Do add-ons reduce flight simulator FPS? See which aircraft, scenery and traffic cause MSFS stuttering, low-memory warnings and slower frames.
Yes. In Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 and 2020—and in X-Plane, Prepar3D and FSX—add-ons can lower FPS, cause micro-stutters, exhaust memory and lengthen loading. Complex aircraft, detailed airports, AI traffic and high-resolution scenery have the largest impact; installed but inactive content usually affects scanning or loading rather than in-flight frame rate.
This is a general flight-simulator answer because the same limits apply across platforms: add-ons consume CPU time, GPU time, VRAM, system memory, storage bandwidth or network capacity. A mistake we see constantly is blaming the number or total size of installed packages when the active combination, location and resource bottleneck matter far more.
Which flight simulator add-ons reduce FPS most?
Complex aircraft, detailed airports and AI traffic usually have the greatest effect, particularly when all three are active at a busy airport.
| Add-on type | Usual performance pattern | Main cause |
|---|---|---|
| Complex aircraft | Lower FPS in the cockpit; occasional display or systems hitches | Systems simulation, avionics, cockpit displays, custom code and glass-cockpit rendering can overload the CPU main thread or GPU. |
| Detailed airports and cities | Local FPS loss and stuttering on approach, taxi or camera movement | Extra objects, lights, animations, textures and draw calls increase CPU, GPU and VRAM demand. |
| AI and online traffic | Increasingly heavy at busy airports | Each visible aircraft adds traffic logic, a model, textures, animations and draw calls. Model-matching packages can make otherwise unselected aircraft or liveries active. |
| High-resolution or photographic scenery | Loading pauses, texture pop-in or memory pressure | Large textures and scenery tiles rely on VRAM, RAM, storage and, where streamed, the network connection. |
| Weather and cloud enhancements | From negligible to substantial | Dense clouds can be GPU-heavy, while external weather utilities may perform continuous processing or data injection. |
| Global plugins, overlays and utilities | Can affect every flight | Some poll simulator data, draw windows, inject traffic or run scripts even when their interface is hidden. |
| Liveries and sound packs | Usually negligible by themselves | Very high-resolution liveries can consume memory, especially as traffic models. A faulty or incompatible sound package can stutter without causing a large average FPS loss. |
These costs stack. A complex airliner may perform well at a default airport, and a detailed airport may be smooth in a simple aircraft, yet the combination can exceed the available main-thread time or memory. Payware is not automatically heavier than freeware, and package size alone does not predict performance.
Airport object density, terrain detail and texture choices interact closely with scenery packages. Our explanation of how scenery settings divide the workload between the CPU, GPU, VRAM and streaming helps identify which setting to lower first.
Is there an estimate for how many frames an add-on will cost?
There is no reliable universal FPS estimate for an add-on because the result changes with the aircraft, location, traffic, weather, view, resolution and hardware bottleneck.
An airport package may cost no frames while flying on another continent, then become the largest load in the system when approaching its coverage area. The same package can also reduce FPS substantially on a CPU-limited computer but make little difference on a system that was already GPU-limited.
Compare frame time as well as average FPS. At 30 FPS, each frame has about 33.3 milliseconds to render; at 60 FPS, it has about 16.7 milliseconds. One periodic 100-millisecond stall can be clearly visible even if the average counter barely changes, which is why our guide to judging smooth FPS and frame-time consistency treats stable delivery as more useful than a headline number.
Do installed add-ons slow the simulator when they are not in use?
No: an installed add-on does not necessarily consume resources throughout every flight, but its loading scope determines when it matters.
- Local scenery normally has its largest effect when the covered airport or surrounding scenery tiles are loaded.
- An unselected aircraft usually has no in-flight cost unless the simulator uses its model or livery for AI traffic or multiplayer model matching.
- Global plugins and utilities may load for the entire session and affect flights anywhere.
- Large package libraries can increase start-up, package discovery, update checks and menu loading without changing airborne FPS.
- Overlapping scenery can load duplicate objects, conflicting airport layouts or competing elevation data, wasting resources and causing visual faults.
On PC editions of Microsoft Flight Simulator, manually installed packages normally reside in the Community folder, while managed content should be controlled through the simulator rather than pulled apart manually. In X-Plane, plugins under Resources/plugins commonly load globally, whereas packages in Custom Scenery are location-dependent. FSX and Prepar3D use activated scenery areas plus separately loaded aircraft, gauges and modules.
On Xbox and PlayStation versions of Microsoft Flight Simulator, use the simulator's content-management controls; PC folder instructions do not apply. Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is available on Xbox Series X|S, PS5 and PS5 Pro, while Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 was never released on PlayStation.
How do I find which add-on is causing low FPS?
The only dependable method is a controlled A/B comparison followed by a binary search through the suspected packages.
- Create a repeatable test. Use the same aircraft, airport, runway, cockpit view, weather preset and traffic level. Disable live weather and variable online traffic temporarily because neither produces repeatable results.
- Let the flight settle. Wait for initial scenery and cockpit loading to finish, then repeat each run. A first visit after an update or content change can include one-off loading that makes the comparison misleading.
- Establish a default baseline. Test a default aircraft at a default airport. If that already stutters, an add-on may not be the primary cause.
- Disable the suspected content. Close the simulator first. Move manually installed MSFS packages out of
Community, use the content manager for managed packages, disable X-Plane plugins or scenery safely, or deactivate FSX and Prepar3D scenery through their library controls. - Repeat the identical flight. Higher average FPS indicates a sustained workload reduction. Similar FPS with fewer pauses points to better frame-time consistency rather than more raw frames.
