I haven’t noticed any difference streaming vs downloading the aircraft, in fact flicking between views can still give that millisecond texture load in in cockpits. As for scenery, to be honest, I’m not 100% on how that works, like if I download the UK WU, am I downloading just the PG and POIs or am I also downloading the terrain? 
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Thanks for your feedback, I was wondering whether it gave any significant performance improvement and/or reduced the load on the main thread, CPU or GPU. In other words is it worth the hassle of doing all of that or just sticking to the streamed version entirely?
In the testing I’ve done (as well as the experiences of others I’ve read) locally installed assets seem to increase overall loading time and have little-to-no noticeable performance gains otherwise. Many of the unloading/reloading of cockpit instruments, for example, when changing from internal to external views and back are present even in aircraft installed locally. This is a result of how MSFS 2024 manages LODs more than anything tied to streaming.
If anything, I would expect better CPU and/or GPU performance with the streaming model as it’s loading in fewer textures overall. Locally installed assets load everything, streaming loads only what the sim believes you will use which should theoretically be reducing demand on your system.
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Oh thanks, It seems if loading times are worse from locally installed assets (if I understood your first para’s correctly) and then of course from edit I think I will stick with just streaming.
I also wondered, you may or may not know the answer, whether the different times it takes to download the streamed assets and the installed asset would cause stuttering or flickering or LOD issues like popping?
Ie mixing the 2, does it cause possible problems?
I wouldn’t think there would be issues from mixing the two, but it’s an easy enough thing to test. In my own testing I didn’t download everything (and in fact no one can, the vast majority of the “world” is still streamed as a requirement).
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I concur with that, certainly, the long first load is gone. But your connection speed will play a role. I got an 8Gbps fiber with 3ms latency to the MS server, and not many people will have that.
I understood.
My questions are related to how fast (even whether!) downloaded assets are loaded into RAM as needed, loaded into the Rolling Cache (or some other cache) as needed, or accessed in some other way as needed.
If loaded into RAM, is that process faster or slower than streaming them.
Lots of variables in that equation.
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We can discuss this forever and post tons of test stats, it all doesn’t matter.
What matters is that you have to try yourself in your individual and unique environment. Too many fatctors are coming into play here.
The only thing that is for sure:
Load times will significantly increase the more downloadable content you have stored locally.
My personal opinion (based on a lot of testing with my setup and connection) is that downloading stuff is not really helping much if you have an internet connection of decent quality.
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Whew, I think there are so many questions here and so many different PC configs you are both right. The overall consensus tends toward local downloads taking longer than streaming (albeit msec’s). If you have a mix of both would that lead to some data arriving slower on screen than the other therefore leading to some distortion of picture/scenery?
You are right, but Microsoft was more or less forced into this to assist users with very bad connectivity. For the vast majority of users, it will do little or nothing.
Mathijs
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I would say they were forced into it for that reason and also (probably more-so) to appease angry users who decided streaming was the scapegoat of all their issues with MSFS 2024.
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Was just about to write exactly this 
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If you have a fast internet connection you wont notice a difference to be honest. I have 2Gig up and 2Gig down and I notice no difference streaming vs having it all downloaded. In fact if you have a slow SSD or M2 drive then it can deteriorate performance loading assets off the local device.
I have the sim fully downloaded anyway, mainly because I’m old school and still feel more comfortable doing this, but its basically a waste of space as streaming is just as good 
If however you are on a slow connection it makes all the difference, my brother only has 30Mbps and he notices a much bigger difference so for him its a benefit. He also has an extremely fast M2 drive.
Zooze74
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That is what the latest of the above posts are discussing.