So I am running MSFS on a very low end machine that doesn't even meet the minimum specs and somehow getting around 25FPS on medium settings over densely populated areas like LA. I want to get a few of the addon airports from Orbx, and I was wondering how much they affect FPS. 

So do you think I could get some of these airport or will they impact my FPS too much?

 

Thanks

Hard to say.  Some are more detailed than others and some are compiled and optimised better by the developers.  In short, some will completely devour your FPS and some will have very little effect.

On a low end machine, you don't have too much headroom, so I would suggest popping over to flightsim.to and trying a few freeware airports first to get a feel of how much it will affect your performance 

Edited January 1, 20224 yr by cianpars

I have a 7 year old "Old Potato" (thanks, Mr. Fuzzy) and am seeing hardly any significant drops in fps when using addon airports. All settings medium. Exceptions are the really large and detailed airports like the freeware Gatwick one. 

Second the suggestion to try a few of the free ones on flightsim.to

7 hours ago, jt233 said:

So I am running MSFS on a very low end machine that doesn't even meet the minimum specs and somehow getting around 25FPS on medium settings over densely populated areas like LA. I want to get a few of the addon airports from Orbx, and I was wondering how much they affect FPS. 

So do you think I could get some of these airport or will they impact my FPS too much?

 

Thanks

Some will absolutely impact performance, in fact in my limited experience most will some, and others will impact performance greatly.  I of course have no idea about your situation but my first thought on this would be:  save your $$ to put towards a new PC or perhaps Xbox Series X.  The default airports are often excellent, in fact of the 5 or 6 I purchased early on I uninstalled 3 of them but that was because the developer omitted a feature very important to me at the time.

It seems the AI Ac at Ap's effect my FPS more than anything!

7 hours ago, jt233 said:

So I am running MSFS on a very low end machine that doesn't even meet the minimum specs and somehow getting around 25FPS on medium settings over densely populated areas like LA. I want to get a few of the addon airports from Orbx, and I was wondering how much they affect FPS. 

So do you think I could get some of these airport or will they impact my FPS too much?

 

Thanks

It depends on the add-on airport. The ones that I have tried though, do lower my FPS, maybe by up to 15%.  You can see my PC specs in my signature.

My computer is about average specs for MSFS, except I have above average RAM at 24 GB.  You're probably pushing it with your computer if you are at minimum specs. If you plan to buy a new PC soon, it probably won't hurt to try whatever add-on airport you are eyeing, since you can always use that add-on airport when you get your new PC.  But if you have no plans to buy a new PC soon, I would hold off on purchasing add-on airports unless you are sure it will perform well on your current PC.

Edited January 1, 20224 yr by abrams_tank

Interesting topic!

I'm running MSFS on medium settings too (still looking better than P3D V4.5 on high settings) and I'm having a quite smooth experience at around 30 FPS with the WT CJ4, good freeware addon airports from flightsim.to and some traffic on VATSIM. As CPU I've got a ten year old i7-3820 and an eight year old GTX 780 Ti.

I'm less concerned about more detailed airports compared to the existing freeware ones then about the upcoming iniBuilds A310 and the likes...

And if MSFS doesn't run smoothly anymore with a complex payware airliner, I'm unsure wether I should (and how to) upgrade some components or getting an all new PC 😧😧😧

 

 

Edit: Probably I should try the FBW A320 first and see how significant the impact on FPS really is 🤔

Edited January 1, 20224 yr by Konterhalbe

The only non standard airports I've ever noticed any type of hit at are a few of Asobo's hand crafted ones. Which is weird because they're not exactly heaving with detail.

Other than that I've never noticed a hit anywhere and I don't have a top line machine. 

As a couple poster mentioned above Gatwick by mkvy on flightsim.to is very hard on some computers. If that freeware airport runs well, then none of he ORBX should give a problem.

Except maybe Washington DC KDCA Ronald Regan + Washington DC City Landmarks both are by DRZEWIEKI, but I have just a slight reduction from 34 to 28 fps. Specs below.