Learn why RAM turns yellow in the MSFS 2024 FPS counter, how to distinguish RAM from VRAM pressure, and which settings and add-ons to change.
In Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024’s PC FPS counter, yellow RAM means system-memory use has entered the overlay’s warning range; it does not automatically indicate a memory leak or failure. Reduce it by closing background apps, testing without add-ons, lowering scenery and traffic load, and leaving the Windows page file enabled.
What does yellow RAM mean in the MSFS 2024 FPS counter?
Yellow is a caution that memory headroom is shrinking, not proof that RAM is limiting the frame rate. The exact colour threshold should not be treated as a universal RAM requirement, because the simulator’s measurement and warning behaviour can change between builds.
Compare the displayed figure with Windows Task Manager. Under Performance, check total memory, available memory and the committed figure; under Processes, sort by Memory to find other applications consuming RAM. Cached or standby memory is normally reclaimable, so a large cached figure alone is not a fault.
| Indicator | What it represents | Typical causes |
|---|---|---|
| RAM | System memory shared by the simulator, Windows and other applications | Detailed scenery, complex aircraft, traffic, add-ons, background applications and long sessions |
| VRAM | Memory on the graphics card | Texture resolution, render resolution, detailed assets and high-resolution displays |
RAM and VRAM pressure can occur together, but they require different fixes. If the VRAM line is also yellow or red, use the settings that specifically reduce graphics-memory use rather than assuming more system RAM will solve it.
How do I lower RAM usage in MSFS 2024?
Lower the loads that keep scenery, aircraft and traffic data resident, then retest under the same conditions.
- Restart and establish a baseline. Load a default aircraft at a stock airport and allow the initial scenery loading to settle. A restart clears session allocations; if RAM quickly becomes yellow again in this clean scenario, investigate system-wide memory pressure.
- Close background applications. Browsers with many tabs, recording software, map tools and other launchers can remove several gigabytes of headroom. Task Manager will show which process is responsible.
- Test without third-party packages. Disable non-essential packages through the simulator’s library tools, or move third-party Community packages out while the simulator is closed. Add them back in batches; our guide to tracing add-on resource use explains why detailed aircraft, airports and traffic packages can raise both memory use and frame times.
- Reduce scenery complexity first. Lower Terrain Level of Detail and Object Level of Detail in moderate steps. Reduce airport ground aircraft, parked aircraft, road vehicles and live or AI traffic when the problem is worst at major airports. See our breakdown of the MSFS 2024 settings that affect memory and performance before sacrificing unrelated visual options.
- Lower textures only when VRAM is also pressured. Texture Resolution primarily targets graphics memory, although overflowing VRAM can increase system-memory transfers and stuttering. Render scaling is mainly a GPU-load control and is rarely the best first fix for yellow RAM.
- Keep the Windows page file enabled. System-managed sizing on an SSD is the safest general setting. The page file does not replace physical RAM, but disabling it or imposing a small fixed limit can cause “memory resources getting low” warnings and crashes.
Which common fixes do not help?
- Deleting the rolling cache normally does not reduce active RAM use; the rolling cache is stored on disk.
- Using a RAM-cleaner utility can force useful data out of memory and create more stuttering when MSFS has to load it again.
- Reducing every graphics option wastes image quality. Shadows, anti-aliasing and render scaling are usually GPU or frame-time controls rather than major system-RAM controls.
- Setting a tiny page file reduces the Windows commit limit and can turn manageable memory pressure into a crash.
Is yellow RAM causing low FPS?
Not by itself: yellow RAM is a warning, while the counter’s Limited by result identifies the immediate frame-time bottleneck. If it reports MainThread or GPU and flying remains smooth, yellow RAM may simply reflect a demanding loaded scene.
Memory pressure becomes a performance problem when available RAM falls very low and Windows starts paging active simulator data to disk. Typical signs are severe pauses when changing view, delayed scenery loading, heavy disk activity, worsening stutters and eventual warning messages or crashes. If those appear, follow our diagnostic steps for separating RAM, page-file and VRAM pressure.
Is yellow RAM a memory leak?
A yellow snapshot does not prove a memory leak. Suspect a leak or faulty add-on when usage rises continuously during a repeatable flight, never settles, and is accompanied by growing stutters or an out-of-memory failure.
Repeat the route with a default aircraft and all optional packages disabled. Stable memory in the clean test points towards an aircraft, airport, traffic package or utility; continued growth in the same stock scenario points towards the simulator session or another running process. Restarting is a useful temporary recovery, but the controlled comparison identifies where the problem lies.
When should I add more RAM?
Add RAM only when a clean MSFS 2024 installation and your normal workload repeatedly leave little available memory and cause paging. Extra capacity will not fix a GPU, MainThread or VRAM limitation, and the displayed allocation may not fall after an upgrade—the benefit is greater headroom and fewer disk-backed memory transfers.