New iMAC and FSX

[Guest stranex]

Ok, ok....I know a MAC is not the ideal gaming platform and even less so where FSX is concerned! What I DON'T want to do here is reignite the PC vs MAC debate.....What I WOULD like to know is....Has anybody yet run FSX on the latest 27" iMAC's and if so, what fps are you getting on various settings?I am in the market for a new computer and for a variety of reasons, think the MAC is for me (again, I DON'T want to get into an arguement as for the pro's, cons of this decision please!). The ONLY thing stopping me from going ahead and ordering one is that I have enjoyed MSFS since it's conception and although I've not used it recently due to marriage, work, kids etc etc, I would like to get back into it and be able to use FSX at a "reasonable" level of performance. What do I mean by "reasonable"? Well I'd like to be able to run FSX at 20+fps with sliders somewhere between 50-75%. I appreciate this is VERY vague but hopefully it gives an idea as to the performance I'd like to be able to acheive?For those of you (the vast majority I'm guessing ) with no knowledge of the new iMAC here are the specs;i5 750 2.66GHz4GB RAM1TB HDDATI HD4850 512MB I know the 4850 isn't exactly cutting edge but from the research I've done I believe the FSX requires CPU power over GPU? I've also read of various issues with cloud rendering with the 4xxx series cards but so long as I get good "gameplay" the actual display of clouds is not that important to me.As a final question....what impact would the 27" 2560x1440 screen have on performance? I saw some graphs on tomshardware which indicated that although increased resolutions had some impact on fps's it was much less than I expected....anybody have any "real world" examples they'd care to share?Remember......I am NOT buying the MAC so I can play FSX at max levels........I am buying the MAC for other reasons and would LIKE to be able to play FSX at reasonable levels. Does anybody have any recent real world experience of FSX on MAC?Many thanks in advance!Steve

[Garrett67 1]

Ok, ok....I know a MAC is not the ideal gaming platform and even less so where FSX is concerned! What I DON'T want to do here is reignite the PC vs MAC debate.....What I WOULD like to know is....Has anybody yet run FSX on the latest 27" iMAC's and if so, what fps are you getting on various settings?I am in the market for a new computer and for a variety of reasons, think the MAC is for me (again, I DON'T want to get into an arguement as for the pro's, cons of this decision please!). The ONLY thing stopping me from going ahead and ordering one is that I have enjoyed MSFS since it's conception and although I've not used it recently due to marriage, work, kids etc etc, I would like to get back into it and be able to use FSX at a "reasonable" level of performance. What do I mean by "reasonable"? Well I'd like to be able to run FSX at 20+fps with sliders somewhere between 50-75%. I appreciate this is VERY vague but hopefully it gives an idea as to the performance I'd like to be able to acheive?For those of you (the vast majority I'm guessing ) with no knowledge of the new iMAC here are the specs;i5 750 2.66GHz4GB RAM1TB HDDATI HD4850 512MB I know the 4850 isn't exactly cutting edge but from the research I've done I believe the FSX requires CPU power over GPU? I've also read of various issues with cloud rendering with the 4xxx series cards but so long as I get good "gameplay" the actual display of clouds is not that important to me.As a final question....what impact would the 27" 2560x1440 screen have on performance? I saw some graphs on tomshardware which indicated that although increased resolutions had some impact on fps's it was much less than I expected....anybody have any "real world" examples they'd care to share?Remember......I am NOT buying the MAC so I can play FSX at max levels........I am buying the MAC for other reasons and would LIKE to be able to play FSX at reasonable levels. Does anybody have any recent real world experience of FSX on MAC?Many thanks in advance!Steve

I realize this post is old but, I can tell you that FSX runs great on that particular iMac. I just got mine 2 weeks ago and I can crank everything pretty high and get about 25-40 FPS. It can get a little rough with alot of clouds but I normally fly with some white puffy clouds. Mind you, I'm running at 2560 x 1440 and let me tell you, the iMac 27" display is VERY sharp!You can get FSX to run very well and fairly high settings. l am pleasantly surprised.

