After 14 years, Microsoft has released the next part in its Microsoft Flight Simulator series. Developed by Asobo, the team behind A Plague Tale: Innocence, Microsoft Flight Simulator aims to be a graphical benchmark on the PC. Thus, it’s time now to benchmark it and see how it performs on the PC platform.
For this PC Performance Analysis, we used an Intel i9 9900K with 16GB of DDR4 at 3600Mhz, AMD’s Radeon RX580 and RX Vega 64, NVIDIA’s RTX 2080Ti, GTX980Ti and GTX690. We also used Windows 10 64-bit, the GeForce driver 452.06 and the Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition 20.8.2 drivers. NVIDIA has not added any SLI profile for this game, meaning that our GTX690 performed similarly to a single GTX680.
Asobo has implemented a wide range of PC graphics settings to tweak. PC gamers can adjust the quality of Terrain, Buildings, Trees, Shadows, Water, and more. The game only supports DX11 and does not support Exclusive Fullscreen Mode. This may annoy some G-Sync owners as they won’t be able to take advantage of their monitors (unless they enable G-Sync for windowed applications, which is still a buggy mess). Furthermore, we noticed some rendering issues when using a different resolution than our native one. Take for example this 4K screenshot. As you can see, while the game is rendered in 4K, there is A LOT of aliasing. We don’t know whether this is related to the lack of an exclusive fullscreen mode.
The game also appears to have some optimization issues when using the cockpit view. As you can see below, both our CPU and GPU were not used to their fullest, resulting in low performance. Since the game is only using DX11, my guess is that this is a driver overhead issue. We’ve seen the exact same thing happening in Doom 2016 (and other games) when not using a low-level API. So, hopefully, this will be resolved once Asobo adds support for the DX12 API.
Microsoft Flight Simulator does not feature any built-in benchmark tool. Therefore, we’ve decided to create a CPU and a GPU benchmark. For our CPU tests, we’ve benchmarked the JFK New York City airport by taking off and flying above the city. For our GPU tests, we’ve benchmarked the Sydney Landing scenario.
As we’ve already stated, Microsoft Flight Simulator is the new “Crysis”. What this basically means is that there is no current-gen CPU that can run the game with 60fps on Ultra settings. In fact, our Intel i7 9900K had major performance issues even on High-end settings in our CPU benchmark. However, do note that this is the worst-case scenario. Overall performance was way better in all other airports, including those in big cities. We don’t know why the game’s performance tanks at the JFK airport.
In order to find out how the game scales on multiple CPU threads, we simulated a dual-core, a quad-core and a hexa-core CPU. Our simulated dual-core system was unable to offer acceptable performance, mainly due to severe stutters. Similarly, our simulated quad-core had major performance issues when Hyper Threading was disabled. Thankfully, our performance saw a noticeable improvement when we enabled Hyper Threading.
Ironically, and similarly to Crysis, Microsoft Flight Simulator mainly relies on one single CPU core/thread. The game cannot scale well on multiple CPU cores, something that will negatively affect a lot of PC systems. Asobo plans to introduce support for the DX12 API at a later date, so let’s hope that the team will be able to improve the game’s multi-threading capabilities. To be honest, this situation reminded me of Forza Horizon 3. So, let’s hope that Asobo will follow Turn10’s steps and enhance the game’s performance.
Microsoft Flight Simulator requires both high-end CPUs and GPUs. In our GPU benchmark test, our NVIDIA RTX2080Ti was unable to offer a constant 60fps experience at 1080p/Ultra. Thankfully, the game could run smoothly when we lowered our settings to High-end. And, to be honest, we recommend using High-end on current-gen hardware. That is of course until we get new CPUs and GPUs (do note that Ultra settings also bring an additional CPU hit).
At 1080p/High-end settings, the only GPU that was able to offer a smooth gaming experience was the RTX2080Ti. Both the AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 and GTX980Ti were able to offer a constant 40fps experience. And while some may say that 30-40fps are fine for Microsoft Flight Simulator, once you experience it with 60fps you won’t be able to go back. Not only that, but lower framerates can introduce input lag. For instance, we were unable to comfortably fly a plane (with the keyboard) at 30fps. However, we were able to even make some flying tricks (again with the keyboard) when the game was running with 60fps.
At 2560×1440, our RTX2080Ti was able to push a smooth gaming experience on High-end settings. There were some drops to 56fps, however, the game felt smooth. On the other hand, our GTX980Ti and AMD RX Vega 64 were able to offer a 30fps experience. And as for 4K, there is currently no GPU that can run the game smoothly at both High-end and Ultra settings.
