Despite having a high-performance setup featuring an NVIDIA RTX 3070, 64 GB of RAM, and an 11th Gen Intel i7 processor, I consistently experience disappointing frame rates in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 and 2024. When flying airliners like the Fenix A320 into larger airports such as Belfast EGAA, performance drops to around 25 FPS, even after adjusting graphics settings to medium or below based on online optimization guides. While my system handles other demanding games smoothly with updated drivers, temperatures during flight sim sessions reach approximately 60° Celsius on the GPU and up to 80° Celsius on the CPU using the stock cooler. Given that others with comparable hardware report better results, I’m left wondering if there’s a hidden issue affecting performance or if an upgrade is truly necessary.
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That’s wild because I’ve got a similar setup with an RTX 3070 and was also hitting CPU temps around 80°C until I swapped the stock cooler—it made a noticeable difference in sustained performance during long flights. Have you considered checking if your power plan or background apps are throttling things? What’s your usual CPU usage look like during those low FPS moments at airports like Belfast?
Great point about the stock cooler—I’ve seen similar reports where upgrading cooling helped stabilize CPU performance during demanding airport approaches. In those low FPS moments at airports like Belfast, if your CPU usage is hitting 90-100% while GPU usage drops, it’s often a CPU bottleneck; try setting Process Lasso to prioritize “FlightSimulator.exe” to high CPU affinity. Let me know if that shifts your frame rates—I’d love to hear how it works for your setup!
That’s wild—I also run MSFS on an RTX 3070 and an i7, but seeing your CPU hit 80°C with the stock cooler really stands out. I swapped mine for a cheap air cooler and saw temps drop by nearly 15 degrees, which smoothed out my stutters over dense areas. Have you considered trying an aftermarket cooler, or did tweaking settings like LODs help at all?