You want hassle free flying use 2020. I fly 2-3 flights per day, and not one issue or problem. Have one CTD in over 2600 hours. 

As only you know how good your system is and what you want to get out of your sim get 2024 on game pass for a month, grab addons linker form flightsim.to and try the addons you already have, a lot of the scenery may already work aircraft maybe less so. but it'll only cost you time and as Jonathan said $1 for game pass for a month.

I'm fortunate in that I have enough drive space to keep both 2020 and 2024 on my computer and for my PMDG stuff I use 2020. Having said that I'm using 2024 more and more now and not experiencing any more issues that I do with 2020.
You will find plenty of aircraft to keep you entertained in 2024 and you just might save yourself a few bucks. As otheres have said despite the negatives that some have mentioned 2024 IS the future why waste money on yesterdays product.

Edited January 17, 20251 yr by BrianT

16 hours ago, james37611 said:

Hello all,

Long story short, purchased MSFS2020 on Steam when it came out, played mostly over lockdown like probably every simmer was, but only a year later realised my hard drive space was filling up and it just wasn't suited, so I uninstalled and decided to wait until I get a new PC which I was going to do at somepoint anyway. So new PC arrives, I have a 4TB Corsair SSD drive for it to go on, but then I read how MSFS2024 is progressing and then I find out when it's due, so I think I'll hold back...but I won't buy it on day 1 either, I never buy big releases on day 1, I hold back let everything crash and crumble then I'll come back after the storm, but having delved into a lot of YouTube videos in the past few days to see what's going on, it seems it's still not quite right...and third parties like PMDG don't seem to support it yet, and A380 is 2020 supported.

So now I'm thinking as MSFS2020 is still on Steam, Should I just re-download that instead? I'd like to get back into getting the A32x's and 737's and flying for Virtual Airways on VATSIM again, I can't see 2020 support for those or associated tools being stopped for a long time?

What I don't want to do is install 2020, get a load of addons start building up the collection and then suddenly everyone's on MSFS2024, everything's going onto there and it works with no server lag at all, that's going to be some time away yet surely?

 

If you had a situation where you haven't got the sim on your PC yet, you own MSFS2020 but not MSFS2024, which one would you install and start getting addons purchased/installed for?

Stick with MSFS2020.

17 hours ago, james37611 said:

If you had a situation where you haven't got the sim on your PC yet, you own MSFS2020 but not MSFS2024, which one would you install and start getting addons purchased/installed for?

I would use up all my savings ($ 1) and purchase a 14 day subscription and try for myself:

 

I would reinstall 2020 which you already own, and give it 6 months.. 🙂

I agree with what others have said, since you own fs2020 reinstall that for now.

Flight simmer -> MSFS 2020

Flight gamer -> MSFS 2024

2 hours ago, Greazer said:

Flight simmer -> MSFS 2020

Flight gamer -> MSFS 2024

Weird remark, since MSFS 2024 has a better flight model, better ground  physics, and better water physics than MSFS 2020.

easy to differentiate: anything that is pretty is automatically simple or stupid. can't have both. impossible.

Newton's 3rd law:  Beauty and precision have the same magnitude but opposite directions.

 These new 2024 features, irrelevant for pilots, were added specifically for gamers: 

Enhanced physics system allows 10,000+ rigid-body surfaces that enable the simulation of any shape of aircraft. Soft body physics supports cloth, ropes, balloons, and more. Improved ground and water handling further enhance realism.

New, highly accurate aircraft systems including electrical, pneumatic, fuel and hydraulic systems, payload and passenger systems, and avionics like the Universal UNS-1 FMS and Honeywell Primus Epic 2. Preflight inspections and walkaround checks add to immersion.

groundbreaking flight planner which supports both IFR and VFR map layers, IFR charts, route planning, fuel and payload planning, vertical profile planning, and ETOPS planning. It also provides airport information including weather and NOTAMS and is available native in the sim, on mobile devices or web browsers for flight planning outside the simulator.

Edited January 18, 20251 yr by turbomax

On 1/18/2025 at 1:05 PM, abrams_tank said:

Weird remark, since MSFS 2024 has a better flight model, better ground  physics, and better water physics than MSFS 2020.

https://fselite.net/content/rumour-microsoft-flight-simulator-2024-could-be-coming-to-switch-2-and-ps5/

Edited January 19, 20251 yr by Greazer

For now, it's really up to you. 2024 is improving, looks great and several planes/scenery are adopting to the new sim. The list is growing, fortunately. I no longer have 2024 installed and just kept 2020 for now since...well...all my programs/addons/scenery/planes work.

Likely, I will install 2024 again in the next week or so but for now, 2020 is the most stable. Just doesn't have the cool features that 2024 has (unless you have mods).

Example: I have 2020 but its modded. Charts, Walk around, terrain/ground/trees, clouds/weather, atmosphere, dozens of airports and planes.... so for now, 2024 may look "slightly" better than my heavily modded 2020. Though 2024 has marked improvement with performance overall.

Heck. I would install both if you have the mods and airliners. 2024 is pretty good for GA right now. It has some airliners but some of them have their own bugs.

 

Stay with 2020 or xp12.  I bought 2024 last week and finally set it up this morning everything worked fine until flying.  First attempt with the a320neo, I took off and after a bit I paused it and went to the main menu which then froze the sim so I had to kill it with task manager.  Second attempt with the same plane I made it to cruise level and stepped away for a bit, came back and the ap had shutoff on its own and was in a dive. Ended that flight which caused the sim to freeze again lol.  Third  attempt I made it to Tod and was in the process of changing runway assignment in mcdu and once I pressed key for the star it froze again.  I can’t think of a time with 2020 where I had three ctds in a row.  Anyway back to Toliss and xp12.

Install 2020. It’s the best you can get right now. Loading times suck yes but it’s a small price to pay for a customizable, addon friendly, rich flight sim experience you can get.
 

MSFS2024 is Asobo’s and Microsoft’s way to re-launch the controlled monetized ecosystem they wanted all the way back in Flight. I hope they fail on that point. 

Edited January 19, 20251 yr by UAL4life

Thank you all for the suggestions so I've decided on 2020 and just installed it now time to build up the collection, get Navigraph then remember how to setup Vatsim again 😅

Thanks again everyone for your input most appreciated!

On 1/18/2025 at 10:05 AM, abrams_tank said:

Weird remark, since MSFS 2024 has a better flight model, better ground  physics, and better water physics than MSFS 2020.

I agree, at least for the flight physics in rotor aircraft. But the surrounding issues for some are unbearable