Fast CPU/4090/Pimax Crystal Thread

[j9murphy]

There are several of us running this configuration, so I thought it might be helpful for us to try and compare settings more objectively.  I put the most common items we tinker with below.  

To respond in the thread, just copy what's below and update with your settings and results to share with the group.  Feel free to add a setting if you think it's material to your results.  

This should at least give a few of us a way to learn more directly from each other's experiences.

Will be interesting to see if we can replicate each other's results…

Settings
=======

PC/BIOS Settings
Hyperthreading: Off
VTx Support: On
OC Applied: Y
RAM: 32 GB
CPU: 13900K

Windows Settings
Windows Version: 11
Game Mode: Off
HAGS: Off
Idle CPU Usage (No DCS): 1-2%
Process Lasso: No
Core parking: Disabled 

Nvidia Settings
(my fps improved by forcing the global 3d settings back to default)
All Default except…
Power Management Mode: Prefer Max Performance
Virtual Reality Pre-Rendered Frames: 3

PiMax Play Settings
Refresh Rate: 90Hz
Eye Tracking: On
Render Quality: Maximum
FFR: Off
Smart Smoothing: Off
Hidden Area Mask: Off

Pimax XR

QuadViews/QVFR
QuadViews Version 1.1.3
Enabled: Y

OpenXR Toolkit
Enabled: Y
All Defaults, except…
Display Resolution (per eye): 3600x4260

DCS Settings:
DCS Version: Open Beta 2.9.0.47168
Multi-Threaded: Y
PD: 1.0
Anti Aliasing: DLAA
Upscaling: Off
Sharpening: .5
Shadows: Medium
Flat Shadows Blur: Off
Secondary Shadows: Off
Visible Range: Ultra
Clouds: High
Water: High
SSAO: Off
SSLR: Off
Anisotropic Filtering: 16x
Terrain Object Shadows: Flat

Results Discussion:
My goal was smoothness, I'm willing to dial down quality to get smoothness.  Free Flight in Caucus is 90fps, flying low over cities in PG drops me to 70-80.  Mostly smooth, good render resolution. 
 

 

 

Edited November 14, 2023 by j9murphy
updated to 120hz half frame rate

[Peedee]

Interesting  

I tried Peripheral Resolution 5% in Quadview companions app (and the rest of the settings). But, man, that was brutal… way too noticeable what was going on outside where my eyes were focused. Increased it to 15, and it became tolerable. 
 

I don’t use DLAA though. 

[j9murphy]

yes, DLAA eliminates that shimmering in your peripheral view for low values in QVFR.  Without DLAA it's pretty distracting.

[j9murphy]

it also looks like DLAA is not applied on the menu screens, so shimmering in the peripheral view is very pronounced in the menu, but disappear once you are in the plane.

no takers on sharing yet:)  It's a long list of items above... I guess that's why tuning is so difficult and why we get such different results from each other many times.

[Peedee]

On 11/7/2023 at 2:33 PM, j9murphy said:

yes, DLAA eliminates that shimmering in your peripheral view for low values in QVFR.  Without DLAA it's pretty distracting.

Tried DLAA. Works good against the shimmering  Lost some sharpness though. Will do some more testing.  

[bomber]

13700k @ 5.2.  4090 ,64gb. Crystal.

dlaa very good anti shimmer. No upscaling.  Stayed with it.  Peripheral Quadviews not below 10%. 72hz option very good stops microstutters. Hyper threading on.  Changed to balanced for Pimax play settings.  Might try upping the last due to 72hz?.   Was mostly 90fps on 90hz except on ground partic f16 or with apache. Pre rendered frames reverted to 1.  

[Peedee]

I was very against DLAA when 2.9 came out. But I think there were som bugs somewhere, also with Quadviews or something, because back then everything became a blurry mess. But not now. Before I was so used to no antialiasing - which gave me lots of shimmer of course. But today I tried without DLAA and I couldn´t stand the shimmer. So, hard to give up DLAA now. 

I have now decided to keep DLAA. With the extra sharpening suggested by threadstarter j9murphy (found in his settings in the first post), I think it is clear enough. I pushed Peripheral Quads from 5 to 10%, and now it is hard to see that theres degrading outside of my focus. I really have to "look" for it, and even then it´s hard to see. 5% became too low, even with DLAA. 

So, 72hz - well staying with that one! For now at least. 

I used to run the Pimax Crystal resolution at 3800x4497 (I use OpenXR Toolkit to change to that resolution from the resolution Pimax Play set for me) - The Balanced resolution in Pimax Play was too low, and the one higher than that in Pimax menus became too high. So used OpenXR toolkit to set something in between.   And I set in focus area to 100% in Quadviews companion app. 

But now with the 72hz mode, I have increased the Quadviews in focus setting to 110% - which equals a resolution of 4180x4946 I think when calculated from the set resolution at 3800x4497. Anyway - even more sharp center area

[j9murphy]

I updated my settings in my original post.  Based on the some feedback here, I'm now using 120hz at half frame frate.  So far its pretty smooth in almost every situation.  I havnt tried MP or a complex mission yet but the early results are encouraging.  The cockpit is very clear, the terrain outside the cockpit is not quite as clear it seems when compared to my last settings? only slightly so? 

I also changed the name of the topic to "Fast CPU" since it seemed we didnt get many takers on the 13900k settings.

