Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is one of the most technically ambitious pieces of software ever shipped to consumers. It streams a living, photorealistic planet from Microsoft Azure servers in real time, renders volumetric weather, simulates thousands of moving parts inside each aircraft, and somehow asks your PC to do all of that while delivering a smooth, consistent frame rate. That last part is the hard bit.
Since launch in November 2024, the sim has come a long way. The critical stability patches of 2025 addressed many of the worst post-launch headaches, and Sim Update 5 (released April 2026) brought further performance optimizations across the terrain engine, texture system, particle effects, and VR stability. But even on powerful hardware, MSFS 2024 remains a sim that rewards careful tuning. A few wrong slider positions can wreck your frame rate; a few right ones can transform it.
This guide pulls together every performance lever in the sim — graphics settings, Windows configuration, network setup, community folder management, and third-party tools — so you have one place to start and one place to return to when things go wrong.
Before You Touch a Single Slider: Understand the Bottleneck
The single most important concept in MSFS performance tuning is that there are two fundamentally different problems that look identical on screen: a GPU bottleneck and a CPU bottleneck. Changing the wrong settings for the wrong bottleneck will either do nothing, or make things worse.
How to identify your bottleneck:
Enable Developer Mode (Options → General Options → Developer → Developer Mode: On), then open the FPS display (Developer toolbar → Options → Display FPS). The overlay will show you your frame time and which component is limiting you. The key line to watch shows whether your frame is "GPU limited" or "Limited (main thread)" — the main thread label indicates a CPU bottleneck.
A GPU bottleneck means your graphics card cannot render frames fast enough. The fix is to reduce GPU-heavy settings like resolution, shadow quality, cloud quality, and reflections.
A CPU bottleneck means your processor cannot prepare scene data fast enough. The GPU is sitting idle, waiting. Reducing visual quality settings here will do little — you need to reduce CPU-heavy settings like Terrain LOD, Object LOD, AI traffic, and road traffic density.
Understanding which side is the bottleneck removes the guesswork from every other step in this guide.
Part 1: The Critical Graphics Settings
Not all settings are created equal. Some can cut your frame rate in half; others you could max out and barely notice the difference. Here is the definitive ranking, starting with the settings that matter most.
Terrain Level of Detail (Terrain LOD)
This is the single most impactful setting in the entire sim. It controls how far out the terrain mesh is rendered at high detail — mountains, terrain undulations, coastlines. At maximum (200), it is extremely CPU-intensive. Reducing it to 100 can deliver a performance boost of approximately 36%. Dropping it below 100 still looks convincing at cruise altitude and makes a meaningful difference at busy airports and dense cities.
Recommended starting point: 100–120 for mid-range systems, 140–160 for high-end builds.
Object Level of Detail (Object LOD)
This controls how far buildings, trees, and airport objects render at full detail. It is heavily CPU-intensive around populated areas and major airports. Reducing it from 200 to 100 can deliver around a 14% FPS improvement.
Recommended starting point: 100 for most users, 150 for high-end rigs.
Trees
This is the hidden performance killer. Trees are extremely CPU-taxing in MSFS 2024. Dropping trees from Ultra to Medium can improve average frame rates by over 60% in some scenarios — especially over Europe and dense forest regions. The visual difference in the cockpit at altitude is minimal.
Recommended starting point: Medium. Drop to Low if you are still struggling.
Volumetric Clouds
Clouds are GPU-intensive. The difference between Ultra and High is often hard to spot once airborne, but the performance difference is significant — reducing from Ultra to Low grants around a 26% improvement. The sweet spot for most simmers is High, which preserves beautiful cloud formations at a much more reasonable cost than Ultra.
Recommended starting point: High. Ultra only if you have an RTX 4080 or equivalent.
Fauna
This one is well-known in the community forums and frequently overlooked in mainstream guides. A Steam community discussion from late 2024 documented a specific performance issue where looking toward areas with fauna (animals like cattle in fields) caused severe frame-rate drops — even with fauna set to Low. The fix: turn Fauna off entirely. Multiple users confirmed immediate stability improvements, particularly in VR. It appears to be a bug-level issue with fauna spawning, not normal behavior.
Recommended: Off.
