Before you start streaming Netflix during a transatlantic flight in Microsoft Flight Simulator, you may want to consider the impact of available bandwidth on frame rate.

Cruising at 30,000 feet with all data options turned on (Microsoft Flight Sim uses various streams of data to inform weather, traffic, and satellite information), three 1440p with high-end presets enabled average run, we were able to rake in an average frame rate of 40 fps, 1% lower at 26 fps. Turning off data improved things a bit, averaging 44fps, 1% lower 27fps. It is hard to miss the significant improvement in performance with just two data streaming options.

However, the game struggled the most when we also enabled downloading of the game to another SSD in the background (thus consuming all the network bandwidth). With data turned back on and Devil May Cry 5 downloaded in the background, Microsoft Flight Simulator averaged 40 fps. Ouch. [i.e., it seems that a slow or bottlenecked Internet connection could cause Microsoft Flight Simulator to perform poorly or inconsistently.

Test Bench:

This is not entirely surprising news. While developer Asobo is keen to point out during game setup that enabling all of the online features requires both a stable connection and a significant amount of data, it is not surprising that this vast (and demanding) simulator is trying to squeeze every last drop of GPU and CPU performance out of the game. I thought this was a worthwhile PSA if you are trying to get the last drop of GPU and CPU performance out of this vast (and demanding) simulator.

However, while the game itself is not that network hogging, it does seem to use less data for game performance. So if you are concerned that your connection may not be up to scratch, make sure you use the in-game data settings and bandwidth limits to disable any unnecessary ones.