Success! I initially just clicked "Buy" assuming that the "checking for updates", two-minute startup time, and opening razzamatazz meant that the updates were actually downloaded. Not so. But  when finally I added "Download" I finally got the improvements I had vainly expected two months ago. True, Bruce, slightly melted, but quite acceptable for me,  and helped by Noel's suggestion to slow down the sim, I can now enjoy air tourism again.

5 hours ago, marangog said:

I don't actually have any overclocking. If I do upgrade my RAM, I'll report what happens.

Do you have any apps running that report your runtime clockspeed?  Your 9700 will ramp up to 4.7Ghz using Turbo Boost Technology which may need to be enabled, or is by default, in your motherboard's BIOS.  It would be interesting to run something to see what it's actually running at, plus if you can set up the BIOS to allow Core8 (or 7 whatever its ID is called) to be the single thread that runs at 4.7Ghz, as it's the last core on the chip that MSFS uses as its 'main thread'.  If somehow that's not happening there is a lot of unexploited headroom you might be able to get to.

Cheers

Edited June 15, 20214 yr by Noel

I looked at my BIOS but couldn't find any way to control the threads. However, your tip to monitor the usage was very handy. I used Task Manager (Processes) to report CPU speed and Ram usage as the game ran. CPU speed went up to 4.55GHz  and was regularly over 4, so I guess Turbo boost is on my MoBo. I got 13Gb RAM at the Welcome screen, and around 14 even when skimming rooftops, with only rare small spikes showing pagefile access on the disk. Your other tip - slowing the sim speed - allowed me to enjoy the view better. I don't think it added details, but I am happy with the ultra buildings settings. So, I think I can wait for the prices to drop before doubling that RAM. 

Cheers

What are your settings? I can nearly guarantee you that as soon as you install more RAM, the usage will be upped considerably and the overall experience will be smoother.

8 hours ago, marangog said:

So, I think I can wait for the prices to drop before doubling that RAM. 

Agree... I am not convinced that adding RAM will have any effect if you can happily run in 16GB without paging.

I run 16 GB, but tested with 24 GB for a while... Ended up back at 16 GB. 😉

Mind you, I run 1080p / High...  Maybe 4k/Ultra will indeed use more RAM..

Edited June 17, 20214 yr by Bert Pieke

2 hours ago, Bert Pieke said:

Agree... I am not convinced that adding RAM will have any effect if you can happily run in 16GB without paging.

I run 16 GB, but tested with 24 GB for a while... Ended up back at 16 GB. 😉

Mind you, I run 1080p / High...  Maybe 4k/Ultra will indeed use more RAM..

I see well over 16Gb frequently, but often less as well.  I have an 8Gb VRAM GPU, and run 1440p, vsynced to 30hz, and as I say often see over 20Gb of RAM use in busy metro areas.  It's important to realize the older RAM gets at some point the more expensive it gets.

11 hours ago, marangog said:

I looked at my BIOS but couldn't find any way to control the threads. However, your tip to monitor the usage was very handy. I used Task Manager (Processes) to report CPU speed and Ram usage as the game ran. CPU speed went up to 4.55GHz  and was regularly over 4, so I guess Turbo boost is on my MoBo. I got 13Gb RAM at the Welcome screen, and around 14 even when skimming rooftops, with only rare small spikes showing pagefile access on the disk. Your other tip - slowing the sim speed - allowed me to enjoy the view better. I don't think it added details, but I am happy with the ultra buildings settings. So, I think I can wait for the prices to drop before doubling that RAM. 

Cheers

In general more ram is a good thing.  Win 10 will always keep some free, hence you will never see it maxed in MSFS to 16Gb in your case, so seeing 13-14Gb is very predicted--IOW it is using as much as possible, not as much as it could were it given more.   

A freeware app called MSI Afterburner w/ its associated adjunt, RTSS, lets you display any and all parameters in a discreet way via a resizable on-screen-display, so you may wish to install and use as many do.  

I am able to vsyncing to a 30hz capable display, which for me offers the best possible performance w/ current hardware I have.  