- Check the limiting resource. Use the simulator's performance display where available, or system monitoring on PC, to distinguish a CPU main-thread limit from GPU, VRAM, RAM or storage pressure. Our CPU, GPU, memory and add-on bottleneck method explains what each pattern looks like.
- Add packages back in halves. With many candidates, enable half the group and test again. Repeating this binary search is much faster than trying every package individually.
- Confirm the interaction. Test the suspected add-on alone, then with the aircraft, airport and traffic package normally used beside it. If only the full combination fails, the problem is cumulative load rather than one defective package.
Do not delete shared libraries while testing; multiple aircraft and scenery packages may depend on them. Keep disabled content outside the simulator's scanned folders and restart after each material change.
Why do MSFS 2024 and MSFS 2020 add-ons cause micro-stutters?
MSFS micro-stutters are short frame-time spikes, commonly caused by scenery loading, traffic injection, avionics updates, autosave activity or textures moving between storage, system memory and VRAM.
A steady 25 FPS and a fluctuating 40 FPS can feel very different. Consistently low performance usually indicates sustained CPU or GPU load; intermittent MSFS stuttering points instead towards loading, memory pressure, background activity, a repeating script or an add-on conflict.
Watch for a pattern. A pause at regular intervals implicates utilities that save, poll or refresh on a schedule. Stutters only while turning the camera suggest new objects or textures are being loaded. Hitches on approach to one airport point towards that scenery, its surrounding region or the traffic concentrated there.
If the pauses continue with third-party content disabled, work through our broader checks for freezes, micro-pauses and frame-time spikes before removing more add-ons.
Why does MSFS 2024 sound stutter?
When sound and picture break up at the same instant, MSFS 2024 sound stuttering is usually part of a whole-simulator stall rather than a fault in the audio files alone.
Test a default aircraft at a default airport first. If the audio fault occurs only with one aircraft or sound modification, disable that package and check that it supports the installed simulator build. If every aircraft suffers audio-only stuttering without visual pauses, check the selected audio device, its driver, spatial-audio or enhancement processing and competing background applications instead.
Sound packs normally have little effect on average FPS. However, an incompatible package, repeated file-access problem or CPU overload from the aircraft using it can produce broken audio even when the FPS counter appears acceptable.
What should I lower at busy airports?
At busy airports, lower the settings that address the active bottleneck rather than cutting every graphics option.
- CPU or main-thread limit: reduce AI traffic, parked aircraft, airport vehicles, worker activity and object or terrain detail. Texture resolution is rarely the first fix for a pure main-thread limit.
- GPU limit: reduce render resolution or scale, clouds, shadows, reflections and other graphics-heavy effects.
- VRAM or shared-memory pressure: lower texture quality, remove duplicate high-resolution scenery, limit large traffic liveries and avoid combining the heaviest aircraft and airport.
- Storage or streaming stalls: keep frequently used PC content on suitable fast storage, stop unrelated downloads and recording, and check the connection used for streamed scenery.
A one-airport problem does not justify making every flight look worse. Save a lighter configuration for demanding hubs, or reduce traffic before departure and arrival.
Can MSFS Auto FPS tools fix add-on stuttering?
MSFS Auto FPS utilities can protect a target frame rate by dynamically lowering settings such as Terrain LOD or Object LOD, but they cannot repair a broken package, scenery conflict or memory leak.
Use an Auto FPS tool when performance varies predictably between cruise and dense airports and you accept visible detail changes. Set a realistic target below the frame rate your system can sustain in a moderate scenario; an aggressive target can make the utility chase an impossible number and repeatedly alter detail.
Test without the utility first. It is itself a background add-on, and excessive polling or rapid setting changes can add judder or obscure the original cause. Compatibility also matters: a utility must explicitly support the Microsoft Flight Simulator generation and simulator build being used.
What does “memory resources are getting low” mean in MSFS on Xbox?
The “memory resources are getting low” warning on Xbox means the simulator is approaching its shared system and graphics memory budget, often because a demanding aircraft, detailed airport, traffic and high-resolution content are loaded together.
- Fully quit and restart MSFS. Do not rely on resuming the previous suspended session when diagnosing memory pressure.
- Reproduce the flight with default content. Use a default aircraft, default airport, fixed weather and reduced traffic. If the warning disappears, restore optional content one item at a time.
- Remove or disable optional packages through content management. Start with the airport, aircraft, liveries and regional scenery involved in the affected flight.
- Avoid stacking the heaviest content. A package may be stable alone but exceed the console's budget when combined with complex avionics and dense traffic.
- Update incompatible content. If the warning began after a simulator update and follows one package, leave that package disabled until a compatible build is available.
Xbox users cannot add RAM, inspect a Community folder or apply PC file-management instructions. Clearing a rolling cache mainly affects stored scenery data, not the console's physical memory capacity, so it is not the first fix for a warning that repeats at the same add-on airport.
Should I remove the add-on or adjust simulator settings?
Remove or disable an add-on when it misbehaves by itself; adjust settings when the package is simply demanding in a known heavy combination.
- Disable it if it causes crashes, repeatable freezes, corrupted visuals, duplicate scenery, sound faults or severe stuttering in an otherwise clean default test.
- Check compatibility if the problem began after a simulator update or occurs only with another package installed.
- Adjust settings if the add-on is stable but pushes a busy-airport scenario beyond the CPU, GPU or memory budget.
- Keep it enabled selectively if the cost is confined to one location; deactivate unrelated scenery and reduce traffic there instead of degrading the whole simulator.
To be sure of the diagnosis, re-enable the suspected package and reproduce the fault twice under the same conditions. One smooth or poor run can be coincidence; a repeatable before-and-after change is evidence.