Best Microsoft Flight Simulator Settings For High FPS And Performance (2024)

Recently Released Microsoft Flight Simulator has taken over the PC Gaming Community. The game is fantastic, and so far it has received tremendous feedback. Nearly all Journalists and Sites have given it a 10/10 Rating. On top of that, it has 92 Metascore. These ratings look good, however, when you look at the user reviews, they are mostly negative and mixed. Here is the user reviews rating on Steam.

So why is that? Well, If you have played the game. You will know that it runs terribly. The game crashes consistently, and on top of that, it has terrible optimization. The frames aren’t stable, there are fps drops, game freezes, and overall performance is average. Firstly, it is understandable that players are getting low frames because the visuals are very stunning and If you look at the Minimum System Requirements. They do not make any sense.

Now if you are one of those who are having problems with FPS and Performance. Don’t worry, because, in this guide, I’ll teach you on How To Get High FPS and Stable Performance in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020. Just make sure you have created a restore point in Your Windows 10. Other than this, make sure your System Specifications are at least close to or above the minimum system requirements of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020.

• CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 or AMD Ryzen 3 1200 or better
• RAM: 8 GB
• OS: Windows 10 64-bit
• VIDEO CARD: Radeon RX 570 or GeForce GTX 770 or better
• PIXEL SHADER: 5.0
• VERTEX SHADER: 5.0
• FREE DISK SPACE: 150 GB
• DEDICATED VIDEO RAM: 2048 MB

Clear Temp Files and Perform a Disk Cleanup

If you think that emptying the recycle bin will completely remove the trash files. You are wrong because often times there are leftovers that are gathered in the temp folder. These files are mostly the leftovers from crash reports, debugs, deleted files, and much more. It is really important you delete these files because they can occupy huge space in SSD/HDD’s and impact your performance.

In the same vein, you also have to perform a Disk Cleanup. What it exactly does is that it removes all the virus-infected, cached webpage, and harmful files that consistently harm’s your Performance. Removing these virus-infected files can significantly improve your FPS in Microsoft Flight Simulator. Along with that, it’ll also clear a lot of space.

Let’s start off with deleting temp files first.

1. Open Run > Type %temp% > Click Ok.
2. Once the folder opens, Press Control + A on your keyboard to select all the temp files. Afterward, Right Click Any File > Delete.
3. Before we perform Disk Cleanup. I want to say, that you can do it for all drives and it is beneficial. However, in this guide, we’ll only perform it in the C Drive where our Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 is installed.
4. Open This PC > Right Click The Drive Where The Game Is Installed > Properties.
5. Click On Disk Cleanup, and checkmark all the things you want to remove. Be warned, that it’ll completely wipe out any folder if you have selected it. Therefore, its recommended you only select files and not entire folders.

Disable Hardware Acceleration

Playing Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 with applications like Google Chrome and Discord Running In the background isn’t a good idea. These applications have Hardware Acceleration enabled, and can cause serious performance issues. What Hardware Acceleration does is that it recycles the resources in an efficient way, by taking a chunk of hardware power. Disabling it will change nothing noticeable, however, it’ll certainly improve FPS In all games. We are going to disable it in common applications like Discord or Google Chrome. Further, it is recommended you go through all third-party applications in your PC/Laptop and Remove them.

Best Fortntie Settings

1. Open Google Chrome > Click on three dots on top right > Settings.e
2. Scroll Down > Advanced > System > Disable Hardware Acceleration and Restart Google Chrome.Disabling Hardware Acceleration In Discord
3. Open Discord > Click On Settings Icon.
4. 
5. Scroll all the way down to Appearance > Disable Hardware Acceleration and agree to restart the application.

Once done, the next time you play Flight Simulator 2020. I can assure you that FPS will be better than ever. These are just unnoticeable settings in common applications that can have a negative impact on your performance.

