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First things first. I'm feeling a rare sense of gratitude and blessing while I write these lines. My first post ever in this forum was back in 2005 and my last post was in 2011, when my first kid was one years old. Tom Allensworth was still well alive, unique, hard-working, influential visionary for the Flight Simulation community... So I'm back 15 years later, in my 50's now (time flies!), eager to contribute my personal findings in an all-inclusive post about optimal MSFS 2020 settings in 2026 that can guarantee, all things considered, best image quality and no performance compromise (fluid motion, no stutters) for MSFS 2020. These are my current PC specs: Case: Lian Li O11 Vision Compact (White) | PSU: Lian Li Edge Gold 1200W 80+ Gold | Mobo: Gigabyte Aorus X870E Pro Ice (rev 1.1) | CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D @ 4.2GHz (5.0GHz Boost) | CPU Cooler: Lian Li Hydroshift LCD AIO (White) | RAM: 64GB (2x32GB) G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB DDR5 6000MHz | GPU: Sapphire RX 7900 XTX 24GB Nitro+ Vapor-X | SSD: Samsung 990 Pro 4TB M.2 NVMe PCIe 4.0 | OS: Windows 11 Pro 64-bit | Monitor: LG 39GS95QE-B 39'' UltraGear OLED | Keyboard: Keychron Q6 Max (Jupiter Brown) | Mouse: Glorious Model O White Glossy | Headset: Razer Barracuda X White | Extra: Lian Li TL LCD Fans & Strimer Wireless RGB Cables | Joystick: Saitek X52. As per title, this is a specific AMD/Radeon approach. I'm taking an overkill scenario, all settings maxxed (except TLOD which I set to 250). Airport/aircraft: LGTS, rwy34, "Black Square King Air 350 Steam Gauges", engines running, clear weather. In this baseline scenario, my frames in Full Screen (=AMD Frame Generation) are around 130 in my setup. Here is a screenshot from my mobile phone from AMD Adrenaline Metrics Overlay: And here is a short video to show the fluidity of the sim, again from my mobile to capture in "raw" format the output on my monitor: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sc0dtkYS9obg0_UBW176fmUlIkM6KL_Y/view?usp=drive_link In game settings: AMD Adrenaline Settings: Would be happy to contribute further if needed. Posting for benchmarking reasons, no affiliation/no marketing whatsoever, happy to be back! Blue skies! -George.

Very beautiful and professional! My new wallpaper!!Blue Skies,

Hi Word Not Allowed, yes #4 is behind #3, on top of my case. I set #3 as an intake just to provide some cool air to RAM and to the CPU cooler's intake fan (#6 in the picture), while I set #4 as an exhaust just to facilitate the work of #5 (backside case fan) and #7 (cpu cooler second/exhaust fan). I guess it works, check my CPU temps below. I wonder if this is optimal though... Yes I did that. When oc'ed @ 5.0Ghz, my idle temps float between 38-41 and when on extreme load (20min of IntelBurn Test v2.50 on "maximum" setting) I get max. temp of 83oC. Within FSX, CPU load never exceeds 80% (and this on one core only) and 68oC-70oC. It's not that I have some kind of CPU temp problem, it's just that I noticed no difference with my GPU (RMA'ed now) temp between full rpm and medium rpm usage of my side fan (Fan #2 in the picture). GTX480 soc was constantly (when under load) working at 80o+C...

Well, unfortunately I had to RMA my Gigabyte GTX480 SOC due to artifacting and freezing in many environments (stress tools and games). Nevermind, while I patiently wait for my replacement card to arrive, I thought to tune up my PC case by adding minor touches here and there. When assembling it, a month ago, I didn't have the time to go through all the positive/negative pressure literature so I installed all fans by intuition. Am I properly cooled?Fan #1: Front case intakeFan #2: Side case intakeFan #3: Top (front) case intakeFan #4: Top (back) case exhaustFan #5: Back case exhaustFan #6: CPU cooler intakeFan #7: CPU cooler exhaustFans #8: GPU ("windforce x 3") intake.What do you think?

Corey thanks. What if I attach one Frio fan to the CPU_FAN slot and the second Frio fan to the SYS_FAN1 slot? Is SYS_FAN1 slot reserved for something else?Thanks.

