I was going to take advantage of "Black Friday" sales to buy or build a new PC for FS2024 but with costs of GPUs and memory, I just can't justify it.  I think that means I'll be sticking with FS2020 where I can use higher settings where if I were to switch to FS2024, I'd probably have to lower my settings.  As such, I decided to just buy lots of add-on airports for FS2020.

My biggest push for a PC upgrade is PMDG 747.  I really loved that airplane in P3D.  Maybe I'll kick myself in the future for not upgrading.  From what I read, no new higher gb GPUs are coming on the market until 2027 so that means anything on the market right now is going to dry-up or become even more expensive.

I used to keep FSX and P3D on my computer and switched back & forth when that was a thing but I did not like that - just my preference.  I liked having higher end PC for this hobby but I think I'm tired of chasing it.  Just wanted to see what others are thinking.   

 

30 minutes ago, Dreamflight767 said:

I were to switch to FS2024, I'd probably have to lower my settings

Most likely not. On my modest 2nd (test) system (5800x / 3060Ti 8GB / 64GB DDR4) FS24 runs MUCH better than FS 20 did. 50 fps natively @1440p with mostly high settings are easily achieveable. With LSFG  I keep the sim at solid 60 fps and have plenty of headroom. 

The asynchronous programming, which Mr. Wloch explained with such enthusiasm in the last dev stream, seems to be paying off.🤗

Edited November 27, 2025Nov 27 by MaGer1965

6 months ago I had plans to purchase a new PC this holiday season but I am not totally satisfied with selection and pricing so far.  So I delayed into Spring/Summer or Holiday season next year.  My current PC is now 4 years old but runs FS2024 pretty solid actually.  Intel I7 10700K processor and a 2070 Super video card.  I think all I really need is just a newer video card and more system memory but with pricing I can just upgrade everything for a little more.

I have recently seen a demo of FS2024 running on a very high end system and in 4K.  It certainly looked better than what I get.  I think the biggest upgrade is 4K resolution if your PC can handle it.  So I plan to upgrade so I can run 4K next.  Will require a new monitor as well!

If I run with slightly less eye candy FS2024 runs amazingly well.  Even better than FS2020.  So a whole system upgrade can wait until I can get faster and way better system for a somewhat reasonable price.    

5 minutes ago, MaGer1965 said:

Most likely not. On my modest 2nd (test) system (5800x/3060Ti/64GB DDR4) , FS24 runs MUCH better than FS 20 did. 50 fps natively @1440p with mostly high settings are easily achieveable. With LSFG  I keep the sim at solid 60 fps and have plenty of headroom. 

Hmmm.  That's interesting and encouraging.  How/why would FS2024 run better than FS2020?  Isn't FS2024 more demanding with higher graphics etc.?

37 minutes ago, Dreamflight767 said:

I was going to take advantage of "Black Friday" sales to buy or build a new PC for FS2024 but with costs of GPUs and memory, I just can't justify it.  I think that means I'll be sticking with FS2020 where I can use higher settings where if I were to switch to FS2024, I'd probably have to lower my settings.  As such, I decided to just buy lots of add-on airports for FS2020.

My biggest push for a PC upgrade is PMDG 747.  I really loved that airplane in P3D.  Maybe I'll kick myself in the future for not upgrading.  From what I read, no new higher gb GPUs are coming on the market until 2027 so that means anything on the market right now is going to dry-up or become even more expensive.

I used to keep FSX and P3D on my computer and switched back & forth when that was a thing but I did not like that - just my preference.  I liked having higher end PC for this hobby but I think I'm tired of chasing it.  Just wanted to see what others are thinking.   

 

In my view, there is no point upgrading hardware at the moment unless you have a lot of money you won't miss, and like you say, RAM is a ridiculous price at the moment.

For me, 2024 runs at least as smooth as 2020 on the same hardware, and may be even better when we have the recent SU4 beta optimisations being worked on as we speak. 
My 32GB of RAM is no problem.  Maybe GPU VRAM is, but hopefully Asobo are still trying to optimise that.

