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That's probably because you got a new graphics card some time in the last 10 years.

The stuff they're rendering has to come from somewhere.

They go hand in hand, the bigger the render area, the more game has to be simulated at once.

Not true. Render distance and simulation distance were decoupled years ago.

It's possible to simulate less than you can see, but it's pretty undesirable. The recommendations scale with this.