How to get better performance in Flight Simulator 2020

I ended up just buying a Boeing 747. It was actually cheaper than buying all the components to play this sim.

let me save you guys some time.
things to change in windows:
go to game mode in windows 10, switch to ON
in captures, make sure background recording is off
in control panel, switch priority from real time to high
make sure drivers are up to date
in nvidia control panel:
go to manage 3d settings
global settings - power management mode switch from optimal power to high performance
in same menu - switch texture filtering from quality to high performance
in MSF 2020
first:
turn down object level of detail
turn down terrain detail
leave antialiasing on TAA
next:
water waves to low or medium
shadow maps to 768
texture supersampling to 4x4
depth of field to off or low
play with or adjust due to your system:
bloom
reflections
texture synthesis

The game is amazing.. You can almost smell the fuel and the engine noises are so realistic..
Oh wait that's my pc.

I remember back in the 80's playing flight simulator with very basic vector graphics on a 286 with a green monochrome monitor.

Anti aliasing? HAH, i'm short sighted so i just take my glasses off, boom, instant anti alias. No need to waste precious gpu cycles with it.

I'm going to come back in 10 years to watch this again, laughing whilst my integrated graphics chip pumps out flight sim 2020 at 250 fps

"Not everyone has a 2080Ti, so lets throw a 2060 in"
>cries in 960

you know its serious when youtubers actually FILM their screens instead of capturing it😁
havent seen that in a while

Hey Jay, I really appreciated this video. I’ve been a flight simulator enthusiast my whole life since FS 5 way back in the day. I would definitely like to see you use FS 2020 to benchmark new hardware in the future.

When you get seconds per frame instead of frames per second

You should do a updated guide on MSFS especially with 3rd party add on developers making study level aircraft such as PMDG, Fenix, and FlyByWire. And the same applies to add on scenery as well.

a few mins in..just wanted to pause to tell Jay thank you sooo much taking his time to help us all out. Thank you!

SO MUCH LOVE for this video from me

I don’t get all these comments about being “Early”. Is there some kind of award I’m unaware of?? Maybe a RTX 3080ti?!?!?!?

This is actually really useful information! i used a bit of your previous Flight Sim footage in a spec detail and game review (hope you don't mind) it shows i might be able to run this myself if i bite the bullet and buy the game! Love the content as usual!

Excellent tips for tuning any game, thanks Jay & Phil!

It was so fun watching this. It reminds me of the good old days trying to squeeze every fps I could out of games.
The game may/may not be optimized but, it brings fun with trying to get max performance out of it. =)

30fps locked at ultra is the new target for me, and i'll be super happy with that. For some reason flight sim always looks smooth at 30, unlike other games.

I have a 2060 Super OC Msi card and followed all of you're steps and have been getting around 50-55 fps in populated cities without turning the settings down from the 2080Ti settings you started using before you switched to the 2060 super! Thanks for the great tips!

I would love to see an updated performance guide for this game in VR now. So hard to run it, SteamVR, plus an Edge window and OVR Toolkit for Twitch chat. Uses so much of my CPU. Highest FPS I can get is around 20 on low settings.

Thank you Jay and team. Good researching and I never really messed with Nvidia game settings before. From 17-20fps to 25 with just that suggestion. Actually makes a huge difference in low altitudes and taxiing around my favorite airport , KFXE. Improved ground scenery also.

This is excellent. I have a 2070 super and was set by default to “high-end”. I was getting a super glitchy 30-50 FPS.
I updated these settings and then was getting 80-90 FPS.
Updated to “Ultra” and turned down the settings you mentioned and now I’m at a solid 60 FPS.
Excellent. Thanks 👍🏻

Awesome video Jay! Thanks for the help and taking the time to make a quality tutorial!

Thanks Jay, this helped right now on my creaking XPS laptop and I'll be coming back to it when I finish my Ryzen build. You, sir, are a scholar and a gent.

Jay- now you can add 20 fps to you ms flight sim.
Me- yay! Now i will finally have 15 fps on ms flight sim

So I can bump my FPS up from 1 to 2. Good to know.
I'm just kidding my PC can't run MS flight simulator.

Ok, I see why you have so many subs. What a great useful video. Saved me heaps of messing around trying to figure this stuff out. Thanks guys!

This is the video I was waiting for. Thank you Jay!!

Thank you! Now I can hopefully let my PC run smoother while flying

3:09 might be controller related.. MFS crashes for me 50% of the time I try to plug a controller/joystick in

Thanks for this, someone posted everything you said in this video in a comment here and I took two screenshots of it on my phone earlier for easy access while doing this; now the game runs butter smooth for me - I might actually be able to enjoy it properly now, again thanks a lot.

Helpful info. I'm sitting happy on high 1080 settings at only 32fps, but with terrain and object detail set to 120. The frames and quality of photogrammetry looks incredibly smooth on that rig. Great Job.

