One of the most frustrating things about running a FiveM server is lag. You might have a great idea, cool scripts, and a community starting to grow, but if your server stutters or drops frames, players will leave fast. Performance is one of the most overlooked parts of server management, yet it’s one of the most important.
The thing about FiveM performance is that it’s rarely just one issue. It’s usually a mix of things like poorly optimized scripts, too many resources running at once, or server hardware not being used properly. Let’s break down the main areas that can slow your server down and how to fix them.
1. Optimize Your Scripts
This one’s the big one. Many public scripts you download from the internet are built by hobbyists. Some are fantastic, but others are messy, looping too often or handling unnecessary events. When too many scripts are doing heavy processing, you’ll see CPU usage spike.
Learn to look inside a script and understand what it’s doing. For example, a loop that runs every 100 milliseconds to check player data is going to eat performance. You can usually rewrite that logic to use events or longer wait times.
That’s why it’s worth learning Lua and understanding how to script yourself. The FiveM Development Course over on the LearnFiveM homepage covers optimization as part of its training. You’ll see examples of how to make your code efficient without sacrificing features.
2. Reduce Resource Bloat
Every resource that runs on your server takes up memory and CPU time. You don’t need 200 different add-ons running at once. Pick the essentials and trim down the rest. It’s better to have fewer, polished systems than dozens of half-broken ones.
3. Manage Server Hardware Properly
If you’re hosting on a VPS or dedicated server, make sure your specs match your player count. A typical small server runs fine with 4GB of RAM and a couple of CPU cores, but as you grow, you’ll need to scale. Pay attention to your console output, player ping, and script tick rates.
4. Test and Profile Regularly
FiveM has built-in tools like profiler that help you identify what scripts are eating performance. Run it every so often and take notes. If one script always sits at the top of the list, dig into it and figure out why.
Performance optimization might sound technical, but it’s something every serious server owner needs to learn. Once you understand the basics, your players will notice the difference immediately. Smooth gameplay keeps people coming back.
If you want to learn how to script, debug, and optimize properly, check out the FiveM Development Course via LearnFiveM.com. It gives you the tools to actually understand what’s running on your server and how to improve it.