Hi all,I bought Thermaltake's Frio CLP0564 for use with Gigabyte's GA-P67-UD4-B3 motherboard. Frio has 2 fans with 3-pin cables. Motherboard has only one CPU_FAN socket with 4 pins.Question is: how to connect Frio to motherboard? :Hypnotized:Thanks.

Alain,First things first,Thanks for providing this highly educative link from Simforums. Can't go through it right now but it's bookmarked for further reading.Now, I feel happy that you managed to enjoy stutter-free (or near stutter-free) flights since we must not forget that this should normally be the goal: to simulate flight and most of its real-life aspects such as motion fluidity, which in terms of serious simulation must be considered fundamental.I still though argue that RAM upgrades (in terms of frequency and latency) can't provide us with reproducible proofs of performance gain (either fps or stutters or both). Almost all reviews I've stumbled upon say so, Dazz's and Corey's research says so, even if they tend to imply that there must be something going on with the frequency (one every 45sec in their example) of stutter appearance. Even so, Dazz only gained 3fps moving from 1333 to 2000 while he reports there was no improvement in stuttering whatsoever. 4Gb of the cheapest Kingston DD3 1333Mhz (2x2gb) cost about 40 euros in my place. 4Gb of the most expensive SuperTalent DD3 2000Mhz (2x2gb) CL8 cost 165 euros. Say you want 8Gb, figure that tends to be the next gaming norm. Prices climb to 80e and 330e respectively. Normally, one need to justify these 250 extra euros from a "slow" to a "fast" memory. Roughly speaking, if one chooses to spend 250e extra for faster RAM, he/she finally will end up having paid about 80e per RAM-gained frame..... Or not? Now imagine the same fellow simmer spending 250e to a faster CPU or a better Mobo or more amount (in MB) of RAM. Wouldn't it be better?Under these terms, I consider any expenses towards ultra-high fast memory a waste of money for most (or for the average, serious though) fsimmers BUT I can't stress enough how pleased (and jealous maybe!!) I am that you eliminated most of your fs-stutters.You know, stuttering in FS is like arguing with your wife. One can always be extra cautious and fine-tuned, having all air and hydro-coolers set and running, experienced and such, but, at the end you never know where, when and how it all started... . Usually, they "overclock" badly...!

What a road...! Nice work Dazz.Don't be disappointed. Two things were made clear through this thread:1) RAM frequency and latency don't increase Frames Per Second.which translates to-->Don't buy Faster Ram just to Improve your FS FPS. You won't go any higher.2) RAM frequency and latency don't even affect Stuttering, in any obvious/visible/tangible/objective and non-idiosyncratic, worth mentioning way.which translates also to --> Don't buy Faster (or/and "tighter") Ram just to Improve FS' motion fluidity (stuttering). You won't.To sum it up in a more realistic manner, only Size Counts... To put it even more bluntly, when it comes to FS builds, moving from 1333Mhz to 2000+Mhz is a complete rip-off ($$$ / performance gain)... RAM marketing hype and speculation, FS-wise, shone bright once again. That's my reading.Thanks for the hard work, looking forward to finally assemble my new rig and run Corey's benchmark.

Dazz,This seems a bright idea regarding the (possible) correlation between RAM frequency and Stuttering, combined with Corey's tool. But even so, any findings will necessarily point to the specific scenario set by FSX Benchmark11. Different user settings, various textures added by numerous add-ons (not just scenery add-ons), may lead to different results. Please consider this before you engage in such a time-consuming task (although I'd be really interested -after all these years of stu-stu-stu-ttering- to see finally some proof about it).Blue Skies.

Thanks Corey for a thorough reply.My question remains though: is it ok to use 1600MHz and 1.65v while overclocking an i5-2500k from stock 3.30 to -say- 4,8GHz? Does CPU overclocking affects (raises) RAM's voltage? IF this is a YES, then I guess OC is out of the question since 1.65v is already marginal for the i5-2500k/P67 combo. Right?Given so, next available option is an 1.5v RAM. How does this voltage affects (restrains) the maximum OC result frequency I can get to my CPU?Pls excuse my ignorance. I've been sweeping all relevant forums about this, with no luck so far...Blue Skies.

Thanks for sharing this. You're actually fully aligned with these aforementioned results from another source, indicating that RAM speed makes no (visible) difference in gaming, fsim in this case. The "humble" 1333MHz shows some teeth by holding 22fps Min, compared to the "mighty" 2133MHz with its 23fps Min. value. The rocketing cost (euros/$) from 1333 to 2133 does simply not worth it.Blue Skies.