Edited November 13, 2023 by j9murphy

[Peedee]

23 hours ago, j9murphy said:

I updated my settings in my original post.  Based on the some feedback here, I'm now using 120hz at half frame frate.  So far its pretty smooth in almost every situation.  I havnt tried MP or a complex mission yet but the early results are encouraging.  The cockpit is very clear, the terrain outside the cockpit is not quite as clear it seems when compared to my last settings? only slightly so? 

I also changed the name of the topic to "Fast CPU" since it seemed we didnt get many takers on the 13900k settings.

 

Hmm…. I got just a little bit of occasional stuttering with 120hz, locked at 60 and smart smoothing. Not much, but I went back to 72hz native again - meaning no smart smoothing. Haven’t had time to fly for some days, but will try again with 60 and smart smoothing perhaps later today. Maybe do the Hags On / Hags off  dance….again… See what is best. Still, I don’t think there’s a way to get rid of the ghosting of nearby airplanes when they are passing  you fast.

[j9murphy]

1 minute ago, Peedee said:

Hmm…. I got just a little bit of occasional stuttering with 120hz, locked at 60 and smart smoothing. Not much, but I went back to 72hz native again - meaning no smart smoothing. Haven’t had time to fly for some days, but will try again with 60 and smart smoothing perhaps later today. Maybe do the Hags On / Hags off  dance….again… See what is best. Still, I don’t think there’s a way to get rid of the ghosting of nearby airplanes when they are passing  you fast.

I *think* smart smoothing is still bugged in the latest firmware (at least at 72hz) not sure about 120/90. I have it turned off.  

[Nuggetz]

Can I ask is everyone in this thread using quad views version 1.1.3. As a 3080TI user I had been experiencing imaging quality and fps issues after 2.9 but now run the Crystal at max resolution/72hz and enjoy super clear images and pretty much rock solid 72 fps most of the time with most settings high/max. 
 
Apologies if you are already using 1.1.3 but didn’t see it mentioned in the thread. 
 

Hope this helps. 

[j9murphy]

yes, and I added that to the OP for clarity - thank you for pointing that out!

[Peedee]

47 minutes ago, j9murphy said:

I *think* smart smoothing is still bugged in the latest firmware (at least at 72hz) not sure about 120/90. I have it turned off.  

Yes, Smart smoothing is probably somewhat bugged still, but it works if you lock frame rate at half speed with PimaxXR. BUT  I get stutters in 72hz, like every 10 seconds or so. In between there it is smooth and clear. In 90hz and 120 less stutters, and actually playable.

I need either native frame rate smooth or smart smoothing. I can't stand the judder I get when not having that. I know a lot people don’t mind it, but I think it is terrible.   People are different  

EDIT: for Smart smoothing to work, you need to turn off Prefer Framerate Over Latency. I see it is on in PimaxXR in the first post.

Edited November 14, 2023 by Peedee

[British_Dragon_14]

It's a shame this thread didn't 'take off!'

I'm currently messing with my settings and had the picture quality looking quite good for 4K YouTube videos but the frame rate was awful. Their has been a lot of changes lately with Pimax Play and DCS updates that I've done nothing but testing lately. It's becoming so tiring, chasing all this VR performance. I just want to go back to 2D TrackiR sometimes!

I just upgraded my RAM from 32Gb DDR5 CL36 5600 MT/s to 64Gb CL32 6400 MT/s as well. Most of the testing was done on Mission 1 of The Big Show campaign.

4090 OC, 14900K, DCS on 8 P-Cores @5800, HT off.

 

02-10-24

HAGS: on

Prefer frame rate over latency: Y

NCP Pre-rendered frames: 3

Pimax Play Resolution: 1.0

Pimax XR Runtime: 4312 x 5102 @72Hz

Quad Views Settings:

60% Foveated Window X & Y Axis.

300% Foveated Resolution

20% Peripheral Resolution

DLSS Ultra Performance

Result: This video

 

I'm going to just try this next:

HAGS: on

Prefer frame rate over latency: N

NCP Pre-rendered frames: 1

Render Quality .90 in Pimax Play

3870 x 4580 @72Hz

Quad Views Settings:

35% Foveated Window X & Y Axis.

110% Foveated Resolution

10% Peripheral Resolution

DLAA

 

And go from there. And hopefully see if I can increase the foveated window if all goes well!

Edited October 2, 2024 by British_Dragon_14

[Nodak]

And  if your using an AMD with an X3D capable chip don't use those listed settings, game mode must be on and same with xbox game bar in order for the X3D to work.

 

[j9murphy]

I've changed my approach somewhat to avoid chasing settings all of the time.  I put the settings into 2 categories - things I change and things I don't:)

Things I've decided not to chase anymore and I just leave them...

• DCS PD = 1.0
• DCS Graphics Settings - don't have them in front of me, but I have set and forgot most of these now
• DLAA only
• NVCP = Everything default except "prefer max performance" is set
• PimaxPlay Resolution = Best
• Pimax Refresh = 90hz
• Quadviews = set according to my liking (dont have those in front of me, but 100% in the middle, 10% at the edges
• OXRTK - no longer use
• PimaxXR - no longer use

Things I will tweak

• not much any more.  If a mission or something in DCS is performing poorly, I'll just drop to 72hz and leave everything else where it is.  Honestly I rarely have to do this.

This means more time flying and less time chasing settings.  I don't run a frame rate monitor anymore, and I don't compare version or driver performance differences.  Honestly, the crystal is good enough for me going forward for some time I think.  I'd rather someone fix cockpit interactions in VR (for all flightsims, pointctrl isnt bad for dcs) rather than send me a new headset.