaptive (half refresh rate)" under "VSync". This has worked well for MSFS and P3D v3. If your FPS is typically above 60, you can limit your FPS to 60 (if that's also the monitor refresh rate).

4 hours ago, Ianrivaldosmith said:

I believe its CPU limited, so a 3090 wont really make much difference...That is what I seems to have found out though. PS the sim looks terrible with anything below 200 imo. 

I became curious to test higher LOD settings, I have read everywhere that you absolutely should not have it higher than 100, and I was really surprised when I only lost 5 fps on setting the slider to max, my god, the game looks gorgeous now.

25 minutes ago, Afterburner said:

Wrong. It is impossible to always be in a situation where the GPU works at 100%. If you are flying above complex scenery with heavy AI traffic, and you use a complex airliner, your CPU will severely limit the FPS, and your GPU will relax, since it has fewer frames per second to process than what it is capable of (and this is true for all sims, not just MSFS). You are still getting your money's worth, though, because it leaves more overhead for GPU intensive features (AA, clouds, shadows, resolution, etc.). The "sweet zone" that you mentioned may only be achievable if you dial down CPU intensive settings while moving the sliders of GPU intensive features to the right. But even then the GPU and CPU load will vary during your flight (depending on factors like weather, scenery coverage, and so on). Usually, the CPU is the limiting factor at huge airports, while flying above the sky with lots of dense clouds relieves stress from the CPU and puts a lot work on the GPU.

I would say that limiting FPS absolutely makes sense if you want the FPS to be equal to the monitor refresh rate, or the refresh rate to be a multiple of FPS. Only then can you achieve frames of equal length, which is an important foundation for smoothness. If there is a mismatch between the FPS and monitor refresh rate (unless "Refresh rate / FPS = whole number"), you will always have small stutters. In my case, my monitor runs at 60 Hz, and I limit the FPS to 30 in the Nvidia control panel while setting "Adaptive (half refresh rate)" under "VSync". This has worked well for MSFS and P3D v3. If your FPS is typically above 60, you can limit your FPS to 60 (if that's also the monitor refresh rate).

Sorry but no.

Your GPU should be pegged at 100% all the time you're flying.

if it isn't- you're not configured correctly.

And, most importantly, you're not getting "full chat" from your rig.

Edited September 22, 20205 yr by Will Fly For Cheese

25 minutes ago, Ixoye said:

I became curious to test higher LOD settings, I have read everywhere that you absolutely should not have it higher than 100, and I was really surprised when I only lost 5 fps on setting the slider to max, my god, the game looks gorgeous now.

It’s not the FPS that it affects I found, it’s the stutters. Careful it doesn’t peg one of your cpu cores at 100%. 

I too have a 1080TI and I’m really pleased how it performs. I lock my frames to 60FPS using Vsync In the sim as I have a 42” LED 1080P TV. For the most part I can achieve this but I tend to fly GA like the TBM as lower and slower is way more fun. I know I would need to drop the settings in a large airport in the A320. I am sure more optimizations will come. For now I don’t plan on replacing my trusty old 1080TI.

One thing I can definitely recommend is the Noctua mod, I was fed up with the stock Zotac fans crapping out or sounding like a wind turbine so I removed the stock fans and shroud and fitted 2 Noctua NF12’s with zip ties, yes zip ties lol. My case is under my desk so aesthetics isn’t an issue but I can run MSFS & X-Plane 11 for hours and my GPU temps sit around mid 50’s. I also have a Noctua DH15 CPU cooler and that thing is awesome.

I too side with the frame locking camp. In my case I lock the screen refresh rate. But those of us who have been around here long enough firmly understand smoothness is the thing to chase not FPS. After all we aren’t in an FPS game. For me and many others this is tried and true. 

Can any kind soul explain the correct way locking fps and refresh rate? I have tried most of the settings that are given as tips here on the forum, but all of them gives me micro stutter, the game runs best for me with unlocked fps with G-Sync + V-sync enabled in Nvidia panel.

Edited September 23, 20205 yr by Ixoye