What’s the Best Solution? HAGS, Frame Gen, Capture Card?

Empire24453 · April 19

Been doing a lot of testing lately, trying to get smooth, reliable streaming performance out of MSFS 2024 using OBS. Thought I’d share what I’ve found so far and see if anyone has better solutions or insights.

To start with, I’ve had no problems streaming MSFS 2020. OBS runs great, bitrate is stable, no freezing or encoding issues, even with HAGS on.

But with MSFS 2024, it’s a mixed bag.

When HAGS is ON:

OBS bitrate randomly drops to 0 kbps
OBS preview freezes visually, but the timer and CPU stats still run
The encoder stays “active” but nothing is being sent out
This happens even though my GPU sits around 50–60% usage, and I’ve got plenty of VRAM (11GB used out of 24GB on a 3090)

When I turn HAGS OFF:

Bitrate and freezing issues go away
But I start getting encoding overloads in OBS (1–2% encoding lag, plus some rendering lag)
Especially noticeable when moving the camera quickly or when Frame Generation is active
OBS seems to struggle to keep up, even though the system isn’t maxed out

So I’m kind of stuck. MSFS 2020 works fine either way. But 2024 either:

Freezes with HAGS on
Or runs but suffers from encoding lag with HAGS off

I’ve tried all the usual tweaks, OBS as admin, changing NVENC presets, capping framerate, simplifying scenes, etc. Still the same pattern.

So now I’m wondering:

Would using a capture card help, even on a single PC?
I know they’re typically used for dual-PC setups, but would routing the game through a local capture card help OBS avoid this GPU scheduling mess?

Also, any advice on how OBS works with Frame Generation?
It seems like it only captures the base frames and not the generated ones, which could be part of the issue when trying to stream at 60fps from a game that’s outputting 30 + FG.

Would love to hear if anyone’s found a consistent setup that works well for MSFS 2024 streaming or if there’s any benefit to using a capture card even without going full dual-PC. Appreciate any help or insights.