NGX+ iMac = true?

[Mac_Paint 35]

I'm running mac, but I use bootcamp for FSX. Now I plan to buy a new iMac, what do you think about this, NGX will work fine?

• 3.4GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7
• 8GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x4GB
• 1TB Serial ATA Drive
• AMD Radeon HD 6970M 2GB GDDR5

So, what do you think?Carl

Carl,There has been a lot of 'opinions' on the merit's of running FSX on an iMac, here's mine. I say get the iMac, install 64 bit Windows 7 and install FSX. No need to over clock as the i7 iMac will run FSX just fine. As for installing driver updates, I was able to update the graphic driver on my Mac Book last week, I just downloaded the individual drivers without using ATI's installer wrapper. For hard core PC gamers the Mac line is certainly not a consideration but for the casual Mac gamer who is curious about PC gaming i would certainly not hesitate in trying PC games using boot camp. I've had no problems using my Mac Book Pro to run Windows software, Photoshop CS5, FSX, Thunderbird, Filezilla, Open Office, and with Apple's latest iMac hardware you won't have any problems either.Pete Mac PaintPMDG Graphics Designer

[melb00m 0]

Just letting you know that I received my iMac today, and made a couple first tests with FS X under BootCamp Windows 7 x64. I don't want to get into details yet, I have to install a lot of additional addons and test more, but I tried to fly around FS DreamTeams O'Hare with a default aircraft and ActiveSky Enchanced weather. The results are good with pretty high settings. Good enough so I think I'll finally switch to FSX, and will buy the MD11 (and the NGX...) for FSX soon to start another round of tests. My iMac specs are:Intel Sandy Bridge i5 @ 4x3.1 GHzATI 6970M 1 GByte12 GByte DDR3 1333I have yet to find an AMD supplied driver for this GPU, I'm using the one BootCamp came with, but have no options to configure Antialiasing in the driver. With very dense clouds and AA enabled, FPS drop a little bit at the native 2540x1440 resolution, but it looks pretty good without AA at this resolution as well. Does someone know what sort of AA is applied with the checkbox within FSXs settings?Martin Buchheim

[Guest TBM930]

Hey Carl I have a 2008 Mac Pro 2.8 GHZ 8 Core with 10 MB ram and I internal hard drive dedicated to bootcamp with WIn 7 64 bit and another internal hard drive dedicated to FSX. My original ATI 2600 HD (256MB) just does not cut it! I can tell you that with add-ons and sliders in the low to medium range I locked my frames at 16FPS and they often dip under that when taking off and landing. I purchased my MacPro primarily for audio recording using Logic and thought that I could also use it for FSX. Buffered ram is not reccomended for FSX but great for stable server patform which is what a MacPro is designed for. I am also contemplating whether I should attempt to upgrade the graphics card but with everything I already know and have read on the forums, my performance will probably be marginally better! Also calling on other 2008 MacPro users to see if can are run FSX maxed and at what frames?

[Benjamin J 751]

I purchased my 27" i5 (Quad core) iMac about half a year ago. Here are some scenerios with the FPS:- Flying around NYC with the LDS767 and having installed FSDT KJFK, Aerosoft Manhattan X and MSE NY Citypack, with sliders at medium, gives me 18-22FPS.- Flying around OrbX PNW with the F1 BN2 Islander with everything maxed (!) gives me about 25FPS- Flying around default scenery with a PMDG aircraft with settings at roughly high gives me 25-30FPS (locked at 30 with an external FPS limiter).All in all, I'm not at all displeased with how FSX performs on my iMac. The hardware could be better, but for me a Mac is primarily a working machine and is only a gaming machine in second place. For working, I simply prefer Mac OS X's GUI to that of Windows, although I do think Windows 7 is a pretty nice OS. I do not have the money to buy two computers however, so I simply get the iMac that I want instead of buying two computers, and use Bootcamp to get Windows 7 running on it. For me it works very well - I do not need to have settings maxed to really enjoy the sim.One important thing: I'm absolutely positive that at least 30% of the cost of this iMac went to the screen. This is for sure the best and nicest computer screen I have seen in my life. 27", resolution of 2560x1440, LED... I have never seen a screen of such high quality in any computerstore.Pat: not to be harsh or anything, but the ATI 2600 HD seems like an ancient card by now, and I don't think you can expect very good performance with that card at all...Martin: I'm really curious at the FPS rate you get. When you did some tests, would you mind posting FPS and the addons installed/slider settings?

[melb00m 0]

I second Thralnis opinion about the iMac screen... it's simply gorgeous!As I said, I'm going to buy the MD11 for FSX the next days and then I'll go for another test ride and post some results and frames here. I only own MD11 for FS9 so far. Does anyone have a good page with recommendations for FSX tweaks? I found the sticky post on the AVSIM forums, and it helped me quite a bit, but I'd love to read some more so I can be sure my configuration is right.Martin Buchheim

[Benjamin J 751]

Bojote made this absolutely great automatic FSX.cfg tuning and tweaking tool. Try searching the FSX forum for "tuning tool" and you should find it. It automatically applied tweaks to your fsx.cfg and I have found that it indeed enhances FPS quite a bit. First, however, see that FSX runs stable without it. Then do the tweaking tool, then adjust sliders accordingly. You can save and load display settings, and I use that a lot now. I'm in the process of making various of such saved display settings, each for use in specific situations.

