The MAGIC FIX For Better Performance in DCS World 2.9!

Today I wanted to highlight a magic bullet for increasing your performance in DCS World when it comes to load times and that lowest 99th percentile dip in your FPS.
Lately I have been extremely frustrated with DCS World 2.9 and its performance and more specifically the consistency of its performance.
I recently went a bit overboard with my home cockpit refresh and built an entirely new rig for playing DCS World and Video Editing.
This PC is a monster with an intel i9-14900K, RTX 4090, 64 GB of Ram… the works.
Now normally you’d think that this would translate to a huge increase in DCS World’s performance… and it did…. With the huge caveat of much higher highs when it came to FPS, and much lower lows in the 99th percentile… and weirdly long load times for missions and then textures once I was in the cockpit.
And on top of this it was extremely inconsistent, sometimes I would hop in the cockpit on a simple empty mission with no other units around and it would be a stuttery, screen tearing mess that was nearly unplayable…
Then on my next play session I would fly in a DCS Multiplayer server with 50 other pilots and get fantastic performance I could have only dreamed about a few years ago.
This inconsistency and huge ups and downs in FPS had me ready to tear my hair out as I tried every combination of graphics settings possible trying to fix this frustrating inconsistency!
After trying everything possible within DCS World’s settings and options I decided to look outside of the realm of graphics settings and look deeper into issues of inconsistent performance of applications across the board in windows 11.
This is where I finally found the culprit… Windows Defender… As usual… and I feel really stupid that I hadn’t caught this earlier.
So let's dive into how we can keep Windows Defender to stay the hell away from DCS World and all other apps you use to enhance your DCS experience!
0:00:00 - Intro
0:03:00 - Excluding DCS From Windows Defender
►►System Specs DCS/Gaming PC:
GPU: GeForce RTX 4090
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-14900K CPU @ 5.60GHz
Memory: 64 GB RAM 3600mhz
Current resolution: 2560 x 1080, 144Hz
►►Here is a link to my Patreon Page every bit of support helps make awesome DCS videos and missions possible!
/ spudknocker
►►If you want to contact me with feedback on videos or want to collaborate feel free to join my personal discord here:
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►►And if you do donate to my Patreon make sure to link your discord account for your Roles in my Discord server.
dcs f15e, spudknocker, dcs apache, dcs news, dlss

[@Spudknocker]

Hey guys! Due to an issue with the video I had to delete and reupload it, that being said I am still extremely happy I found this fix, as i was ready to pull my hair out when it came to performance issues in DCS World!

[@defsoundguy]

Ha! I was right in the middle of the video when it disappeared. I thought I was losing my mind 😆

[@Spudknocker]

@@defsoundguy sorry!

[@SA80TAGE]

I hate windows defender with a passion.

[@stephencastello6553]

Spud! It works on Windows 10 as well. I added a few other folders directly related to DCS and NVIDIA. Worked like a charm.👍🙂

[@HotshotTopharley]

Do you use SSD for DCS? Cpu and gpu is not all, you need ssd nvme for DCS.

[@KYRedleg]

I work in cybersecurity. There is definitely a risk associated with exclusion. I think all of Spuds recommendations are relatively low risk except one. You always want to be as narrow as possible when excluding a folder. I wouldn’t exclude the entire saved games folder, just the relevant sub folders. As for mods etc, I recommend downloading them to a non excluded folder before installing them so Defender can get a look before they are loaded. Thanks for info Spud!

[@chronohunter4595]

This. One of the first things I do during an assessment or after a foothold is identify excluded locations, modified environment paths, and any startup applications or services with a space in their paths. With excluded folders, I essentially have a single location on the localhost that I can do anything from without the malware protection service even batting an eye. Be careful out there.

[@itspuppy667]

Thank you. Looking for an actual expert before I tried this.

[@777XGang]

At least some of us understand… him deleting critical comments and doubling down is making him look bad though.

[@WhereNerdyisCool]

@@777XGang Agree

[@davidschmid3949]

Which specific subfolders of Eagle Dynamics \ DCS OpenBeta would you recommend including in the exceptions?

