Gaming Microsoft Flight Simulator

Bru

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Flight Simulator requires setting/graphics tuning for better performance? That has been the case with every version. LOL

Im sure MSFT will release patches and updates but you always needed a super computer to run these games cranked all the way up.

I remember my computer at the time ran FS2004 like dog shit. Then FSX came out and ran ALOT better on the same exact hardware.

To ZX’s point, there seems to be a bug and common CPU maxing even among higher end units.

 

nytebyte

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I've seen a good amount of CPU usage, but it's maybe only 60% max.
The GPU usage is close to 60% on one card and maybe 35% on the other card. I assume this is due to PhysX since I don't think the new Flight Simulator supports SLI.
I have all the graphics settings cranked to the max.

One problem I'm having is that the graphics don't look nearly as good as on some of the videos I've seen.
For example, in Chicago, the Sears tower doesn't have the antennas and McCormick Place just looks like a square box. In NYC the Freedom Tower looks like a rectangular box with no contours. I'm also seeing generic looking buildings in neighborhoods. Overall, I'm not impressed with the graphics.
I'm suspecting there is something wrong with the streaming Bing graphics which may not be working, so I'm getting generic looking crap.
 
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Bru

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I've seen a good amount of CPU usage, but it's maybe only 60% max.
The GPU usage is close to 60% on one card and maybe 35% on the other card. I assume this is due to PhysX since I don't think the new Flight Simulator supports SLI.
I have all the graphics settings cranked to the max.

One problem I'm having is that the graphics don't look nearly as good as on some of the videos I've seen.
For example, in Chicago, the Sears tower doesn't have the antennas and McCormick Place just looks like a square box. In NYC the Freedom Tower looks like a rectangular box with no contours. I'm also seeing generic looking buildings in neighborhoods. Overall, I'm not impressed with the graphics.
I'm suspecting there is something wrong with the streaming Bing graphics which may not be working, so I'm getting generic looking crap.

What’s your setup? Just curious.
 

ZXMustang

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I9 9900K, 64GB of RAM and two old Super Clocked GTX 1080's.
Flight Sim is running from an NVMe drive.

It runs smooth and perfect. No stuttering or slowdowns at all.

I was reading somewhere that you can go into the nvidia control panel and set the physx from auto to your GPU and that will shift some load to the GPUs. I tried it and it helps. Still not getting anywhere near 60FPS, but not bad. Im still running a 5ghz 7700k and my overclocked 2080 Super. Also running it on my MSI GE75 which is rocking a 6core 12 thread 10th gen CPU and a full 2070 Super. Not the max q garbage gpu. And Im seeing similar results. If you watch task manager performance tab, you can see the CPU getting pegged even though afterburner is not showing it maxed out.

I have turned down everything to nothing, and the bottleneck on the CPU seems to get worse. The best performance I have seen for my 1080p MSI machine (laptop) is maxing out everything and turning the resolution scale to 200% which moves the bottleneck to the GPU. In effect getting the same FPS, but at a much higher detail level.

The desktop 7700k system is better when I do this because Im running the 2080 super desktop card, so it runs a tad better. But seriously this game needs a patch. Its not so unbelievably hard to run because of graphics, its all the rest of the shit running with it making any CPU drop to its needs. How can you take advantage of a top tier GPU even the next gen stuff if you are completely CPU bound.

The goal with PC gaming is to be GPU bound/bottlenecked but still be able to achieve the FPS you want. If you can max out your 4k monitor and get the 60FPS you need consistently, then you are setup correctly for your needs. If you are trying to do 1080p at 240hz, but your not hitting your FPS goal and your GPU is not sitting at 99%, then you are bottlenecked somewhere else (likely CPU), and you have wasted the money on that GPU.

This game needs to be less CPU bound and be able to scale better for current gen GPUs. There are plenty fast multicore CPUs out there that should have no issue handling this game, but for some reason they are all struggling. Its not because this game is "next gen" its because its an unoptimized piece of shit. PLUS, its on DX11???? DX12 or Vulkan should have been a given. Just shows how bad this is.
 