[mfahey 46]

I am also running FSX on the iMac 27inch. It runs just fine for me with no stutters and excellent frame rates. I have my frame rates set to 30, and it only occasionally goes below this. I use the Rex 2 weather system with no problem with a variety of add-on scenery and aircraft.The only time I have seen a stutter and low frame rates is with the ERJ Jets 2 from FeelThere, but this is a problem reported by users with other hardware as well. It seems to be a memory leak or something with part of their panels.I am running FSX with Win 7 64 bit via BootCamp. All the drivers I am using are the standard BootCamp ones. The inbuilt sound in the monitor wont work for me when running windows, so I am using an external amp and speaker with no problem.Cheers,Mark

[Luc Brusselmans 1]

I am glad somebody put this question online...For some time now, I feel a growing frustration when I think about computers in general.Sometimes it looks like all we do is tweaking to get the ultimate flightexprience...and to be honest, I'm fed up with tweaking.So, for the last couple of weeks I have been looking at a mac pro... Expensive? You bet! For that money I can buy almost two decent windows operated systems. But they run stable, no more tweaking, or at least not to the same degree as a with a windows based pc.And I have the cash...So what is holding me back....? Exactly! Flightsimulator is. I spent quite some time in my virtual cockpit so I want to be sure that my next mac (and my first one that is) can run my beloved sim (be that fs-9 or fs-X).So I want to jump on this topic..- For the mac pro I find only two different graphic cards, one is Nvidia based XX120 and the other one ATI based.I don't like either of them and would prefer a GTX285 or 275... Is that possible or am I limited to the cards provided by apple?- And even if I don't like to tweak a lot, can one overclock a mac? Just curious though.Luc BrusselmansBelgium

[Guest Dan G Martin]

Hi there Luc,1st check if there are drivers for the Mac for the above cards as there are often no drivers for the "newer" cards from both nvidia or ATI (closed OS's do suck at times) that would tell you if you can can install the cards in a Imac Also keep in mind there is not a lot of room in a Imac so you might not be able to install some of the larger cards like the 285 or a 5850\5870 in them anyway due to the fact that they are not all that expandable anyway.Hope the above is of some help to you.Dan Martin

[Luc Brusselmans 1]

Hi there Luc,1st check if there are drivers for the Mac for the above cards as there are often no drivers for the "newer" cards from both nvidia or ATI (closed OS's do suck at times) that would tell you if you can can install the cards in a Imac Also keep in mind there is not a lot of room in a Imac so you might not be able to install some of the larger cards like the 285 or a 5850\5870 in them anyway due to the fact that they are not all that expandable anyway.Hope the above is of some help to you.Dan Martin

Dan,Probably my mistake but I am talking about the Mac Pro and not the iMac.When I look at the pictures of the Mac Pro, my guess (but I could be wrong of course) is that there's room for a GTX285.Now, when I think in a logical way, I would think that when I start the mac in bootcamp in windiws 7, I should be able to install Nvidia drivers.But again I have the cash but not enough information and I certainly don't want to spend that kind of money on a computer (be it mac or ibm-compatible) when I am not sure that FS will work as it does now on the current system.I am going into town tomorrow so I guess I will walk into an apple store and just ask it.thanks for looking into thisLuc BrusselmansBelgium

[Garrett67 1]

Dan,Probably my mistake but I am talking about the Mac Pro and not the iMac.When I look at the pictures of the Mac Pro, my guess (but I could be wrong of course) is that there's room for a GTX285.Now, when I think in a logical way, I would think that when I start the mac in bootcamp in windiws 7, I should be able to install Nvidia drivers.But again I have the cash but not enough information and I certainly don't want to spend that kind of money on a computer (be it mac or ibm-compatible) when I am not sure that FS will work as it does now on the current system.I am going into town tomorrow so I guess I will walk into an apple store and just ask it.thanks for looking into thisLuc BrusselmansBelgium

I can't speak for the Mac Pro or Windows 7 but on my iMac running bootcamp, I have tried repeatedly to install the ATI drivers for XP but they always say they are the same version after the install. This is my first Mac, so I'm not sure what the deal is with it. Perhaps they can only be updated from the Mac side. I don't even think that makes sense really. Even with that said, FSX still runs fine like I mentioned above. The only other issue I have (sometimes) is with the Orbx scenery, I get tears in the some of the textures. Since I can't figure out if my ATI drivers update, I can't say for sure if that would fix that or not but its not a huge issue anyway.

