Microsoft Flight Simulator (MSFS) 2020 – Stuttering and Freezing fix

Microsoft Flight Simulator stuttering freezing fix – Microsoft Flight Simulator, also known as Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 or MSFS 2020, is a flight simulator by Xbox Game Studios available for Microsoft Windows and Xbox One. It is the eleventh major entry in the Microsoft Flight Simulator series, preceded by Flight Simulator X.

Flight Simulator simulates the entire Earth using textures and topographical data from Bing Maps. The game generates 3D representations of the world’s features, such as terrain, trees, grass, buildings, and water using Microsoft Azure technology. Some players received the Alpha version as part of the game’s Insider program.

Now that the basic information about the game has been covered, lets talk about the performance of MSFS 2020 on PC. The problem is every single single AAA title suffers with performance related issues at launch nowadays. Microsoft Flight Simulator is no different. The size of the game is a whopping 150 GB and it makes sense as this is probably one of heaviest games of 2020. Ever since the game launched, players have been constantly complaining about constant stuttering and freezing in-game. That is why we decided to put up this basic guide consisting of some fixes that are quite easy to try.

Microsoft Flight Simulator (MSFS) 2020 – Stuttering and Freezing fix

Microsoft Flight Simulator System Requirements

Before you move any further in this guide, check out the official system requirements of the game to make sure that your system is capable enough.

Turn off Windows Background Recording

If you have Background Recording on on your Windows then it can cause micro stutters and freezes. Basically the feature constantly records in the background when you are playing a game. Here is how to disable Windows Background Recording:

• Open Windows Settings
• Click on Gaming
• Select Captures
• Now turn off Background Recording

Disable Xbox Game Bar

The Xbox Game Bar feature for Windows can cause stuttering and lagging in games some times. Try to keep it off. Here is how to do it:

• Open Windows Settings
• Click on Gaming
• Select Xbox Game Bar
• Now turn it off

Microsoft Flight Simulator – Nvidia and AMD Control Panel Settings

Nvidia

The first thing you should do is click on ‘Adjust image settings with preview‘ located on the left side under 3D settings and make sure that ‘Use the advanced 3D image settings‘ is selected. Now:

• Open Nvidia Control Panel
• Click on Manage 3D settings on the left bar
• Click on the Program Settings tab
• Locate Microsoft Flight Simulator from the drop down menu under “Select a program to customize”
  
• If you don’t see the game on the list then click on the Add button and another list will appear
• If you still cannot spot the game then you need to add the .exe file manually.
• Click on Browse
• Locate the folder where you have installed the game
  
• Select the executable file or the .exe file which in this case should be msfs.exe
  
• Once you have successfully added the game, you will then see the program settings become available for the game
  
• Now tweak the following settings
• Image Sharpening : Off
• Threaded Optimization : On
• OpenGL rendering GPU : Your dedicated GPU (GTX 1060 in my case)
• Shader Cache : On
• Power Management : Prefer Maximum Performance
• Low Latency Mode : Off
• Texture filtering – Quality : Performance

AMD

Click on Global Graphics.

• Radeon Anti-Lag : Disabled
• Radeon Boost : Disabled
• Image Sharpening : Off
• Anti-Aliasing Mode : Use Application settings
• Anti-aliasing Method : Multi-sampling
• Morphological Filtering : Off
• Anisotropic Filtering : Disabled
• Texture Filtering Quality: Performance
• Surface Format Optimization: Enabled
• Tesselation Mode: AMD Optimized
• Wait for V-sync: Off
• OpenGL Triple Buffering: Off
• Shader Cache: AMD optimized
• Maximum Tesselation Level: Off
• GPU Workload: Graphics
• Radeon Chill: Off
• Frame Rate Target Control: Disabled

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These are all the fixes we have for Microsoft Flight Simulator at the moment. We are looking for more and as we discover new ones will update this article with them.

Click here to check out some more fixes in our crashing fix guide for Microsoft Flight Simulator.

Click here to check out the Official Steam Discussions page of Microsoft Flight Simulator.

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With that being said, if you think this guide has helped you then let us know in the comment section below. Also, If you are facing problems that are not mentioned on this article then also you can comment below. We will try come out with a fix. Good luck!

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That’s all folks!

Last Updated on August 17, 2020