I think it is, after extensive testing, on my ASUS G703GI laptop (i9 geforce 1080) it just seems like everything runs so much smoother, less jitter, less stutter, etc... I am not imagining this either... my framerates in GA may only be 30-35 virtual cockpit most areas vs 50 + on default very high, but it is smoother, and looks much better it's noticeable.... 

SEA in the A320 will bring me to only 17FPS which is a no go... but at PHX I got about 27 barreling down the runway on ULTRA default... not bad at all .. on a laptop which most claim nobody can use (wrong wrong wrong)..

 

opinions? Ultra is smoooootttthhheerrrr

Better than what?

On my system, which defaulted to HIGH and seemed to struggle if I set too many things to ULTRA, increasing the render scaling to 160 somehow allowed me to use more settings at ULTRA with smoother performance.  I've gone too far lately (for Tampa Bay area) as Im getting long pauses for data loading where I didnt have that before.  The only things new for me are the add on airports I bought but I dont really want to get rid of those -- Ill tolerate periodic pauses.

I think what is happening is when your system becomes CPU bound stutters begin. So turning up the graphics settings which shifts the load away from the CPU towards the GPU has the benefit of reducing stutters significantly. At least that is what I see on my system. 45 FPS is nice, but 25-30 FPS with no stutters is way better. 

49 minutes ago, RobJC said:

I think what is happening is when your system becomes CPU bound stutters begin. So turning up the graphics settings which shifts the load away from the CPU towards the GPU has the benefit of reducing stutters significantly. At least that is what I see on my system. 45 FPS is nice, but 25-30 FPS with no stutters is way better. 

Makes sense!!!