[qnh 70]

I wonder how FSX would run in Parallels?

[Guest BillB]

I too am contemplating getting an iMac only the 21" with the dual core, 8 gig, 1TB model. When I was in the Apple store today they said that I couldn't run Windows 7 on it with Bootcamp because it wasn't the i5 or i7 chip but of course in the stores you can't buy Vista or XP, sort of a catch 22. Same thing with Parallels. Doesn't make sense to me though since the chip runs windows 7 fine in regular pc's and on the Parallels website it shows it running windows 7 on all the Intel chipsets that are in all the Macs. But when I was playing with one of the iMacs in the stores, I started up bootstrap and it said insert the xp or vista disk, nothing about 7. Anyone have any ideas.

I wonder how FSX would run in Parallels?

Whoops, meant bootcamp, not bootstrap.

I too am contemplating getting an iMac only the 21" with the dual core, 8 gig, 1TB model. When I was in the Apple store today they said that I couldn't run Windows 7 on it with Bootcamp because it wasn't the i5 or i7 chip but of course in the stores you can't buy Vista or XP, sort of a catch 22. Same thing with Parallels. Doesn't make sense to me though since the chip runs windows 7 fine in regular pc's and on the Parallels website it shows it running windows 7 on all the Intel chipsets that are in all the Macs. But when I was playing with one of the iMacs in the stores, I started up bootstrap and it said insert the xp or vista disk, nothing about 7. Anyone have any ideas.

Mark, I put a post in today in response to another question about Parallels and said that when I was in the Apple store today I was using one of the 21inch iMac's and started up bootcamp and it said to instal the xp or vista disk. When you first installed Windows 7 did it actually ask for the windows 7 disk or did you just put it in and it worked. Also on the Apple web site it says that it only works with vista and xp. Just curious since it's obviously working for you.

I am also running FSX on the iMac 27inch. It runs just fine for me with no stutters and excellent frame rates. I have my frame rates set to 30, and it only occasionally goes below this. I use the Rex 2 weather system with no problem with a variety of add-on scenery and aircraft.The only time I have seen a stutter and low frame rates is with the ERJ Jets 2 from FeelThere, but this is a problem reported by users with other hardware as well. It seems to be a memory leak or something with part of their panels.I am running FSX with Win 7 64 bit via BootCamp. All the drivers I am using are the standard BootCamp ones. The inbuilt sound in the monitor wont work for me when running windows, so I am using an external amp and speaker with no problem.Cheers,Mark

[Guest alclawson]

I too am contemplating getting an iMac only the 21" with the dual core, 8 gig, 1TB model. When I was in the Apple store today they said that I couldn't run Windows 7 on it with Bootcamp because it wasn't the i5 or i7 chip but of course in the stores you can't buy Vista or XP, sort of a catch 22. Same thing with Parallels. Doesn't make sense to me though since the chip runs windows 7 fine in regular pc's and on the Parallels website it shows it running windows 7 on all the Intel chipsets that are in all the Macs. But when I was playing with one of the iMacs in the stores, I started up bootstrap and it said insert the xp or vista disk, nothing about 7. Anyone have any ideas.Whoops, meant bootcamp, not bootstrap. Mark, I put a post in today in response to another question about Parallels and said that when I was in the Apple store today I was using one of the 21inch iMac's and started up bootcamp and it said to instal the xp or vista disk. When you first installed Windows 7 did it actually ask for the windows 7 disk or did you just put it in and it worked. Also on the Apple web site it says that it only works with vista and xp. Just curious since it's obviously working for you.

