Upgrade to Improve Frame Rates for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020

hdus002 on 08/09/2022 - 10:26
Last edited 08/09/2022 - 12:29 by 1 other user

I play the MSFS Flight Sim 2020 regularly to familiarise myself with certain flight procedures.

I built the PC specced reasonably higher than that recommended for the game. During flight it's mostly fine, however once near areas with a lot of details, say flying approaches in low cloud near an airport, the movement is a bit jerky. I'd like to keep the detail level as is if possible.

Which components do you think would be the best bang-for-buck upgrade, that'll improve the frame rate significantly?

The current config is:

CPU: Intel 10700K CPU, with 240 mm AIO Liquid CPU Cooler
Motherboard: MSI Z490 GAMING EDGE
RAM: Crucial Ballistix 32GB DDR4 3600MT/s CL16
HDD: Samsung 970 EVO Plus SSD 1TB
Video card: eVGA GeForce RTX3080 FTW3
Power: Corsair RM850x
Monitor: Xiaomi Mi 34 inch 144Hz VA panel 4ms resp time

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  oscargamer on 08/09/2022 - 10:28

  Need a better GPU

  What's your budget? You can of course sell your current one

  • 

    askbargain on 08/09/2022 - 10:46

    that's only a ~10% difference in FPS. better off getting a g-sync monitor

    • 

      jonathonsunshine on 08/09/2022 - 18:20

      Monitor like that very likely supports FreeSync, which is 95% the same thing as gsync. Needs to be enabled both on the monitor and then in the NVIDIA control panel.

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    hdus002 on 08/09/2022 - 11:13

    Happy to spend say upto $1500 or so. I did consider upgrading the GPU, however unsure if going up to a 3080 Ti or 3090 will make much of a difference. On the Nvidea popup that shows usage percentages, the GPU utilization seems to be less than 80% mostly.

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  Typical16-bitEnjoyer on 08/09/2022 - 10:48

  Your monitor isn't native G-sync, but it should be compatible. Have you set this up?

  • 

    hdus002 on 08/09/2022 - 11:11

    I see. Will explore this, thanks for letting me know.

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  ScottyDont on 08/09/2022 - 11:15

  +1

  Check if you can enable G-sync/freesync, or use a frame rate limit to make it more consistent.
  Use hwinfo logging to see if it's your CPU or GPU maxing out based on your settings, and tone down settings that relate to that hardware or target that for an upgrade.
  I have a very similar system to you and use VR so mine is GPU limited, I turned down clouds a notch and it is very smooth.

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  safrane on 08/09/2022 - 11:18

  +1

  I'm also a big MSFS simmer, do you play in 1080p or 1440p? If so then get a better CPU, and the AMD 5800X3D has a massive performance advantage in MSFS 2020 over all other CPUs because of the increased cache.

  https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/amd-5800x3d-performance…

  However note that the next generation of AMD processers (Zen 4) are coming soon, and the X3D version of Zen 4 (e.g. 7950X3D) are slated for release in early 2023. Still prices will fall as people upgrade, so if you don't mind having a dead end system with an AM4 socket motherboard, then the 5800X3D is your go-to CPU today.

  However for 4K gaming your GPU is the limiting factor. The 4090 is slated for release this October, but the 4080 and below may not arrive until next year. Still I would budget for a CPU upgrade as the 10700k will be a significant bottleneck compared to next gen X3D CPUs.

  • 

    hdus002 on 08/09/2022 - 11:34

    Nice, did not know the 5800X3D outperformed the 12900KS!

    • 

      safrane on 08/09/2022 - 17:25

      One more thing, enable dev mode with the SDK, and enable the FPS display through the dev mode menu. It will show your current FPS as well as the limiting factor, either GPU or mainthread (CPU).

      • 

        hdus002 on 08/09/2022 - 22:59

        Thanks, will try this out this weekend.

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  tephra on 08/09/2022 - 12:49

  how many frames are you getting? that combo should be "ok" (depending on your expectations)…

  plenty of youtube videos on what settings to go for, but without a baseline its hard to know if your setup has "something wrong"

  have you benchmarked your setup? that would quickly let you know if your system is performing "as its meant to"

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  grimeywaifu on 08/09/2022 - 13:53

  better cpu would be the first thing i'd upgrade. after that probably a monitor that supports g-sync

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  L0NGY on 08/09/2022 - 17:03

  I think there might also be a RAM issue for you… I had a similar issue with a PC.

  I'd just check your RAM speed first in your BIOS or via a free app like CPU-Z.
  See if are getting the full 3600 out of that RAM.
  This might be the bottle neck for you… My guess is you'll be down at lower end of 2000MT/s

  To fix this i guess you can try change the speeds of your RAM in your BIOS. - youtube this if unsure.
  However, I can see you are using a Z490 motherboard.
  I believe Intel locked out XMP (overclocking) on 10th gen boards (Z490) with other chipsets such as B460 so your DDR4-3600 sticks will be capped to DDR4-2933 max…?

  You may need to by a new CPU, Maybe a 12th Gen Intel and new Motherboard with the supporting chip set.
  You should be able to re-use all of your other components, they seem to be reasonable spec'ed.

  I hope this helps?! I'm not really a PC Guru but googling helped me get a better performance out of my machine.

  • 

    safrane on 08/09/2022 - 17:27

    +1

    Yeah previously I forgot to enable XMP profile in BIOS, and ended up getting CPU bottlenecked in 4K (as shown in the dev mode FPS counter) when it should be the GPU.

    Memory speed can matter quite a lot, I got 10+ FPS after enabling XMP.

  • 

    hdus002 on 09/09/2022 - 19:46

    So, I have 2x 16 GB modules.

    On CPU-Z both are shown, and each one is shown as "DDR4-3602 (1801 MHz)". Does this mean it is being used at full speed?

  • 

    hdus002 on 09/09/2022 - 19:54

    Checked the BIOS. XMP is enabled, and the DRAM speed is shown as 3600.