Atrociously bad framerates with a good PC

[Ray Proudfoot 8,954]

8 hours ago, FredricG said:

Hi Ray,

Your CPU, an i7-8086K, is marginally (albeit notably) better than my Ryzen 5 3600XT, according to userbechmarks. 

Deleted NVIDIA inspector, confirmed that all NVIDIA control panel settings are at default. That seemed to help my framerates as I am now seeing a consistent 25-30fps at (for example) Flightbeam KDEN at night, with dynamic lighting on, at those same settings. My CPU is running at roughly 25-30% and my GPU is running at 60%, +/- several percent. Not concerned about RAM, as I'm sitting at a consistent 15gb used. The initial problem of framerates has been solved, except for one thing: When I'm on initial approach to an airport, descending through roughly 12000 feet, my framerate drops to around 13-15fps until I reach final approach, probably due to scenery draw distance, which I will lower and test. So it was probably something to do with NVIDIA inspector creating a conflict that caused the frame drops. other than that it has been resolved but now a new problem has arisen -

Antialiasing. I see very noticeable aliasing/shimmering on taxiway and runway lines and edges, as well as on the plane itself. This has been a consistent issue for me. See here for example: https://postimg.cc/XGjVnB9F

Hi Fredric,

Excellent news. Those numbers show you're not hammering your CPU and GPU. Weather can play a factor of course and it's very difficult to get a stutter free sim.

In Nvidia CP select Manage 3D Settings on the left and under Program Settings Add a new profile for Prepar3d.exe. Then under Power Management Mode select Prefer Maximum Performance. That helps with DXGI crashes.

My AA settings are FXAA = Off; AA = 4xMSAA. You'll always get some shimmering with fences etc. but the very high resolution should minimise those. Higher AA settings will further reduce them but fps will suffer.

[Mace 1,926]

@FredricG  just be wary of SSAA and dynamic lighting at night with the 1080ti.    Avoid that, and you should have good performance.  This is better in v5 on my machine, but on 4.5 it was very detrimental to performance.

I assume you're aware of P3D's ability to save "performance profiles"?  In the settings screen, after you have sliders to your liking, you can save those settings.   I have one such saved setting called "London Night" which has fxaa=off and 4xMSAA and no dynamic lighting.  It delivers 30 fps in even the most hellish conditions (Heathrow/Gatwick/Stansted, lots of AI, lots of weather, complex aircraft) and still looks fine (it's night time, so if my autogen radius is a tick lower, I never see it, as an example).

[FredricG 3]

On 5/18/2021 at 1:50 AM, Ray Proudfoot said:

Hi Fredric,

Excellent news. Those numbers show you're not hammering your CPU and GPU. Weather can play a factor of course and it's very difficult to get a stutter free sim.

In Nvidia CP select Manage 3D Settings on the left and under Program Settings Add a new profile for Prepar3d.exe. Then under Power Management Mode select Prefer Maximum Performance. That helps with DXGI crashes.

My AA settings are FXAA = Off; AA = 4xMSAA. You'll always get some shimmering with fences etc. but the very high resolution should minimise those. Higher AA settings will further reduce them but fps will suffer.

Unfortunately those settings do not look very good at all, even with the slight shimmering that I expected from fences, etc. It makes the stars shimmer at night, the cockpit textures seem horribly aliased, and even at the maximum 8xSSAA I still see shimmering, but it's not that bad, if hardly noticeable. At night, of course, SSAA takes a large toll on my GPU, especially with dynamic lighting, so I have to reduce it to 8xMSAA or 2xSSAA and FXAA off which brings back the very noticeable shimmers. I also have to reduce it to those settings when flying over certain ORBX regions, like NA Southern California, EU England/Ireland/Germany, etc... So something has to be wrong with my antialiasing. And it's something I've struggled with for quite some time now.

Edited May 21, 2021 by FredricG

[Ray Proudfoot 8,954]

@FredricG, it’s possible your TV is partly responsible for the image quality. When I used a Sony 32” TV the PQ was never as good as with a decent monitor.

4K will minimise the need for aggressive anti-alias settings but you’ll always have some artefacts. I never fly at night so don’t experience the problems you’re talking about. I do see shimmering with fences but it doesn’t unduly bother me.

[FredricG 3]

On 5/21/2021 at 1:40 AM, Ray Proudfoot said:

@FredricG, it’s possible your TV is partly responsible for the image quality. When I used a Sony 32” TV the PQ was never as good as with a decent monitor.

4K will minimise the need for aggressive anti-alias settings but you’ll always have some artefacts. I never fly at night so don’t experience the problems you’re talking about. I do see shimmering with fences but it doesn’t unduly bother me.

It probably is the TV and the problems associated with displaying the picture. For example, here is a screenshot of some very clear aliasing in the taxi lines at FSDreamTeam's Honolulu (PHNL). 16x anisotropic filtering, 8xSSAA, FXAA on, 4096x4096 texture size. https://postimg.cc/bSYrKZDg

[Ray Proudfoot 8,954]

@FredricG, frustrating I know but imagine how much worse it used to be when we had resolutions of 1024*768.

If you can live with a smaller display consider a quality 32” 4K monitor such as a BenQ that can support 30Hz. When I taxi around airports I’m not aware of issues like that.

[FredricG 3]

13 minutes ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

@FredricG, frustrating I know but imagine how much worse it used to be when we had resolutions of 1024*768.

If you can live with a smaller display consider a quality 32” 4K monitor such as a BenQ that can support 30Hz. When I taxi around airports I’m not aware of issues like that.

Oh, I remember all too well the days of running on 720p monitors, and that was considered good!! 😆 But a smaller display would be fine with me. I do appreciate the advice!

[IanHarrison 522]

9 hours ago, FredricG said:

It probably is the TV and the problems associated with displaying the picture. For example, here is a screenshot of some very clear aliasing in the taxi lines at FSDreamTeam's Honolulu (PHNL). 16x anisotropic filtering, 8xSSAA, FXAA on, 4096x4096 texture size. https://postimg.cc/bSYrKZDg

What are we supposed to see? This looks all perfectly OK .

[Bert Pieke 7,585]

9 hours ago, FredricG said:

8xSSAA, FXAA on

Why have FXAA on, if you are using SSAA?

Suggest turning it off.

[Ray Proudfoot 8,954]

3 hours ago, Bert Pieke said:

Why have FXAA on, if you are using SSAA?

Suggest turning it off.

Absolutely! 4K negates the need for that setting. 👍