Aluminum Donkey

Ok, I messed around with my PC for a little while, and now G-Sync seems to be working properly with the 417.75 driver, across the whole range of framerates. Danged if I know what changed, but at least it's working :) Unfortunately, even with the new driver, G-Sync still turns itself off whenever the monitor sleeps and I have to re-enable it by switching resolutions back and forth. People with "real" G-Sync monitors (not Freesync) are having this problem too. So, devil only knows what'll happen in the long run. AD

These things happen, the MiG-29 used to have a skin that did this--the "checkerboard effect" underneath the main paint job. ED has since fixed it. They'll probably get around to it one day :) AD

Knightal, What I find helps a lot is not just quickly clicking the button or switch, but holding down the mouse button for a short while. I other words, "long click" the button or switch you want instead of just quick-clicking like you'd do in the sim normally. It seems to make the virtual instructor recognize what you're doing better :) AD

Lots of talk about the MiG-29 being too 'twitchy' in pitch, that the controls are too hairy and that the flight model can't be realistic because of excessive pitch sensitivity leading to PIO especially at lower speeds. Almost all of us are using desk-top control sticks with our computers. Try adding a foot-long (~30cm) extension to your control stick and remove the pitch axis curve, then try it. :) The real MiG-29 doesn't have a stubby little control stick! Neither does the Spitfire, which people have also complained about, saying the pitch axis is far too sensitive. It's all because our flight sticks are much too short, so control inputs tend to be too coarse, and it's PIO-City. AD

Did anyone ever actually use Betamax back in the day? ;)

I don't run multiplayer, but I do use 100% preload radius, and DCS World barely uses half of my 16GB system RAM. I have an 11GB graphics card and it hardly ever uses more than half of that, too. All max settings except for Medium shadows, Flat terrain shadows. I'm not sure why everyone seems to think DCS uses massive amounts of memory. I hardly see it using that much. Some people have 32 or even 64GB of memory, so DCS is barely using any of it, and they still get stuttering. AD

Yes, be speechless all you want :) The 2080 Ti has 11GB of graphics memory, so that's a total of 27GB. With that much RAM, there will be no memory limit issues as you fly around. I'm using a 1080 Ti, also 11GB, with 16GB system RAM. When running DCS, I use almost all max settings, and I find I use only about 8GB of VRAM at the absolute max (rare occasions) and only about 8-10GB of system memory. That's for big "furball" type dogfight missions over the Normandy map. All others use less memory, so 32GB is very excessive. There are people on this forum with ultra-expensive computers with 9th-gen X-Pensive Edition CPUs, 1080 Ti or 2080/2080 Ti cards, and 32GB of RAM or even more. They still get stuttering, even though DCS World doesn't use much of their system resources. So, going drastic overkill on system memory is *not* going to improve performance and/or stuttering in DCS. The stuttering is probably related to memory management or a Windows bug/oversight, and not lack of excessively expensive CPUs or enormous amounts of memory. AD

Whoooaaaah Horsie :) Control setup. A-10A module works fine, but as with all DCS products, you have to configure your controls for anything to work. You can press Escape in the middle of a flight, click Setup Controls and configure your controls any time you want. A-10C is one of the DCS World's very best modules--very refined and feature-complete. Once you get into it you'll find it remarkable that this sort of thing is avaliable as a consumer product for our amusement :) AD

Sorry everyone, but it looks like the new driver sucks. (417.75). Confirmed with Nvidia's pendulum test that G-Sync quits working below about 52 FPS, making it rather useless in DCS when flying close to the ground in Vegas or Normandy.... I don't know how to bypass that 52FPS limit, or if it's possible at all, but I certainly want to because of how crappy it is. Looks like I'll have to go back to the older one until Nvidia assembles their fecal matter. This is a mighty shame, because I really like my new used GTX 1080 Ti, and would love to use G-Sync. The two together are kinda the ultimate combination for use on a "moderately-high-end" PC. Years ago, I bought an Nvidia graphics card and a *very* expensive G-Sync monitor to go with it. I had the exact same problem--G-Sync would keep turning itself off when away from the PC for a little while, and was sometimes difficult to re-enable, requiring switching resolutions in NVCP and sometimes even a graphics card re-start, only to have it quit on me again. Looks like it'll be a while before Team Green gets their rubbish sorted out. AD

