I’m honestly at a breaking point with MSFS 2024 performance. For context: until a few days ago I was on an Intel i7-14700KF + RTX 4070Ti setup. Then I upgraded — now I’m on a brand new system with AMD 9950X3D + RTX 5080 + MSI X870E Carbon, fresh Windows install, minimal background processes, everything cleaned up.
But the same issues continue:
Severe stutters and freezes (so-called “micro-freezes”), especially at larger airports like EDDF (Frankfurt), EHAM (Schiphol), EGLL (Heathrow).
Even with 75+ FPS average, it never feels smooth — latency spikes, sound stutters, the whole experience breaks immersion.
Sometimes FPS tanks down to 20–30 at big hubs, even with Terrain LOD at 100, making the sim completely unplayable.
Meanwhile, I see streamers/content creators flying with weaker setups (e.g. 4070Ti, older CPUs) and everything looks silky smooth.
I’ve literally tried everything I can think of:
Different graphic settings (High, Ultra, mixing TAA with DLSS Frame Generation).
Dynamic Settings ON/OFF — with them, things sometimes run more or less fine, but they often drop settings too aggressively, which is really disappointing given the time, cost, and effort I’ve invested into this system.
Background processes minimized.
Even setting process priority in Windows.
Fresh reinstall of Windows + sim.
Nothing fixes the issue.
Additional observations:
Currently G-Sync is OFF, V-Sync is ON, fixed refresh at 144Hz, FPS limited to 120 in NVIDIA Control Panel.
Also enabled “Prefer maximum performance” for the GPU.
In Sim Update 3 Beta, latency feels even worse than in SU2, which is why I rolled back.
So my questions are:
Why is MSFS still unplayable for me despite top hardware? What could I possibly be missing? Why does it run so smooth for others with weaker systems, but not for me?
Any advice would be hugely appreciated — I really don’t want to give up on this sim, but at this point I’m close.
I have Asus ultrawide 21:9 with 3440x1440 resolution. Light better in SU2 when we speak about latency. But everyday I’m living with sttuters and freezes. And on new setup too.
Probably folks will need a lot more information, maybe start with what Windows version and NVIDIA driver version, and anything else you can list about your new PC in addition to above.
something here doesnt make sense… have 165hz monitor..2k… i lock at 30fps in nvidia control panel to get 60 frams (with FG). or try locking at 60fps in control panel and then you’ll have 120fps with FG. Fixed refresh, no g-sync.
With my 3080 card, I lock at 30 because it keeps my gpu temps cooler than if I lock at 60fps in the nvidia control panel. and i get great performance. I use another app I can’t talk about here
You haven’t mentioned your network speeds. If you have some bottleneck there, no amount of hardware is going to help you. What area of the world are you in?
From my experience it is never a good idea to chase for maximum FPS.
You have a 144 Hz monitor and and limit your FPS by 120 FPS but talk about 75 FPS average. And then you go for Frame generation and TAA.
If you use Vsync ON, you want to calculate 1 Frame per 1 cycle of the monitor, but you do not allow that to happen, because you limit your FPS by 120, where 144 would be needed.
I have MSFS 2020 only, but I think, that makes no difference here. I have a 60 Hz monitor and limit my FPS to half the refresh rate inside the sim (not with NVidia Control Panel), so one frame per 2 cycles of the monitor and that is super smooth, because I have the 30 FPS under any circumstances, no matter which scenery I am flying in.
So maybe you want to try the following:
disable Frame generation for the time being
disable limiting frames in the Nvidia Control Panel
Limit you frames to half the refresh rate inside the sim.
See whether that gives you stable 72 Frames without stutters. Otherwise go down to 36 frames. Less frames may look smoother than more frames, as long as the frame rate is stable.
One more question: I just read an article today, that to little VRAM may cause stutters and degrade performance. In that article they warned to buy 8Gb VRAM graphics cards. How many VRAM does your card have?
When i was on beta SU3 i also tried to limit monitor to 120ghz in Windows display settings and then limited fps in Nvidia control panel to 115, seemed to be smoother. But i got freezes and fps drops tp 30-40 during the landings, especially after long haul flights and during my taxing sim was unplayable.
For example A350 from ini is not suitable for me now, i cant fly on it, but A330 driver with a similar setup uses it without any freezes. Don’t know why am I so lucky to meet everyting of this.
I read about the problems you are describing (stutters during takeoff and landing), but I do not experience anything like that. So, here I cannot help much I’m afraid.
It will be a few years and a couple of generations of hardware before it feels perfectly smooth at 75fps with higher resolutions. I have a slightly more powerful rig than you and set as follows:
FS settings: max frames 30fps, DLSS, DLAA, 2x FG, TLOD/OLOD=200, most settings high except clouds, textures, off-screen pre-caching which are ultra. I might set pre-caching one notch lower with a 5080.
Nvidia app: GSync enabled, VSync enabled, max frame rate 60, low latency on
FS2024 runs smoothly, looks good, and is quiet. Fans not working hard. Lots of headroom to absorb load generated by complex aircraft and airports. Use the power of your machine to absorb the spikes and smooth things out not chase FPS.
Tried. Does not work for me. Still with stutters and freezes and fps drops every time.
Finally - i can use mfs only with dynamic settings turned on.
Otherwise settings are the following - TAA, Dlss fr gen, 2x, TLOD and OLOD SET TO 200, other sertings are mostly set to high. frame limit set to 100 via Nvidia app (monitor refresh rate is 120 set in Windows display settings). Otherwise I still have bad performance no matter what I do with my settings…
So my questions are: