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    Flight Simulator X

    Discussion in 'Gaming (Software and Graphics Cards)' started by jmmcollins, Jan 3, 2008.

  1. jmmcollins

    jmmcollins Notebook Enthusiast

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    Hello everyone and Happy New Year!

    I would be very grateful for advice and experiences of people running MS Flight Simulator X on gaming laptops, and what configurations has allowed them to run top graphics settings and enjoy a good frame rate....

    I am currently deciding what laptop to buy, looking at Alienware, bearing in mind I am from Ireland and the only companies which seem to deal with Ireland is Alienware, Rock and Dell.

    At the moment I am running FSX on a dell dimension 9150, Intel ViiV 2.8, 2GB RAM, and a nVidia GeForce 7300 LE with 512MB. Its struggles something awful at times, not even set to full graphics levels.

    I am looking for a dramatic improvement, with the ability to run this game at full graphics settings, with add on products which enhance its own visual effects, and peripherals such as flight stick, throttle quadrant etc.

    One of the add ones I have has an advised requirement of a GPU with 1mb memory. See very bottom of specs page @ http://www.arianedesign.com/Content....specs/737-BBJ1


    Can anyone confirm if Flight Sim X will take advantage of SLi?

    And advise which would be the best GPU/Processor/Ram for me?

    Cheers!

    jmmcollins
     
    jmmcollins, Jan 3, 2008
    #1
  2. hendra

    hendra Notebook Virtuoso

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    hendra, Jan 3, 2008
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  3. n0elia

    n0elia Come on Haswell...

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    Hi, I have FSX but don't play it since I can't get max the settings and get blurry textures, so instead I'm playing FS9!

    But you should get the best possible laptop. FSX is really a performance hog.
    Get a penryn processor, one of the top models, min. 2.5GHz and of course 8800M GTX. 2 GB Ram should be enough
     
    n0elia, Jan 3, 2008
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  4. jmmcollins

    jmmcollins Notebook Enthusiast

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    Is SLi GPU and advantage?
     
    jmmcollins, Jan 3, 2008
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  5. n0elia

    n0elia Come on Haswell...

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    If you really want to have crazy AA then yes, SLI would be an advantage
     
    n0elia, Jan 3, 2008
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  6. hendra

    hendra Notebook Virtuoso

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    Do a customer review search from amazon.com. According to the reviews, some people manage to play it with smooth frame rate but not will all details maxed out. Beware that smooth frame rate is very subjective, especially with Flight Simulator games. For a flight sim game, I personally consider 30fps is the minimum that I would consider smooth while others would be happy with 15 or 20 and still call it smooth.

    Note: Microsoft Flight Simulator always push beyond the envelope of current hardware at the time when they are released. So, the complains from amazon.com that the frame rate is very poor is nothing new.
     
    hendra, Jan 3, 2008
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  7. HTWingNut

    HTWingNut Potato

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    The frame killer is the dynamic scenery (or whatever they call it). Turn that off and it runs like a champ. FSX is mainly a CPU whore so GPU isn't as critical, unless you plan on running DirectX 10 mode, which just runs slower with no real noticeable difference in visuals.
     
    HTWingNut, Jan 3, 2008
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  8. usapatriot

    usapatriot Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    I can't run FSX stably, one minute it will be chugging along at 35fps and I change the view or look another way and it will go down to 16fps which is unplayable IMO.
     
    usapatriot, Jan 3, 2008
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  9. sva988

    sva988 Notebook Consultant

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    I run FSX with my laptop, and it plays pretty good. 40+ with max settings except for AI and Autogen. I would invest in a Rock or a dell when they start shipping the 8800. There are many sites on the net to get the best out of every fps.
     
    sva988, Jan 3, 2008
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  10. n0elia

    n0elia Come on Haswell...

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    With todays hardware you can get FS9 to look as good as FSX, with high fps. IMO the difference in graphics is not that big. Well, water texture is much better in FSX, I admit!

    But FSX has issues with blurry texture, and NO it's not because of hardware!

    All that makes me choose FS9 over FSX, the changes are simply not big enough

    Also, I have lots of addons for FS9
     
    n0elia, Jan 3, 2008
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  11. usapatriot

    usapatriot Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    What autogen settings are you using?
     
    usapatriot, Jan 3, 2008
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  12. jmmcollins

    jmmcollins Notebook Enthusiast

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    Level of detail radius: large
    Mesh complexity: 100
    Mesh resolution: 5
    Testure resolution: 5
    Water effects: Max 2.x
    Land detail textures: yes

    Scenery complexity: very dense
    Autogen complexity: very dense

    Special effects detail: high

    Greedy???? :)
     
    jmmcollins, Jan 3, 2008
    #12
  13. usapatriot

    usapatriot Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Extremely greedy.
     
    usapatriot, Jan 3, 2008
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  14. Nvidia

    Nvidia Notebook Consultant

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    I play FSX on my HDX.(see sig).. everything on Max and it runs super-smooth--just a while to load the startup screen
     
    Nvidia, Jan 3, 2008
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  15. ahl395

    ahl395 Ahlball

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    It doesnt play flawlessly on my pc (see sig)....I have everything on Mid-High settings, and sometimes it gets a little choppy. Thats where my new PC comes in (in the future,lol)
     
    ahl395, Jan 3, 2008
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  16. n0elia

    n0elia Come on Haswell...

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    Great to see so many flightsimmers here on NBR :D We should make an official flightsim thread for discussions, addons etc.

    EDIT: Just started a thread, take a look here
    I invite you all to serious flightsim discussion :D
     
    n0elia, Jan 3, 2008
    #16