NGX 737 with ALIENWARE m18x

[SRAces 76]

Andy,Great comments! I agree with all of them! I run Windows 7 64bit off 2 6 GB/SecSATA III solid state drives in RAID 0 mode. FSX is loaded on a 6GB/sec SATA III seperate hard drive. I do have the dll mentioned loaded as well. You can get too involved if you concentrate on an FPS reading on the screen. The key is..."is it smooth and not jittery?". Great points!

[skysurfer 76]

I would not recommend running fsx on a laptop.I am guessing for that money you would throw in that laptop you could get your self a much better and more reliable desktop :)

Right On!

[mikea76 184]

Hi ,Thank you vey much for call your comments above. Well i have an outsite job and I am traveling a lot. Therefore I need a DTR (Desktop Replacment) Laptop. The price for this setup is of course very hugh but I would also invest a little bit in the future.As I can see from the AOA Videos the smoothness of the flightsim is unbeliveable and I would like to have the same system.I have currently have the Asus G73 with the i7 720 QM, ATI 5780 with 1 GB DDR5 RAM and 8 GB of RAM.Honestly I have a good performance at all but if I am trying to land on huge Airports like the DX9 airports from aerosoft e.g. EHAM the performance goes completly down to5-10 fps.These are my intensions why I need a very powerfull Laptop. also from my point of view and reading a lot of hardware testings, it is always the situationt thatn a laptop or gaming laptop you must use more money to get the same performance as a compareable desktop system ... and therefore I am looking for a dtr or gaming laptop.I found my currently Laptop with help of notebookcheck.com. Here are 2 testings with the ati or nvidia cards.They are recommending this laptop from alienwarealso from the haptic and the quality.It is not easyto find the correct system....CheersPascal

OK I see... HMM well I would try to stay away from paying for a name and shop around and find the best laptop you can..

[dmncnpilot 39]

Have a look at the Toshiba Qosmio. I love mine! I'm pro fsx+laptop also, but only because I travel to very remote locations and need my fix, lol. Now that I'm home and back to airline flying I'm looking to get myself a desktop and a tablet. I'm tired of lugging my 20 lbs Qosmio around, lol

[Tabs 2,790]

Ever since Dell bought Alienware, it's always been overpriced and not worth the money.For a thousand dollars you can build something twice as nice in a desktop that runs FSX even better.

Fixed that for you.

[ajpongress 467]

Fixed that for you.

Lol! I guess it's true.I never looked at Alienware closely until I had to build a new pc last winter. I had already researched all the parts and costs and wondered what Alienware was offering for the same price.For the same amount of money (actually their price was a few hundred dollars more), the components were 1/2 as good as what I was buying from Newegg.Sometimes I think all you pay for is the pretty neon lights in the case. Edited February 14, 2012 by trip7cap

[JS212 4]

I have been running the NGX on a Dell 1750 Inspiron without problems. Granted, it isn't as smooth as a PC or higher end laptops. (Which is part of the reason I've just purchased another higher end laptop). Here's my philosophy; If you absolutely must have a laptop, get one. The M18x is nice, but there are cheaper alternatives with the same components. The real question is mobility. I'm typically flying from place to place, and away from home 200 days per year. (If you hate being away from home, don't become an accountant) p.s. Spend the extra money on the extended warranty. Since your on the road like I am, it is critical to be 'up and running' 24/7Good luck with your laptop purchase or whatever you decide to do!

[jturie 0]

Fixed that for you.

heh heh....was thinking the same thing....

[Pascal 0]

Hi,I have a really important question to you all about the VRAM of the graphic card:The more VRAM on my graphic card I have the more trouble I will get with FSX !!?!?!!?And what kind of fix is therefore necessary or available ?CheersPascal

[JetJock_YHZ 0]

I've been running FSX on an Alienware M17X R2 for well over a year now.I didn't just buy the machine to run FSX, but I do spend 100+ nights a year on the road, so a desktop was not an option for me.In additiion to FSX, I run PMDG NGX, Ultimate Traffic 2, GFX, Active Sky 2012 and a few other addons.Overall, I get reasonably good performance. I have never seen it drop below 18 fps in worst case scenarios. The norm is 30+ fps and I am pleased with that, given the machine I am running. Obviously, I do not have all my settings maxed out, but have settled on a nice compromise.Had I not needed portability, I would most certainly have purchased a desktop and could have gotten a lot more for the price I paid for the M17X.Best regards,Carl WarrenWaverley, NS, CanadaAlienware M17X R2Windows 7 Professional 64i7 Q720 @1.60 GHzATI Mobility Radeon HD 58008 Gigs memory

Edited February 15, 2012 by JetJock_YHZ

[Pascal 0]

