FSX on iMac

[semancik]

I'm thinking about buying an iMac and am wondering if anyone has any info as to how well FSX will run on it. I've got my own copy of Windows.

[jmiked]

FSX can be installed and runs if you use Bootcamp (i.e., not a virtual machine). People have had varying degrees of success, but the graphics cards in Macs aren't really all that great for the MS flight sims.

Neither FS9 or FSX will even install on a Mac using any of the virtual machines (although I've only tried Parallels). They don't support DX9 as of yet.

You might investigate X-Plane, it's pretty good and is written on a Mac (and runs on a Mac, Windows, and Linux).

You might do a Google search on "run fsx on a mac"; you'll get a number of hits that will give you some info.

[Jun aka Pekto]

I'm thinking about buying an iMac and am wondering if anyone has any info as to how well FSX will run on it. I've got my own copy of Windows.

If you do buy a new iMac, make sure it's the 27". That model comes with a 512mb ATI HD 4850.

The 21" comes with a less-capable HD 4670.

The 4850 is a bit slower than my HD 5770. I game at a low resolution of 1440x900 (19" monitor). With the HD 5770, I still don't have the autogen slider all the way to the right. I keep it at dense. Traffic is minimal since I tend to "fly" around regional/municipal airports. I get good frame rates.

If I fly around huge international airports where there's a lot of structures and traffic, the frame rates can drop down to single digits unless I dial down some settings.

The 27" iMac comes with a quadcore. My pc as per my sig is a triplecore. You may get better performance on a 27" iMac than mine.

Sample of where I fly in with good frame rates in attachment. Notice the amount of clouds. The frame rate is locked at 24. Unlocked, it's in the low 30's near ground level and improves further higher up.

It won't be that good though at JFK. :D If you do a lot of heavies at crowded places, you're better off with a dedicated nVidia card-equipped pc unless you dial down detail settings.

[Jun aka Pekto]

Hmmm. Maybe JFK was a poor example. I tried taking off from JFK expecting a slideshow. Well, I cleared the skies using default FSX scenery, added 60% each for Airline and General Aviation Traffic, Medium setting for airport vehicles, and 20% for the rest just to give a semblance of a bustling airport.

My frame rate dropped to 8 fps at one instance during takeoff. But, it was mostly in the teens. I did a flyby at FL005 AGL and the frame rates were in the mid-upper teens, occasionally dropping down to 12. In short it wasn't chugging much at all, at least by my limits.

I guess it's not as bad as I thought. That 27" iMac should do okay since it's not that far off from my pc performance-wise (perhaps even better with the quadcore). I'm not sure about the 4670-equipped iMac though.

[Jun aka Pekto]

Loki just said the iMac 4850 may be the mobility version. That would make it closer to a desktop 4830. It's still an okay video chip though.