How to Set Up Sim Update 7's New DLSS 4.5 Settings in Flight Simulator 2024

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is about to get its biggest graphics overhaul since launch. Sim Update 7 is scheduled to land on PC, Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 on October 13, bringing the free National Championship Air Races mode alongside engine and avionics refinements. On the PC side, the headline change is a full upgrade of the simulator's upscaling stack to DLSS 4.5, and NVIDIA has already shipped the driver pilots will need to use it.

What Sim Update 7 Actually Changes

NVIDIA's own GeForce Game Ready Driver 617.42 notes, published October 6, confirm that Sim Update 7 moves the entire DLSS suite in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 to version 4.5 rather than adding it from scratch. Super Resolution gets the latest image-quality model, Frame Generation is upgraded, and the update introduces Multi Frame Generation at multipliers up to 6X.

That builds on work Asobo already started: Sim Update 6, which reached everyone in August, had made DLSS 4.5 Super Resolution the default upscaler and added a Dynamic Frame Generation option along with proper in-game V-Sync support. Sim Update 7 is where the rest of the 4.5 feature set, including the higher frame-generation multipliers, actually arrives.

Beyond Graphics: Air Races and Avionics Fixes

Sim Update 7 isn't just a rendering patch. The free National Championship Air Races mode adds a new competitive format to a lineup that already includes the Red Bull Air Races and the Reno-based Air Races added in earlier updates, giving low-altitude pylon racing another venue without requiring any add-on purchase. A public beta of the update, built as version 1.9.10.0, had already been running on all three platforms since mid-September, and pilots testing it reported fixes across aircraft systems, avionics behavior, electrical and pneumatic modeling, and several career-mode bugs ahead of the full release.

That beta didn't include the DLSS 4.5 frame-generation work or the air-racing mode itself, both of which Asobo and NVIDIA have treated as launch-day additions rather than beta features. In other words, the systems fixes should already be stable by the 13th, while the graphics and racing content are the parts actually worth testing fresh once the full update ships.

Turning On Dynamic Multi Frame Generation

The new option to look for in the graphics menu is Dynamic Multi Frame Generation, which NVIDIA describes as working like an automatic transmission: instead of locking to a fixed 2X, 3X or 4X multiplier, it continuously adjusts how many generated frames it inserts to match your display's refresh rate. In cockpit views with heavy cloud and lighting work, that matters more than in most games, since frame times can swing hard between looking out over open terrain and taxiing past a detailed airport.

Make sure the 617.42 driver (or newer) is installed through the NVIDIA app or GeForce drivers page before Sim Update 7 goes live on the 13th. Without it, the simulator will still run on DLSS 4.5 Super Resolution from Sim Update 6, but the new frame-generation multipliers won't be available.

Which GPUs Actually Benefit

Not every settings menu option will do the same thing depending on your card. Based on how NVIDIA has rolled out DLSS 4.5 across its October driver (the same breakdown applies across Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, Star Wars: Galactic Racer and Flight Simulator 2024), the split looks like this:

• GeForce RTX 50 Series: gets Dynamic Multi Frame Generation, the automatic multiplier that targets your refresh rate.
• GeForce RTX 40 Series: gets Frame Generation and fixed Multi Frame Generation multipliers, but not the dynamic version.
• Older RTX 20 and 30 Series cards: still benefit from the upgraded DLSS 4.5 Super Resolution image quality, without any form of frame generation.

NVIDIA's own testing found that a fixed 4X multiplier previously averaged a 4.2x frame-rate gain at 4K, and that 6X scales up to roughly 6.4x in the same conditions. Those numbers come from NVIDIA's lab benchmarks rather than independent testing, so treat them as a ceiling rather than a guarantee once clouds, weather and dense airport scenery are involved.

Where AMD FSR 4 Support Actually Stands

If you're flying on Radeon hardware, Sim Update 7 doesn't change much yet. FSR 4 support was pulled from the Sim Update 6 beta earlier this year after a compatibility problem with frame generation, and Asobo has said it is still working with AMD on a fix for a future update rather than this one. Nothing in NVIDIA's October 6 driver notes or the public Sim Update 7 beta changes that, so Radeon users should keep relying on the existing upscaling options already in the sim rather than expecting FSR 4 to show up on the 13th.

Settings We'd Recommend at Launch

Sim Update 7 is a free update, so there's no new purchase required, but a few practical steps will make the first few days smoother:

• Update to driver 617.42 or newer before the update lands, rather than after.
• Start with Dynamic Multi Frame Generation on RTX 50 cards instead of a fixed multiplier; pilots testing the Sim Update 7 beta have noted that fixed-multiplier frame generation can occasionally stop responding to V-Sync until the dynamic mode is selected.
• On RTX 40 cards, treat 2X or 3X Multi Frame Generation as the safer starting point in the cockpit, since higher multipliers add more input latency on busy approach sequences even with NVIDIA Reflex enabled.
• If you're on the minimum spec outlined on the game's Steam store page (16GB of RAM and a GeForce GTX 970-class card), skip frame generation entirely and lean on DLSS 4.5 Super Resolution alone; the recommended spec for comfortable settings is closer to 32GB of RAM and an RTX 2080-class GPU.
• Leave some VRAM headroom when you push terrain and cloud detail up: frame generation keeps an extra buffered frame in memory, and on 8GB cards that can tip dense airport scenery into stuttering even when the base frame rate looks fine.

Sim Update 7 rolls out worldwide on October 13 across PC, Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5; console players won't see the DLSS changes, which are exclusive to PCs with GeForce RTX hardware. Full details, including the complete National Championship Air Races rules, are expected on the official Microsoft Flight Simulator site once the update goes live. Pilots who want to compare notes on how the new frame-generation modes behave with their own hardware combination will likely see the first real-world reports arrive within hours of the rollout, given how closely the community already tracked the Sim Update 6 beta.