Integrated & Unified Benchmarking Tool for DCS

[Limaro]

Right now, everyone measures performance in completely different ways — with different missions, modules, and settings — which makes it nearly impossible to compare results or provide meaningful feedback.

With an integrated benchmarking system, we could all test under the exact same conditions.

 

Why this matters for players

We could finally find the optimal hardware and graphics settings for our rigs without guesswork.

We’d have a reliable way to compare upgrades (e.g., “Will a 9950X3D really outperform my 9800X3D in a heavy mission?”).

Squadrons could make sure everyone has a smooth experience before big multiplayer events.

Why this matters for ED

Consistent performance data across thousands of users would make diagnosing and prioritizing performance issues much easier.

It would help separate true “bugs” from cases where users just have mismatched settings.

It could even serve as a tool for measuring improvements with each patch and verifying optimization progress.

Example Benchmark Scenarios

GPU Test: Empty map, no units — great for isolating GPU performance.

Mixed Scenario: Moderate number of ground units and some AI aircraft — balanced test.

Full Stress Test: Large-scale battle with lots of AI, explosions, and scripting — perfect for CPU benchmarking and mission-load testing.

Having this tool would give ED a goldmine of telemetry data and would give us players confidence that we are making the most of our hardware. It could even be automated to submit anonymized results, helping ED continuously improve performance.

I think this would be a win for everyone — players get clarity, ED gets better data, and DCS gets even closer to being the ultimate combat flight sim.

Thanks

[Actium]

I wrote a benchmark script for the dedicated server. Exemplary results.

[SharpeXB]

Seems like a simple reasonable idea, all this needs is a standard track in the game.
Some reasons why I think it hasn’t been done:

It could only use free maps and modules and so might not provide useful results for the range of content in the sim. Personally how an Su-25 flying over the Caucasus performs is irrelevant to me. 
It would require a working track feature. This has been broken for many years, not sure if that’s been fixed entirely. 
DCS as a sandbox has the potential for such a wide range of scenarios, a “typical” one is hard to define. Multiplayer is sometimes much more demanding than single-player.
Any preset or standard track has the potential to have bugs or break. 
The game will change and evolve over time so trying to be so exact about how any particular component performs for this one game at this one moment isn’t worthwhile.

Finally all you need to test your own performance is to run your own track. I don’t know that a standard one matters so much. But it would be easy to include with the game. 
 

 

Edited 2 hours ago by SharpeXB