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767lover

FSX and PMDG on macbook pro vs PC

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Hi,I am new to this forum, but have been eagerly following the recent topics on the exciting upcoming 737NGX (which looks brilliant). I'm about to purchase new mobile hardware to run FSX and PMDG products. My eye is on the ASUS G73SW, which has an Intel i7 2630 processor, 8GB of RAM and an nVIDIA GTX460M 1.5GB DDR5 videocard. This laptop is supposed to run the latest games quite well. On the other hand, I really like the new macbook pro's. For instance, the one that I could afford is the macbook pro 15", which also has a quad core i7 processor, but only 4GB of RAM and a lesser graphics card (AMD Radeon HD6490). My question is, would FSX, with some add-ons, like a PMDG NGX and perhaps some add-on scenery, run fluidly on a Macbook pro, at high settings? Any experience?Thanks a lot,Dirk L.

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If you install Windows whatever with Boot Camp on a MBP, FSX will run, but there are some hiccups in the frame rate.


Kenny Lee
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Dirk.I use the MacBook Pro 15" to do the graphic development for the NGX. I added 4 Gigs of ram to it and replaced the HD with a 750GB 7200rpm drive. (You could order one with the 7200rpm HD from Apple). Runs the NGX smoothly at KSFO and EGKK add-on airports with Ultimate Traffic set at 90%. Running 64bit Windows 7 Home Premium.Pete Mac PaintPMDG Graphic Designer

Hi,I am new to this forum, but have been eagerly following the recent topics on the exciting upcoming 737NGX (which looks brilliant). I'm about to purchase new mobile hardware to run FSX and PMDG products. My eye is on the ASUS G73SW, which has an Intel i7 2630 processor, 8GB of RAM and an nVIDIA GTX460M 1.5GB DDR5 videocard. This laptop is supposed to run the latest games quite well. On the other hand, I really like the new macbook pro's. For instance, the one that I could afford is the macbook pro 15", which also has a quad core i7 processor, but only 4GB of RAM and a lesser graphics card (AMD Radeon HD6490). My question is, would FSX, with some add-ons, like a PMDG NGX and perhaps some add-on scenery, run fluidly on a Macbook pro, at high settings? Any experience?Thanks a lot,Dirk L.

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While the Asus is good for just about every game out there, I have my doubts about it in fsx. I have the less powerful i7-720qm with a 1 gig GPU. So, not that much less powerful than your computer. And let me tell you.... it gets TERRIBLE performance in FSX. Now that my laptop is a year old and started slowing down, I have basically given up FSX entirely because it is unusable. If you must get a laptop, I would consider a windows laptop with an i5 CPU and a similar GPU, if a faster i5 is available. FSX is all clock speed, and I doubt the .4 ghz difference between my 720qm and the 2630 will be particularly great. And the extra 4 gig or RAM wont make that much of a difference as well.Ask yourself... do you need a laptop? Or can you get a desktop? Do you plan to game in general, or just FSX?Daniel


Daniel Miller

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I use a Mac Book Pro 15" with the i7 and 4gb of ram, I also use Orbx scenery for Australia and North America. As a rule I generally only use add on aircraft. When flying in Australia the frame rates are reasonable at around 18 > 22. Using Orbx North America the frame rate counter has reached 50 +.The only issue I seem to have which drives me mad is skeleton aircraft, not all of them or all the time, its perfect from within the cockpit but if I switch to an out side view all I get is a cockpit plus a few other bits floating in the air. It can be very disconcerting some times.Norm EylesSydney Australia

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The biggest issue with FSX on laptops is CPU speed - you can't overclock a laptop because of thermal constraints so you're stuck at whatever the stock speed for your CPU is. No Mac will let you overclock either btw, even the Mac Pro.


Ryan Maziarz
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Dirk. I use the MacBook Pro 15" to do the graphic development for the NGX. I added 4 Gigs of ram to it and replaced the HD with a 750GB 7200rpm drive. (You could order one with the 7200rpm HD from Apple). Runs the NGX smoothly at KSFO and EGKK add-on airports with Ultimate Traffic set at 90%. Running 64bit Windows 7 Home Premium. Pete Mac Paint PMDG Graphic Designer
do you have the 2011 macbook pro or the 2010 one? I currently have a 2010 MBP 15'' with the highest configuration of that generation, do you think i can run NGX with high effects smoothly?

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BTW I´m thinking of acquiring the new Macbook air (i5 | 4GB RAM | 256 GB HDD) and also upgrading my desktop (oc´ed i5 2600k with 8 gb RAM, 1 gb Nvidia GPU and SDD etc).Will I be able to run Topcat, ASE, nd Squawkbox/Ivap off the Mac while leaving the desktop dedicated to FSX?

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The biggest issue with FSX on laptops is CPU speed - you can't overclock a laptop because of thermal constraints so you're stuck at whatever the stock speed for your CPU is. No Mac will let you overclock either btw, even the Mac Pro.
Exactly the point I was going to make, a desktop is much more flexible.

Jude Bradley
Beech Baron: Uh, Tower, verify you want me to taxi in front of the 747?
ATC: Yeah, it's OK. He's not hungry.

X-Plane 11 X-Plane 12 and MSFS2020  🙂

System specs: Windows 11  Pro 64-bit, Ubuntu Linux 20.04 i9-9900KF  Gigabyte Z390 RTX-3070-Ti , 32GB RAM  1X 2TB M2 for X-Plane 12,  1x256GB SSD for OS. 1TB drive MSFS2020

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I used laptops pretty exclusively from 2001 - 2009 as I traveled a lot. The last one I had built was in 2008 with an overclockable quad core, dual video cards, 4 gigs ram, 1920x1200 res 17" display etc from a now defunct company called Killer Notebooks. Better part of $4K then. This machine still runs FSX with sliders well up, Orbix scenery, pmdg aaircraft, traffic program etc. Key for a laptop is buying as much horsepower right at the beginning as there are few that can be upgraded - this one of mine can be but I bought top of the line internals on day 1. Still happy with it though now I have a high end desktop for home use. Used a notebook cooler - horsepower creates lots of heat. When one was not available I got a couple of 1x2" pieces of wood to get it up off the table to let more air get at it. At home I plugged a 24" monitor into it with no performance problems. Used a Pelican case when travelling. At that time I flew forest fire suppresion aircraft for 6 months/year and every morning packed up and threw all my gear in the aircraft....never knew for sure where you'd finish the day. Pelican case is superb protection for a laptop. Sometimes going in for a drop on a fire it would be so rough it was difficult to talk to the guy sharing your cockpit but laptop survived just fine with the pelican case. Case is also waterproof. Long answer to a short question but there are lots of affordable laptops available today that will run FSX just fine. Dave

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