*I'm not claiming this is a super fix - just trying to see if anyone else sees the same improvement.

So this one threw me off and I'll preface this by saying that I'm still not sold on 2024, but this changed my experience considerably and I'm trying to determine if I'm misunderstanding something or it's a bug. A good friend of mine has a very similar hardware setup and I couldn't figure out why I would see micro-stutters and the overall smoothness of the sim didn't match his setup. I went through all of the settings and we were nearly identical except one thing. In his sim under the graphics settings, he had monitor refresh rate set for 50% while mine was set at 100%. Oddly enough, I couldn't change this value and didn't think anything of it since I had my Nvidia control panel limiting the sim to 117fps anyways.

I pulled up the dev console and turned on the fps counter and noticed I was limited by main thread like him, but mine was in the "red" and his was a steady green. I also noticed in my sim, I couldn't change the monitor refresh rate setting and it was simply grayed out. I found out though by turning off frame generation this option would become available to me and I could adjust it down to 50% - and just like that, performance instantly improved, micro stutters gone, and now I have the green window. I went back into the settings and turned off frame generation again and turned it back to 100%, turned frame generation back on and it was back to red again. Even weirder, if I dropped the monitor refresh rate to 33% as the lowest option, it reverted back to red again.

If that didn't make any sense, here's the simple solution, TLDR:

(Defaults to 100%)
Frame Gen Off > Change Monitor Refresh Rate to 50% > Turn frame gen back on - Debug FPS console is now green
Frame Gen Off > Change Monitor Refresh Rate  to 100% > Turn frame gen back on - Debug FPS console is now red
Frame Gen Off > Change Monitor Refresh Rate to 33% > Turn frame gen back on - Debug FPS console is now red

So I'm not sure why this is and why changing it to 50% improved my performance when my fps are the same. Either way, I made a short video showing this. You can't see the same micro-stutters in this video very well, but I could visualize them very well when that counter was in the red. Transitioning views is when it was the most obvious. Curious if anyone else with similar hardware who has had performance issues can test this?

 

Edited December 5, 20241 yr by Keirtt

Wow, I think you're on to something here !

So in Windows advanced display settings you had monitor refresh rate set to 120?

This may (or may not) be a nice fix for - and maybe others - let's hope so! BUT....

.... I see this in many similar performance-related threads:

1) Just because a graph (of any kind) is in the red, it doesn't automatically mean it's bad. Sometimes it's simply the process is maxed out - and is what it's meant to do.

2) Frame rates aren't the holy grail. As I think you've discovered, it's a combination of frame rates vs smoothness (especially when panning). Either end of that sliding scale is bad (!).

This isn't meant to be a criticism - just a reminder that frame rates aren't the whole story.

15 minutes ago, Adamski_NZ said:

This may (or may not) be a nice fix for - and maybe others - let's hope so! BUT....

.... I see this in many similar performance-related threads:

1) Just because a graph (of any kind) is in the red, it doesn't automatically mean it's bad. Sometimes it's simply the process is maxed out - and is what it's meant to do.

2) Frame rates aren't the holy grail. As I think you've discovered, it's a combination of frame rates vs smoothness (especially when panning). Either end of that sliding scale is bad (!).

This isn't meant to be a criticism - just a reminder that frame rates aren't the whole story.

You're absolutely right! My frustration was that my buddy was getting a smoother experience than me, even though he had his fps locked at 80 and mine were locked at 117fps. When I changed that monitor refresh rate to 50% however, the smoothness was improved considerably... the fps were the same, but the smoothness was better which is what I'm comparing the "red" and "green" to and maybe with the 50% monitor refresh rate selected, that's helping improve those stutters for me.  

21 minutes ago, Fielder said:

Wow, I think you're on to something here !

So in Windows advanced display settings you had monitor refresh rate set to 120?

In the nvidia control panel I had the sim locked at 117 fps (keeping it under my monitor refresh rate). Within the sim however, I adjusted the monitor refresh rate to 50%.

50 minutes ago, Keirtt said:

In the nvidia control panel I had the sim locked at 117 fps (keeping it under my monitor refresh rate). Within the sim however, I adjusted the monitor refresh rate to 50%.

