Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 PS5 Graphics Analysis – How Does It Compare to PC and Xbox?

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The popular Microsoft Flight Simulator franchise, known for its realism, intricate details, and stunning graphics, is coming to PlayStation 5 and the new PS5 Pro. Fans of the critically acclaimed Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 will be excited to hear it’s finally available on Sony’s consoles.

Although the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S share many architectural similarities, we wanted to see how well the gaming experience translates between them, especially with the newer hardware. Here’s a detailed graphical comparison of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 running on the PS5, PS5 Pro, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.

Microsoft Flight Simulator is a technically impressive game. It uses a powerful, updated engine developed in-house, combining realistic physics with live data from Azure to deliver a surprisingly genuine flying experience. Despite being originally designed for Xbox and PC, the game has transitioned to PlayStation 5 quite smoothly.

Playing games on the PS5 (and the upcoming PS5 Pro) feels very similar to playing on an Xbox. However, the PS5 Pro handles textures and loading new areas slightly differently, and you might notice some small improvements in those areas.

When we first launched the game last year, we tested it on a very powerful PC with an AMD Ryzen 5950X processor, a GeForce RTX 3080 Ti graphics card, and 32 GB of RAM – well beyond what most players have. We ran the game at a high-quality 4K resolution with DLSS set to Quality mode and most other settings maxed out at Ultra. We also used a high level of detail for terrain and objects, setting it to 200. To balance performance, we lowered some visual effects, like windshield effects, to medium, but kept the glass cockpit refresh rate on High.

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is a demanding game when it comes to graphics, pushing the capabilities of both Xbox and PlayStation 5 to their limits. While the game looks mostly the same on both consoles, there are slight differences in texture detail, lighting, and how smoothly objects appear as you move closer or further away. However, you’d really need to compare the two side-by-side to notice these small variations.

Both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X use technologies like mesh shaders and improved texture streaming to manage the game’s detailed environments. However, the developers at Asobo appear to have specifically tuned the Xbox version to deliver a similar experience to the PC version. The PS5 version likely uses a compatibility layer to work with Sony’s graphics technology, as the game wasn’t originally designed for it. Fortunately, this doesn’t seem to significantly impact performance.

We noticed some minor visual issues when flying over cities or other busy areas. Distant objects might briefly appear less sharp, or clouds could lose some detail. This happens because the game engine prioritizes loading the most important information first. The Xbox Series X handles these moments a bit better, likely because it doesn’t have an extra step between the game code and its hardware, giving it more processing power.

Okay, so I played this on PC, and honestly, it blew the console version out of the water – no surprise there. With my RTX 3080 Ti, everything just looked sharper and loaded faster. I could see way more detail in the distance, and the clouds looked way better too, even on the highest settings. The DLSS feature is awesome; it makes the game run smoother without making things look blurry. Basically, because my PC has more power and memory bandwidth, things just loaded quicker. But, I gotta say, the developers did a really good job optimizing the game, so the difference between PC and consoles isn’t huge – it’s way smaller than what I’ve seen in some other graphically demanding games.

Both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X aim for a 4K picture using upscaling technology. The new PS5 Pro, however, is designed to render at a higher, native resolution, leading to more consistent performance and a sharper image. When the game features demanding effects like storms, the original PS5 and Xbox Series X slightly reduce their internal resolution to maintain performance, but they use reconstruction techniques to minimize any visual quality loss. The PS5 Pro avoids this, delivering a noticeably more stable and clear picture even during intense moments.

One of the most impressive aspects of Microsoft Flight Simulator is its lighting, and comparing it across different platforms shows a few key differences. While the PS5 and Xbox Series X use the same core lighting technology, the PS5 sometimes displays slightly softer shadows, which might suggest some areas for optimization – though it’s not a major issue. The PC version, however, boasts sharper shadows and better reflections, making the scenery look more detailed and realistic, especially during sunrise and sunset.

The way plants and water look is also important. The amount of foliage is pretty similar on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, but the PC version can display much denser trees and more detailed grass without slowing down. Water also looks better on PC, with more realistic reflections and waves when using the highest settings. However, the more powerful PlayStation 5 Pro can achieve visuals that are very close to those seen on a high-end PC.

No matter which platform you play on, the streaming experience – how the game loads data – is consistently good, which is important because it’s a technically demanding part of the game. Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 needs to pull in a lot of data from online servers, and your internet connection greatly affects how smoothly the world appears. Both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X handle this streaming well, using clever techniques to load things in the background and reduce noticeable delays, and the upcoming PlayStation 5 Pro should perform just as well.

When it comes to how detailed things look, both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X offer impressive graphics. However, the Xbox Series X sometimes loads higher-resolution textures a bit quicker, especially during fast camera movements in busy city areas. The PS5 might experience slight delays in loading these textures in those same situations, though these are usually very brief and fix themselves quickly. These are among the few visual differences between the consoles, and the more powerful PS5 Pro largely eliminates these issues. The PC version provides the best experience overall, with textures loading instantly and surfaces appearing even sharper up close.

Load times differed between consoles. While the PlayStation 5 has more raw power, the Xbox Series X includes special optimizations that noticeably speed up loading. Starting a flight from the main menu was consistently a few seconds quicker on Xbox Series X, thanks to its Velocity Architecture. The PlayStation 5 Pro does improve loading times by a couple of seconds with its faster speeds and decompression, but it remains slightly slower than the Xbox Series X.

On PCs, how quickly things load depends a lot on the hardware you have. With a powerful Ryzen 5950X processor and a fast NVMe drive, we found loading times were generally as good as on the Xbox (we tested this repeatedly). This is likely due to improvements made with the DirectStorage API, and because high-end PC hardware can handle a lot of data processing, particularly when dealing with large game worlds.

When it comes to how detailed things look, both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X deliver impressive results. However, the Xbox Series X sometimes loads higher-resolution textures a bit quicker, especially when the camera moves fast in busy city areas. The PS5 might experience very brief delays in loading textures in those same situations, but these usually fix themselves quickly. These minor differences are one of the few visual distinctions between the consoles, and the more powerful PS5 Pro largely eliminates them. The PC version offers the best visual experience overall, with textures loading instantly and surfaces appearing sharper up close.

The game’s loading times varied quite a bit each time we tested it. This is because the game downloads information from online servers as it loads, and things like your internet connection speed and other online services can affect how quickly it happens. This makes it hard to get perfectly consistent loading times when comparing different platforms.

Both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X aim for a frame rate of 30 frames per second. They generally maintain this target very well, but the Xbox Series X has a small advantage and experiences fewer brief drops in performance, particularly when handling complex streaming data. While these dips are small, they occur more often on the PS5, especially when the game uses demanding visual effects like post-processing or volumetric lighting.

The PS5 Pro aims to deliver a sharp picture at 4K resolution with a frame rate of 30 images per second, and it’s a significant upgrade over the original PS5. In our tests, it consistently hit this target much more reliably. Because it doesn’t need to lower the image quality as often as the standard PS5 or Xbox Series X, the picture appears noticeably clearer. Even in complex and visually demanding scenes, the PS5 Pro stays smooth and provides a consistently fluid gaming experience.

Overall, the PS5 version of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is just as good as the Xbox and PC versions. It runs well and stays true to the developers’ original design. While there are some small differences in how textures load and the world appears, the game looks and plays almost identically to the other versions – making it another great port of a game that was once exclusive to Xbox, now available on PlayStation.

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2025-12-02 23:14