Laptop and FSX?

[Trans_27 Pilot Chase 59]

Hi all! Looking to be replacing my desktop sometime in the upcoming months with a laptop. Laptops sure have picked up in power in looks like. Is anyone running a laptop with FSX and getting high detail as well as good performance numbers?

[mjrhealth 820]

Why Laptops are no good. ( Except for work ). If it breaks it has to go back to shop to fix. If my desktop breaks i replace the broken bit.Although video cards are improving they are still limited by heat and power consumption. Because of heat generation there life expectancy is shortened, very hard to get rid of heat thats why pcs have big fans you cant fit in a laptop. I am sure that laptops still used shared ram for the video, which means you need to get at least 2 gig to get descent performance. Unless you travel a lot my advice is get a descent pc, less headaches.

[Guest AkeldamaUK]

I'm running FSX on a latop, as my new lappy is better than my desktop machine - despite the 7600GT being pretty strong still.The Laptop has 2GB RAM, 7600Go and an Intel Core 2 Duo T5500 and if I run on full everything (except AI - 15% Just Flight Traffic - and no autogen) I get 40-60fps.With autogen on I still get perfectly flyable frames. Mostly 20+

[dbw1 445]

I've been using a laptop as my only computer for 5+ years and been pleased with how it has worked out. Laptop performance can be very good - on par with desktops - if you get one with enough horsepower. I currently have a hp dv9000 (t7200 2.0, 512mb nvidia 7600, 2 gigs ram, 2-120 gig hd, hi-res screen) that runs fs9 superbly and fsx with sliders midway up or better and getting low teens to mid 20's fps with addon aircraft such as b767 level d, feethere citation x and just recently the atr72. I travel a lot and carry it in a pelican hardcase #1495 which imho is an absolute must. Best of luck in your decision. I am very happy with a laptop. One more note is when at home I plug it into a 20" lcd monitor. Works great. Dave

[byork 2,259]

I don't own it (yet) but it looks like the new Asus G1S (S is for Santa Rosa) should be able to handle FSX quite nicely.Cheers,Bryan

[Guest djt01]

I bought a Dell XPS M1710 from Dell a couple of months ago for work. This machine definitely proved worthy of its

[Guest chrome_saint]

I use an HP dv9000 as well. Mine is the T5500 Core 2 1.67GHz model with 2GB of system RAM and a 256MB NVidia Go 7600. It has a 17" widescreen 1440x900 display. I have had both HP Media Center 2005 (XP) and now Vista Home Premium on it and neither has really made a noticeable difference in performance. I can lock the framerate at 40-45 with medium settings and no autogen or at 25 with Normal Autogen and 30-40% AI.I mainly use a 20" Viewsonic 2025wm external LCD and my CH products Flight Yoke and they work great. I can even run it in dual screen mode with only a 5-10fps hit which allows me to undock and drag the GPS, radio stack, etc to the laptop monitor while I use the larger screen for flying.The game and Vista has used a max of 1.3Gb of RAM during operation so 2GB is really mandatory. The Go7600 in 256Mb trim is acceptable but is a small bottleneck. If I make the window FSX runs in smaller the framerates will up significantly. I never run it in "fullscreen mode" but rather just keep it in a window a little smaller than the display. That seems to boost the fps by about 5 or so. The limiting factor is most certainly the 1.6GHz Core 2 processor. With the price drop on Intel quad and dual core chips on July 22 I may build a dedicated desktop FSX rig. The prices I understand will be cut about in half from thier current level. So a Q6600 will be in the upper $200 range instead of close to $500.In short though, don't hesitate to buy a laptop to play on. Just make sure it has a 7xxx series Core 2 Duo, 2GB of RAM and a dedicated video card like an Nvidia 7600, 7900 or one of the new 8xxx series mobile cards. I think I paid around $1400 for mine back in November so you should be able to get a similar one for $1200 on the low end or upwards of $2500 for one of the ones sporting the faster video cards.

