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The best-looking way to raise frame rates is to fix the actual limiter rather than lowering every option. First determine whether the graphics processor (GPU), the processor or simulation thread (CPU), memory, or frame pacing is holding the game back. Then use a quality upscaler, trim the few expensive settings that affect the limiter, and test in the busiest part of the world. Keep textures and output resolution as high as your hardware can support, and change one option at a time.
This approach works for driving, flight, city-building, survival and other open-world simulations because their workloads vary by scene. A quiet field can be GPU-limited while a dense airport, city or traffic junction becomes CPU-limited. The target is not the highest benchmark peak; it is a stable frame time in the worst scene you regularly play.
1. Identify what is limiting performance
Do not start by choosing a preset. Run the game with an on-screen performance overlay or a monitoring tool and observe GPU utilization, CPU utilization by core, VRAM, system memory, temperatures and frame-time graphs. Test the same repeatable location, camera direction and weather each time.
Signs of a GPU limit
- GPU utilization remains close to full load while one or more CPU cores are not saturated.
- Reducing resolution, render scale, shadows or volumetric effects produces a clear frame-rate increase.
- Frame time rises in scenes with heavy lighting, reflections, particles or long views, even when the number of simulated objects is unchanged.
Signs of a CPU or simulation limit
- One CPU core or the main game thread is at or near full load while overall CPU usage looks moderate.
- Lowering resolution has little effect, but reducing traffic, object density, view distance or simulation detail helps.
- Frame rate falls in cities, airports, markets or other areas with many agents and interactions, even when the image is not visually complex.
Other limits to check
- When VRAM is full, texture streaming can cause hitching, blurry textures or sudden frame-time spikes. Lower texture resolution or texture pool size before reducing every other setting.
- When system memory is exhausted, background applications and the operating system can force paging, producing stutter that an average-FPS counter hides.
- Thermal throttling reduces clock speeds after a period of play. Monitor temperature and clock behavior over at least 15 minutes, not just during the first loading screen.
Changing a setting that does not affect the active limiter wastes image quality. Diagnose first, then make a targeted change.
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2. Establish a repeatable baseline
A baseline lets you tell a real improvement from a different scene or a short-lived boost.
- Restart the game and load the same save, route, airport, city district or benchmark replay.
- Record game version, display resolution, refresh rate, graphics preset, render scale, upscaler mode, frame-generation state and the key density settings.
- Stand or travel through the heaviest area you normally play. Include camera movement, because reconstruction artifacts and frame pacing often appear while panning.
- Record average frame rate, the slowest sustained frame rate you can observe, frame-time consistency, GPU and CPU utilization, VRAM and system-memory use, and temperatures.
- Apply one change, repeat the same route and compare. If you change several options, you will not know which trade-off produced the result.
Use a short warm-up run before recording. Shader compilation, asset streaming and a cold cache can make the first pass unrepresentative.
3. Make sure the game uses the intended GPU
Laptops and some desktop systems expose an integrated GPU and a discrete GPU. A game assigned to the integrated chip can perform poorly regardless of graphics settings.
- In Windows 11, open Settings > System > Display > Graphics.
- Add the game’s executable under the app list, or select it if it is already present.
- Choose Options, select High performance, and save.
- Restart the game and confirm in the overlay that the discrete GPU is active.
Menu names differ slightly between Windows 10 and Windows 11, and some laptops provide an additional manufacturer switch or a firmware MUX setting. If the game still reports the wrong adapter, update the graphics driver and check the laptop’s power profile. Run on AC power while testing; battery modes can deliberately cap clocks.
4. Use quality upscaling before cutting output resolution
When the GPU is the limiter, enable the game’s quality upscaler before dropping the monitor’s output resolution or using a very low render scale. DLSS, FSR, XeSS and equivalent technologies render internally at a lower resolution and reconstruct the displayed image. Their quality modes usually preserve more fine detail than a simple resolution cut, although results vary by game, implementation and movement.
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“Without upscaling, players often must choose between visual quality and frame rate: raising resolution or graphics settings increases visual quality but can reduce frame rate, while lowering them improves frame rate but at the cost of image quality.”
Choosing a mode
- Start with Quality. Inspect thin geometry, foliage, wires, runway markings, distant signs and moving vehicles while panning the camera.
- Try Balanced only if Quality cannot sustain your frame-time target. It saves more GPU work but can introduce shimmer or softness.
- Use Performance for a demanding resolution or headset workload when the other modes are insufficient, accepting a greater loss of fine detail.
- Leave sharpening at a moderate level. Excess sharpening can make reconstruction noise look like added detail.
Upscaling cannot remove a CPU or simulation bottleneck. If lowering internal resolution barely changes frame rate, return to the native or a higher-quality mode and tune CPU-heavy settings instead.