Here's a completely unlocked, unlimited, non-vsynced, 60hz refresh rate display. Note RTSS OSD in the upper left:  frame rate is 45, GPU is maxed at 99%, CPU 69%

Contrast w/ my configuration w/ screen refresh rate 30hz, Vsynced to 30hz.  Note frame rate is 30, GPU only 68%, and CPU 38% (CPU8).

In a double-blinded test, w/o doing specially maneuvers to tease out the differences, I would give anyone $100 if they could consistently point to how the sim was setup for 60Hz v 30hz vsynced.  Many swear 30hz verges on seizure-producing, but not on my display.  When we can go thru any scenario in MSFS and maintain at least 60fps@1440p, then and only then will I change back to 60Hz.

And busting thru the clouds to land at 08L in Paris LFPG note RAM use 21,700+

Edited June 17, 20214 yr by Noel

On 6/18/2021 at 5:26 AM, Bandyka said:

What are your settings? I can nearly guarantee you that as soon as you install more RAM, the usage will be upped considerably and the overall experience will be smoother.

Sorry for the delay here. My settings are:

Graphics (slightly tweaked from the GE Force Experience OPTIMAL settings)
windowed (easier to switch to Google Earth etc)
1920x1080
Global rendering - custom
v-sync ON
Frame rate limit - 60 (I regularly get framerates of 50+)
Render scaling - 100
Anti Aliasing - TAA
Terrain LOD - 125
Terrain vector - ULTRA
Buildings - ULTRA
Trees - LOW (it reduces the tree density too, which I prefer)
Grass - LOW
Objects LOD - 100
Clouds - LOW
Texture resolution - HIGH
Anistropic - 4x
Texture supersampling - 2x2
Texture synthesis - MED
Water waves - HIGH
Shadow maps - 768
Terrain shadows - 512
Contact shadows - MED
Windshield effects - LOW
Ambient occlusion - MED
Motion blur - OFF
Lens correction - OFF
Lens flare - ON
Glass cockpit refresh - LOW

AI (Not very interested in other activities)
Aircraft traffic - OFF
Show nameplates - OFF
Airport life/ ground aircraft / worker - 50
Boats / vehicles / ships - 50
Fauna - 100
AI - OFF
Traffic density - LOW

DATA
Online functionality - ON
Bing Data - ON
Photogrammetry - ON
Live traffic - OFF
Live weather - OFF
Bandwidth unlimited (I have fast cable)
Rolling cache - ON
Rolling cache limit - 8GB

I also have an IPS monitor with a 144GHz refresh rate and 1ms MPRT

If there is anything there that you recommend changing, I'd be glad to give it a go. Though I want to repeat that I'm pretty happy with what I get now, and indeed if I had only understood that "Buy" concept  better I would not have complained in the first place.

Cheers

On 6/14/2021 at 2:45 AM, brucewtb said:

The melted buildings (and trees) was one of the immediate things to strike me when I loaded the game for the first time 9 months ago.  I was very unimpressed and thought well if that is the best they can do then what on earth was all the pre launch fuss about? Have recently returned to MSFS but I am staggered that we have the melted look on the game load up screen hardly much of a recommendation.  So I avoid areas with photogrammetry when I can but even flying over the Wollongong area (just south of Sydney Australia) at 5000 ft in the bonanza you get the melted look.  On the other hand the Sydney built up area with Orbx addon looks very good.  Hope that this eventually gets sorted.

Bruceb

It will most likely never get solved because it's all based on the quality of the imagery, it's not a problem with the sim but the data source. City wide Photogrammetry will never look that great.

Most Photogrammetry will have some sort of the melted look anyways, even the stuff on google maps has it.

You can disable Photogrammetry in the data options menu you know, so no need to avoid the areas, just turn it off. It's better on the FPS turned off anyways.

Also there's no Photogrammetry in Australia, so I'm not sure what you're talking about there.

Edited June 20, 20214 yr by Tuskin38

Hi,

I am wondering if you turn off Photogrammetry, do you still have isolated POI?

