boxsmasher From United States of America, joined Aug 2002, 50 posts, RR: 0 Posted (7 months 1 week 6 days 3 hours ago) and read 6410 times:
Hello, I am looking for recommendations for the best laptop to run FSX. I know desktops are the way to go but I travel more than half the month and have lots of down time to run FSX. I assume that laptop technology finally caught up with FSX and it is now possible to run the game with acceptable frame rates on a portable laptop. Money is not a factor….just weight and power. Thank you in advance for your help.
boxsmasher From United States of America, joined Aug 2002, 50 posts, RR: 0 Reply 2, posted (7 months 1 week 5 days 23 hours ago) and read 6384 times:
Wow! An i3 and you can get 30 fps??? I wonder how much better an i7 will perform with a higher end video card. Anyone running an i7 and care to share their results and laptop specs?
nickh From United States of America, joined Jun 2008, 98 posts, RR: 0 Reply 5, posted (7 months 1 week 5 days 19 hours ago) and read 6366 times:
For quite some time, I ran Xplane on my Linux machines, but then I got the craving for MS Flight Simulator/X again, so I bought an HP ENVY 15 from Costco for $899 and upgraded the RAM from the default 8GB to 16GB of DDR3/DC RAM from Crucial Systems. $220.
Total cost after the 16GB RAM upgrade was $1100, because I also bought an external 64GB SSD Drive w/ERS hardware write-back cache, I use it for ReadyBoost under Windows 7 Premium, just as a performance/caching help. Not really necessary with this machine but the heck with it I bought it.
The HP ENVY 15 is a nice machine, reasonably light, nice 15.6"-inch 1920x1080 LED Backlit native display, dual switchable graphics (Intel integrated graphics card for power saving applications, but the HP also has an ATI RADEON 7690M dedicated GPU w/1GB DDR5 VRAM) + a nice white back-lighted LED Keyboard ala a Macbook/PRO.
It has that "Beats Audio" Dual 'subwoofer' thing, but since I always use my Sennheiser PXC-350s or Sony Studio Reference headphones anyway, it is of no consequence.
For flight controllers, I use the Microsoft SIDEWINDER Dual-Strike USB, and the Microsoft SIDEWINDER Force Feedback/USB with Motion Sensing (they don't make that one any more - real shame). They are about $150/each if you find them on eBay.
The HP ENVY 15 has a Core i7-2.20gHz/3.10gHz Sandy Bridge 2nd Generation CPU/Bridge - it's pretty quick for a small, compact machine.
syncmaster From United States of America, joined Jul 2002, 1983 posts, RR: 14 Reply 6, posted (7 months 1 week 4 days 22 hours ago) and read 6311 times:
I actually run it via Parallels on my 15" MacBook Pro, my FPS is capped at 20 but it has no problem staying there (and I've never tried anything above) and all of the graphic settings are on the highest possible. The newest model is 5.6 lbs.
With low settings, maybe. And that's being generous.
I'm running an i7-720QM on my laptop (a 2010 Toshiba A665 with 4GB RAM plus a dedicated 1GB Nvidia GeForce 330M card) and can barely get 15-20 fps running FSX with most options set at medium to high settings.
Of course it makes FS9 its bitch in most cases, and that's what I bought it for. But there are even some times in high-density airports with clouds and traffic set to high where 20fps is all it can muster.
"In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem - government IS the problem." - Ronald Reagan
To be fair, your graphics card is grossly underpowered compared to the rest of the computer. You can have i19 if you wish, but without a solid graphics card, all that power is going to waste. You would want something like a 560M to complement an i7.
The light at the end of tunnel turn out to be a lighted sing saying NO EXIT
EA CO AS From United States of America, joined Nov 2001, 12556 posts, RR: 64 Reply 10, posted (6 months 3 weeks 2 days 13 hours ago) and read 5546 times:
Quoting Fabo (Reply 9): Quoting EA CO AS (Reply 8):
To be fair, your graphics card is grossly underpowered compared to the rest of the computer. You can have i19 if you wish, but without a solid graphics card, all that power is going to waste. You would want something like a 560M to complement an i7.
FSX performance is highly CPU-centric, though; while graphics cards help, the CPU is what typically determins framerates in FSX.
"In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem - government IS the problem." - Ronald Reagan
Fabo From Slovakia, joined Aug 2005, 1111 posts, RR: 1 Reply 11, posted (6 months 2 weeks 6 days 23 hours ago) and read 5403 times:
Quoting EA CO AS (Reply 10): FSX performance is highly CPU-centric, though; while graphics cards help, the CPU is what typically determins framerates in FSX.
Not that much, at least not anymore. Especially with all the new sceneries and exquisite aircraft models. Plus it is not like FSX can really utilize modern processors as well as it should. It was concieved in a different time...
The light at the end of tunnel turn out to be a lighted sing saying NO EXIT
EA CO AS From United States of America, joined Nov 2001, 12556 posts, RR: 64 Reply 12, posted (6 months 2 weeks 6 hours ago) and read 5143 times:
Quoting Fabo (Reply 11): Quoting EA CO AS (Reply 10):FSX performance is highly CPU-centric, though; while graphics cards help, the CPU is what typically determins framerates in FSX.
Not that much, at least not anymore. Especially with all the new sceneries and exquisite aircraft models.
All due respect, you clearly have no idea what you're talking about. Users in every FS forum in the world will tell you FSX's performance is EXTREMELY dependent on the CPU, not the GPU. Yes, you need a halfway decent GPU, but even the best GPU won't get you good framerates on FSX without a very strong CPU running the show.
"In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem - government IS the problem." - Ronald Reagan
Fabo From Slovakia, joined Aug 2005, 1111 posts, RR: 1 Reply 13, posted (6 months 1 week 4 days 23 hours ago) and read 5143 times:
With all due respect, I actually know about inner workings of FS than most users. Yes, a good CPU is important, but, especially if you use a lot of "latest&greatest" add-ons, GPU is equally important.
Otherwise there are those users that get i7 CPUs "because you should invest less in GPU and more in CPU" and pair it wih some budget 430 card, then install newest Mega Airport, put every possible texture to 4096 resolution in REX, and wonder why is it stuttering...
The light at the end of tunnel turn out to be a lighted sing saying NO EXIT
EA CO AS From United States of America, joined Nov 2001, 12556 posts, RR: 64 Reply 14, posted (6 months 1 week 2 days 15 hours ago) and read 5143 times:
So tell me this;
1. Can you upgrade that 330M to a different GPU in a stock factory laptop?
2. Is it even worthwhile to do so?
"In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem - government IS the problem." - Ronald Reagan
bueb0g From United Kingdom, joined Jul 2010, 530 posts, RR: 0 Reply 16, posted (5 months 4 weeks 1 day 11 hours ago) and read 5143 times:
Quoting EA CO AS (Reply 14): 1. Can you upgrade that 330M to a different GPU in a stock factory laptop?
You technically could, but there would be a very slim range of other chips that would fit in there, and you'd probably have to do it yourself. Most laptops are built inside specifically for the hardware they come with (apart from the RAM) and it's very difficult to swap things out, generally due to logistical considerations, like the way the heatsink is designed, etc... If you can find a better GPU that will fit in your laptop (ask on a different forum, Tom's hardware or something) then yes you could technically do it (but again, you'd have to do that yourself and it would certainly void the warranty).
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But there are even some times in high-density airports with clouds and traffic set to high where 20fps is all it can muster.
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