I feel like I am going to sound like an old timer but back in the FS9, FSX days, we were luck if we got a solid 20fps. Fast-forward to today times and sims are easily getting high fps. I turned off looking at fps some time ago on my old computer in FS2020. Seeing post where the user is stating they are getting 70fps and then it going down to 45fps or something like that due to an addon, doesnt make the addon bad or an issue. Everything taxes the computer and the reason why you have 70fps is to give head room for those addons.

I get VR users are in need of fps info because they need double the frames but seriously, for all non VR users, cant you just determine if the sim is smooth by your experience and not by some fps number. Especially if its within a small range where you really notice skipping when it fluctuates dramatically by huge fps instead of just a few. Seems like, we've reached a point where fps are good for testing purposes but really mean little when it comes to smoothness of the sim.

I honestly dont know what Im getting on fps with my sim but I know its running 7 different screens at different res, I have all sliders close to max and LOD set at 400 with now running BATC with all traffic set at 5 using FSSTL traffic and still get a smooth flight. So much so that on my next flight I'm going to bump up the traffic to the highest and see if I notice a difference as 5 was just set as default. I wont be looking at fps but instead just if it remains smooth. This is with the A2A Comanche. With the Black Square Duke, I do get skips from time to time on the ground so thats obviously the plane and not the sim, which I can easily live with.

2 minutes ago, Ident said:

I feel like I am going to sound like an old timer but back in the FS9, FSX days, we were luck if we got a solid 20fps. Fast-forward to today times and sims are easily getting high fps. I turned off looking at fps some time ago on my old computer in FS2020. Seeing post where the user is stating they are getting 70fps and then it going down to 45fps or something like that due to an addon, doesnt make the addon bad or an issue. Everything taxes the computer and the reason why you have 70fps is to give head room for those addons.

I get VR users are in need of fps info because they need double the frames but seriously, for all non VR users, cant you just determine if the sim is smooth by your experience and not by some fps number. Especially if its within a small range where you really notice skipping when it fluctuates dramatically by huge fps instead of just a few. Seems like, we've reached a point where fps are good for testing purposes but really mean little when it comes to smoothness of the sim.

I honestly dont know what Im getting on fps with my sim but I know its running 7 different screens at different res, I have all sliders close to max and LOD set at 400 with now running BATC with all traffic set at 5 using FSSTL traffic and still get a smooth flight. So much so that on my next flight I'm going to bump up the traffic to the highest and see if I notice a difference as 5 was just set as default. I wont be looking at fps but instead just if it remains smooth. This is with the A2A Comanche. With the Black Square Duke, I do get skips from time to time on the ground so thats obviously the plane and not the sim, which I can easily live with.

Spot on, if it's fluid I don't care about the FPS but for me I also "know" that my smoothest experience was always when my FPS matched the refresh of my monitor otherwise there were always noticeable (to me) micro stutters so I knew that 60 FPS on a 60 Hz monitor was the "smoothest" experience until FG then I could set my refresh to 120 and do 2x FG but not because I need 120 FPS so that to your point I can crank EVERY setting and still have the headroom to maintain fluidity...   I don't ever look at my FPS in the sim to your point though, I look at is it fluid and smooth.  

4 minutes ago, psolk said:

I don't ever look at my FPS in the sim to your point though, I look at is it fluid and smooth.  

Same here. I rather keep an eye on CPU/GPU temperatures as well as smoothness. And so far I'm doing well on that 🙂 

Edited February 13, 20251 yr by hvw

9 minutes ago, hvw said:

Same here. As far as I understand the human eye cannot cope with more than ~30 fps anyway

There used to be the belief that the human eye could only see 24 FPS but now it is believed to be between 30-60FPS but that is only looking at static images not things in motion where the human eye just "sees".  I believe military pilots could identify objects in like 1/300 of a second and detect light at over 1/1000 but I have no idea how that translates to an FPS on a screen...  

We are amazing creatures when you think of what we can process visually and computationally.   As an example, in racing an average track has 10-16 corners over 2-3 miles.  A HUGE delta would be 1.6 seconds per lap which breaks down to 1/10th of a second per corner per lap.  Think about what you can do in 1/10th of a second.  Blink maybe?  Yet somehow we can comprehend that we are an inch offline at 100+mph while trying to gain 1/10th of a second at speed.  It's mind blowing and I don't know how that translates to FPS which is all the more reason to not care 🙂 

Edited February 13, 20251 yr by psolk

My attention moved ages ago from FPS to CPU/GPU temps. 

