As the article stresses this is the Alpha but still...an interesting read.

 

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Testing of an early technical alpha of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 has revealed that the game's streaming data demands can reach as high as 180 Mb/s while in flight—a number that places peak utilization somewhere around 81GB per hour of gameplay at high LOD settings flying over densely populated areas.

 

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But are they sustainable for end users? It's hard to say. Data caps on home Internet plans in the United States can range from 150GB to 1TB to fully uncapped traffic, depending on plan and provider. But for those who fall on the lower end of that spectrum or who don't even have an Internet connection with the speed to meet or exceed 180 Mb/s, the demands of Flight Simulator 2024 may be too intensive.

 

https://www.tomshardware.com/video-games/pc-gaming/microsoft-flight-simulator-2024-sucks-up-to-180-mb-s-of-internet-bandwidth-while-in-flight-equivalent-to-81gb-of-data-per-hour

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Edited October 15, 20241 yr by Nemo

3 hours ago, ThrottleUp said:

But for those who fall on the lower end of that spectrum or who don't even have an Internet connection with the speed to meet or exceed 180 Mb/s, the demands of Flight Simulator 2024 may be too intensive

I remember Jorg mentioning this was a reason to keep MSFS2020 going for those on limited data caps who might not be able to fully utilise MSFS24, makes sense for that reason alone. 

I've not read the full article but the amount of data being streamed may well be higher in the full release compared to the alpha, not forgetting there were many features and items not available, I'm on unlimited thankfully but will keep an eye on it in the first few days just out of interest.

(Quoting the article not you Throttle up)

As a privileged European I suppose, I still find it absolutely bizarre that data caps are a thing on home connections in this day and age. I feel for anyone who has to suffer with those.

I used to get congratulated each month for the data I used with my last ISP. "Way to go! You downloaded 1.5TB this month, keep it up." I don't think they care unless you're exceeding their fair-use policy. With a lot using gaming cloud streaming services, I don't think they'd even look at you twice. Start downloading at 1Gb/s 24/7 and they might though.

Data caps are not my issue. I'm unlimited data but only at 20Mbps

1 hour ago, MarcG said:

I remember Jorg mentioning this was a reason to keep MSFS2020 going for those on limited data caps who might not be able to fully utilise MSFS24, makes sense for that reason alone. 

I've not read the full article but the amount of data being streamed may well be higher in the full release compared to the alpha, not forgetting there were many features and items not available, I'm on unlimited thankfully but will keep an eye on it in the first few days just out of interest.

(Quoting the article not you Throttle up)

Data cap is not my problem. 20Mbps is. Looks like Jorg has told me to not bother buying MSFS2024. 

Cheers

Terry

I was getting a  bit of stuttering in urban areas on a 40mbps and 150 mbps connection, as well as pretty poor low res ground textures.  I have none of these problems in FS2020 and hope it's just down to it being a tech alpha.  But it made me worried for sure.  

Yep I think connection speed is the new GPU usage. After ObsidianAnt's video I'm suddenly very interested in my internet plan !!!  I'm on 100Mbps / unlimited and I might just scrape in!

 

Edited October 15, 20241 yr by Max Kraus

180Mbps sounds rather excessive, and is significantly higher than the 70Mbps I get at home. At the moment, my home connection is no better than 18Mbps (until BT get their act together), but that seems to be enough for MSFS 2020 @ 1080p resolution as far as I can see.

1 hour ago, Max Kraus said:

Yep I think connection speed is the new GPU usage.  

And GPU is the new MainThread. Never seen my 3090 on its knees like I did in the tech alpha test.

Bandwidth discrimination is instigating the segregation of gamers.

Someone really needs to do some comprehensive cache and offline play testing when FS2024 comes out.

 

9 hours ago, ThrottleUp said:

Testing of an early technical alpha of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 has revealed that the game's streaming data demands can reach as high as 180 Mb/s while in flight—a number that places peak utilization somewhere around 81GB per hour of gameplay at high LOD settings flying over densely populated areas.

To get a good picture on the overall data consumption, we need a more detailed analysis than simply the peak bandwidth.
What is the average bandwidth? How does it differ when flying over populated vs less populated areas.
The 81GB per hour assumes that the bandwidth is constantly at the measured peak bandwidth of 180 MBbit/s.

Have to say I am happy that I have just switched from cable internet to fiber-optic internet, seeing this data in the article this morning. 

Dont know much about internet and what not. I have starlink in my simpit hangar which I get great speeds but feel like there might be a limit. I have a business class internet at work where I can move my simpit to which I just ran a speed test and shows 590mbps download and 443mbps upload with no caps so I think I should be good there right? However, I think I'll be grabbing another 32gigs of ram to make the 64 total in the near future.

I think this figure is nonsense.  Download rate may spike occasionally up to this level, but it is not sustained.  The average download rate is a tiny fraction of this.  For those with lower-speed connections, the spikes may last a bit longer.  If it is downloading data ahead of its visible use, you may not even see a stutter.  I am quite surprised at Tom's Hardware coming up with such an absurd figure.  Maybe check out this video: