Is RAID 0 worth it for a flight simulator PC? Usually not. See its real impact on FPS, loading, stutters, data risk and better SSD options.
For most flight-simulator PCs, RAID 0 is not worth it. It can raise sequential read and write speeds, but it rarely improves frame rates and often barely changes loading times. A single, adequately sized NVMe SSD is simpler, while RAID 0 makes the entire array unreadable if any member drive fails.
RAID 0 stripes data across two or more drives, combining their usable capacity and potential throughput without providing redundancy. This general advice applies to Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 and 2024, X-Plane, Prepar3D and FSX. A mistake we see repeatedly is treating a much larger storage benchmark result as an equivalent gain inside the simulator.
Why is RAID 0 usually not worth it for flight simulation?
Flight simulators seldom generate the sustained, highly parallel storage workload that lets RAID 0 show its best benchmark performance. Loading also involves thousands of small-file requests, decompression, asset processing, shader work and scenery construction, none of which becomes twice as fast merely because sequential throughput has doubled.
| Storage setup | Likely simulator result | Main drawback |
|---|---|---|
| Two HDDs in RAID 0 | Faster large-file transfers, but mechanical seek latency remains | Failure of either drive normally loses the volume; one SSD is a better upgrade |
| Two SATA SSDs in RAID 0 | Higher sustained throughput, with modest or inconsistent loading gains | Controller and driver dependency for little practical benefit |
| Two NVMe SSDs in RAID 0 | Excellent benchmark figures, usually with little change during normal flying | Possible PCIe lane sharing, chipset limits and thermal throttling |
| One NVMe SSD | Low latency and fast loading without array complexity | Capacity and performance are limited to that drive |
Updates and package installation may finish faster if local storage is the limiting component. Often, however, download speed, archive decompression, file verification or server delivery is slower than the SSD. A dedicated RAID controller cannot remove those limits.
Does RAID 0 increase flight simulator FPS or reduce loading times?
RAID 0 does not normally increase average FPS because frame rates are governed mainly by the processor, graphics card, memory, simulator engine and active add-ons. Once an asset is in RAM or VRAM, additional disk throughput does not calculate flight systems, traffic or scenery draw calls any faster.
If low FPS is the problem, compare the more influential hardware choices in our guide to which CPU, GPU and memory specifications matter for flight simulation before spending money on extra drives.
Loading-time improvements depend on the starting point. Replacing a mechanical hard disk with one SSD produces a major reduction in access latency; striping two hard disks does not remove their seek delay. This is particularly relevant to older simulators, as explained in our comparison of how SSD latency affects FSX loading and pauses.
Does RAID 0 double SSD speed?
RAID 0 may approach the combined sequential throughput of its member drives under ideal conditions, but it does not double every type of storage performance. Small random requests, low queue depths, controller overhead and the motherboard's shared bandwidth can all prevent linear scaling.
The array also does not halve the underlying access latency of each SSD. Results depend on the workload, controller, stripe size and drive characteristics, so there is no universal stripe-size setting that makes flight simulators load twice as quickly.
Can RAID 0 fix stutters or scenery pop-in?
RAID 0 can reduce stutters only when local storage is demonstrably saturated at the exact moment each pause occurs. It will not fix a main-thread limit, exhausted RAM or VRAM, shader compilation, a troublesome add-on, thermal throttling or slow online scenery delivery.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 and 2024 both use streamed content. A slow connection, remote delivery delay, cache problem or CPU processing bottleneck can therefore resemble a disk problem, but local RAID cannot accelerate data that has not reached the PC.
How can I tell if storage is the bottleneck?
A controlled repeat test is more useful than a synthetic benchmark for identifying a storage bottleneck.
- Repeat one flight: use the same aircraft, airport, weather, scenery and add-ons. Avoid drawing conclusions from the first flight after a simulator or graphics update, when caches or shaders may be rebuilt.
- Monitor the affected drive: watch active time, response time and transfer rate with the operating system's performance tools. Sustained high active time and elevated response time that coincide with every pause are meaningful; an isolated spike is not.
- Check competing limits: record CPU, GPU, RAM, VRAM and network activity at the same time. Low free memory can force paging, making storage busy even though insufficient memory is the underlying problem.
- Separate local from streamed scenery: repeat the test with online data disabled where the simulator permits it, or compare local scenery with streamed scenery. This prevents a network delay from being mistaken for slow storage.
- Test one SSD first: move a representative package or scenery library to a single SSD using the simulator's supported library controls. Re-run the same flight before considering an array.
What are the risks of RAID 0?
Every member drive must remain accessible for a RAID 0 volume to work, so adding drives enlarges the failure domain rather than protecting the data.
- No redundancy: if one drive fails, the complete array is normally unreadable. RAID 0 cannot rebuild missing data as a mirrored or parity array can.
- Controller dependency: motherboard changes, storage-driver faults, RAID metadata damage or firmware configuration resets can make a healthy set of drives temporarily inaccessible.
- Shared motherboard resources: populating additional M.2 slots can disable SATA ports or divide PCIe bandwidth on some boards. The motherboard manual determines the actual arrangement.
- Mixed-drive compromises: an array commonly uses only the capacity of the smallest member on every drive, while a slower member can restrict performance.
- Harder maintenance: some RAID implementations make individual-drive health checks, firmware updates and fault diagnosis less straightforward.
- Longer recovery: simulator packages can be downloaded again, but custom scenery, controller profiles and locally modified files may take far longer to reconstruct.
A common failure after a firmware reset or update is for the array to disappear because the storage-controller mode changed. Do not initialise, format or recreate the volume if its data matters; those actions can overwrite information needed for recovery. Restore the previous controller configuration first.
RAID 0 is not a backup. Another partition on the array offers no protection. Keep irreplaceable files on a separate physical device that is not dependent on the same controller or power supply.
When is RAID 0 worth using?
RAID 0 is defensible when a measured, sustained storage workload needs more throughput than one drive can supply and losing the volume would be acceptable.
- The volume holds disposable scratch files, replaceable simulator packages or high-throughput capture and editing data.
- Monitoring proves that one drive remains saturated during the workload rather than merely showing brief activity spikes.
- The motherboard supplies enough independent bandwidth and cooling without reducing GPU performance or disabling storage ports that are still needed.
- The drives are matched in capacity and performance, and a tested backup covers everything that cannot be recreated.
Even then, compare actual loading times and frame-time behaviour before and after the change. If the only clear improvement appears in a sequential benchmark, the array is not helping the simulator.
What storage setup should a flight simulator PC use instead?
One adequately sized NVMe SSD is the best default, with additional SSDs kept as independent volumes when more capacity is required.
- Choose sufficient capacity: allow room for the simulator, add-ons, caches, updates and temporary installation files. Our guide to estimating storage for MSFS 2020 and 2024 helps avoid buying a drive that is already too small.
- Add independent SSDs: use supported package or scenery-library locations instead of combining every drive into one fragile volume. Separate drives provide capacity and easier organisation, although they do not automatically increase FPS.
- Keep free working space: a nearly full SSD can complicate large simulator updates and leave too little room for caches or temporary package extraction.
- Back up custom content: protect controller profiles, liveries, custom scenery, configuration files and anything else that cannot simply be downloaded again.
Users keeping both Microsoft simulators can follow our practical advice for placing MSFS 2020 and 2024 on independent drives rather than joining those drives in RAID 0.
Our recommendation: use RAID 0 only for a backed-up, disposable volume after proving that sustained storage throughput is the real bottleneck. For an ordinary flight simulator PC, one good NVMe SSD plus an independent second drive offers nearly all the practical benefit with less risk and complexity.