I’ve been away for a couple of years (since mid 2023) but got the itch to get back into it. So I’m jumping into MSFS 2024. I have a 4090 (same as in 2023) and a 9800X3D (new last year). 
 

My first impressions in a couple short flights around Vancouver…

- Much faster to get from desktop into the sim

- The default Vancouver airport is still bad so I immediately replaced it with an add-on and it looks better and surprisingly didn’t tank my FPS

- Performance is better - but I’ve upgraded my CPU as noted above. With Frame Gen I’m getting over 100FPS.

- No major stutters or lag issues - all very smooth

- TAA is much sharper than DLAA… which is particularly noticeable on my Garmin screens which are less sharp with DLAA and crisp with TAA. No performance difference in my quick test.

- Keybinds changed. Why?!

- I was able to easily export my old control bindings from AAO and reimport them into his latest version - which saved me a huge amount of time as MS could not be bothered to provide a migration tool.

- It was nice to see traffic injected, lively action on the ground, and active ATC chatter. I suspect I had a lot of this turned off in FS2020 but it seems so much livelier now on default settings. 

- Photogrametry in Vancouver was better. The buildings didn’t look like melted blobs anymore. I vaguely recall in FS2020 it actually got worse with the Canada world update. Now it’s much improved. 

- There were also proper bridges that weren’t underwater or looking strange (although maybe that was fixed by the world update in FS2020 as I used a scenery addon to fix it back then and don’t know what default looked like in the end)

- Overall scenery seamed better… coast lines, port terminals, buildings, marinas, bridges - I haven’t been outside the city though

- Night lights are still annoyingly blurry at short distances - Why?! They appear sharp out the side window but blurry out the front… is that distance or my prop doing that?

- There were a few ships and boats but not nearly as many as real world

- There was no annoying line rendering across the horizon which was so horrible in FS2020… Yay!!!

- My (updated) Kodiak 100 still works and hadn’t lost any of its character

- Time is (only) in UTC and I couldn’t find a way to change the time zone making my log entries more challenging to parse than if they were in my time zone

- Tobii was an absolute nightmare to get working properly and I’m still struggling with the camera position. It’s infuriating that 7 months after launch Tobii can’t have this sorted. 

- All my other peripherals work fine… Alpha, Bravo, Pedals, Streamdecks  

Overall I’d say it was a positive experience and a noticeable improvement vs FS2020 - at least so far  

 

 

Edited July 14, 2025Jul 14 by Virtual-Chris

Where MSFS 2024 excels the most, compared to MSFS 2020, is if you go bush flying:

 

I highly encourage you to go bush flying around British Columbia.  It's a world of difference, because the terrain outside of cities, looks like another world, compared to MSFS 2020.  Inside cities, there is not a huge difference between MSFS 2020 and MSFS 2024. It's outside cities at low altitudes, where MSFS 2024 shines.

 

12 minutes ago, Virtual-Chris said:

- Photogrametry in Vancouver was better. The buildings didn’t look like melted blobs anymore. I vaguely recall in FS2020 it actually got worse with the Canada world update. Now it’s much improved. 

 

Actually, they fixed the photogrammetry for Canada World Update, version 2.  I think you went on a break when you were using Canada World Update, version 1.  I get the same photogrammetry for Vancouver in MSFS 2020, as I do for MSFS 2024, on Canada World Update, version 2.  It was Canada World Update, version 1, where the photogrammetry was really bad for MSFS.

Edited July 14, 2025Jul 14 by abrams_tank

54 minutes ago, abrams_tank said:

Where MSFS 2024 excels the most, compared to MSFS 2020, is if you go bush flying:

 

I highly encourage you to go bush flying around British Columbia.  It's a world of difference, because the terrain outside of cities, looks like another world, compared to MSFS 2020.  Inside cities, there is not a huge difference between MSFS 2020 and MSFS 2024. It's outside cities at low altitudes, where MSFS 2024 shines.

 

 

Actually, they fixed the photogrammetry for Canada World Update, version 2.  I think you went on a break when you were using Canada World Update, version 1.  I get the same photogrammetry for Vancouver in MSFS 2020, as I do for MSFS 2024, on Canada World Update, version 2.  It was Canada World Update, version 1, where the photogrammetry was really bad for MSFS.