After many days of research and reading, after having considered all restrictions set by my local retailer (some selected brands only available, etc), I'm ready to order about what you see in my signature. My problem, as the topic suggests, has to do with the proper choice of RAM in terms of frequency and latency.I'm not concerned with RAM performance that much. This benchmark is quite self-explanatory about actual, "tangible" difference in performance between different types of RAM. What really bothers me is the possible barrier, a not wisely chosen RAM, may impose over any CPU overclocking attempt. So I kindly ask: (1) Am I ok with a 1333MHz DD3 CL7 1.65V RAM in terms of being able to overclock the i5-2500k up to-say-4,5GHz or more? (125 euros).(2) If the answer is YES, is there any chance these 1.65 volts to create any kind of problems in the near future? How will they be affected by CPU's overclocking? Should I cool the memory? (3) If the answer to (1) is NO, what do you think of a 1066MHz DD3 CL9 1.5V solution? (99 euros).(4) Or equally, what do you think of a 1066MHz DD3 CL7 1.5V solution? (99 euros as well).Before you answer, please consider the following F.A.Q. from Intel site: Finally, I guess 1600MHz RAM is out of the question along with an i5-2500K, since Intel also states the following: Thank you in advance.

In case you're interested in flying under such conditions, you may want to have a look at a relevant project of mine, called "The Bold & the Beautiful Project" (1 & 2), which puts together the most difficult/dangerous/beautiful airports and approaches of the world (flown by 737s). You can find info in my signature but you can also directly visit Project's 1 Legs here and Project's 2 Legs here. It might give you an idea for your next flight!Blue skies.

>Hi George,>>That is an odd one! Have not heard of this before...>>Flickering of the clouds and/or panel has traditionally been>related to Render to Texture option with some video cards, and>as you have mentioned, the solution is to uncheck Render to>Texture.Actually, it was not flickering. It was more like disappearing completely/reappearing after 1 sec (both clouds and panel)... (if this is how you define flickering, then, we agree! :-))>You also want to make sure that 3D Cloud Percentage (FS9>display/weather options) is at 100%.It was/is set to 100%.>Other than that, try updating your video drivers?Latest drivers here!>The strange thing is that on the ground or above 20K feet it>disappears... There is nothing in ASV logic that would>trigger at these points. Any other add-ons running?Yes. FSAcars 3 only.>Best,I have just had one more flight. Problem did not appear (don't know why at this time). But, at FL330, with overcast below, I saw some 6-7fps for a few seconds, then back to normal. Then again, then back to normal.I will try to replace my old FS9/texture files to see what happens. Thank you very much for your quick reply!Regards,-George Matsaridis,www.aegeanseagull.com/bb

Dear sirs,I purchased and installed ASV Full version today and I must say I'm really happy with all the info generated and displayed into MSFS2004. There is a problem though.The problem is that below a certain altitude there is a weird flickering/refreshing of the weather and my cockpit. What I mean is that under say 20,000ft or so, I see the clouds disappear and redraw (load) again and again, in 1-2 seconds intervals. At the same time, my cockpit disappears and reappears instantly (like refreshing in Windows Explorer with F5 key). As soon as I land, the problem disappears completely BUT I have severe stuttering on right and left wing views (and spot view). Also, when I pass, say, 20000ft or so, the "flickering/refreshing" problem disappears as well and I can enjoy the flight. On flight, I tried to close ASV and then "Clear all weather" from FSUIPC and all problems disappeared.A friend told me to uncheck the "Render to texture" option within MSFS Display settings but it didn't help. This is not an actual flickering problem. The clouds disappear completely and then they reload after 1 sec. The same goes with my panel as well...I would really appreciate your help at this point,Thanks in advance,-George Matsaridis,www.aegeanseagull.com/bbP.S. I attach my asv.ini file.//ASV configuration file Build 367[General]WindowPosX = 3930WindowPosY = 5385DefaultWeatherFolder = C:Program FilesMicrosoft GamesFlight Simulator 9ModulesASVSuppressionCeiling = 10000SurfaceWindLimit = 10FS9Path = C:Program FilesMicrosoft GamesFlight Simulator 9CloudLayerLimit = 5LocalSuppressionRange = 100MinimumVisibility = 0MaximumVisibility = 59LastPlanFolder = C:Documents and Settingsuser1