Ray-Traced Shadows
Ray-traced shadows look excellent, particularly on the ground and around airport infrastructure. However, disabling them improves FPS by nearly 10% and the visual difference when airborne is negligible. Save this feature for ground screenshots.
Recommended starting point: Off for performance, On for screenshot sessions.
Shadow Maps and Terrain Shadow Maps
These control the resolution of shadow textures. Ultra settings are very expensive. Setting Shadow Maps to 1536 and Terrain Shadow Maps to 1024 gives a good balance of quality and performance.
AI Traffic and Ground Vehicles
Traffic is CPU-heavy. This is one of the primary reasons airports are harder to run than open terrain — the sim is simulating AI aircraft taxiing, taking off, and landing simultaneously with all the scenery. Reducing AI Aircraft to Medium, Airport Ground Vehicles to Medium, and Road Traffic to Medium can instantly smooth out the stutters you get on the ground at busy hubs.
A note on live traffic: Real-World Traffic (online) is more CPU-friendly than the AI traffic simulation at high density settings. If you use third-party live traffic tools like FSLTL, monitor your CPU frame times and reduce AI traffic sliders accordingly.
Glass Cockpit Refresh Rate
This is a relatively inexpensive setting to reduce. Dropping from High to Medium saves CPU cycles, with no visible difference during normal flight. Drop to Low if you are severely CPU-limited. You will still see your instruments update smoothly for most purposes.
Recommended: Medium.
Settings That Are Often Over-Rated
Some settings sound important but rarely move the needle significantly — unless you are specifically VRAM-limited:
-
Texture Resolution (unless you are hitting your VRAM ceiling — see the VRAM section below)
-
Anisotropic Filtering (minimal FPS cost even at 16x; leave it on)
-
Ambient Occlusion (within reason — Medium looks very similar to Ultra when airborne)
-
Windshield Effects (beautiful, but cheap)
Part 2: Upscaling and Frame Generation — Your Biggest Free Performance Gains
If there is one area where modern hardware has transformed MSFS 2024 performance, it is AI upscaling and frame generation. These technologies can effectively double or triple your perceived frame rate with carefully managed image quality trade-offs.
DLSS (NVIDIA RTX users)
NVIDIA's DLSS Super Resolution is available for all RTX-series cards. Enabling DLSS Quality mode grants approximately a 26% FPS increase over native TAA by rendering at a lower internal resolution and using AI to reconstruct the final image. For most users, the Quality preset maintains convincing image sharpness.
Recommended presets by resolution:
-
4K: DLSS Quality
-
1440p: DLSS Quality or Balanced
-
1080p: DLAA (native resolution, AI anti-aliasing only) — aggressive upscaling at 1080p creates a noticeably blurry cockpit
Frame Generation (RTX 40 and 50 series): DLSS Frame Generation via DLSS 3.7 is available and delivers a 30–35% FPS boost on top of regular DLSS. Note that Frame Generation does not reduce the CPU bottleneck — it generates additional frames but your actual CPU frame time is unchanged. It is most effective when you are GPU-limited, not CPU-limited. Frame Generation also increases VRAM usage by at least 1 GB, so 8 GB cards will struggle at 1440p and above when it is active.
RTX 50 series owners should check for Multi Frame Generation (MFG) support, which can generate up to three AI frames per traditionally rendered frame. This was confirmed by Microsoft as coming to MSFS 2024 and may be available via a Sim Update by the time you read this.
Important cockpit note: DLSS and FSR can cause blurring on glass cockpit instruments — PFDs, MFDs, and ECAM displays. If you fly IFR regularly and panel readability is critical, TAA at native resolution is worth the FPS cost.
FSR (AMD and all GPU users)
AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) works on any GPU, including NVIDIA cards. Image quality is generally slightly softer than DLSS at equivalent presets, but it is a solid choice for AMD Radeon users and older RTX cards without DLSS hardware.
For Frame Generation via FSR 3: The community-developed Nukem mod allows RTX 20/30 series and AMD RX 6000/7000 series cards to enable FSR 3-based frame generation — a feature not officially supported by NVIDIA on older hardware. The mod involves copying two DLL files into the MSFS install directory. It is not officially supported but is widely used and considered stable by the community.
XeSS (Intel Arc)
Intel XeSS is not natively supported in MSFS 2024. Intel Arc GPU owners should use FSR instead.