Ok, I just tried driver version 417.75. Looks like it doesn't work as well, because G-Sync doesn't work below about 52 or 53 FPS. It just switches to what appears to be normal VSync mode, causing stuttering. So, I certainly won't be using that! I just want to try it to see if it works without disabling itself all the time. 417.75 appears to have "gimped" G-Sync because people were complaining about flickering in dual-monitor setups with one monitor on DisplayPort and the other on HDMI. I'll keep it for a little while and play around with it, but I'll probably go back to 417.71, which allowed G-Sync to work over an extremely wide FPS range, and gave amazing results in DCS World. Oh man, I hope Nvidia gets all this crap sorted out! I'd love to use G-Sync, it's awesome when it works properly, but oh man is it ever an infuriatingly finicky pile o' steaming dookie right now! AD

I always let my display sleep (backlight off), because I don't want the backlight on all the time when I'm not using the PC. I don't Hibernate my PC, I just want the monitor backlight off. I can disable Sleep Mode in the monitor's menus, so the backlight stays on even when I'm not using my computer. Then, it isn't a problem--G-Sync works all the time. I just don't want the backlight on when I'm not using my computer, it wastes electricity and puts un-needed time on the backlight. I'm both cheap & broke, so I need my monitor to last as long as possible :) hehehehe AD

I had a G-Sync monitor quite a while ago, and it did the same thing as my Freesync one does now--G-Sync disabled on wake. Where did you get the 417.76 driver? The Nvidia website only shows 417.71. AD

DCS 2.5 will run well on a wide variety of rigs. Posting your system specs in your sig makes it much, much easier for us to sort things like this out. You probably don't have to go back to 1.5 unless you have a really archaic system, in which case you're done for even with 1.5 :) AD

Greetings Jim, How well your computer performs doesn't have much to do with what make and model of motherboard and/or SSD you use. It's mostly dependent on CPU clock speed, and what graphics card you use. Since you're going for a 2080 Ti, well... that pretty much takes care of the graphics card, doesn't it? ;) For the SSD, I'd heartily recommend a fast NVMe drive. For DCS, they'll reduce loading times to merciful levels. They will NOT improve framerates--that's what your zillion-dollar graphics card is for :) Use the NVMe drive only for DCS (and maybe other games), use a separate drive to install Windows. A SATA SSD is fine for Windows and most other things. For the CPU, buying an ultra-expensive one with tons of cores/threads won't make DCS perform better. Buy the cheapest one you can get that's 4.0 GHz or faster, make sure it's a K-type so you can overclock it if you ever want to in the future, and be done with it :) Since it's a gaming computer and not a graphics workstation or Web server, a non-hyperthreaded CPU will work great, give you gobs of performance, and will be much less expensive. I'd recommend the Core i5-9600K (6 core & threads, no Hyperthreading). Buying a costly i7 or i9 CPU will impress the kids online, but DCS will absolutely NOT perform better with it. There's a very slight difference in motherboards--mostly, buy a motherboard that will support that CPU socket type and generation, and you're good to go :) Only thing is, for overclocking, get one with a 10-phase VRM. The VRM is the Voltage Regulator Module, the power regulator for the CPU. A 10-phase one will allow somewhat higher overclocks, allowing your CPU to perform at it's very best *if* you choose to overclock. Cheaper motherboards (like mine) have a 6+1 phase VRM, and may overclock 10-15% slower than a 10-phase one. So, Z370-A, or Z390-A is a good bet. Buying a really expensive "Uber-Gaming TRZ-X Ultra-Extreme XZ3000 Twin-Turbo Dynamo Grand-Sport Touring Edition with Leather Seats" type motherboard will eat lots of money and will not perform better. Oh yeah, memory? With your RTX 2080 Ti, get 16GB (2x 8GB modules) of DDR4. Don't get one module of 16GB, always use 2, so the memory will work in dual-channel mode (best performance for the dollar). Almost any kind will do. Doesn't matter much. 32 GB is good for Internet bragging rights. 64 GB is stupid :) Peace and happy warfare AD

Can confirm that DCS is not tied to Windows and you can easily migrate. All the better reason to have DCS on a separate drive from Windows. :) AD

