Short and sweet. I have a very capable and proven rig.  I’ve been flying MSFS 2020 since release day and while it has not always performed “up to my expectations”, it was always been consistently smooth and stutter free. 

Now one year later the bloom is suddenly off the rose and the last few days of simming has been plagued with a subtle but consistently noticeable stutter 10 to 15 seconds apart. I am well aware it could be an add-on and am looking for suggestions on how to troubleshoot short of clearing them all out because I have quite a few. 

Anyway, thanks in advance and ain’t swimming fun! 🙂

-B 

Do you use anything external to MSFS that interfaces through SimConnect?  I absolutely love NeoFly, but noticed while using it I was getting a stutter roughly every 12 seconds.  I believe there was a problem with the SimConnect interface, and I don't know enough about it to be sure that the problem was with Neofly, or just inherent in the MSFS code.  I haven't fired it up again to test if a newer version of NeoFly, or the hotfixes to MSFS itself, have improved the situation.  Instead I've just been enjoying flights with a reasonably clean installation that just uses some default aircraft and instrument mods like WT and FBW work, as well as the improvement mods to the TBM and Longitude on Flightsim.to with good, stutter-free results.

If you are using anything that uses SimConnect, I would look to trying the sim without them to see if the situation improves.

1 hour ago, btacon said:

noticeable stutter 10 to 15 seconds apart.

If you're using the Global AI Ship Traffic this will cause stutters because it's still using some older FSX models yet to be converted over to MSFS.

I get stutters and pauses after SU 5       I too have a capable machine 11900K,3080,32gig.  Its not a addon causing them its something in the sim code that needs to be fixed. I have tried everything conceivable with no luck. For us that have these issues we just have to wait till Asobo fixes it. My sim was butter smooth before the update. I have tried a fresh vanilla sim no addons or controllers low settings and still the issue is there.

Turn off anti-virus software. That might be the cause 

13 minutes ago, devgrp said:

Turn off anti-virus software. That might be the cause 

Unless you have a really old or low end machine, you should be able to exclude the app and MSFS folders and leave protection running. I leave Defender running in real time scan mode and never have any issues.

This is for Windows Defender, but 3rd party utilities have similar functionality.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/security/defender-endpoint/configure-exclusions-microsoft-defender-antivirus?view=o365-worldwide

Just now, neil0311 said:

Unless you have a really old or low end machine, you should be able to exclude the app and MSFS folders and leave protection running. I leave Defender running in real time scan mode and never have any issues.

This is for Windows Defender, but 3rd party utilities have similar functionality.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/security/defender-endpoint/configure-exclusions-microsoft-defender-antivirus?view=o365-worldwide

I do have excludes but knowing Ms might install some av updates and change my setting so I turn it off before every session just to be on the safe side 

11 hours ago, Sigwolf said:

Do you use anything external to MSFS that interfaces through SimConnect?  I absolutely love NeoFly, but noticed while using it I was getting a stutter roughly every 12 seconds.  I believe there was a problem with the SimConnect interface, and I don't know enough about it to be sure that the problem was with Neofly, or just inherent in the MSFS code.  I haven't fired it up again to test if a newer version of NeoFly, or the hotfixes to MSFS itself, have improved the situation.  Instead I've just been enjoying flights with a reasonably clean installation that just uses some default aircraft and instrument mods like WT and FBW work, as well as the improvement mods to the TBM and Longitude on Flightsim.to with good, stutter-free results.

If you are using anything that uses SimConnect, I would look to trying the sim without them to see if the situation improves.

Hi Sigwolf. Your suggestion seemed to have fixed my problem. While I don’t have NeoFly installed I do have the Bell Helicopter installed and it uses an external app called HeliFly that connects back to the sim and provides the flight model for the Bell. I turned it off and turned off it’s “Autostart” so it does not run at boot. 

Rebooted my PC, started MSFS 2020 and it appears to be back to “smooth and stutter free”, at least for now until the next Asobo update! 🙂

The problem appears to be resolved (fingers crossed). Thanks to all that replied.

-B

Edited August 22, 20214 yr by btacon

6 minutes ago, btacon said:

Hi Sigwolf. Your suggestion seemed to have fixed my problem. While I don’t have NeoFly installed I do have the Bell Helicopter installed and it uses an external app called HeliFly that connects back to the sim and provides the flying get model for the Bell. I turned it off and turned off it’s “Autostart” so it does not run at boot. 

Rebooted my PC, started MSFS 2020 and it appears to be back to “smooth and stutter free”, at least for now until the next Asobo update! 🙂

The problem appears to be resolved (fingers crossed). Thanks to all that replied.

-B

There does appear to be some issues with SImConnect.  Hopefully Asobo is working to correct that, because there is some very good third party work that use it.  I'm glad my idea helped you track it down on your system.

All of the above posts may help you along with reducing your graphics settings and gradually increasing them until problems start to reappear.

In my case, I suspect some overheating may have played some part since SU5.  Reducing my FPS lock from 60 to 30 improved things considerably for me, so you may want to have a look at your temps.

Edited August 22, 20214 yr by cianpars

I think I have seen a thousand potential “fixes” for stuttering and even CTD’s. All of these are nothing more than guesswork. What works for one doesn’t necessarily work for another. Without consistency, I don’t see how this gets resolved. The bottom line is that there are issues that only Microsoft can fix. Consider also that probably the vast majority of users aren’t regular visitors of these forums, they probably just think that MSFS doesn’t function properly. Many of these users may throw in the towel and jump ship before ever finding a solution.

Cheers, Pete

My apologies if this already exists, but perhaps it would be helpful if Microsoft would publish a guide with recommended setting in MSFS. if they can do this an have it focused on the average system, perhaps that would help eliminate all of the low hanging fruit. I have not seen such a guide, but if one exists, I would love to find it.

Cheers, Pete