Microsoft Flight Simulator capped frame rate

[ScotsDon]

Microsoft Flight Simulator:

In MSFS, my laptop runs at around 30 fps with 50% GPU utilisation (from the Nvidia overlay) at 1080x1920 and at High End graphics with 100% graphics detail. It won't give me a higher frame rate whatever graphics settings I use. When I connect a 1080x1920 monitor with the same settings, it gives me a much higher 55 fps at nearly 100% GPU utilisation. When I disconnect the monitor and revert to my built-in monitor (keeping the game active), the frame rate drops a little, to maybe 50 fps, but does not go back to 30, while the GPU utilisation also falls back to 90% or so. When I close the game and restart it, the frame rate is back to 30, at 50% utilisation.

VSync is Off, the CPU overall load is low - around 20% - and none of the 6+6 cores are near 100%. Virtual memory is set by Windows and is around 3GB, but I tried setting it to 16GB which made no difference.

So why can't I get more that 30 fps from the built-in display unless I connect another monitor?

I don't get this with other games, usually getting 60 fps.

I think this is likely to be an HP or software problem and have tried adjusting the Performace Control in the HP Command Centre app, but to no avail. NVidia Control Settings are "Let the app decide".

Since I know the laptop is capable of going a lot faster than it chooses to, I don't think the hardware spec is that relevant, but here it is.

The PC spec is:
HP ENVY Laptop 15-ep0008na
Operating system Windows 10 Home 64-bit Version: 19043.1586
Microprocessor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-10750H CPU @ 2.60GHz
System memory 16 GB
Graphic device 1 NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 with Max-Q Design, 6 GB memory.
Version 30.0.15.1179 (2/10/2022)
Graphic device 2 Intel(R) UHD Graphics
Screen resolution 3840 x 2160 (UHD)
Refresh rate 59 Hz (it says)
HDD 1 TB SSD
Internet rate 14 mbps

Any ideas please?

[BOSSXXXL]

high end graphics need power 😋😂 so plug your power charger to get more fps  im sure you are playing on battery.

[ScotsDon]

No, not on battery. That would not explain the symptoms anyway, which is that I get a much better frame rate with an external full HD monitor.

[BOSSXXXL]

then your problem is just go to nvidia control panel then configure surround physx and select your rtx card and hit apply

[ScotsDon]

That didn't work either, although the Surround section was not active (presumably because thare was no second monitor).  What I did is, under PhysX settings, change the dropdown from Auto-select to the Nvidia GPU, and ticked "Dedicate to PhysX"..

[BOSSXXXL]

Yes changed it from auto to Nvidia 

[ScotsDon · Accepted solution]

I've found out the reason, but don't really understand why. In Windows "Display settings", I switched off HDR and re-ran MSFS. At 1920x1080 and High End Graphics (as before), I get 50 fps with the GPU utilisation at 90%, rather than the 30 fps @ 50%. HDR presumably takes more processing somewhere, but with it on, nothing is overloaded. It's still a mystery, but at least I've made a step forward. I don't think it's worth my investigating further, however.

My external monitor is 18 years old (a Dell 1600x1200 4:3, but still good) so won't have heard of HDR! I have ordered a new big monitor however as I am so impressed by Flight Simulator.

Thanks for your help, and if you know why HDR on an HP laptop kills the frame rate, please post here.

[BOSSXXXL]

windows is full of bugs so happy you solve your problem !!

[ScotsDon]

Since yesterday's post, I have discovered that there appears to be a problem with HDR on my laptop model (HP Envy 15-ep0008na) and also on a similar HP Omen.  It may be something to do with the inability to achieve the necessary data-rate to the display.  It appears to happen when watching YouTube HDR videos using the Intel graphics card, whereas my problem was using the NVidia GPU.  The common factor is the on-board OLED UHD display.

[BOSSXXXL]

Try enbale and disable game optimization in windows if you see better results ! Well me i have hp omen it's already disabled hdr par default.