Greetings everyone, I've been playing with the new Nvidia driver (417.71) that allows G-Sync to work with AMD Freesync monitors. In a word, it's awesome, and works really well! Only thing is, when I go away from my computer and let the monitor sleep (backlight turns off), and come back to it and wake the monitor up by moving the mouse or hitting a key, G-Sync is no longer working properly. My monitor at 75Hz skips frames, and I have to go into NVCP and change the refresh rate to 60 Hz, then change it back to what I want (75 Hz) for G-Sync to re-enable. I've read about people having this problem with 'real' G-Sync monitors, so it can't just be because I'm using a Freesync one. When it's working, it's great, and I'd love to keep using it--just without this inconvenience. I can avoid it by disabling Sleep Mode in my monitor, but the backlight stays on all the time and I don't want that. Any ideas? AD

Actually, that's the easiest part :) AD

Cool, now I know, thanks! :) AD

Does it seem better to you in 10-bit color? BTW Dynamic Range has nothing to do with color gradient. It's the brightness difference between the lightest and darkest colors that can be displayed, not the number of steps that the color range is divided up into. But yes, dynamic range should always be set to Full and I don't know why you'd ever want to use Limited, unless the screen is older and requires it. AD

I've never had that, but when I leave my PC alone and it goes into sleep mode, when I wake it up G-Sync no longer works! I have to go into NVCP, change resolutions, then change back to the one I want. Then it works again. REALLY annoying (and mighty inconvenient), but it's delightful when it works! DCS is just wonderful to fly around with G-Sync/Freesync on, you just sail around smoothly no matter if it's 120+ Hz or down to 40 in Vegas with all the AA junk cranked up :) I really think Adaptive Sync should be an industry-standard feature supported universally by all graphics cards & monitors, and it looks like that's what Nvidia is trying to do here--and I'm really glad they did, irritating quirks notwithstanding :) Maybe the bugs will get ironed out in newer versions of the driver, but this is a fantastic place to start! AD

FragBum, As far as bang-for-buck, the i3-8350K has 4 cores & threads, defaults to 4.0 GHz and will probably hit 5 without trying too hard. The 4-core CPU will be great for DCS and any other game. It has to be fast, but not necessarily run tons of threads. Leaves extra bread for a heftier graphics card, which is a *must*. If you're building an expensive PC for gaming, you're better going overboard on the graphics card, not on a really costly CPU. Mind you, the i5-9600K *does* indeed look like a great CPU. I wouldn't mind one myself, but I spent the last of the bread I had on a used 1080 Ti ;) AD

My dumb mistake, I have to enable Freesync mode in the monitor's OSD menu. Works great!! Shame it loses sync when the computer wakes from sleep. Oh well, I've heard 'real' G-Sync monitors do that too. AD

VC, This sort of question answers itself. Get the 2080, because it's faster! :) I have a GTX 1080 Ti and it's supposed to be roughly on-par with the 2080, although the 2080 has real-time raytracing, which DCS World doesn't use. 2080 or bust, you wouldn't be asking if you didn't consider it an option. :) Alternatively, if DCS is your main bag and even if you play other games, get a GTX 1080 Ti used for a decent price if you can find one. You'll be delighted with its performance, and you won't be paying lots of extra dough for raytracing you can't use (and doesn't seem to make much difference in the demos I've seen, not to mention the crappy framerates in games that actually do use it.) As for the CPU, just get any K-type. Uber-expensive ones (i7/i9) with lots of cores/threads won't improve DCS, but you *need* a very high core clock speed. So, anything fast will do. I'd get the i3-8350K, a nice cooler on it, and OC it to 5.0 GHz or close. If you wanna rock big time, get an i5-9600K :) AD

Thanks for the input everyone, I certainly know my monitor supports 10-bit color at 60Hz because it shows up in NVCP as an option (not when it's at 75Hz though). I was just wondering if DCS itself was written to make use of it. Games generally use 8-bit color, which is fine--until you're looking straight up at the sky :) That's the only time I can see the color banding. AD

Greetings Earthlings, Just another dumb question as per the thread title :) My HP Omen 32" monitor can display 10-bit color at 60Hz, at least according to Nvidia Control Panel settings, and so can my GTX 1080 Ti. So, I'm wondering if DCS can make use of it somehow, for example, improving color gradients in sky or water? Maybe less color-banding? I guess this is actually a question for ED themselves, and the best answer is "try it!" :) Just for the sake of a little jibba-jabba though, as Mr. T would say :) AD