[@jts0221]

Dude you just saved my sanity. I have been TEARING my hair out over performance inconsistencies in W11 and this just fixed DCS VR for me AND even helped by applying the same technique to STALKER GAMMA. You are the GOAT

[@Spudknocker]

Glad I could help!

[@MDL5676]

Thank you for sharing this information. I followed the instructions in the video and have seen around a 10-15% increase in frame rates. Frame rates are much more stable and gameplay is very smooth. Thanks again for sharing.

[@jefftucker7236]

thanks for this! i hope every DCS player sees this video because it is easy to do, easy to revert. making the exclusions should help many users; i hope. i love your videos.

[@Spudknocker]

Thanks for the support!

[@gofres]

Great tip, looking forward to trying this out tomorrow! I agree with the same issues of inconsistent fps and in the least logical places. I'm locked to 60fps at 4k but do get moments of it dipping to 20ish for no apparent reason.

[@theanalogkid4171]

Thanks for all the EXCELLENT content and teachings Spud!! Much appreciated!

[@Spudknocker]

I’m glad if helped you out dude!

[@flyingflem7365]

Thanks a mill Spud!! That helped for sure, much appreciated 🙏

[@Spudknocker]

Awesome man!

[@bigandy234]

Hey Spudknocker followed your advice, totally worked thanks !

[@Spudknocker]

Awesome!

[@Tide0009]

Man I really thought it was my computer parts holding me back whenever I loaded into the F-15E. Thanks Spud!

[@Spudknocker]

I am glad it helped you out dude!

[@spencerwarren9219]

I fly f15e in vr and this did nothing for me or 8 of my pilots of our squadron. We fly in vr are u?

[@scanman87]

You had me at TrackIR! I've been struggling with random stuttering for weeks now with it.....sometimes its smooth as silk, other times it's a stuttering mess and it's completely random. I'm definitely going to try this along with another fix I saw today. Cheers bud 🍻

[@Spudknocker]

Hey man make sure to report back if it helps you out!

[@damcopter]

Problem with TrackIR is that you HAVE to cap your game at 60fps or 120fps (if able to reach a steady 120....). Otherwise your game seems to stutter because TrackIR has a 120hz camera so your game need to be only at 60 or 120 to be smooth. It's a huge limitation from TrackIR. Don't know if this is your problem anyway

[@mco119jj]

Wow. This gave a noticeable performance improvement in VR. Well played, sir. Don't get yourself infected with any viruses...but this does indeed work.

[@Andrew-ph9np]

Definitely seems to help performance, thanks for the tips.

[@Spudknocker]

No problem dude!

[@_MarkV_]

After years of placebo fixes that do literally nothing I can’t believe how much of an improvement this makes. Micro stutters appear to be gone. Well done.

[@tructruc4492]

i have done the same with AVAST ! It works very fine ! THX . In fact my rig is a 13600K + 64go DDR5 @6000 at cas 32 and a RTX 3070TI + TrackIr 5 . I run at 2560*1440 . I usually have a steady 120 fps ( vsynch at 120 hz and fps limited at 120 ) . Some times i had a drop of fps for no reasons and i detected that was a strange CPU usage. That's the root cause. Bingo you find the right solution ! I have tested 3 times for long sessions ! and that issue is gone ! Your are the king man ! THX again

[@jorgemartinezmartinez4939]

You are the man!, this is GOLD! 72 stable FPS in Enigma Cold War server...no words to thank you for this info.

[@scht-sg]

While this works, the risk is very high. I wish you reconsider how you communicate this across to the mass who do not understand cyber hygiene. We just give reason for bad actors to exploit this exclusion. Even if you have other protection within your network such as EDR and network level protection, and other anti-malware capabilities to compliment your security. This is still risky. It is better to look for better security software than MS Defender as they are well known to be not well optimized. I once had a bug that the defender consumed 14GB of ram .🧐 For your reference, i am a tech consultant with 25 years experience and had skills to cyber hygiene.

[@tinto278]

Its extremely high risk. You can tell none of these people served in the military.

[@JPsTechReviews]

Thank you, big help for me but no trackIR but my Varjo Base and smooth sailing.

[@EaglefireflyGaming]

Hey Spud! Nice video! One thing that made DCS butter smooth for me was putting 128gb page file on an Nvme. Even 64gb is getting low for detailed missions.

