Performance issues are the single most complained-about topic across every MSFS 2024 forum, Reddit thread, and Discord server. Stutters, FPS drops, and sudden freezes affect everyone from budget rigs to high-end systems — and the causes are often not what you’d expect. Here’s how to diagnose and fix them systematically.
1. Clear your shader cache after every sim update
This is the most overlooked fix. Every time MSFS updates — especially when DLSS gets bumped — Nvidia’s shader cache fills with stale, corrupted entries. The result: stutters that come out of nowhere, often mid-flight. Delete the contents of these two folders, then restart the sim:
%LocalAppData%NVIDIADXCache
%LocalAppData%NVIDIAGLCacheThe sim will rebuild the cache on first launch — expect a slightly longer load time once, then smooth sailing.
2. Terrain Level of Detail (LOD) is the biggest single setting
More than any other graphics setting, Terrain LOD drives CPU and memory load. Many simmers crank it to 200 because it looks great in screenshots — but it’s brutal on performance, especially on approach to complex airports. Drop it to 100–150 and you’ll often gain 15–25 FPS with almost no visible difference during normal flight.
3. Check your VRAM — MSFS 2024 is hungry
MSFS 2024 uses more than double the VRAM of MSFS 2020. If you’re on an 8 GB card, you will hit the ceiling — and when VRAM overflows to system RAM, frame times spike and stutters become severe. Drop texture resolution one step (from Ultra to High) and monitor VRAM usage in developer mode (Options → Developer → Display FPS). Keep it below 90% of your card’s capacity.
4. Empty the Community folder and test
Add-on conflicts are responsible for a huge share of performance problems — and CTDs. Move everything out of your Community folder and do a test flight. If performance improves, add items back one by one until you find the culprit. A single poorly optimised freeware airport or an MSFS 2020 livery that hasn’t been updated for 2024 can tank your frame rate.
5. Your internet connection matters more than you think
MSFS 2024 streams scenery, terrain, and weather data live. A weak Wi-Fi signal, a congested home network, or a throttled connection will cause mid-flight freezes that look identical to a GPU or CPU bottleneck — but aren’t. Run a speed test while the sim is open and check for packet loss. If possible, use a wired ethernet connection.
6. Update GPU drivers — but check the forum first
New GPU drivers regularly introduce new bugs in MSFS. Before updating, check the Microsoft Flight Simulator forum or the Nvidia/AMD subreddit to see if the latest driver version is causing issues. Sometimes staying one version behind is the right call.
7. Check the rolling cache
If you’re flying offline or in areas with poor data coverage, a well-configured rolling cache reduces stuttering caused by slow data streaming. Set it to at least 8 GB under General Options → Data → Rolling Cache. If it’s been a while since you cleared it, delete and recreate it — a bloated or corrupted cache can actually make things worse.
Quick checklist: Update GPU drivers (carefully) → Clear shader cache → Lower Terrain LOD → Check VRAM usage → Empty Community folder → Test on wired ethernet. Work through these in order and most performance problems disappear.
8. When nothing else works: complete reinstall
If you’ve worked through everything above and performance is still broken, a complete reinstall of MSFS 2024 is the next step. It’s the fix nobody wants to do, but it’s also the one that resolves things when nothing else will. A corrupted core installation is more common than people expect — particularly after Sim Updates that interrupted mid-download, or after hard crashes during the update process.
The process matters here. Don’t just uninstall and reinstall. GPU drivers need a clean wipe first, your caches need to be cleared before first launch, and your Community folder should stay empty until you’ve confirmed the base sim is running cleanly. Doing a reinstall sloppily can leave you with the same problems you started with.
The exact steps — in the right order — are covered in the SU5 Performance Guide. That guide was written around Sim Update 5 but the reinstall and clean-setup procedure applies regardless of which update you’re coming from. Follow it from Step 1.