Enable Game Mode

How do you expect to get good frames in a Microsoft Game, when you are not using their features that are meant to benefit you in games like these. I’m talking about Game Mode, which is a built-in feature within Windows 10. The purpose of Game Mode is to ensure that the game is using 100% of CPU, and no other applications are interfering in the process. Likewise, Game Mode makes a huge difference when enabled, and if you want to get High FPS, you must enable it.

1. Open Start > Type Game Mode > Click On First Result.
2. Now Enable Game Mode but do not close the tab..
3. Proceed to the Captures Tab and disable everything you see. These are useless notifications that pile up in the background while playing games. Sometimes they also cause crashes as it pop ups in the middle of games.
4. Do The Same in Game Bar Tab.

Enhance Animations

Windows 10 by default has a very funky animation system. This isn’t entirely good, because it can have a negative impact on your FPS. Once you tweak these animations, by disabling all the useless ones. You will see a much more responsive Windows 10. Along with that, you will also feel a much smoothen Gameplay In Flight Simulator 2020.

1. Go to Start > Type and Open “View advanced System Settings”.
2. Then click on the Settings Option under the Performance Tab. Choose Custom, and only checkmark the ones in the picture below.
3. Once Done, simply hit apply to save changes.

Use Ultimate Performance For Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020

Like I previously said, Windows 10 by default has tons of funky features, and it’s not properly optimized for gaming. You have to go through all options, enable them to step by step, and then you can expect some serious performance from your PC. Likewise, the Ultimate Performance is a power plan, that you won’t normally see. This plan ensures that everything is running at Max Speeds. The option removes the power limit threshold, thus your hardware is able to provide more performance.

1. Open Start > Type Command Prompt > Click on first result.
2. Now Copy and Paste The Code Mentioned Below In Command Prompt:

3. powercfg -duplicatescheme e9a42b02 -d5df -448d -aa00 -03f14749eb61

4. Once done, you will get a message indicating that Ultimate Performance was enabled. If it didn’t work, you can try again, and this time in the Windows PowerShell. The code for PowerShell is the same.

Disable Full-Screen Optimization and Override High DPI Settings

This feature is often enabled by default, and its a big flop. I said flop because Microsoft actually said this would increase responsive and overall performance in games. Turns out, that it only notifies you about useless things, and the performance is inconsistent. Many players on Reddit and various gaming communities have come to a point, that this feature has negative impact on your performance.

1. Open Steam > Right Click Microsoft Flight Simulator > Browse Local Files.
2. Now the game folder will open, and search for FlightSimulator Application.
3. Right Click on the Application and Choose Properties.
4. Head over to the Compatibility Tab, and Checkmark “Disable Full-Screen Optimizations”.
5. Once Done, Click on High DPI Settings and enable “Override High DPI Scaling Behavior”.
6. Afterward, hit apply and ok both tabs. You should be seeing some improvements now.

Disable Useless Application and Services

While playing Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020, you have to make sure that there are no unrelated applications running in the background. The game is already a very heavy CPU Intensive Game, and you don’t want any extra burden on CPU. Likewise, when the game’s running clean without any background applications, the performance is very consistent and stable.

1. Open Search Box > Type Run > Open First Result.
2. Now Write “msconfig” and click ok.
3. Afterward, Proceed to the services tab > Checkmark all Microsoft Services, because we don’t want to disable the essential ones.
4. 
5. Disable all the useless services from the list and click Apply. Do not close the tab yet, click on Startup.
6. In Startup, disable all the applications with High Priority. I’ve disabled nearly every one of them because I want the best performance and no extra load on my CPU. Along with performance, you will also get crazily fast boot times, so that is a bonus.

Best Nvidia Settings for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 is also a mess on Nvidia Graphics Card. It does not matter if you have the latest or old graphics card. The game does stutter, and its performance is really bad. Anyhow, we have some tweaks and configurations that will get you High FPS and Consistent Performance. These settings are much more complex, and we’ll set them in the control panel.

