Adjust your system's virtual memory settings to optimize performance.
Adjust your system's virtual memory settings to optimize performance.
Greetings Microsoft Flight Simulator community. Recently I've faced some issues after the latest update, everything seemed normal until I noticed performance drops. Currently, there appear to be memory leaks, sometimes unexpectedly. During a layover at an airport, my system started using more memory than usual without clear reasons. It worsens when I'm in motion or flying. The game runs roughly 14GB to 18GB depending on location and airport. With 32GB available, streaming and open apps use about 90% of my RAM, though I rarely hit full capacity (often around 70%). Occasionally, the lag becomes severe—cameras lag by about 30 seconds per inch moved—and performance plummets. When the game slows, Windows also freezes, then restarts normally once I close the simulator. I adjusted the Pagefile settings and increased it to 40GB, but results remain inconsistent.
Adjusting the page file size doesn't solve the problem. If you're not fully using your RAM, it won't matter. Even then, you'd still need more RAM, since without enough memory before paging, the whole system would become extremely slow.
I thought similarly because it remains well under 32GB. Adding 32GB is a solid amount of memory; I wonder if anyone has exceeded that in gaming. I’m just trying to figure it out—when the simulation crashes and causes severe lag, the whole system becomes unresponsive at once, and even closing Windows 10 stops the lagging.
Flight Sim 2020 delivers powerful performance. Enabling all features will stress your system components. Streaming high-resolution satellite images in real time will significantly strain RAM and CPU resources. The slowdown is primarily CPU-dependent; memory issues only matter if your RAM is insufficient, causing frequent file system accesses. For systems under 32GB, using 1GB versus 31GB won't noticeably affect performance. Your CPU specifications weren't provided, but it's likely inadequate for the settings you're attempting.
It seems hardware isn't the main issue. My CPU runs between 30 to 48%. With an i7 10700k at 4.8ghz, the simulation currently operates on just one core. After the latest update, performance dropped significantly. However, I was flying and streaming for four hours today and everything worked smoothly except for minor stutters in the simulation.
It's rare to reach 100% RAM usage. This happens because RAM data stays intact and can't be shifted while it's actively used. Instead, you typically find many tiny free spaces, but what you're running doesn't fit together as a single block. Your operating system will then decide which processes aren't needed soon and move them to the pagefile, making room for active tasks.
As the system begins to use the pagefile, you notice the C drive usage spikes significantly—possibly reaching 100% during read and write operations. At that moment, my task manager shows around 79% RAM usage, while the C drive sits at just 5%, and the GPU is functioning normally. I’m still puzzled by this behavior. Could it be that the simulation isn’t accurate or that some software is affecting performance?