I migrated to iMac 27 3.2ghz back in November and I'm really missing my FS9! Does anyone have experience using it as I describe in the title? This is what I would like to do, but I'm worried about F.P.S. and also about any possible overheating problems. Thanks for any tips/advice!

I run FS9 on a 24'' iMac and it runs pretty well. FSX is a washout though - slideshow central. The screen on the iMac is really nice and on a 27'' would be pretty awesome I'd imagine in terms of immersion. My FS9 is also heavily added to, with REX, UTX, GE Pro, ASE, Pro Flight Emulator and I only fly from good add on airports with AES in the iFly 737, PMDG 747 and MD11 from which I get a reasonably steady 20 fps.Downsides are that the top left corner where the video card sits does get very hot and occasionally I get OOM errors as the iMac is not a gaming machine by any stretch of the imagination. I'd imagine your hardware inside is probably a bit better than mine (512mb ATI, 4GB RAM, C2Duo 2.9Ghz) so yours will probably do a bit better. I love OSX and I'd never want to go back to Windows so I'll have to soldier on with FS9 for a while yet as I can't justify thousands on a top drawer Windows gaming rig that would never be used for anything else. Seeing as FSX looks like being the end of the line for Flight Sim on Windows with the anti-climax that is 'Flight' there might be an opportunity to look at X Plane in the future which I can install on a Mac Pro or something which would be better suited to gaming. PMDG are working on it, as are Aerosoft and others so I'm sure it'll only be a matter of time until we can say farewell to bootcamp!

Thanks very much for your helpful and interesting answer. I will give it a go and buy a copy of windows 7. I just hope my yoke will work on the iMac too. Cheers!

I have both rudder pedals and a yoke from CH and they work fine out of the box. Enjoy!

HI - I'm about to purchase a copy of Windows 7. Should I buy the 64 bit or 32 bit?Or does it not matter?Thanks for any further advice!

HI - I'm about to purchase a copy of Windows 7. Should I buy the 64 bit or 32 bit?Or does it not matter?Thanks for any further advice!

Wait for someone with some experience in this to answer, but Win7 is great with 64 bit because you can use more memory with FS. Not sure how that translates into Imac.....

I run XP but plenty of mac bods run Win 7 in both flavours with no issues.

Edited February 25, 201214 yr by BenW

Many people tend to think that because it's an iMac, there's a reason that Windows things won't be compatible. This is however completely false. An iMac is a computer, just like any HP or Dell, it's a box with various plastics and metals in it that enable you to use it. The thing that makes a difference is the OS. As soon as you try to use Windows stuff on a OS X, it's not going to work. But, if you install Windows on a Mac and use the Windows stuff n there, it will work the same as on any Dell and HP.So, to summarize:- FS2004 will work;- All addons will work;- your yoke, pedals and joystick will work.Finally, 64bit is the future. Only go for 32bit if your processor can't handle it, and I can safely say that any recently bought Mac will have a 64bit CPU. OS X has been 64 bit for several years now!As I said, the iMac is just a machine. You can install any OS on it you want, be that OS X, Windows or a Linux variant, and it will all work. Why? Because an iMac is the same thing as a Dell or HP, except it looks much better on the outside. Do note that I'm ignoring the fact that an OS can't by default run on any type of hardware. Windows can't run on ARM processors, for example. However, all iMacs and MacBooks have hardware that is standard for other PCs, which is why I didn't want to go into it to much. It is however the reason that pre-Intel Macs couldn't run Windows: Windows couldn't run on Motorola processors.

Thanks guys for the info. Thank you too, Thralni for your very comprehensive and helpful post. These forums are great!I am going to install the 64 bit version, and then start downloading all my add-ons again. I may be gone some time!!Cheers everyone :-)

Whoops! One more question! When I run bootcamp, how many Gb of space should I dedicate to the installation of Windows 7, and also allowing for enough for FS9 and any other add ons etc.I have 1Tb drive on my Mac, so would 400Gb be enough? Finder is reporting that I currently have 870Gb of free space...tks again guys...

I run Windows 7 32bit OS using bootcamp on my iMac just fine. I allocated 200Gb of space, so 400 is plenty. I use FSX much more than FS9, but it works great. My system was purchased in 2009.... Core2duo 3.2GHZ, 4Gigs ram, ATI Radeon HD4670HD mobility video card (imacs are built with notebook parts due to the condensed architecture)...windows only sees 3GB Ram due to it not being 64bit. I regret that decision. Using nick's guide for tweeking with Bojote tweaks, I can run FSX pretty well. FS9 runs great, FSX...Well, very acceptable, but the clouds kill FPS in FSX. You should be fine in FS9. It is late, so I don't have time right now to go into specific detail (sorry for that). One thing I can tell you is you need to download the mobilty drivers from ati for the video card (providing that you have an ati card in your machine) to get the acceleration from your card set up. Generic drivers will leave you in Slideshow land. Have a long work day tomorrow. I hope this helped never the less. Have great night.Best, Jeff

Edited February 26, 201214 yr by moss1

Thanks Jeff (moss1)......I wasn't aware of the issue with the graphics card. I do have an ATI card in my iMac. I will have to research this in more detail as I'm not familiar with installing and downloading drivers in Mac OS X. Whenever I've done this on a pc - it's always gone pear-shaped on me! Makes me a bit nervous. When you have a minute, if you can point me to a website/forum that might offer tips on this process, I would be most grateful! Thanks again.