Pierre

6 hours ago, Pochi said:

Hi,

I am wondering if you turn off Photogrammetry, do you still have isolated POI?

Pierre

POIs are not tied to Photogammetry. They’re custom models.

9 hours ago, Tuskin38 said:

 

Also there's no Photogrammetry in Australia, so I'm not sure what you're talking about there.

Gold Coast is photogrammetry..

Huh so it is. I completely missed that.

On 6/20/2021 at 1:26 AM, marangog said:

Sorry for the delay here. My settings are:

Graphics (slightly tweaked from the GE Force Experience OPTIMAL settings)
windowed (easier to switch to Google Earth etc)
1920x1080
Global rendering - custom
v-sync ON
Frame rate limit - 60 (I regularly get framerates of 50+)
Render scaling - 100
Anti Aliasing - TAA
Terrain LOD - 125
Terrain vector - ULTRA
Buildings - ULTRA
Trees - LOW (it reduces the tree density too, which I prefer)
Grass - LOW
Objects LOD - 100
Clouds - LOW
Texture resolution - HIGH
Anistropic - 4x
Texture supersampling - 2x2
Texture synthesis - MED
Water waves - HIGH
Shadow maps - 768
Terrain shadows - 512
Contact shadows - MED
Windshield effects - LOW
Ambient occlusion - MED
Motion blur - OFF
Lens correction - OFF
Lens flare - ON
Glass cockpit refresh - LOW

AI (Not very interested in other activities)
Aircraft traffic - OFF
Show nameplates - OFF
Airport life/ ground aircraft / worker - 50
Boats / vehicles / ships - 50
Fauna - 100
AI - OFF
Traffic density - LOW

DATA
Online functionality - ON
Bing Data - ON
Photogrammetry - ON
Live traffic - OFF
Live weather - OFF
Bandwidth unlimited (I have fast cable)
Rolling cache - ON
Rolling cache limit - 8GB

I also have an IPS monitor with a 144GHz refresh rate and 1ms MPRT

If there is anything there that you recommend changing, I'd be glad to give it a go. Though I want to repeat that I'm pretty happy with what I get now, and indeed if I had only understood that "Buy" concept  better I would not have complained in the first place.

Cheers

Well, all I can tell you is that from own experience the general simming experience became smoother once upgraded RAM from 16GB. In the old PC I went to 24GB and in the new one to 32GB. Both benefited at either 1080p and 4K. The LOW FPS drops have been greatly recused which are basically stutters when you pan the camera.

It would be worthwhile checking what is the current bottleneck in your PC CPU or GPU.

16GB RAM shouldn't break the bank and can be used in a new PC later.

As Noel pointed out when you see 14GB usage or less that is only because Windows is using the rest and that is all the sim can use that means it is RAM starved pretty much. Using page files doesn't really help as it is not nearly fast enough to avoid stutters even on an nvme drive.

However if you are happy as is, happy simming.

Edited June 22, 20214 yr by Bandyka

On 6/17/2021 at 7:14 PM, marangog said:

I looked at my BIOS but couldn't find any way to control the threads. However, your tip to monitor the usage was very handy. I used Task Manager (Processes) to report CPU speed and Ram usage as the game ran. CPU speed went up to 4.55GHz  and was regularly over 4, so I guess Turbo boost is on my MoBo. I got 13Gb RAM at the Welcome screen, and around 14 even when skimming rooftops, with only rare small spikes showing pagefile access on the disk. Your other tip - slowing the sim speed - allowed me to enjoy the view better. I don't think it added details, but I am happy with the ultra buildings settings. So, I think I can wait for the prices to drop before doubling that RAM. 

Cheers

All core turbo on the 9700 is 4.6Ghz .

If it is dropping below that you are either thermal throttling or (much more likely) your bios is set to use the Intel TDP of 95 watts meaning the PC will automatically clock down after running on turbo for a while to maintain the 95W TDP.

On 6/20/2021 at 4:52 PM, Tuskin38 said:

Huh so it is. I completely missed that.

You must have missed Darwin, Newcastle, Canberra and Hobart as well 😄  I might even   have missed some.