Fix slow scenery loading, LOD and texture pop-in in MSFS 2024/2020, plus low GPU use, VRAM pressure, SSD, internet, add-on and PS5 issues.
Flight simulator scenery loads slowly or pops in when terrain, textures and objects cannot be streamed, read, decompressed and prepared before the camera reaches them. The usual bottlenecks are the internet connection, storage, the CPU’s main thread, RAM or VRAM pressure, excessive level-of-detail settings, damaged caches and conflicting add-ons.
This is a general flight-simulator problem, but each simulator obtains scenery differently. Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 relies heavily on streamed world data alongside installed packages; MSFS 2020 also mixes online and local content. X-Plane, FSX and Prepar3D depend more heavily on locally installed scenery, while Aerofly FS behaviour varies by edition and installed region.
What causes LOD and texture pop-in?
LOD and texture pop-in happen when the simulator deliberately reduces distant detail or when its scenery-loading pipeline falls behind.
- Streaming delay: In MSFS, limited bandwidth, high latency, packet loss, disabled online data or a service interruption can leave ground imagery blurred and photogrammetry incomplete.
- Object or terrain LOD: Low LOD settings create an obvious draw boundary. Settings that are too high can produce the same symptom later because the CPU and memory cannot process the requested detail quickly enough.
- Main-thread load: Buildings, traffic, airport objects and draw calls are often prepared by one heavily loaded CPU thread. Total CPU usage may look low while that thread is saturated.
- VRAM pressure: When graphics memory fills, textures and geometry are evicted and loaded again. Fast camera movements then expose low-resolution textures or missing objects.
- Slow local storage: Mechanical drives, overloaded external drives and nearly full SSDs can delay scenery tiles, object libraries and decompression.
- Add-on conflicts: Overlapping airports, duplicate meshes, outdated libraries and malformed scenery packages can cause a repeatable hole or pause at one location.
Some pop-in is ordinary camera culling rather than a fault. A rapid 180-degree external-camera turn may reveal objects that were deliberately removed from memory while out of view. For setting-specific examples, see our guide to reducing terrain, building and tree pop-in in MSFS 2024.
How do I identify the scenery-loading bottleneck?
The appearance, timing and repeatability of the delay usually identify which part of the system is behind.
| Symptom | Likely cause | Best confirmation |
|---|---|---|
| Blurred ground gradually becomes sharp | Streaming, texture decoding or VRAM pressure | Compare online and offline scenery at the same location |
| Buildings appear at a consistent distance | Object LOD or camera culling | Change Object Level of Detail by one step |
| Terrain changes shape close to the aircraft | Terrain LOD or late mesh delivery | Reduce Terrain Level of Detail and repeat the route |
| Pause when crossing a tile boundary | Storage, decompression or a large local package | Watch disk activity and test without add-on scenery |
| Low GPU usage with poor performance | Main-thread, frame-cap, network or storage limit | Check per-thread frame time rather than total CPU usage |
| One airport or tile fails every time | Missing, damaged or conflicting content | Load the location with third-party packages disabled |
| Long delay before the main menu or flight | Package scan, add-on initialisation or online-service delay | Start once with an empty add-on set |
Test at normal flying speed. Slew mode, teleportation and accelerated simulation can move the camera beyond the area the simulator predicted and produce pop-in that would not occur during an ordinary flight.
How do I stop scenery loading slowly?
The dependable fix is to reproduce the problem on a controlled route and change only the resource that is falling behind.
- Create a clean baseline. Use a default aircraft and airport, normal weather and the same short route. Temporarily disable third-party scenery, traffic tools and object libraries.
- Separate streaming from local loading. In MSFS, verify that online world data and photogrammetry are enabled and that no data limit has been reached. Compare the location with streamed scenery temporarily disabled; a stable but less detailed offline result points to the connection or online delivery.
- Check the main thread. On PC, use the simulator’s frame-time display where available. If the main thread is limiting performance, reduce Terrain Level of Detail, Object Level of Detail, traffic and dense airport objects before lowering resolution.
- Check dedicated GPU memory. If VRAM remains at its limit and textures disappear after camera movement, lower texture resolution and the heaviest scenery settings. Render scaling reduces GPU rendering work and some render-target memory, but it does not make scenery download faster.
- Watch storage and RAM. Keep core packages, caches and large scenery libraries on an SSD where possible. Leave free space for updates, caching and the system page file; disabling the page file can turn memory pressure into a crash or low-resource warning.
- Rebuild caches only when justified. Delete and recreate the MSFS rolling cache if corruption is suspected or stale scenery persists at one location. Clearing it after every flight forces the simulator to fetch the same data again and can worsen the next load.
- Find conflicting add-ons efficiently. If the clean test works, restore half the disabled packages and repeat it. Continue halving the suspect group until the offending airport, mesh, library or utility is identified.
- Retest one change at a time. Keep the route, altitude, weather and camera view consistent. Otherwise a temporary improvement in network delivery can be mistaken for a graphics-setting fix.
A mistake we see constantly is raising every LOD slider to push the draw boundary farther away. That helps only when the CPU, memory and data source have spare capacity. If one is already overloaded, higher LOD creates longer pauses and more conspicuous late loading.
Why is MSFS 2024 taking forever to load?