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Do not lower the entire preset if only two effects consume most of the GPU budget. Use the following order as a starting point, then verify each change in your test scene.
| Setting | Why it costs performance | Image-preserving adjustment |
|---|---|---|
| Render scale | Controls the number of pixels shaded before upscaling. | Lower it modestly, or use the game’s Quality upscaler first. Microsoft Flight Simulator support uses 80 as a troubleshooting render-scaling value; treat that as a case-specific recommendation, not a universal setting. |
| Volumetrics and clouds | Processes large three-dimensional regions and can be expensive in weather or fog. | Reduce quality or sample count one step. Keep ordinary geometry and textures higher if those remain sharp. |
| Shadows | High resolutions and long shadow distances require additional rendering passes. | Lower shadow resolution or distance before lowering texture quality. Check moving shadows for distracting aliasing. |
| Reflections | Screen-space, planar or ray-traced reflections can render extra views of the scene. | Use a lower reflection quality or shorter distance; retain the main lighting quality. |
| Ambient occlusion | Adds screen-space shading work, especially in dense interiors and clutter. | Move from high to medium and inspect contact shadows at normal play distance. |
| Effects and particles | Transparency, smoke, fire and weather can overdraw many pixels. | Reduce effects quality if storms, explosions or heavy smoke are the problem, rather than lowering every geometry setting. |
| Anti-aliasing | Some modes add substantial post-processing or resolve costs. | Pair a less expensive anti-aliasing option with a quality upscaler, then check foliage and thin lines for shimmer. |
Textures are a special case. They primarily consume VRAM and storage bandwidth rather than shader time. If VRAM is available and texture streaming is stable, keep textures high because reducing them makes surfaces look soft while often producing little GPU relief. Lower them when monitoring shows VRAM exhaustion or streaming hitching.
6. Tune CPU and simulation settings when the world is the bottleneck
Open-world simulations often calculate agents, traffic, physics, world streaming and artificial intelligence on a main thread. A faster GPU cannot make that thread finish sooner. Lower the settings that increase the number or complexity of simulated entities.
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| Setting | Typical CPU or simulation cost | What to watch for |
|---|---|---|
| View distance | Keeps more objects active and visible farther from the camera. | Reduce it in a small step and check whether distant buildings or terrain pop in too early. |
| Object or world density | Increases the number of props, vehicles, agents and update checks. | Use a lower value in cities or hubs; preserve geometry quality for nearby objects. |
| Traffic, crowds or animals | Adds pathfinding, animation and behavioral updates. | Reduce the count rather than lowering resolution when dense locations cause the slowdown. |
| Simulation complexity | Controls physics, economic systems, weather interactions or other world calculations. | Lower it only as far as needed; some games expose a separate simulation-rate option. |
| Terrain or foliage distance | Can increase streaming and object-management work over a large area. | Reduce distance before cutting local detail, and test while moving through the world. |
Keep the distinction between displayed frames and simulation updates in mind. A game can show more frames while the simulated world still advances at the same constrained rate. If agents stutter, traffic updates arrive late or the simulation clock slows, reduce density or complexity rather than only adding visual effects technology.
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Use your monitor’s native output resolution when possible, then let a quality upscaler reduce internal rendering cost. Dropping the operating-system or display resolution can make the entire image softer, including interface text, while an in-game temporal upscaler may preserve more structure.
VRAM decisions
- Keep texture quality high while VRAM use remains below the card’s practical limit and frame times are stable.
- If VRAM is near capacity, reduce texture quality, texture pool size or high-resolution asset packs first.
- Close browser tabs, recording tools and overlays when system memory is tight. A game that fits in VRAM can still stutter if system RAM is paging.
Do not infer a memory problem from utilization alone. Confirm it with hitching, asset pop-in, texture swaps or frame-time spikes that coincide with the memory limit.
8. Treat frame generation as a finishing step
Frame generation creates additional displayed frames between conventionally rendered frames. It can make camera motion look smoother after the base frame rate is already stable, but it does not make the CPU calculate traffic, agents, physics or world state faster. On a CPU-limited simulation, it can therefore improve perceived smoothness without fixing simulation delays or input latency.
- First stabilize the base render rate with the GPU and CPU settings above.
- Enable the game’s frame-generation option and play a representative route, not only a static view.
- Check input response, ghosting around moving vehicles and foliage, HUD clarity and frame-time consistency.
- Disable it if latency or reconstruction artifacts are more distracting than the smoother presentation.
Supported methods depend on the game version and graphics hardware. For example, Microsoft Flight Simulator release notes document DLSS 4.5 and dynamic frame generation being added in a particular update; the exact options visible to you depend on the installed version, driver and GPU.