[@mrflandoor]

I found this fix a week ago and it really helped me a lot, I no longer have stuttering and DCS runs very smoothly.🥳

[@spencerwarren9219]

This did nothing for load times or fps for me or 8 other pilots in my squadron. Are u in vr? What fps are u getting and what are your system specs gpu,ram etc.

[@AdmiralQuality]

Hey that's pretty good! I made the changes before doing a proper "before" test but the MT version does feel a bit more playable to me now. (It hated my old i5-7500 before and I would often be forced to fly with the ST version, which is getting buggier with every update and will soon be completely abandoned.) I'll try putting it back as it was tomorrow and do some more controlled A/B tests. But this should help! Thanks Spud!

[@AvgeekJoe]

Very helpful, thank you!

[@geskes]

This is absolutely amazing, just had my best NoE apache flight ever.. suddenly it's super smooth down low too. Also cockpits are completely loaded now right when you enter the sim.. thanks for sharing!

[@Spudknocker]

Of course man! Glad I could help!

[@generalgrevous2458]

I use the Task Scheduler and set Winows Defender Scan to once every 2 months and seems to do the trick, and to be honest seems to be easier than your way of doing it. Of course it means nothing else will be scanned but I have a computer that is dedicated to DCS so not too worried and have been doing it for close to 3 years. But your way seems to me more practical if you're worried about other apps. 🙂👍

[@Spudknocker]

Hey man! Honestly I would do both!

[@generalgrevous2458]

😀✌@@Spudknocker

[@kmcnelley1981]

I’d be very keen to hear how you went through the PC upgrade process. Did you go the Intel 14900K for gaming and video editing? If you were interested in only DCS would you consider 7800X3D? I’m still sporting the Intel 6700K and it’s running 100%. Definitely looking into upgrading this year.

[@velvetsound]

This helped my setup (similar to yours) go from “meh” to the performance I had expected to get. As I mentioned in a comment thread I’d recommend buying better antivirus software to scan whatever you excluded from MS Defender vs having no protection at all. Defender has horrible performance for anything data intensive… but better solutions are available. At work we had to switch from Defender to a commercial solution for 9TB SQL Server data files to get the performance we expected. Better antivirus is better than no antivirus.

[@Spudknocker]

I am glad it helped you dude!

[@hustlinmagic]

Two things I did that made a huge difference were forcing DCS to only use the performance cores. And also disabling cores that were getting stuck on 100% utilization in the main menu. In VR it was a night and day difference. DCS really doesn't seem to use 13 and 14th gen CPU's well unless you use software to manage it yourself.

[@karlhungus545]

That's only Intel. It makes no difference for Ryzen (I've tried it).

[@Hyena_91]

It made no difference for me on Win11 with a 13700KF. I think Win11 can handle the E cores better. But on Win10 it's worth a try. But disabling core parking helped me remove the stutters I got every 1-3 seconds.

[@hootman_hawk]

+1 this. I recently built a new PC with a 13900k with a Gigabyte Aorus mobo, and in the bios there is a default tweak "Disable E-Cores", and I've been setting that in Bios before running DCS. For those of you who don't have that type of pre-progammed tweek in your mobo bios, you can still find each E-core and disable it manually in the Bios.....I think it's actually 12th Gen and above that introduced E-cores.....but guys, if you have the processor and you haven't tried this, YOU MUST!. I have also had some success with some other games. Some don't like it all at, for instance Elite Dangerous throws graphical artifacts if you disable the E-cores.

[@redtailpilot]

Yep, my experience as well. Disabling E-cores on my 13700KF made a huge difference in DCS MT and VR! Using Win 10

[@nielssrensen7268]

This makes a big difference - also in Win10 - Thanks a lot!!!!

[@MD-on9fi]

Hey spud, what motherboard did you go with? I'm going with a 14th gen intel cpu soon and some mobos need a BIOS update before they'll boot with a 14th gen cpu. I want one thats ready to go out of the box for 14th gen.

[@MrViperdk]

Thx Spud. That really helped with the stuttering for my pc. 4070 TI. 64gb ram. Core(TM) i7-13700KF 3.40 GHz

[@christianwerner2225]

Thanks for the good Instraticon

[@docholliday1811]

Thanks, Spud, you are awesome.

