9 hours ago, newsim737 said:

Additionately what would be the cheapest laptop the run the game on properly?

$2000 for something Windows-based (probably $4000 for a Mac). Anything less will just result in disappointment.

2 hours ago, UrgentSiesta said:

He probably wants a laptop so he can play while away on a trip. 😉

Might be so, doesnt change the problem. They simply dont last as long as Desktops, and very rarely upgradeable or repairable.

1 hour ago, mjrhealth said:

Might be so, doesnt change the problem. They simply dont last as long as Desktops, and very rarely upgradeable or repairable.

The fundamental, literally non-starter problem it DOES solve, though, is mobility.

And FWIW, I have an old Dell gaming laptop that is still going strong about six years on.

I used it for work and simming for several years.

These days it's still my daily driver for work, but still has flight sims installed and ready to go.

Nice thing is that even today, it's significantly overpowered for work duties. 

3 hours ago, UrgentSiesta said:

Dell gaming laptop

Than my son had one. motherboard replaces within 3 months wasnt even gaming with it.

2 hours ago, mjrhealth said:

Than my son had one. motherboard replaces within 3 months wasnt even gaming with it.

Luck of the draw.

I've had literally thousands of laptops pass through my hands.

Apple and MS Surface are tops, IME. Not so good for gaming, though.

The Dell biz and the higher end consumer builds have been extremely dependable, as well.

Edited December 19, 20241 yr by UrgentSiesta

I always had a temptation of one day purchasing a Mac, and since I consider X-Plane as one of my reference flight simulators and it is being developed mostly in Mac, I thought about it a few times, but strangely although I have seen it running in some macbooks and they surely make it look gorgeous in terms of resolution and crispness of the image, performance isn't that spectacular...

A desktop with a good Ryzen processor and a Nvidia RTX, not less than the 3060 Ti would be my recommendation.

RAM, nowadays, 64 GB, although I believe XP12 can live perfectly well with 32 GB RAM.... VRAM is surely more important and my 8GB are low.

 

with the advent of apple silicon Macbook airs and pros are surprisingly cheap now. I see a new 1TB macbook pro with 10 cores is going for something like £1700.

If you go to an apple store they should let you install and test it.

disadvantage - No VR.

1 hour ago, jcomm said:

3060 Ti

If going the desktop route, really not less than a 3070 imho.

Thank you all for the responses! I will go for xplane 12!

6 hours ago, newsim737 said:

Thank you all for the responses! I will go for xplane 12!

Excellent decision!

I really like MSFS, but I always load XP12 when it's about feeling closer to the real thing...

And although default scenery can't even by far compare out of the airports (because most airports are actually very well done and in some aspects I even prefer it to MSFS 2024 default airports, like lighting and the colours) the overall lighting and colours in XP12 look to me closer to the real thing.

Then when it comes to flying / learning sophisticated avionics, the fact that in XP12 you can pop out your avionics screens and resize them to your liking, placing them where you prefer, and interact with them having a rather crisp display and not losing control of the aircraft like in FS 2024, makes a BIG difference !

X-Plane.org is the main source for excellent freeware aircraft, scenery, tools, and from their store you can also get some nice addons. Then there's X-Aviation from where you can get top products like the CL650 if you decide to seriously invest in a "study-level" addon.

And let's not forget that along the ride there's still a lot to enjoy, like with 12.2 the "new generation scenery" !!! ATC improvements, ... It never stops being developed and the team @ LR is growing !!!

Edited December 19, 20241 yr by jcomm

Want to add the simplicity and yet professional look of the interface, very straightforward. All the simulator information on your own disk, that btw is portable!

1 hour ago, jcomm said:

Then when it comes to flying / learning sophisticated avionics, the fact that in XP12 you can pop out your avionics screens and resize them to you liking, placing them where you prefer, and interact with them having a rather crisp display and not losing control of the aircraft like in FS 2024, makes a BIG difference !

What do you mean by losing control of the plane? I have external G1000s and GNS 530 units which I use for procedure training, and I pop out the avionics screens all the time in MSFS. I just tried to put focus on the external popup, and I can still interact with the plane and virtual cockpit without any issues.

Edited December 19, 20241 yr by brinx

16 hours ago, UrgentSiesta said:

The Dell biz and the higher end consumer builds have been extremely dependable, as well.

Business laptops usually much better than the consumer/gaming ones.

Still wish I could get a performance oriented CPU+GPU combo in a business frame, but these are rare. And an all AMD combo, but these are even more rare.

53 minutes ago, brinx said:

What do you mean by losing control of the plane? I have external G1000s and GNS 530 units which I use for procedure training, and I pop out the avionics screens all the time in MSFS. I just tried to put focus on the external popup, and I can still interact with the plane and virtual cockpit without any issues.

I can't, whenever I over my mouse to interact with a popped out screen, I lose control of the controller axis. Is it different if you have multiple display monitors? I can't tell because I use only one monitor 1920 x 1080 ...

Was there in FS 2020 already:

Focus on Pop-Out Window disables Aircraft controls - Bug Reporting Hub / Hardware & Peripherals - Microsoft Flight Simulator Forums

Loss of "Control Focus" when hovering pop out screens ... - Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020/2024) - The AVSIM Community

 

Edited December 19, 20241 yr by jcomm