Microsoft Flight Simulator: How to Fix Game Crashes

Microsoft Flight Simulator is back and it’s fantastic, but like all new games, it can be susceptible to crashes to desktop.

While there can be several reasons why such a complex game like Microsoft Flight Simulator may have issues, some have been experiencing crashes without error messages, which are particularly difficult to troubleshoot.

If this happens to you, here are a couple of possible reasons and solutions that apply especially for those with less than top-of-the-line graphics cards.

How to Avoid Game Crashes in Microsoft Flight Simulator

Video Memory Too Low & How to Fix It

One possible cause is that your video card is running out of video memory. If you have less than 8 gigabytes, you may want to drop the Texture Resolution from Ultra to High.

If you have less than 6 gigabytes of video memory, you may want to set texture resolution even lower and see if the game stops crashing.

Here’s the procedure to change your Texture Resolution:

1. Click on Options in the Welcome Menu (or press ESC during flight).
2. Click on General.
3. Click on Graphics.
4. Scroll down to Texture Resolution and set as needed.

Microsoft Flight Simulator V-Sync Crashes & How to Fix It

Another possible cause is having V-Sync turned off. This reportedly causes your GPU to shoot up to 100% utilization and potentially crashes the game.

Here’s the procedure to turn V-Sync on in Microsoft Flight Simulator:

1. Click on Options in the Welcome Menu (or press ESC during flight).
2. Click on General.
3. Click on Graphics.
4. V-Sync should be the first among the Advanced Settings. Turn it on.

Incidentally, this issue reportedly causes crashes in menus as they are rendered in 3D all the time and can crank up the GPU utilization considerably. Unfortunately, V-Sync doesn’t apply to menus.

If you experience crashes in the menus, you can limit your FPS to 60 manually in your graphics card’s control panel and this can potentially solve the issue.

It will also avoid unnecessary wear and tear on your PC because at the moment the game’s menus can easily cap the utilization of many video cards, and having a card running at 100% even when you’re not actually playing the game isn’t exactly healthy.

If you want to learn more about Microsoft Flight Simulator, you can check out our review that will tell you everything you need to know about Asobo Studio’s new and groundbreaking game.