I will definitely be doing some bush flying. And yeah, from what I’ve seen, the ground textures are so much better now. It’s actually amazing from the screen shots I’ve seen… almost like a ground-based open world game… It’s exciting. FS2020 was just horrible in that regard.

And yeah, I guess I missed the 2nd Canada update. Glad it’s fixed. 

13 minutes ago, Virtual-Chris said:

I will definitely be doing some bush flying. And yeah, from what I’ve seen, the ground textures are so much better now. It’s actually amazing from the screen shots I’ve seen… almost like a ground-based open world game… It’s exciting. FS2020 was just horrible in that regard.

And yeah, I guess I missed the 2nd Canada update. Glad it’s fixed. 

Yeah, some people are using MSFS 2024 as a hiking simulator.  This guy hiked up Mount Everest 🤣:

 

I have just converted to 2024 from 2020 myself.

From all the negativity i have heard i was expecting trouble, but i have been pleasantly surprised, no major issues at all.

It most definitely is harder on the system, I’ve had to dial back compared to 2020.

Clouds are definitely an improvement as is the weather overall.

 

1 hour ago, Virtual-Chris said:

- Keybinds changed. Why?!

You can still use 2020 keybinds, there is an option for that and that's what I use. 

1 hour ago, abrams_tank said:

I highly encourage you to go bush flying around British Columbia.

Correct, and if you also install Bijans wonderful tree addon, you even get rid of those ridiculously high trees all over the world 😉 

4 minutes ago, AnkH said:

Correct, and if you also install Bijans wonderful tree addon, you even get rid of those ridiculously high trees all over the world 😉 

I was watching CharlieFoxTrot00’s Twitch stream, and he was doing back country flying in the US. I think it may have been Idaho but I’m not exactly sure? Anyways, one of the airstrips he landed at in the middle of a mountain range, had trees that were about 2/3 the height compared to a real life photo he was using to compare with.

So in some places, the trees aren’t tall enough. I guess getting the right height and size of the trees is still not as precise as it could be for AI at the moment.

Sure, this way around can also happen. For me, flying around in Europe mostly, trees were consistently 1/3 to high and Bijan's addon corrects this. Of course, also this addon can not result in 100% correct tree sizes worldwide, because, as you said, it would need manual adjustment.

1 hour ago, pan pan pan said:

From all the negativity i have heard i was expecting trouble, but i have been pleasantly surprised, no major issues at all.

It's basically the same folks who come into every thread, complaining about this or that. 

Ignore them and enjoy the sim!

2 hours ago, Virtual-Chris said:

Night lights are still annoyingly blurry at short distances - Why?!

It may sound daft, but this is the main reason I won't change sims. I can't bear the blurry lights. These screenshots are from iniBuilds KJFK, RW31L.

2020 https://mega.nz/file/cn9E0RiK#NnTOe8sWfoZdK4GUrNAO7048QyhDCPUUUGjbMVKwR0c

2024 https://mega.nz/file/MylzQTwL#_hPy3P9ooItrY9urNAmcpc3HnyjA3-m6RFe6Wc2iMtQ

Edited July 14, 2025Jul 14 by flyingscampi

4 hours ago, pan pan pan said:

 

It most definitely is harder on the system, I’ve had to dial back compared to 2020.

 

 

Main reason I am sticking with 2020, no advantage for me, at all to moving to 24. 

5 minutes ago, Bobsk8 said:

Main reason I am sticking with 2020, no advantage for me, at all to moving to 24. 

Dialed back 2024 looks better than 2020 at ultra.

The beauty of 2024 is that you really don't need to run everything at Ultra. I have quite a bit on Medium and it still looks so much better and more realistic than 2020 ever did. Plus the PC I have is more than adequate to run it. It's win, win! 

4 hours ago, flyingscampi said:

It may sound daft, but this is the main reason I won't change sims. I can't bear the blurry lights. These screenshots are from iniBuilds KJFK, RW31L.

2020 https://mega.nz/file/cn9E0RiK#NnTOe8sWfoZdK4GUrNAO7048QyhDCPUUUGjbMVKwR0c

2024 https://mega.nz/file/MylzQTwL#_hPy3P9ooItrY9urNAmcpc3HnyjA3-m6RFe6Wc2iMtQ

Hmmm, going by these shots I find the 2024 shot slightly more realistic. Lights do shine, there not just white dots.