Intel HD Graphics on newish laptops good enough?

[VeryBumpy 272]

See some threads but no conclusive answer or feedback if the < 1 year old laptops can run default FSX Gold at medium to high settings?

 

Not max, not heavy airports, not PMDG; just something nice in decent FSX standards.

[Bert Pieke 7,584]

Not with integrated graphics,  but yes,  with a mobile nvidia card..

 

There are a number of folks who use a laptop as their FSX computer and report

good results.

[VeryBumpy 272]

This doesn't seem so bad. Looks like he's running in DX10 mode too.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xph-heSsHcI

[Bert Pieke 7,584]

Framerate counter is in the single digits at times... that would not make for comfortable flight..

 

Depends on what your expectations are  ^_^

[outofphaze 4]

The way in which you ask the question makes it impossible to answer, because it all depends on what you expect of your sim.

 

I can make FSX run on pretty much any system that's not older than let's say 10ish years, and on a decent frame rate too.

 

Off course it won't look nice at all, and you will be missing lots of sim objects.

 

So sure, it will run it.

 

Will it run it at a level where I would find it acceptable to use? Not even close.

[Lashrathius 49]

See some threads but no conclusive answer or feedback if the < 1 year old laptops can run default FSX Gold at medium to high settings?

 

Not max, not heavy airports, not PMDG; just something nice in decent FSX standards.

 

Like what outofphaze has written, FSX will run on most machines. What you should consider is quality.

 

For example, on my gaming pc (one in my signature), I run my addon aircraft and scenery (weather, traffic, airports... etc) with sliders near max and getting high frame rates.

HOWEVER, when I'm on the go and using my laptop to show some of my software, I install low res clouds, I don't use addon scenery at all and my AI traffic remains at minimal. Reason? FSX will not run as "smooth" as compared with my desktop.

 

So - yes - you can go with a laptop with Intel HD Graphics. But keep in mind what kind of quality are you expecting.

[addman 33]

FSX ran better on my Mac Mini (bootcamp win7) i7 with intel hd 4000 than on my AMD FX-6300, Geforce GTX 660 PC, go figure. FSX is all CPU and even a modest GPU will run FSX well.

 

P.S I would also like to say for those of you who doubt this, if you have an ivy bridge or haswell i5 or i7, take out your dedicated graphics card and install the latest drivers for your intel hd 4/5xxx igp and see for yourselves. And no, don't try to crank up AA and AF in some external tool, just use the in-game options. The only "problem" I've had while using the integrated intel hd 4xxx is the irritating texture shimmering you'll get on the ground. It's bearable but only just.

[FLEX1978 373]

That's nonsense  addman.. You don't just whack in a modern card and away you go, you have to configure the sim to make optimal use of the card.

[DocBird 79]

FSX runs on my laptop (i3-CPU @ 2.4 ghz) with IntelHD grafic better than what I have expected!

 

I installed Orbx FTX-Global, Vector and Pilots Mesh and stick to the default planes and it can run most sceneries on medium to higher details at 15 to 25 fps. Yes I have not installed REX and stayed away from complex airport add-ons and planes! Keep your water settings low (1.x) and LOD at max (no tweaks in the cfg). I didn't try out Dx10 by now. Don't use too much AI-traffic (cars, boats and planes) and avoid HD-textures and you should be good to go!

 

But for FSX-to-go it is well worth the try!

 

P.S. I use a xBox360-Controler when I am on the road

[VeryBumpy 272]

Well, I just ordered a new Toshiba laptop to replace my old 14 in. 2007 HP Compaq 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300 model. For the extra $75 I opted for the addin nVidia GT740 card.

 

On the new 15in screen, I had a hard time choosing between the 1080p and 768p as screen resolutions. High res demands more performance but cockpits looks so much better in high res.

 

Anxious to see how FSX will do on this new Toshiba.

[VeryBumpy 272]

So got to do a bunch of testing on my new laptop.

 

1 Satellite P50 Satellite P50 $879.99
    AT0032 4 cell lithium-ion Battery      

CAM0019 HD webcam and microphone      

COLOR0072 Prestige Silver in Brushed Aluminum

      CPU0406 Intel Core i7-4700MQ quad core processor  

    GFX0091 Nvidia GT 740M 2GB dedicated graphics with Optimus

      HDD0087 500GB 5400RPM SATA hard drive  

    KEY0021 Frameless Raised Tile Keyboard with LED backlight

      LAN0002 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet LAN

      LCD0095 15.6" 1920x1080 Trubrite LED backlit LCD

      MEM0136 12GB (8GB+4GB) 1600MHz DDR3L memory

      ODD0004 DVD Supermulti drive +/- double layer  

    OS0132 Windows 8.1

      PCB0106 Motherboard type 2

      PEN0007 No touch screen

      SEGM0002 Segment 2  

    SPKR0001 harman/kardon stereo speakers

      WARR0014 1 year standard warranty

      WLAN0007 Wireless b/g/n Wi-Fi with Bluetooth 4.0

 

What I've see so far with FSX at same exact settings:

 

On Intel Integrated 4600

stutters badly in cloudy weather

frame rate in cloudy weather is 10 -15fps

CPU frequency is steady at 2.1GHz jumping DOWN to 1.3GHz every 2 sec or so

 

On nVidia GT740M

very smooth frame rate in cloudy weather with VERY seldom hitch

frame rate in cloudy weather is 27-30fps (is set to 30fps limit in fsx)

CPU frequency is steady at 2.4GHz jumping UP to 3.1GHz every 4 sec or so

 

Going to compare some heavy airport areas next......