Render Scaling
Keep this at 100% when using DLSS or FSR — those technologies handle internal resolution themselves. Reducing render scaling below 100% while also using an upscaler creates compounding blur. Supersampling above 100% is extremely expensive (125% render scale can reduce FPS by over 70%) and is only worth considering for screenshots.
Part 3: Windows and System Optimizations
The operating system layer contains several settings that can meaningfully affect MSFS performance — and some of them are off by default.
Power Plan: High Performance
MSFS 2024 is highly sensitive to CPU frequency scaling. When Windows runs on the Balanced power plan (the default), it may throttle CPU clocks during brief load spikes, causing the characteristic regular-interval stutters that many users have reported. Setting your power plan to High Performance (or Ultimate Performance if your hardware supports it) eliminates this.
Navigate to: Control Panel → Power Options → High Performance.
Also set your GPU's Power Management Mode to Maximum Performance in NVIDIA Control Panel (or AMD equivalent).
Hardware-Accelerated GPU Scheduling (HAGS)
Enable HAGS via: Windows Settings → System → Display → Graphics Settings → Hardware-Accelerated GPU Scheduling: On. This reduces latency between the CPU and GPU and is beneficial in CPU-bottlenecked scenarios — which MSFS 2024 frequently is. Restart after enabling.
XMP/EXPO Memory Profile
If your motherboard and RAM support XMP (Intel) or EXPO (AMD) memory overclocking profiles, enable this in BIOS. Running RAM at its rated speed (e.g., DDR5-6000 instead of the BIOS default of DDR4-2133) can yield meaningful performance gains in a CPU-bottlenecked scenario like MSFS 2024. This is one of the most frequently overlooked free performance improvements.
Resizable BAR (ReBAR)
Enable Resizable BAR in BIOS if your CPU, motherboard, and GPU all support it. This allows the CPU to access the full GPU VRAM in one operation rather than in smaller chunks, which can help in scenarios where large texture streaming is occurring — exactly what MSFS 2024 does constantly.
Game Mode
Windows Game Mode (Settings → Gaming → Game Mode: On) prioritizes system resources for the foreground game process and suppresses background Windows Update activity. Keep it on.
Memory Integrity (VBS)
Memory Integrity (found under Windows Security → Device Security → Core Isolation) is a security feature that adds overhead. Disabling it can provide a small performance benefit. However, disabling security features is a personal choice — weigh the marginal gain against your security posture. On systems with 32 GB or more of fast RAM, the benefit is minimal.
Close Background Applications
MSFS 2024 uses substantial RAM and benefits from every available CPU core. Close browsers, streaming software, Discord's video hardware acceleration, and any background processes before a flight. Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc) is your friend here.
Windows 11 Version Stability
Multiple users in the Microsoft Q&A forums and Steam discussions have reported that certain Windows 11 builds (particularly some 25H2 beta builds) introduced CPU frequency scaling issues that manifested as periodic stutters — the CPU dropping to near zero for 1–3 seconds on a regular interval. If you are experiencing this specific pattern and recently updated Windows, rolling back to a previous stable build (23H2 or 24H2) has been confirmed to resolve the issue for multiple users.
GPU Driver Management
Keep your GPU drivers updated — but not blindly. New driver releases occasionally introduce regressions for specific titles. If a fresh driver update coincides with a performance drop, it is worth rolling back to the previous version. NVIDIA users should use DDU (Display Driver Uninstaller) to perform clean driver installations rather than simply overwriting the previous driver.
Also clear your NVIDIA shader cache periodically, especially after sim updates:
-
Delete contents of:
%LocalAppData%\NVIDIA\DXCache -
Delete contents of:
%LocalAppData%\NVIDIA\GLCache
The sim will rebuild the shader cache on next launch. Expect a slightly longer load time once, followed by smoother performance.
Part 4: Network and Streaming Optimization
This is where MSFS 2024 differs fundamentally from every other game in your library. The sim is a streaming service as much as it is a simulator. Scenery, terrain, photogrammetry, and weather data all stream continuously from Microsoft Azure servers. When your connection struggles, it produces stutters and blurry textures that look exactly like a GPU or CPU bottleneck — but are not.
