When a process like FlightSimulator.exe becomes unresponsive and your audio is lagging, that’s a typical sign that your CPU is not able to cope with the work it’s being bombarded with. So your CPU is the bottleneck in your system, even though it has 4 cores and 8 threads. But FS is currently having issues with multithreading which will be fixed in one of the upcoming patches. So don’t rush and buy a new CPU yet, unless you want to of course.
At what speeds (GHz) is your CPU running? You can see this in the task manager (ctrl+alt+del → Performance tab → CPU → Speed) or e.g. CPU-Z. Do not bother with the “@ x.xGHz” in the title string, as that is the default “stock” speed, important is the number under “speed”. In CPU-Z it’s under clock speeds.
However, I can give you some tips that may improve your experience with FS.
1. Always restart your PC and internet router before playing FS
2. Make sure your power plan is set to “High Performance” or “Ultimate Performance” when available
see instructions above under “Make sure PC is running at its fullest potential”
3. Eliminate unnecessary autostart programs and running background services
Beginner Geek: Everything You Need to Know About Disabling Startup Programs on Windows
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4. Set performance priority to background services, this alleviates the CPU hunger of FS
Press “win key + r” on keyboard → Enter “SystemPropertiesPerformance /pagefile” → Under “Processor scheduling” click on “Background services”
5. Limit the FPS of FlightSimulator.exe in the Nvidia Control Panel to 30 FPS
Open Nvidia Control Panel, click “Manage 3D settings” on the left and open the “Program Settings” tab. Select “Microsoft Flight Simulator (flightsimulator.exe)” from the drop down list. Scroll down to “Max Frame Rate”, switch to “On” and set the value to “30”. Click apply at the bottom.
Give these steps a try. If FS will still not run properly, double check that your CPU is not being underclocked by some sort of power saving mechanism. Have a look in the BIOS / UEFI.
Your system should be able to run FS without the hiccups you describe. As reference, I got FS running smoothly on a system with i5 6600k CPU @ 4.4GHz (only 4 cores and 4 threads), Nvidia GTX 970, 32GB RAM @ 3000MHz, Windows 10 v2004, all installed on SSDs, game settings medium to high, running an average of 40FPS on a 1080p monitor and no crashes.
Keep us updated on how it goes 