FSX an iMac an MD11 and a happy ending!

[Guest howard500]

Hello Gents,I thought this might be helpful/interesting to some.The only reason I was sticking to Windows was, yes you guessed it, Flight Simulator (or should I say the addons for flight simulator). But when I heard of the possibility of installing windows natively on a partition on a mac I gave up on Windows, got an iMac and never looked back! Seriously I got a 20" Imac, 2.66 Ghz Core 2 Duo, 2Gb RAM, 320 GB and a very ordinary 256Mb Radeon ATI 2600 PRO. Nothing extraordinary but not to shabby either. I was expecting to run FS2004 without any problems... and it does, on XP, loaded with addons, settings on high and flying complex aircraft and the thing never drops below 80 fps.Then came the PMDG MD11 and I thought to myself... why not give FSX one LAST chance before throwing it out the window... (Small incision here: before my new mac i had a gaming laptop with better specs all round specially an Nvidia 8700M GT with 512Mb and 3G RAM and it could not deal with FSX in its wildest dreams)So thinking I was just being silly by installing FSX on my XP partition with such a modest graphics car, I went ahead and tried it anyway. Installed the thing, installed the service packs and installed the MD11. Loaded the aircraft in Geneva pressed shift Z and my jaw dropped. steady 30FPS in the VC.... mmmm... no way I thought... silly computer trying to trick me... well no, lovely computer kicking me where it hurts for doubting it... i have now completed several flights, settings are on medium high, full screen resolution although antialising is off (cant tell the difference anyway) and I can not complain one single bit. I have locked FPS at 35 and they hang very healthily around that number, no stuttering, no stickiness just plain pleasant fluidness.So there, I don't know if im praising PMDG, XP or Apple Hardware but i just cant believe Im running FSX!I am curious about installing some heavy Aerosoft airport and going on VATSIM but i have a good feeling about it.Anyway, not sure if anyone will care but thought I might share my "awkward" experience.Happily flying the MD11 on my adored iMac,Alonso Reig

[xkoote 57]

Indeed, the only reason I ever switched to CTRL-ALT-DEl territory was for gaming. Maybe next year I'll take the plunge with a PowerPC. I'll have my cake and eat it too.Xander

[tcas_climb 45]

hmmmmm interesting

[Guest XM DUDE]

That is the only reason I never went Mac was gaming.Michael Pare.

[3-2-1-Now 126]

I guess it would be no surprise if I said I use Windows for gaming. :7Best regards,Robin.

[Mac_Paint 35]

It will NOT work on PowerPC. You'll need one of the Intel chipped macs. I use the late 2007 Mac Book Pro.

[mtcross 0]

I also took the plunge and made the switch in October 2006 and I'm happy I did because OS X has been a pleasant surprise. It's a really nice operating system, beautiful, simple and extremely powerful all at the same time. The software ecosystem is far bigger than I realized before I made the switch. While it's certainly not as large as what's available for Windows it's much larger than most Windows users realize.I have an early model Mac Pro (2 dual core 2.66 xeon processors, 8GB of RAM and 512MB ATI x1900xt video card) and I run the 64-bit version of Vista on one of my hard drives. FS 9 runs like a dream and FS X is acceptable but not great.For those who are not aware you can install and run Windows natively on a Mac. The term Boot Camp is used frequently in this regard but Boot Camp is not what allows you to run Windows natively. The fact that the guts of all Macs are now essentially the same as PCs is what lets you run Windows. Boot Camp is nothing more than drive partitioning software designed by Apple which allows a single hard drive (for iMac and Macbook owners) to be partitioned non-destructively into two logical drives so that you can install Windows on one of them. In my case, with a Mac Pro, I have an entire hard drive dedicated to Windows so I didn't need to use Boot Camp. There are also Boot Camp drivers which provide all the required Windows drivers for the various Apple only hardware features like volume buttons and CD eject buttons on the keyboard. You install those drivers once Windows is installed.Once Windows is installed you hold down the alt key during boot and you are presented with all bootable drives including CD/DVD drives in a nice graphical way. This is thanks to EFI which is like a modern BIOS, something Vista was supposed to support before being dropped by Microsoft along with many other cool things like WinFS prior to release.Because your Mac is booting Windows natively it's nothing more than a PC made by Apple. Of course being made by Apple means you have far less configuration options than building a PC yourself or going with a name brand like Dell. You also pay a premium for the Apple logo on the side. However, most Mac users will tell you the premium is worth it for the beautiful hardware and the ability to run OS X.It's a difficult choice to make the switch because there is compromise on the configurability of hardware and the ability to upgrade that hardware is limited in most models. If the primary reason you own a computer is for gaming then a Mac is not for you. If you do other stuff and gaming is the secondary reason for owning a computer then you may want to consider a Mac. Mike

[Mac_Paint 35]

Nicely reasoned, Mike.

[Guest XM DUDE]

>I also took the plunge and made the switch in October 2006>and I'm happy I did because OS X has been a pleasant surprise.> It's a really nice operating system, beautiful, simple and>extremely powerful all at the same time. The software>ecosystem is far bigger than I realized before I made the>switch. While it's certainly not as large as what's available>for Windows it's much larger than most Windows users realize.>>I have an early model Mac Pro (2 dual core 2.66 xeon>processors, 8GB of RAM and 512MB ATI x1900xt video card) and >I run the 64-bit version of Vista on one of my hard drives. >FS 9 runs like a dream and FS X is acceptable but not great.>>For those who are not aware you can install and run Windows>natively on a Mac. The term Boot Camp is used frequently in>this regard but Boot Camp is not what allows you to run>Windows natively. The fact that the guts of all Macs are now>essentially the same as PCs is what lets you run Windows. >Boot Camp is nothing more than drive partitioning software>designed by Apple which allows a single hard drive (for iMac>and Macbook owners) to be partitioned non-destructively into>two logical drives so that you can install Windows on one of>them. In my case, with a Mac Pro, I have an entire hard drive>dedicated to Windows so I didn't need to use Boot Camp. There>are also Boot Camp drivers which provide all the required>Windows drivers for the various Apple only hardware features>like volume buttons and CD eject buttons on the keyboard. You>install those drivers once Windows is installed.>>Once Windows is installed you hold down the alt key during>boot and you are presented with all bootable drives including>CD/DVD drives in a nice graphical way. This is thanks to EFI>which is like a modern BIOS, something Vista was supposed to>support before being dropped by Microsoft along with many>other cool things like WinFS prior to release.>>Because your Mac is booting Windows natively it's nothing more>than a PC made by Apple. Of course being made by Apple means>you have far less configuration options than building a PC>yourself or going with a name brand like Dell. You also pay a>premium for the Apple logo on the side. However, most Mac>users will tell you the premium is worth it for the beautiful>hardware and the ability to run OS X.>>It's a difficult choice to make the switch because there is>compromise on the configurability of hardware and the ability>to upgrade that hardware is limited in most models. If the>primary reason you own a computer is for gaming then a Mac is>not for you. If you do other stuff and gaming is the>secondary reason for owning a computer then you may want to>consider a Mac. >>MikeI agree and because gaming is life for me, I will have to stay on the PC side as I like to be able to upgrade, and sadly Apple doesn't take gaming seriously and probably never will.Michael Pare.

[VHOJT 167]

I am running FS9 quite happily on a Macbook Pro. I am a bit scared to do FSX though.

[Mac_Paint 35]

If you're on XP Pro and you have at least the 2.5GHz Mac Book Pro, you'll do alright.

[VHOJT 167]

I've got a 2.4. I might see how it goes. Do you reckon 4gb vs 2gb of RAM would make much difference?