Hi all.  Long time X-Plane user here.

 

Usually prefer to use X-Plane on the Mac, but I'm now running a Windows 8.1 install with X-Plane as I want to also use SimAVIO for touchscreen Avionics on an external monitor (only want to use 1 computer as it's plenty powerful for it all).

 

What I'm noticing is much better performance on the Mac install (10+ fps better) with identical settings, identical setup, everything identical.

 

Have others found Mac better than Windows for X-Plane?

Bumming me out.  Runs so much better on my Mac install but I need to use Windows to do my SimAVIO thing.  :-(

You'll find many comments about better performance on Mac OS and GNU/Linux compared to Windows. I first thought it's because of the better OpenGL graphic driver support and the faster file system. But this may also be related to the bloatware services and the Aero GUI coming with Windows. I don't know. I'm just happy I don't need a proprietary OS.

 

 

Some add-on authors also noticed the same: just read the CRJ-200 manual: Less FPS with Windows.

When I went to windows 8.1 I lost 30% performance.

Went back to 7 pro 64bit, and it's world better. Same settings......

I used to have Windows 7 installed on my Macbook Pro on a bootcamp partititon to run FSX. I had X-Plane running on OS X but decided to try it on Windows also. Performance was worse on Windows than in Mac OS X. I'm not sure why, but it certainly seems to run better

But on my OSX86 Mavericks I'm still stuck with OpenGL 2.1. On Ubuntu I use OpenGL 4.* with Nvidia for years.

If you're using GNU/Linux and if you didn't upgrade to the latest release of your distribution, make sure you have at least new Nvidia drivers. It's very easy to install with a PPA like this one:

https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-x-swat/+archive/x-updates