Try setting the Weather to Storm and time at night anf fly low over cities with lots of lights and see how much FPS you'll get, Jay. ;)

I have intel hd 3000 and I'm getting 0 fps.
Very smooth performance I have to say.

Appreciate the tweaks, helped my old 1070 workhorse chug out a few more frames.

Thanks for this video loads learned I’m looking forward to going through my settings 🇬🇧🇬🇧

Hope everyone is having a great day!

What I would really like is some options to configure dynamic degradation. For example, simple aircraft in low density scenery, Ultra could be an option but in high density scenery with a complex panel aircraft, some things have to be sacrificed. I don't want to have to configure one set of settings for everywhere, how about the ability to set my priority as to what to reduce first, to meet a desired frame rate.

Following these steps got me about a 15-20fps boost. Thanks Jay.

Best tutorial I have seen to date.Thanks for posting.

People here complaining about FX cards and CPU’s, I’m sitting here with not enough storage space.

Ahh i remember so frustrated searching fsx lag fix like everyday in 2011. And now time has change

Subscribed...! The absolute BEST tutorial for optimizing MSFS 2020, how to to with driver setting, and and how to properly OC your Graphics Card so that it holds the boost speed, and everything all between to make your experience enjoyable...!

volumetric clouds do effect performance a lot, you should also test you settings with overcast weather option

“We’re going to go down to 4 by 4.”
Me: [engages 4x4 on crocs]

you can enable the frametime graph in afterburner to show us the micro stutters

This helped my system big time.
Cracking effort.

Thanks for the video! It was very helpful to see someone more knowledgeable than me talk through these tweeks.
I have a Legion tower with an i9-9900 cpu, 32 gb of RAM, and a RTX 2070 GPU with a 2560x1080/144hz display. I found most of the suggested changes to NVIDIA's 3D settings didn't make much of a noticeable difference to my FPS, nor does turning Game Mode on or off in Windows settings. The most notable differences I found are in the sim itself. I have tried the graphic settings you suggested. FS2020 suggested during install that I run the sim on the 'High-End' level. I have tried 'Ultra' and tend to lose about 15 fps. I also gain about 15 fps over 'High-End' if I use all 'Middle' level settings. Dialing the graphic settings you mentioned to Middle or lower does give me about a 5 fps improvement.
Two other things I have learned could be helpful:
- I find significantly more stutter when I have 'Show Traffic Nameplates' turned on (in Traffic settings) especially if there are alot of other planes around, and
- I find I can lose as much as 15-20 fps if I have pop-out windows open (to display menus on a second or third monitor). My second and third monitors really slow the sim down (they are also only 60hz). I would suggest keeping the menus on the main screen.
Hope these are useful tips.

Perfect day. I finally realized I was on the 2 GHz net not the 5 GHz, finished downloading MS FS 2020, got my broken crap cooler to start working decently on my 10600k and this video came out. Thanks

we live in a world where "i get 60 fps in Tokyo" makes sense

This actually helped my game so much. You just gained a subscriber

Thanks a lot. I am still with the old FSX but plan to move to 2020 soon. I will buy a new system first. Might wait for a 6 months or a year so that system is just ... less expensive. Good to see the 2060 at work as well. Of all of the folks who review and show us how to make 2020 work, you are the best. You explain it all very well.

Actually you do need around 45 minimum for a proper performance in Sims, I’ve been a developer for X plane for 3 years making airports. And enthusiast for over 20 years. If you drop below 30 you will have time delay issues. Also steam my name you will see the airports created by me.

sweet i made it early, thanks for the tips!

Helped me a lot more than Digital Foundry's video, which was basically an ad for that Origin system.

Texture synthesis can be really low as it only affects patches of terrain where there is no imagery. Also I have object detail at about 50 and very low air,land and sea traffic. That one helped a lot.

Tip: paint red flames on the side. It always makes it faster!

Never use Realtime unless it's literally the ONLY thing the machine has to do, which is never the case with games.
It makes the game run at a higher priority than basic windows functions. You can get delays in sound delivery, frame delivery to the gpu and way more delays on an almost driver level.

Amazing format for a game setting tweak guide.Thanks.

Nice to get a full flight in. After the recent patch (1.8.3.0) I keep getting CTD. Worked like a charm before that.

Thanks for solving the problem. I'll just video cam my screen and watch the sim through that lol.

I noticed a similar crash when I slightly disconnected my controller’s cable, could be what happened at the beginning of the video.

Very helpful information dude, thank you 👍🏼.

Maaasteeeer claaaasss !!! Thank you so much ! Invaluable information ! May your channel live forever...building my new box, I'll let you know how it went with the new settings you advised !

Wow, thanks to those tips I got myself to steady "Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 is not responding" :))

Me watching this and seeing all my settings are already lower than what you're moving yours to :(.

As always thanks for the great review and guide

Truly appreciated this video. I will play with it.