MSFS 2024 long loading times can occur before the menu, while opening a flight or during flight, and those three delays have different causes.
- Before the menu: The simulator may be checking packages, initialising add-ons or waiting for an online sign-in or data service. A large or faulty add-on collection can make this stage disproportionately long.
- While loading a flight: Detailed airports, complex aircraft and overlapping scenery packages increase initialisation and memory demand. Test a default aircraft at a default airport before blaming the connection.
- During flight: Late ground imagery and photogrammetry point more strongly to streaming, cache or LOD pressure than to startup package scanning.
On PC, temporarily move or rename the Community folder, or otherwise disable community packages, and start the simulator again. On consoles, disable optional add-on content through the simulator’s content management interface. Do not reinstall the whole simulator until a clean-content test and cache check have failed.
Our focused MSFS 2024 scenery-loading sequence covers streaming, rolling cache, SSD placement, LOD, VRAM and add-on isolation. If the issue is specifically MSFS 2020 taking a long time to reach the menu, use the separate MSFS 2020 startup and package-scanning checks.
Why does MSFS 2024 show low GPU usage?
Low GPU usage in MSFS 2024 usually means the graphics card is waiting for the CPU, storage, network or a frame-rate cap rather than failing to render scenery.
GPU use is expected to be low during loading screens and network waits. In flight, check the main-thread frame time, V-Sync or frame limits, disk activity and network delivery. If one CPU thread is saturated, lower LOD, traffic and airport complexity; reducing resolution will often lower GPU use further without fixing the bottleneck.
On a PC with integrated and dedicated graphics, also confirm that the simulator is assigned to the dedicated GPU. Usage readings can be misleading if the monitoring tool is displaying the wrong GPU engine.
Is MSFS 2024 scenery pop-in a VRAM bug?
High VRAM allocation alone does not prove an MSFS 2024 VRAM bug; the useful evidence is repeatable texture eviction, severe stuttering or missing detail once dedicated memory reaches its limit.
Restart the simulator, test a default aircraft and airport, disable add-ons, and lower texture resolution or object detail. If the problem remains repeatable in the same default scenario after a simulator or graphics-driver change, it may be a software regression rather than settings alone. Record the location, aircraft, settings and memory reading instead of relying only on a percentage screenshot.
What does “Memory resources are getting low” mean in MSFS on PS5?
The “Memory resources are getting low” warning on PS5 or PS5 Pro means the simulator is approaching the console memory available for the loaded aircraft, scenery, textures and add-on content.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is available on PlayStation 5 and PS5 Pro; MSFS 2020 was never released on PlayStation. Unlike a PC, a PS5 does not expose page-file, VRAM or graphics-driver controls, so PC memory tweaks do not apply.
- Close and restart MSFS 2024 to clear the loaded session.
- Restart the console if the warning returns immediately.
- Test default content at a default airport without optional scenery or aircraft add-ons.
- Keep storage available for simulator updates and installed content.
- Record a repeatable case if default content triggers the warning at the same location, as that points to a simulator or package issue rather than user-adjustable VRAM.
Will an SSD or faster internet fix the pop-in?
An SSD helps only when local scenery access is slow, while a better connection helps only when scenery is being streamed.
- Choose faster storage when local add-on tiles load late, disk activity reaches its limit, or X-Plane, FSX, Prepar3D or Aerofly scenery is installed on a mechanical or slow external drive.
- Investigate the connection when MSFS imagery sharpens gradually, photogrammetry arrives in chunks or the problem changes by time and location. Stability, latency and packet loss matter as well as download speed.
- Reduce CPU demand when the SSD and connection have headroom but dense cities and airports produce long main-thread frame times.
- Reduce texture demand when dedicated GPU memory is full and detail disappears after camera changes.
A faster internet package cannot accelerate scenery stored entirely on disk. An SSD cannot repair packet loss, and neither can compensate for a main thread overwhelmed by traffic, autogen and airport objects.
What if GSX or Aerofly takes forever to fetch or download content?
A slow GSX download or Aerofly content fetch is a content-delivery problem first, not an LOD problem, so changing scenery graphics settings will not accelerate it.
If GSX is taking forever to download, pause other transfers, confirm that the destination SSD has sufficient free space, restart the installer, and check whether security software blocked or quarantined part of the package. Do not disable security software globally. If GSX installs successfully but a flight then loads slowly, repeat the flight without GSX and its profiles or supporting content.
For simulator packages, our MSFS download troubleshooting explains network, disk and stuck-package checks; a third-party installer may still be limited by its own delivery service.
If Aerofly FS is slow to fetch a region, first establish whether that region is installed locally or streamed by the edition you use. A local-only delay points to storage or damaged content, while a streaming-only delay points to connectivity or content delivery. MSFS rolling-cache instructions should not be applied to Aerofly because its content and cache handling differ.
Is some scenery pop-in normal?
Brief scenery pop-in is normal after a fast camera turn, when entering a dense area for the first time, or when moving faster than the simulator can pre-load data.
It should settle once the aircraft speed and view stabilise. Buildings appearing directly beneath an aircraft during an ordinary flight, repeated freezes at every tile boundary, or textures that never resolve indicate a streaming, storage, memory, settings or content problem rather than normal background loading.