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9. Cap frames for consistent pacing
A stable frame cap usually feels better than an uncapped counter that swings between high peaks and severe dips. Choose a target your system can sustain in the busiest scene and set the cap in the game when possible. Match it sensibly to the display’s refresh rate and variable-refresh range.
- If the game can hold a steady target in demanding areas, cap slightly below the point where the GPU or CPU repeatedly hits its limit.
- When frame-time spikes remain, lower the setting responsible for the spikes rather than raising the cap.
- Use one frame limiter at a time when comparing results; multiple limiters can add inconsistent queues or make diagnosis harder.
Judge pacing with a frame-time graph and camera movement. Two configurations with the same average FPS can feel very different if one has regular spikes.
10. Compare configurations beyond average FPS
When two settings combinations seem viable, compare them on the criteria that affect actual play.
| Measure | Why it matters | How to evaluate |
|---|---|---|
| Sustained performance | The worst scene determines whether the game remains playable. | Use the busiest repeatable route, not an empty menu or quiet field. |
| Frame-time consistency | Even pacing feels smoother than a higher average with spikes. | Inspect the graph during turns, loading and dense encounters. |
| Image stability | Upscalers and frame generation can shimmer or leave trails. | Pan across foliage, wires, signs, water and moving vehicles. |
| Input latency | Added display frames do not automatically reduce control delay. | Test steering, camera turns and rapid menu actions with and without frame generation. |
| Memory use | Exhausted VRAM or RAM causes hitching and streaming faults. | Monitor both over a long session, including transitions between regions. |
| Power and temperature | Heat can trigger throttling and change results over time. | Compare clocks and temperatures after the system reaches steady state. |
| Simulation behavior | Visual smoothness is not useful if world updates remain delayed. | Observe traffic, crowds, physics and the simulation clock in dense areas. |
11. Troubleshoot common outcomes
Lowering resolution changes almost nothing
Recheck the CPU main thread, traffic and object density. Confirm that the game is using the high-performance GPU and that a frame cap is not already limiting output. If one core is saturated, GPU reductions cannot remove that queue.
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The image became blurry after the FPS increase
Return the upscaler to Quality, raise render scale one step, or restore native output resolution. Keep the selective shadow, volumetric or reflection reduction that delivered useful GPU savings. Avoid stacking a low render scale, Performance upscaling and aggressive sharpening.
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Textures look poor or pop in after lowering settings
Restore texture quality if VRAM monitoring shows headroom. If VRAM was full, lower texture pool size or asset resolution only enough to stop streaming faults, then retest frame pacing.
Frame generation looks smooth but controls feel delayed
Compare base and generated output in the same scene. If the underlying frame rate is unstable or CPU-limited, disable frame generation and tune the simulation workload. Use it only when the base render is consistent and the latency trade-off is acceptable.
Performance degrades during a long session
Check temperatures, clock speeds, memory use and background applications after the degradation begins. A cooling change is justified only when monitoring shows thermal throttling; otherwise it will not address the limiting resource.
A patch changed performance
Rebuild the baseline after game and driver updates. Patches can alter shader compilation, VRAM use, CPU workload and the available upscaler or frame-generation modes. Do not assume a setting that worked before has the same cost now.
12. Decide whether hardware is actually needed
Consider a hardware upgrade only after measurements identify a persistent limit that settings cannot solve.
- GPU upgrade: appropriate when the GPU remains saturated in the target resolution and a quality upscaler plus selective reductions still cannot sustain the desired cap.
- CPU upgrade: appropriate when a main thread or simulation thread is saturated in dense scenes while lowering resolution and visual effects has little effect.
- More memory: appropriate when VRAM or system RAM exhaustion causes texture faults, paging or repeatable stutter.
For a graphics-card purchase, verify power-supply capacity, case clearance, connector requirements, cooling, CPU balance and the game’s support for the desired upscaling or frame-generation features. Do not buy based on a generic FPS promise: no single gain applies across games, patches, resolutions and workloads.
13. Keep a small tuning record
Save the game version, driver version, display resolution, upscaler mode, render scale, frame-generation state, frame cap and the density settings you changed. Note the test location and the observed GPU or CPU limit. This makes future comparisons meaningful and lets you restore a known-good profile after a patch.
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Quick Recap
A practical order of operations
- Confirm the correct GPU and power profile.
- Measure the same demanding scene and identify GPU, CPU, memory or thermal limitation.
- If GPU-limited, enable Quality upscaling, then reduce render scale, volumetrics, shadows, reflections or ambient occlusion selectively.
- If CPU- or simulation-limited, reduce view distance, object density, traffic, crowds or simulation complexity.
- Keep textures high when VRAM permits; lower them only to resolve memory pressure or streaming faults.
- Stabilize a sustainable frame cap and inspect frame-time consistency.
- Test frame generation last, checking latency and artifacts.
- Repeat the test after updates and retain the profile that performs well in the worst scene.
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