What’s the best tubeliner for 2024
Depends on your personal tastes. Do you prefer Boeing or Airbus? Are you looking for something very automated or something more hands-on? Etc. The good news, with regard to SU4 Beta, is that most of the big name players and their products seem to be working pretty well for most people at this point in the beta process.
For 3rd party airliners:
Airbus = Fenix
Boeing = PMDG
Although I’m not sure of their current status in SU4 Beta testing - I’ve read PMDG seem to be waiting for SU4 to be final before issuing updates because Asobo keeps changing the SDK, even at this late date.
I believe most of the 1st party airliners are still not fully updated for 2024, even in SU4 Beta, which is frustrating to say the least. I used to love flying the 787 but it needs updating, and I’ve had little luck with the IniBuilds Airbuses in beta testing with various crashes. I’m waiting for SU4 to finish before trying them again.
3rd Party
Airbus
- Fenix A320 (and A319, A320, A321 Bundle)
- Flybywire A32NX, and A380X (Free, open source, I think they are still optimizing for 2024)
- IniBuilds A350, A340, A300-600
Boeing
- PMDG 777 (-200LR, -200ER, and Freight version)
- PMDG 737 refresh for 2024 is in the works, I think
- PMDG 777X, 747 and 737 MAX in development, I think
- iFly 737 Max8
- Horizon 787-9
1st Party
Airbus (dev/partner IniBuilds)
- A310-300
- A320neo v2
- A321LR
- A330 (-200, -300, 300P2F)
- A330-743L Beluga XL
Boeing (dev/partner Asobo and Working Title, I believe)
- 707-320C
- 737 Max 8
- 747-400 / LCF
- 787-10 Dreamliner
That may be the case but honestly, the 777 line has been working perfectly for me with the exception of a single item of functionality: updating the navdata through the tablet. Fortunately, you can still use the Navigraph Hub as a workaround. I expect they know what the hangup is with the tablet navdata updates and are hoping Asobo revert or fix whatever got changed in SU4 that’s causing it.
I’ve been enjoying the inibuilds a350 the past week, had some near perfect flights with it on series x. Flight plan sometimes can go a bit haywire but I usually
input a direct to and all is fine
I’ve enjoyed these
-PMDG 777-300 and 200 (Did a 15h 14m flight in the 300ER)
-Fenix A319/320/321
-TFDi MD-11 (Been flying this a lot lately)
-Aerosoft CRJ series
I’ve heard good things about these but haven’t tried them
-JustFlight Avro RJ Professional
-JustFlight Fokker F28
-Leonardo MD-82 Maddog
-FSS Super 727
I bought the JustFlight Fokker F28 back in the old days (when I was flying in FS2020.)
It was way too hard on my computer resources, so I abandoned it.
I tried it out in FS2024 a few months ago and whatever they did to improve performance worked like a charm. JF recently released a native FS2024 version (free to existing owners.) I’ve downloaded it, but haven’t checked it out yet. Maybe today.
Overall, it’s a really cool airliner.
My experiences with these four excellent aircraft.
Just Flight RJ and F28 both good performers for me.
Maddog, a bit harder on resources
FSS727, quite hard on resources
However, as far as flying them goes, I would highly recommend each of them.
iFLY 737 MAX8
https://www.flight1.com/products.asp?vid=flt1sf&pid=iflymax8
iFly 737 MAX 8 is not system-heavy - it’s well optimized for a plane running in MSFS 2020 and very importantly, it also works smoothly in MSFS 2024.
I quite like the iFly MAX but of all my airliners (every PMDG aircraft in FS2020 and the 777s in FS2024; the TFDi MD-11; and the IniBuilds A350), the iFly is the hardest on my system of all of them except for the A350. That said, performance on the iFly is still quite acceptable, but it is definitely lower than most of my other complex aircraft.
On my PC - Ryzen 7 9800X3D, RTX 4090, 64GB RAM - iFly 737 MAX 8 actually runs better than PMDG in terms of “performance”. That’s why I recommend iFly over PMDG.
I have similar CPU specs: 9800X3D, albeit using my previous RTX 4070 Ti Super at 1440p - the iFly has similar raw FPS as I get in the PMDG line in the flight deck if I run my sim uncapped, but has definite increased tendency to stuffer with any rapid camera movements. However, I do usually run my sim capped at 60 fps. Even capped to maintain some CPU and GPU performance headroom and temperatures lower on long-hauls, I still get more stutters in the iFly than I do in PMDG aircraft. I suspect that’s the difference between aircraft written to be fully compliant with the FS2024 SDK (PMDG) versus a 2020 aircraft patched up to be “compatible” with FS2024. Maybe whenever iFly gets a fully native 2024 version out the door, we will be able to make a better comparison.
PMDG runs a bit better for me as well.
I also cap my FPS at 60, which I often recommend, because MSFS doesn’t really need 200 FPS - smoothness is more important than having 200 FPS with stutters. Anyway, we just have two different setups and two different experiences, which is perfectly fine.
Thanks all for the comments. Super useful
It might be caused by the latest Windows 11 update. There are many more reports that indicate some issues with rerouted connections. Being looked at of course.
Users have been experiencing issues with the AIRAC update on 777 tablet since August, not due to the recent Windows 11 updates.
Those having problems with the AIRAC update should consider opting out of SU4 beta or - as a workaround - update AIRAC using Navigraph software.