From someone's post and a reply by the MSFS Team:

Question:  why they can’t simply use sliders to impact detail to go from Xbox to highest end PC is hard to fathom.

Hello,

This is exactly how MSFS (2020) and MSFS 2024 already work currently. There are multiple builds for different devices (PC, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Series S). The PC build gives players full control over their graphical settings and options. The two Xbox builds have locked-in settings that are pre-set and optimized for the specific capabilities of each console. The notion that the PC build has been “dumbed down” or in any way diminished because the sim is also available on Xbox has never been true. The minimum PC hardware requirements are for a lower-spec machine than an Xbox Series S console.

Thanks,
MSFS Team

SU5 proves otherwise.

21 minutes ago, Blueline308 said:

SU5 proves otherwise.

What it proves is that in their overarching goal of improving performance on both PC and XBox at that time (due to the #1 heaviest voted item at that time, by PC users, complaining about performance on their PC, some less powerful than Xboxes), was not done in a good way initially via SU5... i.e. the quality/performance trade-off wasn't done well, or well enough.
 

3 hours ago, Noel said:

The two Xbox builds have locked-in settings that are pre-set and optimized for the specific capabilities of each console. The notion that the PC build has been “dumbed down” or in any way diminished because the sim is also available on Xbox has never been true. The minimum PC hardware requirements are for a lower-spec machine than an Xbox Series S console.

Interesting. I could make the following assumptions:

- Low: minimum PC requirements
- Med: Xbox S?
- High: Xbox X?

What I mean is that I think the locked settings for an Xbox X would be similar to High for MSFS 2020. Since I don't have an Xbox, I can't confirm. Would this be true?

 

3 hours ago, Noel said:

 

This is exactly how MSFS (2020) and MSFS 2024 already work currently. There are multiple builds for different devices (PC, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Series S). The PC build gives players full control over their graphical settings and options. The two Xbox builds have locked-in settings that are pre-set and optimized for the specific capabilities of each console. The notion that the PC build has been “dumbed down” or in any way diminished because the sim is also available on Xbox has never been true. The minimum PC hardware requirements are for a lower-spec machine than an Xbox Series S console.

Thanks,
MSFS Team

So true, and I wish they’d publicize this more. 

the other thing they don’t talk about enough (at least for cantankerous flight simmers like us) is that Xbox under the hood is literally running Windows on AMD PC hardware.

which blows the whole “Xbox makes it a game not a sim” illogic right out of the water 

there are a tremendous number of advantages to Xbox ever since MSFS came out and forced them to enable keyboard, mouse, and actual flight sim peripherals. 

the only downside to Xbox is that the hardware isn’t refreshed on an annual basis like PCs are. 

8 minutes ago, Luis Hernandez said:

Interesting. I could make the following assumptions:

- Low: minimum PC requirements
- Med: Xbox S?
- High: Xbox X?

What I mean is that I think the locked settings for an Xbox X would be similar to High for MSFS 2020. Since I don't have an Xbox, I can't confirm. Would this be true?

 

Due to the aging hardware at this point, Xbox S is more like Low and the X is more like Medium. 
 

the challenge with the X is that it runs at 4K, which utterly hobbles even most PC’s. 
If it’ll actually run 1080p/HD on an equivalent display, it’d be able to do High. 

8 minutes ago, UrgentSiesta said:

the other thing they don’t talk about enough (at least for cantankerous flight simmers like us) is that Xbox under the hood is literally running Windows on AMD PC hardware.
which blows the whole “Xbox makes it a game not a sim” illogic right out of the water 

Indeed, and a rather uninformed and naive logic at that. Just because the UI/UX and extent of tinker-bility presented to the X-Box user is minimal and different compared to a full-blown Windows OS, does not mean the X-Box platform and its underlying capabilities are somehow less capable.
 

Edited July 31, 2025Jul 31 by lwt1971

Despite the above statement from MSFS Team I can't come up with a reason why there should ever be a downturn in graphic quality in MSFS 2020.  Was requiring too much server bandwidth so MS/A dialed back some graphical quality elements.  Are they just trying to stay within budget essentially?  After all this title came out in Aug 2020 so is now 5 years old and while Xbox S/X is stuck with fixed hardware PC hardware marched on to now deliver fully double of what Xbox X is capable of.  If they developed a build design to let those w/ high end CPU/GPU to exploit the best MSFS 2020 can deliver, then we would seemingly want to assume at the very least we would not see any downturn in graphical quality and would hopefully see some upturn and so be able to tap into an LOD commensurate with what top end hardware can manage.   Again, Xbox's basic power is fixed.  In ~2y we should see next gen Xbox which is touted to be capable of what today's high end PCs can do.

1 hour ago, lwt1971 said:

Indeed, and a rather uninformed and naive logic at that. Just because the UI/UX and extent of tinker-bility presented to the X-Box user is minimal and different compared to a full-blown Windows OS, does not mean the X-Box platform and its underlying capabilities are somehow less capable.
 

Yep. 

and given the price point at $500, it makes a heckuva backup rig (if your addiction…um, “hobby” is as advanced as mine 😜).
 

And one the whole family & guests can safely enjoy. you know, a n the living room - AWAY from “My Precious” 😂

 

There are still people on the forums that think Xbox users can only use Xbox controllers. 

Xbox is a great option for those on a budget. The series X which is optimized for gaming with a 12 teraflop GPU and 16 GB GDDR RAM, is a great entry point into flight Simming for those on a limited budget. There are users that can't hit 4k 30 FPS on PC, while MSFS on Series X is capable of 4k 30 FPS.

Edited July 31, 2025Jul 31 by brinx

5 minutes ago, brinx said:

 

There are still people on the forums that think Xbox users can only use Xbox controllers. 

Xbox is a great option for those on a budget. The series X which is optimized for gaming with a 12 teraflop GPU and 16 GB GDDR RAM, is a great entry point into flight Simming for those on a limited budget. There are users that can't hit 4k 30 FPS on PC, while MSFS is capable of 4k 30 FPS.

Yep. 

I guess an issue is that you don’t get to choose how that 30fps is achieved. 

for me, I’d rather play at HD resolution with higher graphics than 4K at lower graphics.

totally agree with your point, tho 👍