Hi everyone. I have a new laptop that I am using exclusively for FSX. But, I am getting a Horrible 3-10 FPS in gameplay. My video card is the Nvidia GTX 240M, and I am being told by my local tech guys that this is to blame. Is this true? Is anyone else using this card with godd results? Please help because spending $2,000 USD on a new laptop with a better card would not be my favorite thing to do. Thanks in advance. Hamoody Nofal

I use a gtx220 granted it's in desktop quad core so it's not a mobile but I get 30 fps with med settings and pmdg addons and variou scenery addons

Haven't heard of the GTX240M card, Nvidia lists the first GTX2xxM card as the GTX260M. There is a GT240M card, and that is listed with a video memory bandwidth of only 25.6GB/s, which is not enough to run FSX well. You need a card with at least 70GB/s VMB. VMB is the most important thing to look for in regards to FSX. A low VMB can really bog down the sim, even with a fast CPU.

Laptop + FSX = Bad idea. Laptop + FS9 = good idea.

ASUS G73JW-A1 + FSX = I say WOW!http://www.xoticpc.com/asus-g73jwa1-order-p-2858.htmlhamoody: You will need to spend around that amount...:(

As said above.. there are very few laptops that can handle FSX unless you're willing to spend a small fortune. Secondly, any nVidia card with a '3' or '4' as the second number is not in any way meant for serious gaming. They tend to have very low memory bandwidth which is useless for any demanding game. Best rule of thumb for an nvidia card is get one with a '8' as the second number, '6' is the lowest you want to get if you're serious about decent performance. (IE 8600, 8800, 260,280, 460,480)

Clevo D900F + FSX = most likely amazinghttp://www.avadirect.com/product_details_configurator.asp?PRID=13880#configureWallet - $3000 + Clevo D900F = :(

Hi everyone. I have a new laptop that I am using exclusively for FSX. But, I am getting a Horrible 3-10 FPS in gameplay. My video card is the Nvidia GTX 240M, and I am being told by my local tech guys that this is to blame. Is this true? Is anyone else using this card with godd results? Please help because spending $2,000 USD on a new laptop with a better card would not be my favorite thing to do. Thanks in advance. Hamoody Nofal

What is the CPU speed of this laptop? What resolution and slider settings are you using? The fact is that unless you have a laptop specifically made for gaming you are not going to get great performace. It's not just the video card, espcially since FSX is extremely CPU intensive and doesn't use the video card as effectively as regular PC games. As a matter of fact I found that the biggest boost to FSX has been to overclock my Intel eXtreme processor as fast as it will go and FSX performance has raised proportionalely to CPU speed.Other things affecting FSX (or any game performance for that matter) is the quality of the motherboard architecture and speed of memory. Most laptops are made for business therefore they are not made for the rigorous demands of gaming. Gaming laptops have upgraded motherboards, high end graphics and higher end CPU and are going to cost you more than $2,000 if you want real gaming performance. (That means no blurries, most sliders to the right, and the ability to use AA and AF so that FS doesn't look like the jagged, blurry mess you see in most screenshots...even from developers).Remember this if FSX. Get the fastest CPU you can afford...and then overclock it. Get the fastest GPU you can afford and overclock that too. Get the fastest memory you can afford with the tightest timings. Get a high end motherboard because this absolutely has been shown to add FPS to games and can handle your overclocks. THEN, get the fastest GPU you can afford with no less than 1GB of memory (preferably DDR5). For these reasons, unless you don't care what FSX looks like, laptops are usually not your first choice for gaming. AND even if you do buy a gaming laptop the big drawback is that they are generally not upgradable since the GPU is usually part of the motherboard and your selection is going to be extremely limited. Also, overclocking on a laptop is going to be very limited since you are limited to air cooling and the speeds needed to get FSX to scream require either high end air cooling or water cooling (or cryo to attain that magical 5Ghz mark).

Hi guys. Thanks for all the responses. Right now I have pretty much settled on buying the Alienware M17x laptop. Will this thing get me good performance with the default options from dell? Thanks.

