The HangSim new Forum

Well as a 4gb of RAM laptop user i often sacrifice the model's detail with the 'Best Speed' option on the Video section, it worked pretty well

What do you class as 'very low' FPS, the information you have given is too sparse to work with. But we will try
What resolution do you have the sim rendering in?
What are the overall graphical settings in the game?

Soft shadows is something that should probably be turned off if it is on, it absolutely tanks the FPS. Does look nice though.

Your system an FX 8350, and RX 5500XT are enough to get a pretty decent gaming experience without defaulting everything to low. As long as certain settings are managed properly.

Maybe show a screenshot of the in game graphic settings tabs, this might give a clearer idea.
I will see if I can reply after work today, once I am at my home computer, as that is where I can give the best advice, having the sim open and next to me.

Hope this helps.

My advise is if possible move to VSNG (Virtual Sailor Next Gen) - the reason being as like you on my newer system the FPS were good in certain situations but did suffer too in VSF.

Once I moved to VSNG these FPS improved greatly despite the game being more detail. My FPS range from 18fps (with a high number of ships in port) all the way to 60-70fps but that's due to the game running with V-sync with my monitor.

I run the game in mostly high settings apart from water reflections (unless the setting really needs it) and shadows as many have said these do make a big impact on the performance and I personally am happy enough to run it with them off. Pressing 'O' will bring up the graphics options.

Another thing for both games is downloading and applying the 4GB patch by NCore to the VSF.exe and VSNG.exe as this unlocks the games to use more than 4GB of ram installed on your computer. RAM make a HUGE difference when it comes to VSF/VSNG, changing from 16GB to 32GB made a massive difference with VSF (15fps increase in some cases).

My current PC specs:
Intel i7 -9700
Asus H310-Pro Motherboard
32GB Corsair Vengeance 2666mhz RAM
Nvidia Palit RTX 3080 10GB DDR6X
246GB m.2 SSD (for OS)
1.8TB HDD
5TB HDD (for MSFS)
RM750x power supply
Windows 10 64-bit.
27inch 1440p display