FS2020 vs FS2024 - THE LAST COMPARISON

If your internet is bad, definitely Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020!

I purchased 24 to find out its vr performance was a disaster.
Then I got 2020 and it runs decent…

so for VR its a no brainer, 2020 has much better performance.

For me (Crystal OG, 7800x3D, 32GB RAM, 4090, DLSS) the FPS are higher in 2020 but the VR is smoother in 2024 despite much lower FPS (-30%). I’m still giving MSFS2024 a chance

I notice the smoother experience too, CapFrame X also shows almost no stutters and far better 1% lows compared to FS 2024.

However I have been having issues with blurriness overall low down, with ground textures and even roads far less crisp than with FS2020. Not sure if it’s a server side thing, my internet or what. Posted this comparison with FS 2020 on some other threads.

Both screenshots have FS2020 on the left.

This screenshot comparison was with season mod running 2D.

This one was more apples to apples, with an empty community folder and Ultra presets. Edit: TLOD was not maxed in FS2024, it was 200, not 400.

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Yeah sometimes I have that impression too. Let’s see how will improve in time.

Is the 2024 screenshot from the Earth View loading screen or after it has started and everything has loaded in?

I don’t know what they did or why they did it but 2024 does not look as sharp as 2020 does at all, even inside the cockpit.

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It’s after everything has loaded in a flight, which I then use the drone cam to capture the images.

After more fooling around with settings, it seems it’s mostly down to the more aggressive TLOD on FS2024. That and sometimes the servers playing up delivering the textures.

Most of us in VR shy away from setting TLOD too high, as it lowers FPS too much and every frame counts. I’ve had TLOD at 100 -125 most of the time.

Anyway, I tried maxing TLOD to 400 and sure enough, the ground textures sharpen way up to much the same as FS2020. FPS dropped quite a bit, but fiddling around I could get playable framerates and much sharper ground textures. I settled on TLOD of 300 for now and will see how I go.

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Question: Does 2024 rely heavily on internet connection? I have FS 2004 and haven’t used it in a long time. I want to purchase a new PC and think that I will also need to upgrade FS as most new systems do not have a CD drive (my experience). From what I have read and based on my limited experience, it sounds like FS2020 may operate normally offline vs 2024. Am I correct in this assumption? I would greatly appreciate advice in this area.

If you want to run MSFS 2020 offline you will not have the scenery textures which are taken from Bing Maps. So theoretically you can use it but in a very limited way.
For MSFS 20024 Internet is a must, much more is streamed.
Both 2020 and 2024 are huuuuge generational gap vs FS 2004.