I would be very happy with those 40 fps from the beginning xD

Disabling Windows Defender everytime I start MFS helps me a lot with the stutters. GTX1660 9600K 16gb. I'm okay with MFS performance but it's not as smooth as XP11 for me.

I was never aware of the Game Mode thing. I always had it turned off. This might help other games too!

Cheers dude,changed my 3D settings etc and my games are def faster and smoother,you are a gentleman and a scholar👍

I'd recommend setting GPU Power management mode in global settings to Adaptive.
There's shouldn't be any change in performance, and instead of staying at base clocks when idle, the GPU downclocks. Changing from Maximum Performance to Adaptive yielded me the same performance, and idle temps went from 44C to 31C
If it makes a big difference in performance for FS2020, perhaps just set it to run Maximum Performance only when FS2020 is launched under program settings.

terrain level of detail 100
objects level of detail 100
water waves medium
shadow maps 768
texture supersampling 4x4
texture synthesis medium
terrain shadows 512
ambient occlusion high
windshield effects high
depth of field off

I love that Jay encountered what i believe to be my favorite MSFS bug, the game crashes if you accidentally unplug or otherwise jostle a USB in a way that causes it to disconnect for a second.

Awesome Job!! Added 20 More frames and still looks great !! Thanks

Bringing up the VFR map, popping it out and then minimizing it adds 10-30 frames. I don’t understand optimization to understand why, but it works.
Alienware R11 (I know, I know. I’m a noob)
i7 10700f
16GB HyperX Fury DDR4
RTX 2070 Super

I've got a 20% fps improvement by reducing volumetric clouds from ultra to high! (GTX 1070, i7 7700k)

Thanks for this, I've yet to take the dive, sitting on fence waiting to see how others do.

Thanks guys for your contributions and time

this is weird but kinda works for people. "in game press V to load up the VFR Map once up make that window to a pop window out of Flight sim, then minimize that window. and frames should jump higher

I've never seen anyone recommend turning (windows) game mode on.
Jay: have you measured that this actually has an impact on performance?

Increasing the game cache really helps, the more juice you can give it the better the over all experience.

Don't forget that the Vehicles category under General Settings has a big effect on framerates. Turning up or down the number of planes (parked and AI), boats, and cars makes a big change on FPS.

i hate when someone comments something funny and unique AND THEN JUST RUINS IT BY EDITING IT 20 MINUTES LATER SAYING,"Oh my god thank you guys for so many likes!"
then everyones wishing the downvote button showed how many dislikes it had

Nearly doubled my frame rate. So a massive thanks!
I run a 9900k with 32gb of ram at 3600mhz and a 1080ti. All storage drives are nvme.
I have a 1440p screen and was getting 30-40 fps. Now I'm up to 60-70, and it's much more consistent.

Ambient Occlusion is also a big fps killer in most games.
If you can handle not having contact shadows I'd suggest turning it off if you want better performances.

That was very helpful, thank you.

What was he trying to tell us by flying through the New York skyline?

i love when people comment before the video even starts lol.
wait. i do that. 🤫

Thanks for the tips, it's actually improved my frame rate, even on my 4 year old gaming pc with a 4790K and GTX 1070 plus 16gb of 1600mhz ram. Still getting some micro-stutters but I'm putting that down to only having 16gb ram. It Still runs very well to say my pc is now 4 and a bit years old. I think it's always worth building a powerful PC cos it will last you longer 👌😁

You have saved this sim for me. All I wanted was a solid 30-35 FPS to practice the approaches I shoot IRL, and until your vid, have t been able to. I have an i7 6700k with 32GB RAM and until yesterday, had a GTX 1070 but went out and got an RTX 2070 Super because I was so pissed at the performance. It was all the same, on 1080 res high settings I was getting 5-7FPS on the ground, 14-25 FPS in the air. Flying around densely populated areas and big airports saw it crash to 10-7FPS. I went in and changed the 3D settings to Performance and that was the golden ticket. It freed up everything. I can crank it to ultra now on 1080 and get a liquid smooth 38-45FPS (in the sim world, this is liquid smooth). I was about to resign to the idea that I needed a new CPU and RTX 2080ti or 3080 (when they release) to even partially enjoy this. Thank you!!

We're just being lazy - JayzTwoCents 2019
We're just lazy - JayzTwoCents 2020

3:13
OH MY GOD LOOK AT THOSE (what i think are) THREADS

Great video! Simple and clear! Bravo! 👏🤙

I tried all of these changes with an RTX 2060 Super and an i7 9700K and I'm getting 45 FPS over Manhattan doing the little circles like you. Thanks for the tips!

Try run the sim at night in new york. That's the REAL test.

Gamers: ugh im running at 90 fps
Flight Simmers:
Sir i beg of you may i please have another frame?

Thanks Jay, this helps a lot.

I have a RTX2060 Super and Render Scaling at 200 smashed my frame rates to single digits. When I changed from RS 200 to RS 100 over New York City framerates were in the mid 20's. All the other tweaks slightly improved the framerates and that is a happy place for me.