Hi Guys,thank you very much for all your thoughts on my "laptop project".Finally I´ve made my decsision: I WILL BUY THIS LAPTOP with the Intel® Core™ i7-2960XM overclocked processor and Turbo Boost (8 MB Cache)The only question I have (and many thanks to "wingsoffire" :() is the type of video card.He wrote following:"FSX is a CPU bound 32 bit application which means that can only ever handle 4GB of memory even if you stuff your laptop to the gunnels with RAM. Critically, any Video RAM you have is incluided within this. limit. The net result of this is the more video RAM you have the less VAS is availkable for FSX and you are heading into Blue screen of death territory. Many people are shocked to find out that despite having spend huge sums of money on systems with top of the range graphic cards, FSX runs like a dog with three legs and CTDs every two seconds. The culprit is often a card with huige amounts of vido memory - A BIG card with BIG memory is good for a BIG ego and possiblely SKYRIM but it will be lousy for FSX. There is a tweak youi can put in the config file to limit the vido ram used in VAS but its a faff and I am not convinced it works.2"Then I started an internet search I found many entries for the OOM, VAS and video memory.Because I am not a programmer or developer I will explain to you what I have understood and maybe you can correct me:1.) FSX is a 32bit software2.) FSX will have (and also other 32 bit processes) in a 32bit OS enviroment of windows 4 GB of VAS (virtual adress space)3.) VAS is NOT physical memory4.) in a 32bit enviroment the process will loose 2 GB from the 4 GB VAS, because Windows takes them. The result is that the process will just 2 GB left.5.) in a 64 bit enviroment the process will still have his 4 GB VAS and windows doesen´t take any VAS anymore --> the process (FSX) will have 4GB VAS and has more room for working. That´s why we should all install FSX on a 64 bit machine with Windows 7 64bit.6.) While FSX is running the VAS will be reduced in it´s size by FSX in two different ways: a.) FSX is looking for the video card and it´s video memory: if a card e.g. has 2 GB of VRAM DDR5, than FSX is reserving 2 GB of his 4 GB VAS and will reducing himselfs to a VAS to 2 GB left. b.) all 3rd party addons like airports, Radar contact and so on will reduce the VAS for FSX.7.) Because of the effect of the video memory the video card should not exceet VRAM of 1,5 GB DDR5.8.) BUT: the effect of the video memory can be influenced by a command from ******* Altuve:[DISPLAY.Device.NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580.0]Mode=1920x1080x32VideoMemoryOverride=1073741824This command will reserve just 1 GB of a video memory instead of 2 GB or 3 GB VRAM if the card has this VRAM.Than it is not important how much VRAM a video card has.So these are the points WHAT I THINK I HAVE HOPEFULLY RIGHT UNDERSTOOD. Please correct the above points If I am wrong.What I have NOT understand is following:The m18x Alienware is a SLI System. My old desktop system was a SLI with 2 GTX 8800 from NVIDIA and of course it has no effect on the FSX but for other things like COD etc.What I know is, that it is possible to turn of the SLI within the NVIDIA control center and then I will use in my system just 1 video card for the applications and processes:I wll decide to return back to NVIDIA from Radeon (my current laptop system has a ATI Radeon 5870 1 GB DDR5 VRAM), because NVIDIA can handle the features of AA much more better that ATI. ATI has strong problems with the AA, also when it is not controlled by FSX himself.My first question is now: If it is possible to turn of the video card in a SLI system with each of 2 GB VRAM and I am applying the VideoMemoryOverride=1073741824 command that I must be fine, right ? FSX will have 3 GB left for himself to work in the VAS.To understand this theory of OOM, VAS and video memory I tried to provoke the OOM effect on my laptop (2. Screenshot (Test 2 with VideoMemoryOverride=3221225472) (WIN 7 64 bit, ATI Radeon 5870 1 GB DDR5 VRAM).Therefore I added following command in my fsx.cfg:[DISPLAY.Device.ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5800 Series.0]Mode=1920x1200x32VideoMemoryOverride=3221225472I was not able to provoke the OOM effect!!! WHY !?!?!!?!?(maybe because i do not use many addons, just photoscenery and some airports with MyTrafficX) and I have everytime 2 GB left on my VAS.... !?!!??I attached the results with the attachements.I used the VMMAP tool to monitor the VAS. But maybe I read the tresult not correctly and maybe you can help me also in this case:What I can calculate is the used and the left VAS (?) space ?I use 2 GB and I have still 2 GB left ? :Hypnotized:This ia what I don´t understand from the VideoMemoryOverride=3221225472 command. I expected that FSX has just 1 GB VAS free to work and not the full 4GB....My second question I have: Will the video memory in a SLI system calculated together ? I mean If I have 2 video cards with each of 2 GB VRAM will this total 4 GB VRAM for VAS ? !?!!?Please help me to understand this.Thank you so much for your help!!!! :Peace:CheersPascal

Edited February 19, 2012 by Pascal

[janpitor 2]

Hi, in SLI, if you have two 2GB cards, it counts as 2GB.