[@nilo4ever]

I'm running an old system in win 10 and vr and it's been a horrible experience for a long time. This fix works wonders even in win 10. Its not perfect but atleast its playable for me now. It may not be the best solution securitywise in the long run but hopefully that will be fixed. Thanks a bunch for this, Spud!😉

[@navyao]

Thanks Spud, much appreciated! Have any of you guys excluded any VR software? I'm running a Q3.

[@Yjana89]

Helloh. Wouldn't it also help to exclude the Windows Pagefile? DCS does a lot of writing and reading there.

[@MAKDREW]

as always, thank you bro.

[@BumpyLumpy1]

I'm genuinely surprised how much this helped. i was actually gonna spend my night tweaking the settings/files after i got >10fps on a 2060 i-10600K 16gbs ram high settings. (on 4ya servers) but now it seems to be at 40fps on the carrier and 60 (limit) in the air. thanks so much for sharing this spud!

[@Spudknocker]

Cool to see that it worked so well man!

[@prichardgs]

YES!!!!! Thanks for doing this!!!!

[@Spudknocker]

No problem man!

[@JSmith73]

The Samsung 990 Pro (x2) is the chef's kiss. Along with 7800x3d, 64gb 6000cl30, 4090.

[@WarPig1911]

DCS Creates a boatload of temporary files on your C drive. If your C drive is close to full move all of your games to a different SSD and it will run buttery smooth.

[@williamstrachan]

Always on C, or on the install drive?

[@Sunesen]

I had some major frame issues lately. What helped for me was to switch over to using the Multi-Threading option and setting the max FPS for DCS to something lower than the max FPS of my computer screen.

[@hootman_hawk]

Exactly. You can find various conversations on message boards about this. I set all my flight sims in the Nvidia Control Panel for "max frame rate" for each game to 60 fps. This is generally considered a good point as they eyeball and brain really can't see the difference above that (some have argued they CAN, maybe so. I think that is also an issue with a persons age). What I have found this does, is makes your GPU "take it easy". Running any game with FPS unrestricted is just crazy, it can cause your experience to be bad as the FPS is bouncing around all over the place. Locking at 60fps definitely also keeps it "smoother". A good way to utilize this (fine tune it), is to run MSI Afterburner utility and set it up to see your GPU and CPU settings in-game. Run the game with no FPS lock, and then 60 fps lock to see the difference with the Afterburner running in game. Basically you are giving yourself the ability to tune your "eye candy", the graphics. Then, what I do, is look at how much GPU memory is being utilized, and slowly dial up the various graphics settings both in game and in the NVCP on each game to get the GPU utilization to about 90% as seen in Afterburner. That leaves you 10% GPU overhead to handle situations where you enter graphics intense areas. So once set, I set up a situation in DCS mission editor with a lot of units, clouds, maybe at dusk, etc. to get my GPU and CPU chugging. If I haven't allowed enough overhead, I then go back and dial down some graphics settings, to get it back to where I have enough overhead (again, using MSI Afterburner in game to watch the readings.

[@gabriel-bl4ckh4wk-6]

Thank u so much man!

[@mindioanni]

Hi there! I really need to try this but more than anything I am interested to know if it is possible setting my username/saved games/dcs path from the disk where windows are installed (c:) to a path on another drive (eg d:) where I have my DCS already installed (I chose to install it on a drive other than the windows drive).

[@caseysaunders2137]

Win10 here but for sure the latest updates include Defender. I'll look for similar options to exclude folders. Thanks !!

[@GolddenWaffles]

I still use Windows 10, and this isn’t such a big deal but I’ll check it out 😊 thanks for the tip! I may be able to gain some fps!

[@MavicAir1]

I use Bitdefender and it takes over windows defender. It has a game mode which can be manually or automatically created for your favorite games. I picked Bitdefender for this reason and have no problems with it so far. The first time I had any kind of stutter was when 2.9 came out and I had TFAA selected in one of the many combinations we can try now. Still not sure about SSS as I haven't seen that black shadow issue I saw on another vid. Every once in a while I go right to the BIOS and check for a update and make sure xmp is selected and the bios has the right ram speed selected. Then I work my way down through the Nvidia control panel, the Bitdefender game mode selections and then to the game graphic settings. Always find something that got changed with a update or whatever. The best catch was the auto selected ram speed in the BIOS and a BIOS update along with the xmp boost. Especially with a new PC. To be honest I haven't looked at that for a while.