Now while Microsoft Flight Simulator requires high-end GPUs, it looks absolutely stunning. The game packs truly next-gen graphics, and we believe that it fully justifies its high GPU requirements. Everything, from the planes to the volumetric clouds and the amazing weather effects, is exceptional in this game. The game looks fantastic even on High-end settings. The following screenshots, for instance, were captured at 1440p/High-end.
In conclusion, Microsoft Flight Simulator is one of the best looking games to date. It’s also one of the most demanding PC games we’ve ever tested. Before purchasing it, we strongly suggest taking a look at its official PC requirements. And while the game justifies its GPU requirements, it, unfortunately, has major CPU optimization issues. In its current state, the game cannot take full advantage of more than 6 CPU cores/threads, and relies heavily on one single core. So, let’s hope that Asobo will further optimize the game via post-launch patches.
Enjoy!
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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What is really wierd is, using DX11 and thus dooming the game to mediocracy.
I’m one of the people that will wait till the game gets a proper DX12 support before I give it a spin.
As far as i can remember, FM7 has suffered from the exact same issue (relying on core/thread) while FH3 (Playground games effect ?) and its optimization patch already solved this kind of issue.
It’s still funny to see the real world performance of an I9 9900k compared to the recommended specs (I5 8400).
Ah the Crysis of this generation. Eager to see how it will perform on the new rtx 3000 and amd processors.
Stunning game with unprecedented technology .
It looks amazing, but I’m still not convinced it justifies the system requirements or performance. Aside from the clouds, everything else seems fairly standard as far as rendering tech.
Why the hell did Microsoft choose a dev’ with such a poor track record to produce such an ambitious game?
Their previous game, A Plague Tale: Innocence, was poorly optimised at higher settings and other past games of theirs such as ReCore, The Crew 2 and The Crew launched with a mixture of bugs, crashes and optimisation issues. It should have been abundantly apparent to Microsoft that Asobo lacked sufficient competence to satisfactorily deliver and now we’re seeing it borne out. A mess that could and should have been easily avoided.
Wut? I never had any performance issues on my 2700S on ultra settings.
Game is currently sitting at 93 metascore, clearly Microsoft chose the right studio.
The Last of Us Part II has an even higher metascore so, by your simpleton logic, it must be the better game.
Anyway, the rating that matters more is the User Score which is a decidedly average 7.1/10. As a Timmy Tencent acolyte you naturally don’t care for actual gamers though.
By his logic plenty of people like this game.
What is better, or worse, is a matter of opinion and preferences. A game that you really like might be trash for me and vice versa.
As for The Last of Us 2, it’s a hit, the fastest selling Sony exclusive ever. What I find amusing is that some people were posting negative reviews before the game was even released.
Because Asobo is know for huge open-world driving games. FUEL, help on The Crew 1 & 2.
Fair point.
It might use DirectX 11.3 or 11.4 which are Win 10 only
The game also demands 32GB of RAM and i wonder, as a 16GB owner, what kind of impact that gives me in terms of performance, stability and framerates.I miss that in the article.
It means it will be swapping like crazy. You can mitigate the performance hit by storing the page file on SSD, but in mind that it will wear it down.
demands? Runs fine with 16 Gb RAM
This game using DX11 is such a big mistake. This rendering path should not even be taken into consideration when begining to plan the game. If they try and make a DX12 renderer now, it will not be as good as it could be, because too much has been done around DX11 already. I bet they will use some sh*t like D3D11On12, which will drop some of the CPU overhead and call it a day.
Exactly. The game code just seems too heavily dependent on single thread performance.
I sure hope they can pull off a DX12 miracle.
Nowdays,releasing a game like this without dx 12 support,is releasing an unfinished product.
Another game ruined by SJWs and Cucktural Marxism right?
I think I am going to wait for the VR update before jumping into this game. I will probably grab a RTX 3080 for it too.
Guys …. it’s a shame that Microsoft doesn’t use HIS LATEST API on this game! How is it possible? what an ugly figure!
It is certainly a question of time…presumably they preferred to release it faster than finished… Which is not the best idea IMO.
is there an arcade mode for this game ??
Yes, you can play it without learning a hundred buttons. Engines, throttle, brakes, flaps, landing gear all are simple to do, and I believe it even automates it beyond those.
Kkkk Goggle Earth With planes in Single treadh,what a shame for 2021 game
Single thread ??? It is not well optimized, but we can clearly see that it take at leat, a 4C8T CPU……..
From everything I’m reading it sure seems like they kept too much legacy FSX code.
The benchmark results keep pointing to facts that the game does not use CPU cores and the GPU efficiently together.
I’ll buy this when I see code patches that should of been in the design phase.
I’ve been playing at 4k/high on my Ryzen 7 3700x/2070 Super and it’s fine, averages about 30fps.