Laptop requirements

Please direct me to the correct forum if this isn’t the right spot.

I am a pilot irl and looking in to getting XPlane primarily for procedural practice. I used to play FlightSims and had some basic knowledge of computers and requirements, but it’s all greek to me now.

I also travel too much to get much usage out of a desktop PC. I would like to get a laptop that is capable of running XPlane 11, but since I’m not a real gamer, would like to save a little money and go with a “capable” system ... no need for a fire breather.

Can anyone point me to a system that would offer acceptable performance (again, I’m tech ignorant about system specs)? What is a bang-for-the-buck balance (not minimum requirements)? How large a screen is truly necessary when really just intent to focus on procedural training (and yes, some fun too)?

Thanks much.

A google search for: X-plane requirements

spits out among the results:

https://www.x-plane.com/kb/x-plane-11-system-requirements/

I would aim more for the recommended system on that page. X-plane likes a lot of RAM and a lot of graphics card memory. A fast processor helps as well, but X-plane makes a lot of use of the graphics card. (Much more then Fsx which uses mainly the processor.).

I would look at it like this. Minimum requirements given there would be a good place to start when buying a desktop. Because you can always upgrade parts in a desktop when you decide you like the game. You can easily upgrade a graphics card in a desktop for example.

In a laptop, with no way to upgrade such things, I would aim more for recommended requirements.

(I say "I would", but actually I would always choose a desktop myself. Much more performance for less money. Also easier to attach controllers like yoke, rudder pedals, and throttle as a desktop has more Usb ports. Plus a desktop stays cool while running so parts (cpu, graphics card, ram,) keep running at their top performance.

Laptops have very bad ventilation. They get hot while gaming and getting hot slows the cpu and such down. (modern cpu's slow down when hot to help the computer cool down a bit.).

There is a demo for X-plane. Try that on a pc that you have now. That way you will see how it performs on that hardware, and you can estimate to what extent you need/want to upgrade.