FS9 on 2011 Macbook Pros

[manoliar]

Hey guys plan on upgrading my 2006 Macbook Pro to a new one soon and the only game that I play is FS9. I'm having trouble finding any people who have played FS9 on the new Macbook Pros to let me know how it runs.

I'm considering the high-end 13 inch model with the following specs:

2.7GHz Dual i7. 4GB RAM (will probably put in 8GB). Intel HD 3000 Graphics.
Graphics benchmark: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-HD-Graphics-3000.37948.0.html

Or the low-end 15 inch model:

2.0GHz Quad i7 (2630QM). 4GB RAM (will probably put in 8GB). AMD 6490M 256MB.
Graphics benchmark:http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-6490M.43843.0.html

Since you guys also play FS9, what kind of performance can I expect on these systems? I would like to run decent settings and get around 30FPS with PMDG, Level-D aircraft with add-on airports (FlyTampa) and, possibly, some add-on traffic. Will this be possible on either one of these systems? I'm worried about the GPUs, since I hear not so great things about them with newer games like Crysis and CoD. However, since FS9 is much older, I'm hoping that the GPU, when combined with the new Sandy Bridge CPU's, will make FS9 very happy.

Thanks a ton for you input.

[loki]

The Radeon GPU would be better than the integrated Intel graphics processor (which also shares the main system memory). As for the Radeon, the 6490 with 256MB of RAM may be a bit on the low side for the more detailed add-ons, but should handle FS9 quite well at 30FPS. It would definitely struggle if you also choose the high-res screen option (1680x1050).

As these systems are based on newly released Intel CPUs and related chipsets, there won't be many reviews out there quite yet. And especially reviews from people running a Windows flight sim! ;)