Graphics performance in Flight Simulator 2024 – not terribly demanding

Since 1982, Flight Simulator has been a mainstay in Microsoft’s game library, with dozens of titles released over the years. To fly one red-eye from Las Vegas to Frankfurt in real time may not sound like much fun on paper, but it has nevertheless attracted several million aviation enthusiasts to do this virtually in front of the computer.

For the fall of 2024, the time has come for a new edition of Flight Simulator to see the light of day. It is once again Asobo Studios that has been given the role of producing a realistic flight simulator, and this time it also offers a long-awaited career mode for aspiring pilots. But how does Flight Simulator 2024 actually perform on today’s and yesterday’s graphics hardware? We will get to the bottom of that in this article!

As Flight Simulator 2024 lacks a built-in performance test, we use the “World Photography” game mode in which we fly a helicopter along the island of Manhattan in the city of New York.

The drivers used are Radeon Software 24.10.1, Geforce Drivers 566.14 and Intel Arc Drivers 32.0.101.6299. Of these, Intel’s and Nvidia’s drivers have stated optimizations for Flight Simulator 2024, but not AMD as they haven’t released a new driver in over a month. The frame rate is captured using the Capframe X software and post-analyzed with Microsoft Excel.

Performance at different levels of detail and upscaling with DLSS/FSR

Let’s start by looking at how the game’s predefined detail levels affect the performance of two popular cards from Nvidia and AMD in the form of the Geforce RTX 4070 and the Radeon RX 7800 XT. The game has four levels of detail – low-end, medium, high-end and ultra. In addition, there are several anti-aliasing techniques to choose from, including the native variants of DLSS (DLAA) and FSR. We use the game’s built-in TAA method here.

We start with the Geforce RTX 4070 without upscaling, where we quickly see that the highest detail mode “Ultra” is very heavy-duty. In the “High-End” detail mode, it is possible to drive around both resolutions 1080p and 1440p with a fully approved frame rate that averages over 60 FPS. If you intend to play in 4K UHD, however, we would recommend using DLSS for upscaling rather than turning down the level of detail.

Next, we will look at different upscaling modes using DLSS, where we lock the detail mode to “High-End” for all measurements. As we wrote above, it is fine to run FS 2024 at 1080p and 1440p with these detailed settings without upscaling, but for those who want a higher frame rate, the “Quality” mode can help a bit, for example. If you want to play in 4K UHD, either the “Balanced” or “Performance” mode applies to push up the frame rate.

Let’s move on to the Radeon RX 7800 XT without upscaling, and here we see quite similar performance against the Geforce RTX 4070 in terms of average values, but worse minimum values. The preset detail mode “Ultra” is again too heavy-handed without upscaling, but “High-End” is acceptable in both 1080p and 1440p. For 4K UHD, you will definitely need to activate FSR if you are not satisfied with the potato mode “Low-End”.

Finally, we’ll look at upscaling with FSR paired with the Radeon RX 7800 XT. If a higher frame rate is desired without a violent drop in image quality, the “Quality” mode at 1080p and 1440p is a good alternative. For 4K UHD, as I said, aggressive upscaling is needed to keep the frame rate above 60 FPS. Here you basically need to switch to “Performance” mode, which looks okay but not amazing.

Performance with different graphics cards

Now that we’ve looked at how two individual cards handle different resolutions and detail settings, it’s time to throw in the full set of graphics cards to see how they stack up against each other. We use the preset detail mode High-End with TAA for edge smoothing.

At the 1080p resolution, there is a fairly wide range of graphics cards that can maintain a perfectly reasonable frame rate with turned up detail settings. Not entirely unexpectedly, the Geforce RTX 4090 appears at the top, which is followed by the Radeon RX 7900 XTX and closely followed by the Geforce RTX 4080. The breakpoint to maintain an average value of 60 FPS is around the Geforce RTX 3070, which still feels perfectly fine considering that it moves about a 4-year-old middle-class card.

AMD generally seems to underperform somewhat in this title, which could possibly have to do with non-optimized drivers. A card that, however, performs better than expected is Intel’s Arc A770, which here manages to sail past the Geforce RTX 4060.

With the step up to the 1440p resolution, the pressure on the graphics card increases, where the bar is raised to maintain 60 FPS. The Geforce RTX 4090 continues to offer really nice performance with an average frame rate above 100 FPS. The breaking point for a smooth experience, at least together with a VRR screen, is at popular models such as Geforce RTX 3080, Geforce RTX 4070 and Radeon RX 7800 XT.

As you know, the 4K UHD resolution is very heavy to drive around, and here only the mighty Geforce RTX 4090 manages to stay consistently above 60 FPS throughout the loop. However, Geforce RTX 4080 and Radeon RX 7900 XTX are not far below the golden line, and enabling DLSS/FSR in their “Quality” mode is probably enough to land on the right side.

Further down the field, you need to use significantly more aggressive upscaling, where, for example, Geforce RTX 4070 and Radeon RX 7800 XT are usable in DLSS/FSR “Performance”. The cards further down the table are, however, beyond saving if you don’t keep your fingers crossed on detail settings at the same time.

Summary thoughts on Flight Simulator 2024

From a performance standpoint, Microsoft’s latest edition of Flight Simulator is far from the most demanding game we’ve tested lately, especially when compared to Unreal Engine 5 titles like Hellblade 2 or Black Myth: Wukong. The game actually runs quite nicely on both today’s and yesterday’s graphics hardware, even without upscaling enabled. If you wish to play in higher resolutions with the detail control maxed out, however, DLSS and FSR are there as crutches.

Graphically, the game can be very beautiful, with very detailed models of the aircraft at one’s disposal. When flying closer to the ground, however, it’s a bit of a mixed bag, as has always been the case in Flight Simulator. Some cities offer an impressive wealth of detail, while others look like they have been leveled to the ground by a bulldozer. It is simply something you have to accept when the whole world is available as a travel destination.

As a game, however, the title doesn’t seem quite finished. The profanity from my office colleague Tomas Helenius has been pouring in for the past week as he reviews the game FS 2024 for FZ, with bugs and unfinished features in the game’s career mode. The final grade landed at 3 out of 5, but it’s possible that this could have landed higher if Asobo Studios was given more time for the polish before launch.

Anyone who subscribes to Xbox Game Pass has access to the base version of Flight Simulator 2024, and here I would definitely recommend trying it if you are interested in the genre. However, I would hold off on paying SEK 899 for the game in its current condition.