And of course, an upgraded PC won't necessarily iron out the bugs / shortcomings / annoyances that still need to be worked on, a lot of them the same as 2020 issues / shortcomings carried over anyway.

My thoughts are, this is only going one way, so maybe you should try 2024 anyway.  You can always upgrade hardware later if you think you need it.

Despite some issues, I am glad I switched to 2024.

Edited November 27, 2025Nov 27 by bobcat999

13 minutes ago, MaGer1965 said:

Most likely not. On my modest 2nd (test) system (5800x / 3060Ti 8GB / 64GB DDR4) FS24 runs MUCH better than FS 20 did. 50 fps natively @1440p with mostly high settings are easily achieveable. With LSFG  I keep the sim at solid 60 fps and have plenty of headroom. 

The asynchronous programming, which Mr. Wloch explained with such enthusiasm in the last dev stream, seems to be paying off.🤗

I have to agree.  2024 runs better on my 3060ti rig than it did on 2020.

Seems to get better every day also.

SU4 Should be trick.

dd

If you steer clear of 4K, I doubt that 16GB VRAM is going to be a problem.

2024 runs great with SU4 (still in beta). 

Edited November 27, 2025Nov 27 by Ohmsquare

@Dreamflight767  I can't seem to find your RAM in your spec, but 32GB is fine on mine, even with 4k screen resolution.  Your GPU should cope, and that primary SSD would be just right for a 32GB rolling cache (more important in 2024).

Also, can't you just drop a better processor in that AM4 board?  7800X3D or something?   That might be a cheaper solution than a new build, as raw CPU horsepower is still important in 2024, even with the optimisations.

Not sure on the performance gain between the 5800 and 7800 though, as I have been swapping Intel CPU's for the last few years.

Edited November 27, 2025Nov 27 by bobcat999

I'm running MSFS2024 quite nicely on my system.  I recently spent a lot of money upgrading my RTX3080 to an RTX5080 to go with my 5800X3D but upgrading to a 7800X3D or a 9800X3D would involve the cost of the CPU, plus a new MOBO and PSU and at least 32GB of DDR5 RAM and when you look at the extra performance I would get, it really isn't worth spending all that money at the moment.

Maybe at sometime in the future, there will be something that provides a bit more bang for the buck, but I think that's a fair way away unless I sufer a CPU or MOBO failure in the mean time.

55 minutes ago, bobcat999 said:

32GB is fine on mine, even with 4k screen resolution

Absolutely.

 

In early January 2025 I lost every trust in MS/Asobo and spent all money saved for flighsimming into simracing. 

As beta participant and SU4 on the horizon I feel the urgent need  to invest in nice peripheral hardware for FS 24 again 🙄😉😎

If the code optimizations are proceeding the way the did  with the upcoming SU4, I see no need to tinker with my AM4 systems until Zen 7.  

Edited November 27, 2025Nov 27 by MaGer1965

I look at OP's signature and can't help but find this kind of funny. 

It is a perfectly workable build that will suffice at 4k without a sweat and yet they feel they couldn't upgrade to FS24 for reasons way beyond my understanding.

@Dreamflight767 , you do not need to upgrade anything in your setup to have a good experience in FS24. I've made no graphical setting compromises between FS20 and FS24 and my build isn't as powerful as yours.

Though if it provides any solace I'd wait for SU4 public release, because this specific SU, makes the sim perform even better than FS20 ever could've.

I have 64gb ram.  I'll admit, I don't know a lot computers.

Thanks everyone for your replies, I appreciate the feedback and insight.

Edited November 27, 2025Nov 27 by Dreamflight767

Just now, Dreamflight767 said:

I have 64gb ram...

OK, short version: Don't worry.

Most likely you'll be happy with FS24 SU4 - (at least) as much as I am.

You should be absolutely fine, especially with native FrameGen in '24 or if not you can utilize something like Lossless Scaling which is a magical little application you can purchase on Steam for the price of a cup of coffee. 

I haven't seen this myself yet but people also imply that graphics settings are not apple-apple so you should not need to go from High to High but High to Medium should achieve the same or better results. 

That said, certain things like LOD can not be dialed down...

You should have no issues and with gamepass you can try it yourself.

Good luck!