Hi all, apologies if my question gets asked often. Point me elsewhere if that’s the case.

I’m a real world pilot working on an instrument rating. I have to travel for work and have to take the winter off flight training. I’d like to have a travel capable computer to use as an IFR procedural trainer while on the road. And sure, it also seems like a little bit of fun ... but this is more about utility than fun.

My most recent acquaintance with computer specs is stuck in roughly 1996 when a nice 486dx was pretty sweet... 🙂

So, can anyone give me guidance on a recommendation for laptop specs for XPlane 11 for someone who is not a gamer, wants “adequate” performance with “reasonable” graphics. Nothing fancy but no laggy annoying problems. And who would rather save most of their money for actual flight time instead of a blazing gamer setup.

How much above minimum specs would you recommend? How big should the screen be to allow “decent” functionality when fiddling with a Garmin 430 and VOR OBS spinning.

Even better, anybody have a really good recommendation for an on-the-market laptop that they think meets the needs I’m outlining?

Thanks all.

OMEN by HP - 17-an136ng 

I7, GTX1070. Secondary 27“ monitor for flying. FP settings medium to high, no FPS or stutter problems. See Google for detailed specifications. I have it in use for almost 1.5 years, no problems, I recommend it.

I travelled for most of my career and got into laptops about 2002. My current one MSI) which hasn't seen much use in 18 months (got a high end desktop built now that I'm retired and home) has a I7-8700, Nvidia 1070, 16 gigs ram, 2 M.2 drives and it works well with settings set reasonably high. Infact when home I plugged 34" dell monitor into it and it worked well.

Suggestions.....  Nvidia 20 series w/8gigs, as fast a processor as fits the budget, 32 gigs ram w/16 minimum, 1tb m.2 drives. Check it hasall connection ports that you can get.

One other thing....Check out reviews for how good it's cooling is. At the time I bought mine I found MSi was good.

Cooling is the biggest issue, make sure it has plenty of vent slots not like teh office ones. And if you are using it at home get a laptop stand with fans built in helps a little

If you want to play X-Plane without add-ons, an onbard gfx card (Intel Xe, AMD Vega, Pear M1) is really good enough for about 30 fps at high settings. It`s the best choice for silent laptops. But on the other hand you get (except for AMD) a 1650 gfx laptop for the same money, if you invest 200$ more, you get a 2060 mobile (or 3060 mobile). It depends on your needs.

Edited December 29, 20205 yr by BigDee

5 hours ago, BigDee said:

If you want to play X-Plane without add-ons, an onbard gfx card (Intel Xe, AMD Vega, Pear M1) is really good enough for about 30 fps at high settings. It`s the best choice for silent laptops. But on the other hand you get (except for AMD) a 1650 gfx laptop for the same money, if you invest 200$ more, you get a 2060 mobile (or 3060 mobile). It depends on your needs.

Thanks much all. This is helpful.

 

BigDee, I’m a little clueless, but since it sounds like your recommendations are closest to what I’m thinking, do you have any specific models of off the shelf laptops that fit what you’re describing? Something I can look up and dissect a little bit to start understanding what’s what in reference to everything else?

 

Sorry - 2060 and 3060 is a little greek to me. Or maybe this is just that I need to educate my dumb a** before asking stupid questions. But I’m honestly a little clueless with current computer specs. Thanks much

Orrrrr...should I just go with XPlane 10 if what i really want is training value?

I run X-Plane on three laptops, two are my Macbook Pros (but these aren't cheap devices and are more for work), and the second is a gaming laptop:

https://rog.asus.com/us/Laptops/ROG-Zephyrus/ROG-Zephyrus-S-GX531-Series/

Mine is not exactly this model, it's an older version of it with a 1080, but absolulety no issues running X-Plane on this, and it's small enough to be nicely portable (Although the battery on mine doesn't last long when gaming). I really like the ASUS ROG series of laptops, they work well.

As for going for X-Plane 10, don't... X-Plane 11 now has vulkan which will actually run better and faster if the GPU supports it (most in recent years do). If you're not bothered about pretty visuals and detailed scenery, then you'll be able to run X-Plane 11 on older devices or cheaper laptops.

