So I read Reddit as well as Avsim, to get the latest discussion and news on flight simulation.  The two major subreddits I read at Reddit are r/flightsim, and r/MicrosoftFlightSim.  One difference between Reddit and Avsim, is that threads can be upvoted on Reddit, so you can easily see the score of the thread, and which threads are the most popular based on voting.

I can tell you that after MSFS 2024 was released, there was thread, upon thread, upon thread of the disappointment of MSFS 2024 upvoted onto the first page of both subreddits.  My own impression was that in the first month after MSFS 2024's release, perhaps 90% of the threads were negative on MSFS 2024 in both subreddits.  Around SU1, things started to change a little, and then it changed more in SU2, but I would say by SU2, it was maybe half positive, half negative threads about MSFS 2024, rather than 90% negative threads.  By SU3, there were more positive threads than negative threads about MSFS 2024.

Now the SU4 beta has come out.  I keep seeing very positive, highly upvoted threads, on SU4:

https://www.reddit.com/r/flightsim/comments/1oe7u9y/su4_is_unbelievable/

https://www.reddit.com/r/flightsim/comments/1odpoxm/su4_is_how_2024_should_be_roll_on_the_release/

https://www.reddit.com/r/MicrosoftFlightSim/comments/1nh5yzv/su4_beta_is_the_best_ive_seen_2024/

https://www.reddit.com/r/MicrosoftFlightSim/comments/1ng9jf1/the_performance_of_the_su4_beta_is_excellent/

These days, gone are the extremely negative threads on MSFS 2024, that were upvoted to the top of both subreddits.  The positivity about MSFS 2024 is very noticeable now in both subreddits.

Now to be clear, the MSFS team can mess this up, and end up releasing a poor version of SU4.  I think with SU2, people were experiencing some very good performance, and then a later version of SU2 reduced that performance.  So who knows what the final version of SU4 released will look like.  I guess we are crossing our fingers, and hoping that the MSFS team don't mess SU4 up.  But as for the current SU4 beta patch, it seems to be pretty good, and I am astonished at the 180 degree turnaround by the community, compared to last year at this time around November & December.

 

 

 

 

Edited October 23, 2025Oct 23 by abrams_tank

I've had both 2020 and 2024 since their release. Up to last week, I was using 2020 exclusively, with the occasional foray into 2024 to see how it was progressing. For a while, both graphics and performance in 2020 (in my opinion) exceeded those of 2024. However, since SU4 was released, not only have the graphics and performance increased tenfold, I have also noticed a marked decrease of graphical quality in 2020, so much so that I have now uninstalled 2020 (not a decision I took lightly, as I have 300 GB of addons) and reinstalled and tuned 2024. It's just beautiful.

It's all about time....released too early, rushed out...meet a marketing deadline...whatever the reasons....it's definitely enjoyable for the majority right now...so much so in my case I'm finally looking at ordering a replacement for my trusty I7-7700K/1080Ti...😂  btw has there ever been a hardware combi that was spot on at a fair price since?

I was very happy with MSFS 2024 from day one. Every Service Update so far has been a cherry on top. I'm expecting SU4 to be the same. 

The videos and forums all paint a positive in respect of SU4 performance, though there still seem to be a few small issues for the team to resolve.  Hopefully we will have a release candidate fairly soon.

5 minutes ago, St Mawgan said:

I was very happy with MSFS 2024 from day one. Every Service Update so far has been a cherry on top. I'm expecting SU4 to be the same. 

Day 2 for me lol.  I pretty much agree, though I wish SU4 was like RTM... I think a lot more people would have comitted to 2024, including devs.  

It's kind of a weird time for flight simulation, some uncertainties in the past year, both devs and users didn't seem to know where to invest their time and money.  Thankfully I've been pretty blessed in life (even with the current shutdown lol) and have used 2020, XP11, XP12, and 2024 - I try to support most devs if possible by purchasing addons.  Purchase DIRECT when you can people!

12 minutes ago, St Mawgan said:

I was very happy with MSFS 2024 from day one. Every Service Update so far has been a cherry on top. I'm expecting SU4 to be the same. 