Use a Wired Ethernet Connection
This is non-negotiable for serious MSFS 2024 users. The sim's streaming client is sensitive to packet loss, inconsistent latency, and the micro-interruptions that are normal on Wi-Fi but fatal to smooth scenery streaming. Multiple forum posts and community discussions confirm that switching from Wi-Fi to a wired connection eliminates low bandwidth errors and streaming-induced stutters for the vast majority of affected users.
Recommended Bandwidth
MSFS 2024 can peak at very high bandwidth during intensive streaming — particularly over dense cities and photogrammetry areas. However, practical sustained usage during normal flight is typically in the range of 10–15 GB per hour with a large rolling cache, and substantially more without one. A stable 25+ Mbps connection is the minimum for a reasonable experience; 50 Mbps or above is recommended for smooth flying over dense urban areas.
Rolling Cache Configuration
The rolling cache stores recently streamed scenery data locally so it does not need to be re-downloaded on subsequent flights in the same area. With a properly sized rolling cache, users have documented data usage dropping from over 1 GB per flight to approximately 1.4 GB per hour on familiar routes.
Configure rolling cache via: Options → General Options → Data → Rolling Cache.
Recommended size: 32–64 GB as a starting point. Users who fly regularly over the same regions benefit from larger caches (100+ GB). Store your rolling cache on an SSD rather than an HDD — the read/write speed matters.
Important: If you are experiencing persistent streaming issues or stutters that appeared after a sim update, try deleting and rebuilding your rolling cache. A corrupted cache file can cause the sim to behave as if your connection is slow even when it is not.
Avoid Downloads During Flight
Do not run Windows Update, large downloads, or backup software during a flight session. The bandwidth contention will directly cause streaming interruptions.
Photogrammetry
Photogrammetry (the high-resolution 3D city reconstructions visible over major cities) is beautiful but has a direct impact on streaming load and can cause micro-stutters as new tiles load in. If you fly primarily over cities and notice consistent stuttering at low altitude, disabling photogrammetry (Options → General Options → Data → Photogrammetry: Off) is a legitimate and widely-used choice that can dramatically smooth performance over urban areas. Re-enable it for scenic flights where you want to enjoy the cities at altitude.
Part 5: VRAM Management
MSFS 2024 uses significantly more VRAM than its predecessor. According to benchmark data, the sim uses 7–8 GB of graphics memory at 1080p on an 8 GB card with optimized settings. When VRAM overflows to system RAM, frame times spike and stutters become severe and immediate.
Monitor VRAM usage via the Developer Mode FPS display. Keep it below 90% of your card's total capacity.
If you are hitting the VRAM ceiling:
-
Drop Texture Resolution one step (from Ultra to High, or High to Medium)
-
Disable or reduce Frame Generation (adds at least 1 GB of VRAM overhead)
-
Reduce Cubemap Reflections resolution
-
Lower Off-Screen Terrain Pre-Caching to Low
8 GB cards can run MSFS 2024 at 1080p with careful settings management. 12 GB is comfortable at 1440p. 16 GB or more gives you room to breathe at 4K with high-quality settings.
Part 6: Community Folder and Add-On Management
Add-ons are one of the great joys of MSFS — and one of the most common sources of performance problems, crashes, and unexplained stutters. Microsoft's own patch notes have repeatedly highlighted the Community Folder as a primary source of stability issues.
The Community Folder Performance Test
If you have unexplained performance problems — particularly ones that appeared after installing new add-ons, or after a sim update — the most effective diagnostic is to empty your Community folder and test with a clean sim. If performance improves immediately, the culprit is one or more of your add-ons.
Add items back one by one, testing after each addition, until you find the problem package. A single poorly optimized freeware airport, or an MSFS 2020 livery that was never updated for 2024, can tank frame rates at that location by 30% or more.
MSFS 2020 Add-On Compatibility
Not all MSFS 2020 add-ons work properly in MSFS 2024. Some will run fine; others may cause visual artifacts, performance degradation, or crashes. The safe approach is to check the add-on's page on Flightsim.to for a 2024-compatible update before using it. The developer notes or comments section will almost always indicate compatibility status.