[Guest Redvan]

see my laptop specs in siggy.I run FSX with autogen tweak down to about 400 200, and a couple other cfg tweaks. Sliders for scenery mid range (including autogen), no traffic, 1024x812 resolution (or whatever the numbers are exactly). I keep a consistant 20fps quite stutter free as of now, dependent on where I fly. For now, it works, and considering my laptop is 2 years old, I'd say I get pretty good performance. If you get a brand new laptop, ATI or GeForce high end mobile card with dedicated memory, 2 gig RAM (more if possible), duo core processor, 7200rpm HD, you should get decent performance.Heat is an issue, I have an antec cool pad I run on. My keyboard will get warm, but not dangerously hot, unless I bump my graphics up, then it'll get hot (but will also stutter).I'd only use laptop for FSX if you need a laptop for other mobile uses. Desktop will always beat out a laptop, hands down.Like I said, as others have said, laptops have come a long way and will run it decently, but I wouldn't say as good as a brand new desktop.

[Guest RBridgers]

I've also got a HP dv9000, but it's one of the slow ones (1.6 gHz Turion dualcore, integrated Geforce Go 6150). It works okay; I can get 15-18 fps most of the time by tweaking. FSX is CPU-bound, but make sure you get a decent dedicated graphics card because laptop GPUs are usually non-replaceable.

[FlyingsCool 3]

I'm part of the laptop crew. I've got a much better desktop upstairs, but I find myself using my old laptop more and more with FSX (I guess because now I'm doing more development and testing again.), mostly because I like to be in the thick of what's going on around the house, and my desktop is tucked away in the corner. Plus, when I travel, it's great to be able to bring the flight simulator along (I use an XBox 360 as a controller, even around the house).I've been using a Dell Lattitude now for 3 or 4 years. Thank god I bought the Complete Care. They've replaced my whole computer twice now, and the motherboard a couple of times. I'm a little rough on my laptops. No matter what you do to it, when it's under complete care, they'll come out and fix it for you next day, or replace it if it needs it (that takes about 2 weeks or so depending). It was definately worth it and has been a life saver for me.My current laptop (Dell Lattitude D810 1.86 GHz Pentium M/2 GB/64 MB ATI X300 mobility) is really too slow for FSX (I have to fly with autogen off and lock it at 15 fps), but the new ones run it just fine. I installed FSX for a customer on a Toshiba P105 Sattelite T7200/256 MB 7900 Go, and it runs great, nearly as good as my desktop (before OC).Go for the fastest processor you can afford, and the most video memory you can afford, and you should be good to go. I highly recommend the Dell XPS 1710 with 512 MB 7900 Graphics, but you'll be looking at around $3,000 for it.Thomas[a href=http://www.flyingscool.com] http://www.flyingscool.com/images/Signature.jpg [/a]I like using VC's :-)N15802 KASH '73 Piper Cherokee Challenger 180

[Guest Andre77ab]

I've the same hardware configuration on my laptop (based on Clevo M570U),...just a question:1- are you using Vista? if yes which version?2- which is your video (Nvidia) driver version?Thanks a lotAndy

[FlyingsCool 3]

Hi,I bought it in the beginning of December, and made sure it had XP on it, because many of the applications I use are not yet (even still) Vista compatible.I gave the machine the system almost as soon as I got it, after I set up with FS9 and FSX. I just went with the installed video drivers at the time and there were no updates at the time. I don't have the machine right now so I don't know what it has.But it had good framerates at the time, between 20 - 30 in the Boston area. I locked it at 30. It could get up to 40 and above in rural areas, but I like to lock low to give some headroom for areas with lots of scenery.The machine was just a loaner and I'll be refitting it again some time this week or next, loading SP1, etc. for somebody else.Thomas[a href=http://www.flyingscool.com] http://www.flyingscool.com/images/Signature.jpg [/a]I like using VC's :-)N15802 KASH '73 Piper Cherokee Challenger 180

[Guest Shaste]

How did you get fs9 to run on your DV9000 with the Nvidia 7600? I have been trying for months and everything seems fine except that when I go Fly the instrument panel will not display. Did you have that problem and what did you do to correct it?Thanks.

[Guest CocoLoco]

Given what most people are saying, can I expect the following laptop spec to work reasonably well with FSX (given that I'm currently puttering along on an AMD 3700+ and an X800 video card)? - 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo - 2GB memory - 160GB 7200rpm HD - NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT + 256MB VRAMThanksDavid

[FlyingsCool 3]

I would say yes. But it's you who'll have to decide what you think is reasonably well. But I was very happy with FSX RTM on the above noted Toshiba; which your config handily overcomes.Thomas[a href=http://www.flyingscool.com] http://www.flyingscool.com/images/Signature.jpg [/a]I like using VC's :-)N15802 KASH '73 Piper Cherokee Challenger 180