[@Spudknocker]

Awesome I’m glad that works for you dude!

[@jonasfogelberg9300]

I think that one advice is to have a PC for DCS or gaming only and say an Apple device (completely different OS) for your sensitive stuff. That is one that you download stuff to and one that you leave clean.

[@TheEaglePilot]

Hey Spudd when’s the F15E WSO cold start tutorial coming out?

[@Spudknocker]

Hey man, its basically the same as the front seat haha but I can do a specific video if you think its needed

[@karlhungus545]

Since the vast majority are still on Windows 10, does this only apply if you are on Windows 11? I know W11 seems to have a lot more issues overall, until it gets to the more stable state that W10 is now in.

[@richmickelsen3421]

Nice call Spud!

[@Trip003]

Spud. I'm in a similar situation. I upgraded to a new computer this week. I tried what you recommended after multiplayer timed out on me consistently for the first time yesterday. I've sent a trouble ticket into Eagle Dynamics for help but wanted to see if you or any of your followers can help. I've flushed my dns, did your recommendation in this video, lowered my graphic setting, checked my internet and router, adjusted virtual memory in advance settings, system reset and reinstalled all apps and softwares. This is a major upgrade and and so confused on why this is happening since I never had this issue with my old laptop that was also on windows 11. If anyone knows anything, I'm open to any suggestion. This is 1 of 2 games I play.

[@Mightymoose02]

Perfect timing. I have a similar system as you and am struggling with inconsistent performance. Will try your tips tonight!

[@arquiricardo]

Holy Molly! A 12fps gain for free lol! How cool is that? Thanks!

[@Spudknocker]

Wow dude! That’s amazing! What a huge boost!

[@snwilliam6886]

Do I still need to exclude dcs and quest 2 app in windows defender if my current antivirus is mcafee? Saw a lot of comments pointing out a boost in fps and might try this out later, great video as awlays👏

[@Spudknocker]

I think it would be a good idea if you are worried about performance issues

[@gabesosa]

Mcafee is worse than any virus you could ever get.

[@snwilliam6886]

@@Spudknocker ok cool 😎 will try it later, thanks

[@TimoZSimulations]

@@snwilliam6886 i think you can even uninstall mcaffe, because many experts say (and in my experience also) that external anti virus softwares doesnt really do anything besides slowing your computer down.

[@Enylia-ft2xb]

you should remove mcafee while youre at it

[@alisaquilae4325]

Sooooo lucky to find this.

[@carymcrawford]

Thanks Spud!

[@randyreal5871]

I excluded that stuff plus my screen recorder thanks a lot for the tutorial

[@ysiadpir1423]

Interesting.. OK.. I amusing Tobii but will do similar procedure..thanks Sir.

[@Spudknocker]

You can definitely do the same procedure with Tobii Eye Tracker!

[@Nilssen84]

Hey Spud! How can I change my savedgames folder from the windows drive to another drive?

[@Fox3-Luck]

Great Video! I always disable Windows Defender and any other AV for games

[@Spudknocker]

Absolutely!

[@jaromirandel543]

After a lot of research, I came up with something. Probably no one should have this problem, but I'll share it just in case. The last update improved my 99% FPS percentile a lot. This probably caused my set limit of 60 FPS to be too low. Because of this, CPU usage was so low that it caused core parking, which caused the game to be choppy. Ironically, raising the FPS limit to 90 solved the problem because it forced the CPU to work harder and thus no core parking occurred, (MSI Ventus RTX 2080 Ti OC 11G, Core I9-13900KF) So if you have a weak graphics card but a strong CPU, turning off some CPU cores (affinity mask) may help. I recommend setting the FPS limit as close to the 99% FPS percentile as possible.

[@jaromirandel543]

Or maybe force core parking off via MSconfig. I am going to try that now.

