I first noticed whenever flying thru thin diffuse "clouds" (or fog or what have you) w/ my old 2070 Super that was the main thing that slammed the GPU.  The same is true today w/ 3080Ti.  What's fascinating is these types of "clouds" seem to be made w/ very fine particles, instead of 'voxels' which you can discern that 'voxel grid' appearance which some call "pixelation", and w/ these thin clouds you do not see the voxel grid effect you see from certain angles w/ other cloud structures.  Look at the OSD on the lower left and note the GPU is maxed out, and it typically hovers around 45-60% of full loading (w/ how I lock the frame rate).  These thin clouds appear to be constructed of something different and clearly impact the GPU massively by comparison to "regular" clouds.  Be curious how 4000 series GPUs are impacted by this, and I'll guess very similarly since the raw computing power sans frame generation isn't all that much greater w/ RTX 4090 from my recollection.

Yep i noticed this a while ago.  FPS tanks in those type of clouds and high GPU usage.  Guess they are just tough to render.  Was the same on my 1080ti and 3080.  

I think the transparency has a lot to do with it.

 

2 hours ago, Noel said:

Be curious how 4000 series GPUs are impacted by this, and I'll guess very similarly since the raw computing power sans frame generation isn't all that much greater w/ RTX 4090 from my recollection

Yes it's the same. My 4080 runs at 100% full load in these clouds. It's ok if this layer is only a few 100 feet thin but often it could be several 1000 feet (with DX12 and FG on or off doesn't mattter).

Edited June 6, 20232 yr by mwe_EDVK

Perhaps the reason for the high gpu usage is that they are rendered as "effects" files.  (?)  And of course they're 1000x larger than your typical exhaust smoke fx

It's a shame FPS tanks so hard in bad weather as I think the sim really shines in beauty there.

Don’t see a big difference on both of my MSFS pc’s. Normally I see 40-50% GPU load  normally and with these clouds sometimes up to 60%.Nowhere near 100%….

4080 and 4090

I don't see that much of a load increase with those cloud types in VR, then again maybe it's more of a 4K 2D thing.

 

2 hours ago, HPG said:

It's a shame FPS tanks so hard in bad weather as I think the sim really shines in beauty there.

I didn't see a big difference in FPS inside bad weather (perhaps 2 or 3 FPS max), I even find it amazing how they could achieve this compared to other sims where I always had FPS problems in bad weather. But I run the sim at 1080p and my GPU load is usually around 80%. If yours is already near 100% without bad weather then I guess you will have problems with clouds.

The translucent mist layer is far harder on my 3090 than bad weather. I do see the GPU hit 100% and get a frame rate hit in these clouds if I am viewing the sim from an external camera. However the impact on the GPU from these clouds is far less in the flight deck view. My suggestion is when in translucent clouds stay in the flight deck! 😁

27 minutes ago, Alvega said:

I didn't see a big difference in FPS inside bad weather (perhaps 2 or 3 FPS max), I even find it amazing how they could achieve this compared to other sims where I always had FPS problems in bad weather. But I run the sim at 1080p and my GPU load is usually around 80%. If yours is already near 100% without bad weather then I guess you will have problems with clouds.

Bad weather actually isn't an issue, my fps is just fine in those conditions.  Its flying through this misty cloud layer thats the problem, even when its not bad weather.  Can just be broken clouds and then fly through this layer and it tanks everytime.  I have had 3 different GPUs and its been the same for all of them.  

7 hours ago, HPG said:

It's a shame FPS tanks so hard in bad weather as I think the sim really shines in beauty there.

I'm not sure what you mean by "bad" weather.  It's only these thin diffuse clouds or fog that tank the frame rate everything else is benign on my system.

4 hours ago, tgsweat said:

Bad weather actually isn't an issue, my fps is just fine in those conditions.  Its flying through this misty cloud layer thats the problem, even when its not bad weather.  Can just be broken clouds and then fly through this layer and it tanks everytime.  I have had 3 different GPUs and its been the same for all of them.  

I think they are just different, these misty conditions appear to be made up of dense small individual particles, whereas normal "clouds" are created w/ voxels which are far less taxing on the GPU, and is also why we don't see complex highly detailed clouds w/ distinct morphologies with the easy to process voxel-based 3D clouds--the ones that create the visual artifacts, the 'voxel grid' on the edges of the low resolution clouds we have now.  I would hope Asobo can crank up the VOXEL density and so get closer to higher resolution clouds we'd all love, like these:

Some day, but probably not for awhile.

 

10 minutes ago, Noel said:

It's only these thin diffuse clouds

Yes, bad weather even with rain or normal ground fog mostly have little influence with performance, only these high level clouds (fog). It doesn‘t matter if you’re inside the cockpit or outside the plane. The more clouds are visible the greater the impact on performance.