To be honest, I was happy with MSFS 2024 in the first week as well (I bought it one or 2 days after release, I think). But then I play on 1080p on a normal monitor (not VR), and I don't have the greatest system in the world, so I was happy with 30 FPS or so of performance.  

But I guess, even though you and I were happy, a lot of people weren't, and it was especially noticeable on Reddit, in the first month of MSFS 2024.

Edited October 23, 2025Oct 23 by abrams_tank

I knew day one, time is what FS2024 needed, SU4 proves it. I honestly never doubted MS and Asobo, it was just a matter of time before they would deliver, FS2024 is a beast on its own.  Kudos to them both for making what I consider the best sim out there. Simlife is great!

Is SU4 Beta "there"? Juries still out for me but it's leaning towards "Yes".

For starters there's too many VR regressions (surprise surprise) that need fixing before release for one, question marks remain over landing/take off stutters, default aircraft still waiting on a lot of updates (according to Jorg in the recent Q&A they are coming to SU4 apparently), I've not yet touched career mode so no idea on that one, LODs are still overly aggressive but that's an ongoing battle.

The performance has vastly improved and is the main winner of this beta, albeit not as good as the first beta release it's still managed to remain "good enough" and in VR using TAA I'm getting decent FPS and stable frames even on my "old" system as some know it alls tried to tell me!. There are still improvements to be made with regards to optimisation and what not in the future, but it's certainly a decent step forward in this beta overall.

Night flying has also improved with the visuals albeit with a VR regression with stars (which can also affect clouds & contrails in the daytime), so unfortunately that's a bit of a ruiner right now, but hopefully there's more fixes to come overall in SU4 beta as IMO it's not ready for public release yet.

As the aforementioned performance has improved that itself lends to a much better experience for me, Free Flight coupled with recent updates to the EFB/Flight Planning tool integration far improve upon 2020 and reason alone to stay with 2024 from now on, as described elsewhere after a recent flight when it works it - it works great, to the point that I've now uninstalled 2020.

So if they fix the backwards annoyances they've regressed with then SU4 Public Release might just be the "V1.0 that should've been released" and not the Early Access title I've been playing since last November, I wait with baited breath that they don't ignore the VR community.....again.

Hold on to your metallic 2024 Steelbooks. MSFS 2027 will make them valuable old collectors items from the early days.

5 minutes ago, Fielder said:

Hold on to your metallic 2024 Steelbooks. MSFS 2027 will make them valuable old collectors items from the early days.

Probably MSFS 2028, if we are going by 4 year cycles now.

The good part about 2024 not being polished at release is that the beta testers had a say in its development.  Great job team!

dd

1 hour ago, SierraHotel BSc said:

I have also noticed a marked decrease of graphical quality in 2020

It's funny you say that because as someone pointed out in another thread this "decrease of graphical quality" you speak of (repeatedly) was due to synchronizing the imagery between 2020 and 2024 and 2020 now using the same exact Bing digital twin as 2024.  Go figure...  🤷‍♂️

Seb also said they still have the older higher quality imagery from 2020 and are exploring possibly going back to that in "certain areas" where the old imagery looked better... 

Reference of course:  Seb himself @ the 8:55 mark so you can listen for yourself... 

 

As for SU4 being the turning point let's hope that we can all celebrate the anniversary of the release with the version it should have been originally 🙂

As a 2020 laggard the SU4 release will probably be my first wholehearted dive into 2024 as long as the actual SU4 release doesn't regress from the Beta LOL  Resolving the mainthread issues and allowing MSFS to fully utilize my GPU are my biggest reasons for migration.  I compare this to the magnitude of change when P3D went from 32Bit to 64Bit.

Even if ALL other things were equal that alone is reason to migrate.  Now if only ChasePlane would be ready for '24 

2 hours ago, abrams_tank said:

So who knows what the final version of SU4 released will look like

So I'm not sure what your point is???

We have a another Click Bait YouTube video on here that tells us very little about your OP.

We will all see how good it is when it release as finished.

 

11 minutes ago, tpete61 said:

We have a another Click Bait YouTube video on here that tells us very little about your OP.

 

What Youtube video? The second Reddit link is an uploaded video to Reddit. Where did I post a Youtube video in this thread?