The MSFS Addons Linker Tool
Managing what loads into the Community folder on a per-flight basis is far easier with MSFS Addons Linker. This free utility lets you create profiles (VFR flights, IFR flights, specific regions or aircraft types) and toggle groups of add-ons on and off without manually moving folders. Only load the add-ons you actually need for a given flight — a full scenery library loaded for a trans-oceanic flight is pure overhead.
Part 7: Third-Party Performance Tools
The sim community has produced several utilities that go beyond what MSFS exposes natively. Two are worth knowing about.
AutoFPS
AutoFPS is a lightweight utility by ResetXPDR that dynamically adjusts Terrain LOD and Object LOD in real time based on your current frame rate and altitude. The logic is elegant: at cruise altitude, the terrain below is less detailed than at low altitude, so the sim can afford higher LOD values. On approach, where performance demands spike due to airport density, AutoFPS automatically reduces LOD to keep you smooth.
Key features for MSFS 2024:
-
Dual-simulator support (auto-detects 2020 or 2024)
-
Separate FPS targets for desktop and VR modes
-
Day and Night optimization modes
-
VRAM overflow protection (with GPU-Z companion)
-
Compatible with Frame Generation (DLSS, FSR 3, and the Nukem FG mod)
AutoFPS is particularly praised by VR users, where smooth frame pacing is more critical than in flat-screen mode. Users with mid-range systems (like an RTX 4070 Ti Super) have reported achieving stable 45 FPS VR performance that would otherwise be impossible to maintain manually.
Note: AutoFPS modifies sim memory parameters directly. Use at your own discretion and verify compatibility with your current sim version before each major update.
Process Lasso
Process Lasso is a Windows process management tool that allows persistent CPU core affinity settings, process priority control, and automated power plan switching per application. Some users have reported benefits from assigning MSFS to P-cores only on Intel hybrid architecture CPUs (keeping E-cores free for background tasks), or from setting MSFS to Above Normal process priority.
Results with Process Lasso and MSFS 2024 are more mixed than with AutoFPS — some users see meaningful improvements, others see no change. It is worth experimenting if you have an Intel 12th/13th/14th gen CPU with the P-core/E-core hybrid architecture.
Part 8: Per-Hardware Tier Recommendations
Budget (GTX 1070–1080 / RX 580–Vega 64 / RTX 2060, 16 GB RAM)
These cards will run MSFS 2024 but require significant compromise. The target is a stable 30 FPS rather than 60.
-
Resolution: 1080p
-
Global Quality Preset: Low to Medium
-
Anti-aliasing: FSR Quality (works on all GPUs)
-
Terrain LOD: 50–75
-
Object LOD: 50
-
Trees: Low
-
Clouds: Low to Medium
-
Shadows: Disable Ray-Traced Shadows, Shadow Maps at 1024
-
Traffic: Low across the board
-
Fauna: Off
-
Frame Generation: Use Nukem FSR 3 mod if your card supports it (RTX 20/30, RX 6000+)
-
VRAM: Watch texture settings carefully — drop textures to Low if you see stutters
Mid-Range (RTX 3060–3070 / RX 6700–6800, 32 GB RAM)
Solid 1080p or gentle 1440p flying with a good balance of quality and performance.
-
Resolution: 1080p–1440p
-
Global Quality Preset: Medium
-
Anti-aliasing: DLSS Quality (RTX) or FSR Quality (AMD)
-
Terrain LOD: 100
-
Object LOD: 100
-
Trees: Medium
-
Clouds: High
-
Shadow Maps: 1536
-
Traffic: Medium
-
Fauna: Off
-
Frame Generation: Nukem mod available for RTX 30 series; native FSR 3 FG for AMD
High-End (RTX 4070–4080 / RX 7800 XT–7900 XTX, 32 GB RAM)
Comfortable 1440p with high quality settings, or solid 4K with smart compromises.
-
Resolution: 1440p–4K
-
Global Quality Preset: High
-
Anti-aliasing: DLSS Quality at 4K, DLAA at 1440p
-
Terrain LOD: 140–160
-
Object LOD: 150
-
Trees: High
-
Clouds: High to Ultra
-
Ray-Traced Shadows: On (toggle Off if needed at ground level)
-
Shadow Maps: 2048
-
Traffic: High
-
Frame Generation: DLSS FG enabled (RTX 40 series)
Enthusiast (RTX 4090 / RTX 5090, 64 GB RAM)
Near-maxed settings at 4K. The RTX 4090 averages around 50 FPS at 4K Ultra with DLAA; enabling DLSS Quality pushes that past 60 FPS consistently.