GPU has always been fine, CPU is crawling up into the region of uncomfortableness for me, but that is likely due to ambient temperature, being summer here is definitely a contributing factor.

I never bother checking framerates. If it is smooth enough for me, then I really do not care about the numbers. The performance of MSFS 2020 on my 2015 specification PC is so good that I am rather puzzled when other users apparently struggle with systems that are light years ahead of mine in terms of raw power.

Edited February 13, 20251 yr by Christopher Low

Man after my own heart. But you're wasting your time. People, and they won't be posting on here, will still swear blind they can see the difference between 100fps and 110fps. Leave 'em to it mate. 😁

44 minutes ago, psolk said:

Spot on, if it's fluid I don't care about the FPS but for me I also "know" that my smoothest experience was always when my FPS matched the refresh of my monitor otherwise there were always noticeable (to me) micro stutters so I knew that 60 FPS on a 60 Hz monitor was the "smoothest" experience until FG then I could set my refresh to 120 and do 2x FG but not because I need 120 FPS so that to your point I can crank EVERY setting and still have the headroom to maintain fluidity...   I don't ever look at my FPS in the sim to your point though, I look at is it fluid and smooth.  

My understanding is that as humans we can see blur where there are no blur in frame generation. Its captured in film allowing that 24fps or 30 fps to appear normal because its all locked at that fps and doesnt vary. You just capture more blur in the frame is all. However, to overcome the lack of blur, we need higher fps. Flying with a wide screen I see on the corners of the screen those lapse of extra frames as I taxi and see the taxi lights skip by very subtle. However, looking at the center of the screen things move slower so it appears smooth.

Also when I pan around its smooth increasing the feeling of no stutters and high, consistent frames. Consistent frames are the key to it once you get above a certain fps which for some can be as low as the high teens...as long as there are no dips at that point.

 

I just reminded myself of the oft heard cry 'What's it like on frames?' on every new aircraft/scenery.

I think this is one of those things certain people notice more than others.  The difference between 20 fps and 60 is massive to me.  As you start to get higher, that gap shrinks greatly.  

Now, for very high speed first person shooters like COD, you really want 120+.  Top players use 240hz monitors and 240fps.  

Does flight sim need triple digit FPS?  Not really.  For me though, anything below 60 starts to feel a little clunky.  I mean, is 45 flyable?  Of course.  Still, something dropping me from 60+ to 45 is causing stutters.  

For me, smooth flight adds to the immersion, just like the scenery.  FSX made me quit the hobby for years because no amount of hardware could ever get rid of the awful stuttering, even with GA planes.  I mean, we flew with 20 in FSX because it wouldn't give us anymore.  I couldn't even guess how many FSX stuttering threads there were here back in the day.  

We don't have force feedback or full motion rigs (well most of us), so our eyes give us the "feel" of the plane.  Visual stutters "feel" bad, even if there's no feel.  

2 hours ago, Ron Attwood said:

Man after my own heart. But you're wasting your time. People, and they won't be posting on here, will still swear blind they can see the difference between 100fps and 110fps. Leave 'em to it mate. 😁

They are in the "More FPS " Cult.  No talking them out of it. 

Older eyes notice things less. The younger you are, the more you will notice the difference between 45 fps and 75 fps (for example). 

I’m 42 and have played competitive counter strike back in my teens - at a reasonably high level. I know the difference and also know that my eyes and twitch reflexes aren’t the same now at 42. I could never play competitive esports now so I’m happy with 60-90

Also if you have a high refresh rate monitor (120,144,240) then it becomes ever more important. 
 

If you don’t see the difference,  then you don’t need higher fps. I currently ( again, I’m 42) do and anything under 55-60 fps is drastically visible to me. Above 90 I don’t see much difference now, unless I’m really looking for it  

 

so yes, the older you are, the simpler it gets to run with lower FPS  

 

I use the gamebar performance stats to test setting changes primarily and yes sometimes for bragging rights but normal flights are with VSync on @60fps.

Without VSync I can do 100 FPS in and out of cockpit on a 5900x / 3060ti.  If I turn on PG it may drop 10.

FG doesn't interest me as it reminds me of NVidia's SLI scheme and I don't want to overdrive my GPU.

dd

 

 

Edited February 13, 20251 yr by Sky_Pilot071

Some users just like going  around in circles chasing  that extra 1 fp 🙂

Pretty much agree.....I still cannot run everything consistently at 60fps to match my monitor so I always run my fps locked at 30 with 1/2 refresh Vsync.  I just like having a smooth experience without stutters and this works fine for me..