Before you jump to that, make sure your Nvidia Graphics Drivers are updated to the latest versions. The latest ones have already brought tremendous improvement for MS Flight Simulator 2020.

1. Open GeForce Experience > Drivers > Check For Updates.
2. New Drivers automatically begin download. If you are still having problems, head over to the Nvidia Game Ready Drivers for Microsoft Flight Simulator, and download them manually.
3. Once Updated, Open Nvidia Control Panel > Manage 3D Settings.
4. In 3D Settings > Program Settings > Add Microsoft Flight Simulator to the list.
5. Once done, make the following changes.
6. Image Sharpening – Use Global setting (off).
7. Anisotropic Filtering –Off.
8. Antialiasing –FXAA – Off.
9. Antialiasing – Gamma Correction – Off.
10. Max Frame Rate – Use Global Settings (Off).
11. Monitor Technology – G-Sync Compatible
12. Texture Filetiring –High Performance.
13. Preferred Refresh Rate –Highest Available.
14. Shader Cache –Off.
15. Power Management Mode – Prefer Maximum Performance.

Leave Rest to the default.

Best Graphics Settings For Microsoft Flight Simulator

The settings I am about to show are very balanced. They will get you good graphics, and the FPS will be high. Not only that, but you also won’t experience FPS Drops and crazy stutters anymore. These settings aren’t entirely meant to get you Highest FPS, because if that is the case. You can simply set the preset to Very Low, But what’s the point of that? the visuals look very pathetic, and the game isn’t enjoyable. Finding the right balance is essential, and here they are.

1. Open Microsoft Flight Simulator > Settings > General > Graphics.
2. Now Make The Following Changes
3. Display Mode – Full Screen
4. Full Screen Resolution – 1920×1080 (Select the highest)
5. Global Rendering Quality – Custom
6. Advanced Settings
7. V-SYNC – Off
8. Render Scaling – 100
9. Anti-Aliasing – TAA
10. Terrain Level of Detail – 100
11. Tessellation Quality – Ultra
12. Buildings – High
13. Trees – Medium
14. Grass and Bushes – High
15. Objects Level of Detail – 100
16. Volumetric Clouds – High
17. Texture Resolution – High
18. Anisotropic Filtering – 16x (8x will also work)
19. Texture Supersampling – Off
20. Texture Synthesis – High
21. Water Waves – Medium
22. Shadow Maps – 1536
23. Terrain Shadows – 512
24. Contact Shadows – Ultra
25. Windshield Effects – Ultra
26. Ambient Occlusion – High
27. Reflections – Medium
28. Light Shafts – Ultra
29. Bloom – Off
30. Depth of Field – Ultra
31. Lens Correction – Off
32. Lens Flare – On
33. Use Generic Plane Models (AI Traffic) – On
34. Use Generic Plane Models (Multiplayer) – Off

I’ve tried numerous settings, but these ones are the best. They are very balanced, and the performance you get is crazy. Anyhow, if you are still struggling to get High Frames. You can lower some of the settings, like Windshield Effects, Depth of Field, Texture Synthesis, and Tesselation Quality. At the end of the day, the performance matters from Hardware to Hardware, so it all comes down to you.

Takeaways

In my opinion, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 is fairly new and with the passage of time. The game will become more optimized, and we’ll be seeing better frames. Right now, all you can do is find the right balance as shown in this guide. Other than this, if you have low specs hardware. It’s maybe time you start to spend more money and get better hardware, not because of this game. But in the future, all games would be like this.

Patch Notes UPDATE 12 [1.31.22.0]

Flight Simulator Latest Patch:

• Several crashes have been fixed across the title
• Fixed Engine Governor being incorrectly labeled
• Fixed game freeze during boot
• Corrected an issue that caused some multiplayer planes to display a purple texture on their Glass co*ckpits.
• Fixed issues in the building generation that could cause crashes
• Various localization improvements
• Performance improvements and optimizations across the board