-
Resolution: 4K
-
Global Quality Preset: Ultra
-
Anti-aliasing: DLAA or DLSS Quality
-
Terrain LOD: 180–200
-
All other settings: Ultra/Max
-
Frame Generation: DLSS MFG where available (RTX 50 series)
-
Note: Even a 4090 is CPU-limited at dense airports. Keep an eye on the Developer Mode bottleneck display.
Part 9: The Optimal Diagnostic Workflow
When something goes wrong — new stutters, lower FPS than expected, crashes — work through this checklist in order. Jumping to reinstalls and hardware conclusions too early wastes hours.
-
Update GPU drivers (clean install via DDU)
-
Clear the NVIDIA shader cache (DXCache and GLCache folders)
-
Lower Terrain LOD by 25–50 points and test
-
Check VRAM usage via Developer Mode — if you are above 90%, drop texture resolution
-
Empty the Community folder and test — if performance improves, add-ons are the culprit
-
Switch to wired ethernet and test
-
Delete and rebuild the rolling cache
-
Check Windows power plan — confirm High Performance is active
-
Verify Windows version — if you recently updated and stutters appeared, check forums for known issues with that build
-
Full reinstall (last resort, but more common than expected after corrupted Sim Updates)
Part 10: The State of MSFS 2024 Performance in Mid-2026
It is worth giving this context. The sim launched in a rough state in November 2024. Frame rates were inconsistent, the server infrastructure struggled under launch load, and the streaming-heavy architecture produced blurry textures and mid-flight freezes that left many simmers frustrated.
A year and a half later, the picture is considerably better. The critical stability patches of 2025 addressed the worst of the post-launch instability. Sim Update 4 (December 2025) improved texture management and mip streaming to reduce stutters, along with terrain engine performance optimization. Sim Update 5 (April 2026) added further optimization passes across forest areas, particle effects, building generation, cockpit code, and the VR memory management system — and fixed a Frame Generation crash that affected FSR-based frame generation on NVIDIA cards.
The streaming architecture is still divisive, but with a properly configured rolling cache and a wired connection, most users now fly without bandwidth issues. Future Sim Updates are expected to continue expanding local download options, which will further reduce dependence on live streaming.
The bottom line for mid-2026: MSFS 2024 is in a genuinely good state for most hardware tiers, but it still rewards careful optimization. The sim's ambition means it will always push hardware harder than most games — and that means the tuning process described in this guide will always matter.
Quick Reference: Recommended Balanced Settings (High-End Tier)
|
Setting |
Recommended Value |
|---|---|
|
Resolution |
1440p or 4K |
|
Anti-Aliasing |
DLSS Quality (4K) / DLAA (1440p) |
|
Frame Generation |
On (RTX 40/50) |
|
Render Scaling |
100% |
|
Terrain LOD |
140 |
|
Object LOD |
150 |
|
Trees |
High |
|
Volumetric Clouds |
High |
|
Texture Resolution |
High |
|
Anisotropic Filtering |
16x |
|
Ray-Traced Shadows |
Off (toggle On at ground) |
|
Shadow Maps |
2048 |
|
Terrain Shadow Maps |
1024 |
|
Ambient Occlusion |
High |
|
Fauna |
Off |
|
AI Aircraft |
Medium |
|
Road Traffic |
Medium |
|
Glass Cockpit Refresh |
Medium |
|
Photogrammetry |
On (disable over cities if needed) |
Final Thoughts
MSFS 2024 is a sim that will always be constrained by what current hardware can do. The goal is not to run everything at maximum — it is to find the balance point where your hardware produces consistent, smooth frame times, leaving you free to actually fly rather than watch an FPS counter.
The settings that matter most are Terrain LOD, Trees, and Volumetric Clouds. Get those right for your hardware and everything else is refinement. Combine that with a wired network connection, a clean Community folder, and a properly configured Windows power profile, and you will have unlocked the vast majority of the performance your system is capable of delivering.
Happy flying.
If you found this guide helpful, share it with a fellow simmer. Have a tip we missed? Drop it in the comments — the community always knows more than any single guide can capture.