How To Fix Microsoft Flight Simulator 2021 Lag, Low FPS, Or Stuttering

Are you experiencing lag, stuttering or FPS drop when playing Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020? This is a common complaint from a lot of players lately although we believe that not all cases are caused by the game itself.

In this troubleshooting guide, we’ll show you the reasons why this game may stutter or lag and how to narrow down the causes for your particular case.

What can cause Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 lag, low FPS, or stuttering issues

THere are a number of possible reasons why Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 may lag or suffer from low FPS. Let’s discuss each of them below.

Random glitch.

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 is visually stunning game but it’s far from perfect. Even on computers optimized for gaming, the game can sometimes suffer from stuttering or low FPS.

Infrequent random lag on Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 may occur from time to time as Asobo, the game’s developer continues to release incremental patches to lessen the chances of problems and to fix new ones.

PC is low on resources.

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 is graphics-heavy game so you may need to ensure that you allocate any available resources when it’s running. This means closing Google Chrome browser (which is also a RAM-hog application), or any other applications that you don’t need.

If you don’t have a high-end gaming PC, then make sure that only the Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 is running.

Outdated graphics card drivers.

If your computer’s GPU has an old version of drivers, it can potentially affect your gaming experience. Make sure that you keep drivers updated all the time.

Slow or intermittent connection issues.

In case you don’t know it, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 requires a fast broadband connection in order to continuously display the views of the world you’re looking at. The game is constantly talking to the server in order to download the maps it needs.

If your internet connection is slow or if it’s disconnecting regularly, this can result to lag or stuttering issues when playing Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020.

Unknown software issues.

Third party programs may interfere with Windows or with games. If you noticed that Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 is lagging after installing a new program, you must consider deleting that application to see if that will fix the problem.

Hardware limitations.

Games like Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 are best enjoyed in highest settings. If your computer is a few years old already, its hardware components may not be strong enough to render graphics in the settings you’re using right now.

Try to set graphics settings of the game to lower configuration and see if that will eliminate low FPS, lag or stuttering.

What are the minimum system requirements for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020?

Below are the minimum system requirements for MFS2020. Bear in mind that even if your PC meets these specs, it does not mean that you may be able to run the game in its highest settings.

Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
OS: Windows 10
Processor: Intel i5-4460 | AMD Ryzen 3 1200
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GTX 770 | AMD Radeon RX 570
DirectX: Version 11
Storage: 150 GB available space

What are the recommended system requirements for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020?

If you want to enjoy the game in its full beauty, you should strive to have these specs at the minimum (a more powerful PC than this setup is preferable):

Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
OS: Windows 10
Processor: Intel i5-8400 | AMD Ryzen 5 1500X
Memory: 16 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GTX 970 | AMD Radeon RX 590
DirectX: Version 11
Storage: 150 GB available space

How to fix Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 lag, low FPS, or stuttering issues

One Comment

Bert Diego says:

November 26, 2023 at 7:49 pm

“Rebooting, leaving your PC off for 30 seconds and unplugging it at the wall”. Lol, the 30 seconds and unplugging it at the wall is completely unnecessary and will achieve nothing. With respect, there’s nothing really knowledgeable or useful in this vlog. There are so many more practical things that can be done to address lage, low FPS and stutters.