[@jaromirandel543]

Yes. Forcing the disabling of core parking via MSconfig is also an option to solve the problem. But raising the FPS limit seems like a better solution to me.

[@gospon]

Looks like I'm not the only one forgetting about AV exclusions

[@TacticalDCS]

Good Stuff!

[@Spudknocker]

Thanks for the support dude!

[@jameshiggins1988]

I have an anti virus and my windows defender shows my anti virus deals with it all. do i need to make exceptions in the anti virus instead?

[@MarkiusFox]

I currently use an Oculus Quest 2, should I add that as well to the Defender exclusions?

[@Munky332]

Any pertinent software could probably help, ie TrackIR, SRS, Oculus, Steam/SteamVR, etc... just be warned, it *may* open you open to vulnerabilities.

[@mrgrabs8959]

nice Idea thx 😀😀😀

[@zbeen-ah-lah]

So, when I get to the “virus and threat protection” page, it doesn’t show the “virus and threat protection settings” option for some odd reason, so it won’t let me exclude dcs from windows defender :( is there a way to do it on mcafee?

[@Spudknocker]

I’m sure there is I don’t use that software

[@_Zaid]

Yeah, uninstall mcaffee, it's a piece of junk

[@PFpants]

I'll give it a shot and see how it does

[@Spudknocker]

Come back and let me know if it helps you out man! Mo’ data points mo’ betta

[@firechickenfan]

Just a question, and yes, i know it is a little more work, but couldnt you only exclude them WHILE you are playing? Then un exclude them when not actively playing? Btw, thank you sir! I would never have figured this out myself

[@_Zaid]

If you use Process Exclusion instead of Folder exclusion that will happen automatically

[@belevezero2279]

I had some stuttering on the Nevada map last night and I tried using process lasso to fix it, disabling hyper threading. it seemed to have worked

[@LJS020973]

XDR File scan path exclusions are fairly common requests in the corporate technology world.

[@user-xw4hn7lb3x]

Dude, did you have an actual antivirus software? No exclusions option anywhere on my pc.

[@CAPHOTO1961]

Im running windows 10, does this apply to this os as well? Thanks!

[@IowanLawman]

If you've downloaded everything on Stream, wouldn't it work just as well?

[@Rogue284]

Are you going to have to do this all over again when DCS unifies the Beta and Live branches?

[@Spudknocker]

Unknown at this time haha

[@eillswim]

Probably as the install directorys will probably change in some way

[@jjcdrumplay]

No more room to update DCS anymore. Solution is now to move everything temp. from the CoreMods folder, to another drive until update done. Mostly had already moved the larger aircraft to another drive and was already using symbolic links for terrain and aircraft.

[@PolluxPavonis]

As users, we should not be doing these things, its not our job to fix the game like we were programers, its ridiculous the amount of things people had to try to get more performance since 2.9 came out. Sacrificing a virgin would have been easier.

[@Commoner64]

I have the same specs 14900k, 4090, 64GB ddr5 and this problem has been driving me crazy. Unfortunately this solution didn't work for me. The only thing that seems to work somewhat is disabling cores that are at 100%. Thanks for the info though.

[@user-me7pm5pj6w]

Thanks

[@danlhart]

Thank you for this! To the detractors: Freedom is scary, deal with it

[@CitizenIosef]

What is RDAF and where can one get those sick liveries?

[@Spudknocker]

They are all available for free in my discord!

[@71stMastiff]

Thanks much smoother,

[@Spudknocker]

I’m glad it helped you out!

[@dunbar555]

i use riva tuner and cap my fps to my refresh rate, 144hz. IT HELPS a ton with smoothness since 2.9

[@Spudknocker]

Thats also a great performance tip dude thanks!

[@theeltea]

using vsync or adaptive?

[@dunbar555]

@@theeltea not using vsync. just make sure riva tuner doesnt let your frame go above your refresh rate.

