Anyone currently running FS9 or FSX on an iMac?

[Thunderbird8]

Hi everyone, this looks like a great forum.

I am looking for advice from people actually running flight sims on an imac please. Sorry to be so specific (I am not being rude) but opinion on computer performance is so subjective so I would rather hear from people currently experiencing it rather than those who have an opinion on what it might be like!

I am planning on purchasing one of the high spec imacs to hopefully use the following sims under Windows (the rest of the time the mac will be used for work under OS):

* FS9
* CFS3 (maybe)
* BOB II
* IL Sturmovik

and... possibly / hopefully... FSX.

Now I am pretty sure that FS9 will run under reasonably high settings and with the civilian flight sims the level of VFR detail is (IMO) more important than with combat sims.

Anyone able to help please? Is it worth even trying FSX on a top spec iMac?
Have you tried it?

 

[psionmark]

This isn't a direct comparison, I know, but I have FSX running on my 17" MacBook Pro using Vista under Bootcamp and it works beautifully.

If you do go for it, remember to apply Service Pack 1 for FSX - you'll get a real performance boost.

You can read more about my experience with this setup here.

Cheers,

Mark

 

[Thunderbird8]

Thanks for the reply Mark, much appreciated.
Encouraging actually as I had all but given up hope of being able to run it.

 

[psionmark]

No worries. I've only switched over to a Mac a couple of weeks back. Like most people I guess, I thought about it for a long time before switching, but when it boiled down to it, the only Windows app I needed to have was FSX. I saw FS9 running on a friends iMac and it worked a dream, and that's when I decided to jump

Cheers,

Mark

 

[Thunderbird8]

Yes me too, I am only likely to be running one of two windows games so apart from that my windows partition will be clean, with only internet access happening when I need to download stuff for the games.

 

[BarryW]

Not an iMac but a MPB


I have capped my FPS in FS9 to 56 with all the setting at ultra high. With these setting I get smooth FPS.
I generally set the detail to high for online flying.
Screen res 1440x900 with aa(not sure which level, prob x2).
This is on a MBP 2.33 core 2 duo. 256 mb ATI x1600

FSX is playable, i get around 20 fps at medium setting. Hopefully the patch will help.

Added screenshots(< - FS9 FSX ->)

 

[EMU1337]

I have been playing FSX on my iMac at the highest settings and it runs smoothly.

 

[Thunderbird8]

That all sounds very encouraging, I would like to be able to use FSX if at all possible. There has been so much negative opinion about it at the moment...

 

[serega]

I have no problems to run FSX on Windows XP partition of Boot Camp. No difference at all to compare to my other native PC machine.

 

[Thunderbird8]

Does all the windows hardware work OK, such as joysticks, rudder pedals etc?

 

[EMU1337]

Does all the windows hardware work OK, such as joysticks, rudder pedals etc?

It shouldn't matter because its Windows that has the compatibility issues with Apple hardware, and since the hardware (joysticks, pedals) is made for Windows it should run without any issues. I haven't personally tried it, but I'm 99% sure it will work flawlessly.