But what was your Windows Display Settings | Advanced refresh rate Hz set to?

In case anyone may not know how Kerritt turned on Dev Mode.

In 2020 the monitor refresh rate setting is a vsync setting that limits fps to the setting (not sure if it means the same thing in 2024), so if the refresh rate of your monitor is 144Hz and you set MSFS Monitor refresh rate to 50% then fps will be limited to 72 fps - that's why you lose the stutters, because your system is able to produce stable frame time to match 50% of your monitor refresh rate, but is not able to produce stable frame times that match 100% of you monitor refresh rate...in your situation you had MSFS monitor refresh rate set to 100% while you limited fps with NVCP to 117 fps - unless your actual monitor hardware refresh rate is 117 you are going to see stutters. Any time fps is not equal to monitor hardware refresh rate or an exact fraction of refresh rate you will see stutters. Also if your system is not capable of consistent frame times for your fps limit you will see stutters. The best, but most expensive way to solve this problem is with a monitor with hardware Gsync. With Gsync you can ignore all of the above because the monitor automatically varies refresh rate to equal fps and does it instantly.

A $700.00 Gsync monitor is still the best money I've ever spent on hardware for flight simming, because I get to ignore discussions like this and just enjoy a perfectly smooth sim - always.

5 hours ago, somiller said:

A $700.00 Gsync monitor is still the best money I've ever spent on hardware for flight simming, because I get to ignore discussions like this and just enjoy a perfectly smooth sim - always.

Fully agreed! I also think my official G-sync monitor (ViewSonic Elite XG270QG) is totally awesome! I do notice though that when I look around with TrackIR in MSFS2024, or sometimes even just like that, I might get a little micro hickup... unlike MSFS2020... (must be my CPU or GPU... or my too high settings, haha) but overall the experience is really smooooooooooooth! Money very well spend indeed!

Edited December 5, 20241 yr by mistolip

6 hours ago, somiller said:

With Gsync you can ignore all of the above because the monitor automatically varies refresh rate to equal fps and does it instantly

Does Gsync work reliably in MSFS2024? In my case, I found that forcing Vsnyc to "fast" in the nVIDIA Control Panel already eliminated a lot of stuttering and tearing when looking around, irrespective of the FPS displayed on the screen. 

BTW: limiting the FPS in a game 3FPS below the set refresh rate of the monitor is a common way of preventing tearing with FPS going beyond the Hz number of the monitor when not limited. If the game anyway never reaches close to this number, it does hardly make sense. But it is NOT the cause for stuttering. 

Best tip thread to date. I'm sorted. Now I can stop fiddling obsessively with the settings! Turn off Frame Gen. Set Frame Rate Limit to 50%. Turn FG back on. It's made all the difference! My thanks to the OP!

2 hours ago, AnkH said:

Does Gsync work reliably in MSFS2024? In my case, I found that forcing Vsnyc to "fast" in the nVIDIA Control Panel already eliminated a lot of stuttering and tearing when looking around, irrespective of the FPS displayed on the screen. 

BTW: limiting the FPS in a game 3FPS below the set refresh rate of the monitor is a common way of preventing tearing with FPS going beyond the Hz number of the monitor when not limited. If the game anyway never reaches close to this number, it does hardly make sense. But it is NOT the cause for stuttering. 

I'm not sure you understand - when fps is ANYTHING other than equal to refresh rate or an exact fraction of frame that produces a whole number you WILL experience periodic stutters because when the monitor refreshes if a frame is not ready to render it creates a hiccup/stutter. Furthermore if fps is constant but not synced with refresh you will experience stutters with a perfectly consistent period between them that depends on the fps/refresh difference.

I think a trip to Blur Busters is in order for you if you don't understand that a miss-match between fps and refresh causes stutters.

Just be aware that if you have a 60Hz monitor, doing this "trick" results in a frame limit of 30FPS. If this is still enough for you, fine. There could also be other ways to achieve this btw. 

In my case, I could not get along with 30FPS anymore, even if they are super constant (=smooth). But I also do not have only 60Hz 😉 

Question for the OP:

What is your monitor refresh rate (monitor setting, not msfs setting) and is your system capable of maintaining 117 fps and never dropping below that?