[@theeltea]

@@dunbar555 Yup I run the same, just making sure, thx

[@eillswim]

Cap 2 under your refresh rate (142) Allows you headroom when pre rendering frames

[@allord7664]

Thanks a lot big fan, can you share your ingame seethings as well, thank you

[@fossmarkluni]

The cure is often worse than the disease, so I wholeheartedly agree with you. Preferably disable Defender altogether via group policy. Dedicate the rig for simulator use, and use common sense. If paranoia hits hard, do scheduled scans or on-demand scans with a solid signature-based antivirus solution, or just use dual boot for risky stuff. There are, of course, other tweaks for a dedicated simulator rig, but real-time scans of any sorts are normally the worst offenders in any environment (for both clients and servers). Over the last 16 years, antivirus solutions have given me hundreds of hours of good income

[@Dan-bv3cv]

When I click 'Add an exclusion', the windows security tab crashes and closes. Any one with this problem that has fixed it?

[@theonefrancis696]

The problem I have comes with the AI causing massive FPS drops. We are talking about SAM sites, they seem to be extemely cpu intensive.

[@coRb77]

Exclude scanning of all folders connected to a russian software during war times...yeah sounds about the right thing to do =) Anyways, I think this is a low risk move. Besides, we can always do a manual scan now and then.

[@patmathew5757]

I have a similar super rig with exact same experience

[@reneblubb5387]

THX

[@Red.Diffraction.Studio]

This is wierd, i never got any blurry textures problem in loadings and i got a very decent setup.. Why using Windows Defender tho? ESET is more efficient and i never had to exclude anything to "grind" my texture loadings...

[@spirosdelistavros2970]

but this is for if you only use defender, what about if you use norton????

[@moiluck]

That works great and I’ve been running that for a year or so with no issues. Windows defender is like a virus itself and there should be an option to turning off that intrusive protection. I use the pc only for dcs and there is no external software running in, so there is no point for an antivirus that will slow down performance all the time looking for nothing

[@redtailpilot]

Which is why I permanently disabled it in the registry 😂 Nothing running on my PC but DCS. Disabled it over a year ago and haven't had an issue yet. Much better performance in DCS!

[@Takarde]

Is it the same for Win10?

[@JordanJ01]

I'm not experiencing any of this with an i7 14700k. Runs at a locked 180fps with max settings with 15 second loading screens on an 990 pro. Probably an SSD issue considering you mention load times as well. 1% lows and long load times is it having issues pulling files quick enough. Really don't think it was Windows Defender, no one else reports this issue, though that might take some random writes/reads off the drive and help. Check drive temps and if that's not it, might be a faulty SSD.

[@patmathew5757]

Applicable to windows 10?

[@vracan]

will this improve for win10 too?

[@Spudknocker]

Unknown for me I never had this issue in win 10

[@suecobandito8954]

Just found the same controls and implemented them in W10. We'll see.

[@coldwarriorUSAF]

Load times improved by at least 2/3 on my Windows 10 system. It also cut out the jitter, no FPS increase but smooth at 32-36 FPS in VR is good enough for me. Thanks Spud.

[@stevenkinney4536]

I spent hours trying to refine the 2.9 (and NVIDIA) settings but never could get the results I was expecting. I just tried this fix on Win10 and it resolved all my issues.

[@frankbizzoco1954]

My main problem is i have to run Process Lasso on the multithreading .exe. Otherwise DCS is a studdery mess. I cap my framerrate at 90 fps so my 3080 doesn't have to work as hard. I dont think i have to do this because i use Norton, not Windows Defender. I wonder if others that use 3rd party antivirus would see a perfornance increase if they excluse DCS?

[@limmbow]

windows defender is much better than norton. consider switching

[@Munky332]

Norton is *worse* than Defender lol. Put that shit in the trash where it belongs.

[@cowansimstudio]

Norton............Christ the night, Likely one of the worst AV software out there. The only good 3rd party software is very expensive commercial grade. for the average user Windows defender is enough

[@MGRMoviesLOL]

Would this improve dedicated server performance as well? Definitly gonna try this first thing in the morning on my server instances

[@Spudknocker]

If your dedicated server is running windows 11 I dont see why It wouldn't help!

[@MGRMoviesLOL]

@@Spudknocker so i just checked it out and this is possible on windows 10 aswell as windows server 2019 (which is based on windows 10) however, if this will improve performance is still unconfirmed.

[@minghou5259]

I am wondering that the new machine does not have antivirus installed and it explains why Windows defender is on.