[Guest TBM930]

I purchased my 27" i5 (Quad core) iMac about half a year ago. Here are some scenerios with the FPS:- Flying around NYC with the LDS767 and having installed FSDT KJFK, Aerosoft Manhattan X and MSE NY Citypack, with sliders at medium, gives me 18-22FPS.- Flying around OrbX PNW with the F1 BN2 Islander with everything maxed (!) gives me about 25FPS- Flying around default scenery with a PMDG aircraft with settings at roughly high gives me 25-30FPS (locked at 30 with an external FPS limiter).All in all, I'm not at all displeased with how FSX performs on my iMac. The hardware could be better, but for me a Mac is primarily a working machine and is only a gaming machine in second place. For working, I simply prefer Mac OS X's GUI to that of Windows, although I do think Windows 7 is a pretty nice OS. I do not have the money to buy two computers however, so I simply get the iMac that I want instead of buying two computers, and use Bootcamp to get Windows 7 running on it. For me it works very well - I do not need to have settings maxed to really enjoy the sim.One important thing: I'm absolutely positive that at least 30% of the cost of this iMac went to the screen. This is for sure the best and nicest computer screen I have seen in my life. 27", resolution of 2560x1440, LED... I have never seen a screen of such high quality in any computerstore.Pat: not to be harsh or anything, but the ATI 2600 HD seems like an ancient card by now, and I don't think you can expect very good performance with that card at all...Martin: I'm really curious at the FPS rate you get. When you did some tests, would you mind posting FPS and the addons installed/slider settings?

Thanks Benjamin for your feedback. Yes I know that I am seriously due for a video card upgrade. I bought my Mac Pro for the same reasons you bought your iMac. Gaming is secondary to me and I also only wanted to purchase one computer. I think an Ati Radeon HD 5770 ought to do the trick. I hope so because for $269 CDN + tax it is an expensive upgrade.

[Benjamin J 751]

Thanks Benjamin for your feedback. Yes I know that I am seriously due for a video card upgrade. I bought my Mac Pro for the same reasons you bought your iMac. Gaming is secondary to me and I also only wanted to purchase one computer. I think an Ati Radeon HD 5770 ought to do the trick. I hope so because for $269 CDN + tax it is an expensive upgrade.

It suer is expensive! I usually don't like being Apple's RAM for example. I know a guy who can recommend other brands (use sit for his own iMac) that usually are 3 or 4 times as cheap. Apple asks outrageously much for such stuff... The ATI HD5770 is an okay card. While not top of the line, and if my FPS is any indication, you'll see a FPS increase of 10 to 15. I should ad that if you play other games besides FSX, you will see a performance increase in those too. I can get very good performance out of games such as Just Cause 2, Batman Arkham Asylum and Battlefield Bad Company 2. Note that none of these are on maxed settings, but most of them are in the very high range. They look fantastic anyway, and perform really nicely. Hint: turning down shadow quality tends to double your performance!

[Guest TBM930]

It suer is expensive! I usually don't like being Apple's RAM for example. I know a guy who can recommend other brands (use sit for his own iMac) that usually are 3 or 4 times as cheap. Apple asks outrageously much for such stuff... The ATI HD5770 is an okay card. While not top of the line, and if my FPS is any indication, you'll see a FPS increase of 10 to 15. I should ad that if you play other games besides FSX, you will see a performance increase in those too. I can get very good performance out of games such as Just Cause 2, Batman Arkham Asylum and Battlefield Bad Company 2. Note that none of these are on maxed settings, but most of them are in the very high range. They look fantastic anyway, and perform really nicely. Hint: turning down shadow quality tends to double your performance!

Hey Benjamin, thanks for the feedback. All my Ram upgrades btw were not apple ram but other ram bought at Canadaram.com http://www.canadaram.com/macram.html My original ram was Kingston, bought I bought Certified ram without any issues. I also know of hacks out there to make PC Video cards work on Mac's but really don't feel like experimenting on my only one computer! Yes I do play other games such as Wings of Prey and the soon to be released Sturmovik Cliffs of Dover, and X-plane on Mac which runs at 22 FPS without add-ons.

[cast65 0]

Now my new iMac 27 is on the way!3.4GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i74GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x2GB1TB Serial ATA DriveAMD Radeon HD 6970M 2GB GDDR5Say hello to the NGX! :(

[Robinovich 0]

Hello all,I read this post a few weeks ago and I am waiting with interest to see what performance experiences people have had with the new Sandybridge iMacs.Can anyone enlighten me to how FSX runs on the 2011 iMacs?I am at a point where I need to replace my struggling 2009 Core Duo iMac and I would welcome anyones experiences before I commit to new hardware?RegardsRobin

[ExNusquam 11]

There is a hardware forum, and there are numerous other posts in this forum about how FSX runs on all the latest hardware. Simply take the specs from the iMac you are looking at and compare to the information that is floating about the internet. Although, based on your sig, if you are planning on running windows, definitely look into building the computer yourself. It will come in significantly cheaper.

[Robinovich 0]

Thanks Joseph. My posting on this discussion was to try and prompt a response from 'Cast65' who posted before me regarding purchasing a new iMac. I wanted to hear how the 2011 iMacs perform with FSX.I have also posted on the hardware section of this forum for anyones experiences there, and any comparisons from PC hardware. No response as yet...As for buying a PC, much cheaper and faster yes, but unfortunately not an option for me. My job dictates that I have to use a Mac. In an Ideal world I'd have both, my finances dictate I can't...