Hi all,
I own the PMDG 777, Fenix A320, and IniBuilds A350-900/1000. Based on study-level products, all three vendors have done a great job, but in terms of performance, PMDG stands out as the most experienced add-on vendor. Their coding, graphics, and realistic, complex flight model are exceptional, delivering outstanding FPS performance—reaching up to 70 FPS at complex airports like KJFK, KLAX, and KSFO. This is my primary aircraft for most of my flights.
My second choice is the Fenix A320, which offers very good FPS performance, great graphics, and a realistic model. I really enjoy this Airbus, and it’s my second most-used aircraft.
For the IniBuilds A350, while it has a lot of eye candy, I feel it’s overdone to the point that it impacts FPS performance. For example, you only get around 40 FPS at airports and about 60 FPS in the air (even with low-resolution textures) when using the no-cabin model. In comparison, PMDG with a cabin can hit 70 FPS at airports and 90 FPS in the air. I wish IniBuilds could optimize their aircraft performance by reducing the resolution of less-used areas, such as the passenger cabin, since most of our time in flight simulation is spent in the cockpit. I hope they focus more on improving performance.
This is based on the SU3 version—just sharing my opinion as a simmer for MSFS2024.
3 Likes
I agree! But you would expect me to, 
Framerate is super important to us because we believe the aircraft should never hog the resources in the simulator to the point where you have to lower settings to be able to land at a complex airport. It would be easy for us to add stuff that looks cool and ‘wastes’ another 20 fps, but every little thing we add leads to long internal discussions, as it should be.
MSFS allows for the smallest details; you can have a screwhead with more detail than a complete FSX aircraft. This would be great in screenshots and feature lists, but it should not be done.
Mathijs Kok
PMDG
7 Likes
Hi Mathijs,
Excellent design principle and well said:
“You can have a screwhead with more detail than a complete FSX aircraft. This would be great in screenshots and feature lists, but it should not be done”
B/Regards…Alex Ooi
Anecdote… A few years back I was offered a project for a helicopter. With assistance from the manifacturer the dev team converted the actual drawings into the 3d model. So it was 100% perfect. down to the thicknes of washers beneath nuts. Think it has 35 million polygons or something (for a very small chopper). It did load in FS2020, just took a loooooong time and had single digit framerates on every machine we could find. I refused the project because removing all the things not needed would take much longer than starting from scratch.
It did show me what a remarcable game engine MSFS has.
Mathijs
6 Likes