[inigyou]

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

[oliwarner]

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.

[inigyou]

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

[oliwarner]

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