As for my Macbooks, the earlier one has a fairly weak GPU (An Nvidia 750 with 4GB), you can run X-Plane, but you certainly have to compromise on settings. The newer Macbook runs X-Plane 11 great, but for that price you could get a really top-range gaming laptop.

 

6 hours ago, CerroTorre said:

Orrrrr...should I just go with XPlane 10 if what i really want is training value?

Xplane 11 is far ahead of xplane 10 in flight model, also a lot more efficient with vulcan. Since they are getting developers to tidy up there work, to make it even more efficient so they can do other things. A literal house clean.

6 hours ago, CerroTorre said:

Thanks much all. This is helpful.

 

BigDee, I’m a little clueless, but since it sounds like your recommendations are closest to what I’m thinking, do you have any specific models of off the shelf laptops that fit what you’re describing? Something I can look up and dissect a little bit to start understanding what’s what in reference to everything else?

 

Sorry - 2060 and 3060 is a little greek to me. Or maybe this is just that I need to educate my dumb a** before asking stupid questions. But I’m honestly a little clueless with current computer specs. Thanks much

You tube is your friend. all teh info is on the internet AMD raden cards still have driver issues, hope they get it sorted out one day. A GTX 1070 8 gig vram, 2070 also 8 gig, 1080 8 any of those cards will do, the newer ones tend to run a whole lot hotter for a lot less gain especially in a laptop.

10 hours ago, CerroTorre said:

BigDee, I’m a little clueless, but since it sounds like your recommendations are closest to what I’m thinking, do you have any specific models of off the shelf laptops that fit what you’re describing? Something I can look up and dissect a little bit to start understanding what’s what in reference to everything else?

I red yesterday some benchmarks according to this site:

https://www.notebookcheck.net/X-Plane-11-Benchmarks.287550.0.html

The models with integrated graphics cards I was referring:

AMD Radeon RX Vega 8 (Ryzen 4000)

Intel Iris Xe Graphics G7 96EUs

 

According to that site X-Plane should do 30 frames at HD resolution. But still I have to row back, because I don`t really know how they do really perform and I haven`t found a video in Youtube specifically for X-Plane. So I don`t know if I can recommend an integrated graphics card (the graphics card is built into the CPU). But on the other hand they do run other games quite good:

YouTube

They cheapest models cost 400 to 600$.

 

If you don`t want to spend a lot of money, a laptop with an Nvidia 1650(Ti) is a good choice for X-Plane. But at the moment they do cost 700 to 800$, which is a little much for that kind of graphics card.

 

As for brands for gaming laptops, I think ASUS (but not the TUF Gaming!) MSI and Lenovo are good models. I personally like the Lenovo Legion best.

Here a link to the Lenovo models:

https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/c/LAPTOPS#use1=USAGE_ATTR4

the ASUS models:

https://www.asus.com/Laptops/For-Gaming/ROG-Republic-of-Gamers (but please not the TUF series)

MSI:

https://us.msi.com/Laptops/Products#?tag_multi_select=48602,37791

 

The 2060 is the mid-class graphics card model from Nvidia. It is called Nvidia RTX 2060 and is a good choice for mid-class. But it`s not the best choice right now because in January they will release their newer model, the 3060. 

 

5 hours ago, tonywob said:

https://rog.asus.com/us/Laptops/ROG-Zephyrus/ROG-Zephyrus-S-GX531-Series/

That`s for sure the best of the best :).

 

Edited December 30, 20205 yr by BigDee

BigDee that’s great information. I suppose I’m in the minority on a sim forum that isn’t trying to find the ultimate, fire breathing VR and every peripheral possible kind of setup. Thanks for the recommendations.

I might have a hookup to a lenovo deal. Might go that route.

 

ok i think my last question. How bad is a good laptop (new i7) with a low end nVidia GTX 1650 (Lenovo ideaPad)? I know people on here might have high standards ... so maybe I know the answer already. But...it’s a pretty good price from a friend...

This one...

https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/ideapad/ideapad-gaming-laptops/IdeaPad-Gaming-3i-15”/p/88IPG301387

42 minutes ago, CerroTorre said:

This one...

https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/ideapad/ideapad-gaming-laptops/IdeaPad-Gaming-3i-15”/p/88IPG301387

All I can say is 10th gen run hot our work laptops fans are off srceeching when when drive starts, make sure you get a laptop stand with cooling. helps a tiny bit.