ZXMustang

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Even on low settings, my i5 7400 (granted, four core) is maxed and stutters, though not nearly as badly. People who have had both the beta and final version said the CPU maxed issue is unique to the prod version.
Bru Bru also I was going to see if you wanted to buy my 7700k. Should be a drop in part for your setup. Its delidded, LM applied and runs 70c 100% at 5.0.ghz. I was looking to upgrade and didnt want to just put it into a closet. I could make a package deal on the board as well. Its a Asus Tuf z270 board. If you dont have a Z chipset board, it would still drop in but no overclock. Not bad though, it boosts to 4.6 I believe on its own. Let me know if you are interested. It would be an easy upgrade.
 

nytebyte

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Hmm, I would have thought a 7700K at 5Ghz would be more than enough for this game.
After reading your replies, I decided to do a test. I started up Flight Sim and flew through the middle of downtown Chicago at about 1800 feet, 6:30 pm on a clear night, heading west at about 150 knots. The sun was low in the sky, so there would be a lot of lighting calculations going on.

Then I took a snip of Task Manager right in the middle of it. Here are the results:

1598226810716.png


The graphics streaming appears to be working now and the graphics are much better, but the GPU utilization is also higher now that it's working. Still, it ran perfectly smoothly with no stuttering. The CPU utilization is pretty high and I could hear the fans on my water cooler spinning up and down with load. I usually never hear that when running anything else. Also, you can see the CPU is running near the top of its Speedstep range (max 5 GHz).

GPU 0 was pegged and GPU 1 was around 30%. Memory usage was about 19 GB (system idles at about 7 GB).
This is a resource hungry game for sure. As you can imagine, there was a lot of heat coming out of my computer, filling up the room. It's probably not a good idea to run Flight Simulator for the next week since it's going to be very hot outside and in the upper 90's, unless you want to heat up your house and overload your A/C. ;)
 

ZXMustang

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Yeah, offline mode seems to save some GPU power. Not sure about the CPU though.
Hadn't noticed.

Yeah and in turn it seems to bottleneck the CPU more. You need to somehow move that load to the GPU. Ramping up the resolution scale helps as well as turning all the eye candy and online stuff on. Seems counter intuitive, but thats how bottlenecking works on PCs. If you are playing at 1080p and you are starting to see your CPU being the bottleneck, just play at 1440p. I was able to breathe new life into my 7700k machine by getting a 4k monitor. This CPU is still smoking fast with single core performance. And moving the bottleneck to my 2080 Super, Im able to play almost everything (but MS Flight Sim) at 4k60 with high to ultra settings. Hell I can completely max out Modern Warefare at 4k and even ray tracing enabled, and just barely keep 60fps everywhere. If I turn off only RTX but leave everything else on max, i sit at 90% GPU utilization and the game plays perfectly smooth.
 

Bru

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Took ‘er up to 4K and CPU usage went down and GPU went up; this was online. Had it cranked to high-end settings and was getting teens FPS, so went to medium, tweaked some settings and now getting playable 30 FPS with minimal shudders. Still some random spikes to 100 percent, which look to be coming from the game and not background apps, but things have evened out and the game looks better too.
 

PANDA

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MSFS Making PC's great again.
 
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Fish

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Heard about this on the WAN show on Friday, and Im blown away at it actually. No graphics card currently sold can run this game in 1080P ultra settings at 60FPS.

 
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ZXMustang

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Heard about this on the WAN show on Friday, and Im blown away at it actually. No graphics card currently sold can run this game in 1080P ultra settings at 60FPS.


Yeah thats all incorrect info. Its CPUs that are being bottlenecked and GPUs are sitting at low utilization.
 
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WhiteKnuckle

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glad to see some other folks playing this. Might need to pick your brains a bit. My setup is not top tier. My main issue with the game is i'll have a stable frame rate and then if a new objective pops ups i'll dip to single digits and then climb back up. i haven't messed with the settings much and just did the training missions and some of the landing challenges. From reading the rigs you guys have, i'm going to be struggling. i5 6600k, 16gb ram, gtx1080 playing at 1440p. I'll need to get creative to get this running better
 

Bru

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Using the video above and then getting rid of the volumetric clouds was a huge frame rate jump for me. Also, I’ve been playing in 4K, which made the GPU work harder and took some load off the CPU. In any 1080 resolution, my CPU would be maxed and my GPU barely doing anything. In 4K, my CPU is still 80-95 percent but I’m not getting those 100-percent spikes that created the stuttering. I also used vSync at 60 FPS, which is strangely locking in at high 30s FPS, which would like a bug. When commanding 30 FPS, it goes to 15.

I’m i5 7400, 16 FB Ram, 1070 GTX.
 
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