I thought you just bought a new laptop and now you are buying another laptop? Sounds like you have extra cash laying around. If so, consider a custom built desktop if you really want to get the most out of FSX.With a I7 you still need to overclock the CPU and you will need a after market cooler to do it right. I don't see how you could do it with a laptop.

I don't know the specific laptop model you mention, but I do know that some of Alienware's laptops from a few years back were not that great as far as design went when it came to adequate cooling, experiencing issues which ended up blowing components on occasion. One of my friends had an Alienware laptop which blew three GPUs owing to cooling issues in about as many months, and he was regularly left without a computer because he had to keep sending components back to Dell and await the arrival of replacement parts, which to me sounds like a poor combination of parts choice where the design was concerned. To be fair he did get good service though, because of having a warranty which covered the parts, but it still meant that he was left without a laptop every once in a while owing to the recurring issue. In the end he gave up with relying on the thing and bought a desktop, although he does still have that laptop, it does still work and again, to be fair it's a fantastic computer when it does work.That might be an isolated incident and doesn't mean that I know for sure that Alienware laptops are a poor choice, their new ones might be really fantastic for all I know, but I just thought I'd mention my friend's experience FYI. Laptops are always going to have a harder time keeping things cool because of the tighter fit of components, so one thing I know for sure is, if you are going to use one regularly for anything other than running a spreadsheet, make sure you keep it well ventilated by sitting it off the deck a bit so the air can keep moving.Some laptops will run FSX really well - even not that new ones - I have a Hewlett Packard Pavilion DV2000 laptop which runs FSX really well, and that doesn't even have a dedicated graphics card. In fact it only has only 2 Gigs of RAM and a dual core processor, but the architecture of that laptop was designed for entertainment (by which HP meant mainly playing DVDs), so from a motherboard and bus speed standpoint that might have something to do with things when it comes to shoving graphics data about. It is pretty much incapable of playing any sort of modern computer game such as a newer first person shooter or whatever because with no dedicated graphics card, it can't support Pixel Shader 2.0, which ironically does sort of illustrate how much a computer relies on CPU and RAM rather than GPU when it comes to running FSX. I'll admit I was surprised to be honest, because I only bought the thing to use for work; I tried FSX on it for a laugh thinking it wouldn't run it, only to discover that actually gets really good frame rates even with autogen cranked up pretty high. As far as flight sims go, it will also run Silent Wings and Condor too, although it does struggle a bit with Silent Wings if you have the clouds turned up to full throttle on the graphics preferences, but it's perfectly playable on medium settings.What that tells me overall is that it's a bit of a crap shoot where laptops and gaming or sims is concerned, my HP laptop cost about 450 quid when I bought it, my friend's Alienware laptop was (I think) well over 1,500 quid.Al

Laptop + FSX = Bad idea. Laptop + FS9 = good idea.

I agree. While there are laptops that can run FSX well, I sure that the average laptop can run FS9 at a higher fidelity then FSX.I have a Dell Studio 15 with 4GB, RadeonMobilityHD3450, and a 2.6Ghz Dual Core Intel Centrino 2. It runs FS9 amaxingly. It also run FSX nicely, but I keep wanting to push up the sliders in things like weather and AI, but the FPS drop like a rock. :( I kept going back to FS9 on that machine, and now have a dedicated desktop for FSX.

Hi guys. Thanks for all the responses. Right now I have pretty much settled on buying the Alienware M17x laptop. Will this thing get me good performance with the default options from dell? Thanks.

Just make sure you get a minimum of 4GB of RAM and a strong CPU. The GPU should be good for FSX since it's an Alienware and they use dedicated GPUs.

I thought you just bought a new laptop and now you are buying another laptop? Sounds like you have extra cash laying around. If so, consider a custom built desktop if you really want to get the most out of FSX.With a I7 you still need to overclock the CPU and you will need a after market cooler to do it right. I don't see how you could do it with a laptop.

No. This is what is happening. I bought the laptop I have now 3 months ago, and found out that it doesnt run FSX well (this is the laptop I mentioned in the original post.). Now I am looking for a new one, but am leaning more towards getting a desktop instead. (I dont have that much extra cash laying around :()

If you can seriously think about buying another laptop for FSX only three months after getting the other one, then you aren't exactly broke!