SF2 not well optimized for newer systems?

[JamesWilson]

Hi everyone,

i've been playing SF2 for years now on my GTX 1050Ti 16 GB RAM i7 8750H Win 10 gaming laptop at medium graphical settings, getting always very high framerate with basically no drops whatsoever.

Now i've moved to a new high-end laptop with GTX 4060 32 GB RAM i7 13650HX Win 11 and i've finally set my graphical settings to unlimited.

I get fps locked at 60 most of the times (it's locked at 60 by default, and i don't know why and how to change it, even if that's not a problem) (i remember it used to be unlocked on my previous laptop and i ranged from 50/60 up to 130 with medium settings), but sometimes it drops for an instant (it's shown in "lowest fps" when i turn on parameters) and some other times (like with smoke or very dense models like carriers and terrains like "Italy" or when i move quickly my sight) it drops and stays there until i look away and not too fast.

I tried at high settings and the difference is i gain 5/6 fps more when a drop happens.

This problem, even if not game breaking, it may sometimes be annoying and disturbing.

I'm actually surprised this happens, since i tried MSFS 2020 and i get 50+ fps at ultra, 80+ fps at high and 120+ fps at medium.

I finally tried to set my SF2 settings to low, and the lowest fps it goes is 50.

Is it because my laptop is not powerful enough (sounds very unlikely to me but i may be wrong) to run SF2 at unlimited and high settings? Or is that SF2 shows its age with newer systems with high-end specs so that's why it tends to lag more than more modern and demanding games?

Thanks for the help and suggestions

[+Muesli]

Hi!

Well... ehm... it is a game from 2008/2009 and there wasn't very much wiggle room to begin with. TK didn't look too far into the future and abandoned the game somewhere in 2013 (I think). So that is almost 12 years without "official' support, patches and so on.
But it is true... you need to tweak it a LOT to get it running on an acceptable level.
There might be some tips in the fora and the knowledge sections, and next to that it is trial and error.

I have a Win11 system with an RTX card and an ultrawide monitor and it works most of the time. Crashes will sometime occur and I have accepted it.
Good luck.... and enjoy!


Muesli

[+daddyairplanes]

the main time i experience crashes is after running 3-4 unique missions back to back. but these are hard, system killing (not just CTD) crashes

run three then quit is what i usually do.

also i forget specifics (other than it being designed for and therefore better on dual core rather than quad core systems), but yes it was optimized for systems from a decade ago

[Wrench]

Short answer: No.

It was designed for systems from 2002, it's first release. SF2 just changed a bit of coding for Win 7. Mostly graphical, with few "other changes" (there's an old thread around somewhere here, that explains most of the changes/upgrades.)

My experience is no issues with Win 10 or now 11 on the new machine. Everything maxed out (the new machine) well over 100 fps. Of course, it is a desktop. 

I think we should consider ourselves VERY lucky the damn thing runs at all in 10 & 11; given the complete and utter lack of support from the manufacturer. If it weren't for the modders, it would have faded away.

 

[madvad]

Its a old game running in a 32-bit software engine.
So, don´t matter how much RAM your machine have, the SF2 never gonna use more than 3Gb or something around this.
Its the same with Windows 32 and 64 bit versions: you need the 64-bit version to take full advantage of all the installed RAM.

[JamesWilson]

Thanks for all the answers and those who helped.

Looks like i gotta live with these random drops and use medium settings whenever i playi maps like "italy", for everything else i'll mostly play at 60 fps

[+dtmdragon]

In my experience texture size has helped optimize fps and running out of memory. As beautiful as 2k and 4K textures are 1536x1536 for aircraft and terrain textures seems to be the sweet spot. As is 768x768 for ordinance, pilots and ground objects. If you are playing campaigns in standalone installs like ODS, Vietnam Air and Ground War Expansion etc that have a lot of aircraft and ordinance in the air at one time this really seems to make a difference.

Edited June 24 by dtmdragon

[+daddyairplanes]

(feels judged while converting stock B-52D textures to 2048....)

[JamesWilson]

On 24/06/2025 at 11:58 PM, dtmdragon said:

In my experience texture size has helped optimize fps and running out of memory. As beautiful as 2k and 4K textures are 1536x1536 for aircraft and terrain textures seems to be the sweet spot. As is 768x768 for ordinance, pilots and ground objects. If you are playing campaigns in standalone installs like ODS, Vietnam Air and Ground War Expansion etc that have a lot of aircraft and ordinance in the air at one time this really seems to make a difference.

So i should lower texture settings?

[JamesWilson]

On 25/06/2025 at 1:43 AM, daddyairplanes said:

(feels judged while converting stock B-52D textures to 2048....)

Oh you meant converting textures and doing a modding work instead of just lowering graphical settings?

[+dtmdragon]

15 hours ago, JamesWilson said:

Oh you meant converting textures and doing a modding work instead of just lowering graphical settings?

Correct 

[OlWilly]

Since the engine is 32bit it remains bottlenecked by RAM. It works alright with vanilla assets and you can max the setting as much as you want. The more new stuff you add to the mission, the worse it gets.

You can take a default map and spam it with F-100s for example, even with dozens of them flying around it will work alright. But once you start adding new high def stuff, the performance drops - you can test it with high def ground vehicle pack or certain aircraft. The more different stuff you add, the worse it gets

Old MSFS titles have polygon limiter to prevent modders from overloading the game engine - but here you can take a high def model ripped straight from DCS and the engine will still try to process it

[+swambast]

7 hours ago, OlWilly said:

Old MSFS titles have polygon limiter to prevent modders from overloading the game engine - but here you can take a high def model ripped straight from DCS and the engine will still try to process it

LOL, no it won't.  This game engine has a polycount export limit as well...along with vertex limitations, animation limitations, texture map type restrictions, etc.  Not sure what you are talking about unless you mean something else?

[AcariaPlainum]

On 28.6.2025 at 12:50 PM, dtmdragon said:

Correct 

Lowering the acutal 3d model or skins?