I just recently bought my 21.5'' iMac with the ATI 4670 HD card. Installed XP SP2 last night- and managed to get FSX installed just in time for bed. I haven't had much time to test it out, but first impressions are superb! I left all settings as default upon startup and had a solid 25 FPS without any issues. I'll tweak a few things when I have the time and apply the FS Service packs.The only issue I'm having is in regards to sound- there is none. I hear windows XP sound effects, but nothing out of FSX. I'll mess with settings/drivers another time- hopefully this will be an easy fix. To anyone considering the MAC/Bootcamp route for FSX, let me recommend it! As long as you have a valid copy of windows (at least XP with SP2) the prcoess couldn't be easier. Flight Simulator AND the MAC all in one. It really is the best of both worlds.

[Guest Nils79]

Why don't you simply buy a PC, with components you like, and install MacOS on it?

[TechguyMaxC 516]

It's not that simple, Nils. You have to trick OSX into working on a PC by way of a hacked bootloader. It requires a lot of work and doesn't always work.

[Tremaine 1]

I have been running FSX on an iMac 2.8ghz Dual with a nvidia 8800 GT card and 2mb. When you use boot camp, the iMac is natively running Windows, so there is very little incompatibility. For example, I have REX2 running HD clouds, UTX, GEX and added extra AI on through WOAI. I run it at full res, 32 bit. I use NickN's settings, which includes maxing out a lot of the sliders, and I also turn on anti-aliasing. My FPS are locked at 30 and they rarely dip below 24, unless I'm at a huge airport with a ton of AI (I usually keep my airline traffic set way too high). Its super smooth and runs great. I even use a CH yoke, which set up perfectly.I was also able to upgrade my nVidia drivers which required a lot of searching on the web for instruction, but I managed. It took me about 4 hours to figure it out, but I did it. Not sure I will upgrade again for a while.All in all, the experience is probably not as perfect as some brand new fully loaded PC, but it gets the job done. The biggest problem is just having to reboot all the time when you want to switch OS - Parallels would not work.Hope my experience helps someone...

[mfahey 46]

Mark, I put a post in today in response to another question about Parallels and said that when I was in the Apple store today I was using one of the 21inch iMac's and started up bootcamp and it said to instal the xp or vista disk. When you first installed Windows 7 did it actually ask for the windows 7 disk or did you just put it in and it worked. Also on the Apple web site it says that it only works with vista and xp. Just curious since it's obviously working for you.

Bill there is a Bootcamp method to load Windows 7. It involves the use on a USB stick with some Bootcamp files and a particular method covered by an Apple support bulletin. Do a search on the Apple website for the technote. The method was released around late Jan or Feb 2010. It loaded Win 7 64 bit on my 27inch i7 just fine. FSX with pay-ware aircraft, REX and Orbix Australia & Pacific North West run very smooth. I have my frame rates caped at 30, even at a typical pay-ware international airport I cant recall dropping below around 22 FPS. I doubt I will ever buy a PC ever again. Running dual boot on a Mac is just so reliable and hassle free with no performance loss over anything I have had in flightsims before. I reckon the extra $'s suits me just fine as I dont waste time stuffing around, I just start the iMac & fly!Cheers,Mark

[Guest Tcc]

No new posts here for some time but I just found this thread. I flew MSFS from the 3rd edition until FS9. At that time my Dell crashed and I got a first generation Intel iMac in 2006. That was when FSX came out but I never gave it a try. Now I want to buy a 27" i5 iMac with 4G ram and the 1G Radeon card. I really like the iMacs but have been "jonesing" for Flight Sim and want to give it a try. I'm encouraged by most of the posts here that I will again be able to fly the friendly skies of FS. Any new news or hiccups with Windows 7/Bootcamp/FSX? I would like to have a fun time without expecting a million FPS, on the other hand lots of glitches would be a big dissapointment.Any new comments/opinions?ps: I'm not going back to a PC, this is a Mac related inquiry only.Thanks all.T