Flight Sim X (FSX) on the new iMac i7 5750

[mozthefox]

Hey

I currently have a high end PC and a Mac Mini and have been wanting to get rid of them both and get an iMac for a while now. The new top end 2010 iMac almost matches the spec of my PC so I thought it's an ideal time to switch.

My question to you lovely people is, has anyone played Flight Sim X on the top end iMac? I've been looking at the i7 with the ATI 5750 but as I currently have a 5850 in my PC I am worried about frame rate issues.

I have read other forums saying that FSX is more CPU hungry than anything else, so as it will be the same as my PC, along with the RAM (6GB) I'm more worried about graphics degradation.

Has anyone played FSX with an i7 and 5750 or has anyone had any experience with it on last year's i7 iMacs?

Any info would be useful

Many thanks,
James

P.S.
Would appreciate it if you could not turn this into a PC vs Mac debate too cheers!

 

[RichardI]

I don't play FSX on my new iMac, but I do play X-plane 9 (the Mac version) with just about everything maxed out. I get between 65 and 95 FPS and the game is a blast at those speeds.
When I got my first iMac, a Core2Duo with a 24" screen, I had Windows XP loaded on a boot camp partition, and played FSX on it. No go. It would run but so slowly and at such low settings that it was no fun and no "simulation". I did play FS2004 on that partition and it was just OK. Eventually, I realized that I didn't need the Windows partition at all and I deleted it and went with Mac OS only. I didn't play X-plane either because it was slow as well due to the video card on my iMac (the HD2600 w/256 mb).
I'm telling you this, because in terms of speed, FS2004 and X-plane 9 (Mac Version) played about the same so I quit playing. When the new iMacs came out with the 5750 GPS, I ordered one. One of the very first app's I loaded when I got my new iMac (see spec's in my sig) was x-plane 9. The difference between my old iMac and my new iMac was astounding. X-plane is a blast.
There is just one issue - I haven't been able to find any way to play X-plane at the full resolution of my new 27" iMac (2560x1440). So, until that issue gets worked out, I play it at 1600x1200 with most features maxed out. I'm convinced that if you wanted to play FSX on a boot camp partition, it would play and look great. But, I haven't tried it so you can judge for yourself.
Hope that is at least somewhat helpful.

Rich

 

[jinx5000]

Hey
I've been looking at the i7 with the ATI 5750 but as I currently have a 5850 in my PC I am worried about frame rate issues.

same issue here...

lookig to sell my custom build pc with a 5850 but the only thing holding me back is the decrease in gaming performance i may see... especially when gaming in native res. i've neve played Flight-X but i inteested in games like BFBC2, SC2, DaO, and hopefully D3...

i'd love anyone else' input on this issue... especially if they have fist hand expeience and possibly fameates

excuse my typo's as the key between 'e' and 't' won't wok fo now. lol

 

[turpentine22]

Hey. I have the new i7 iMac and have been playing FSX. It runs very well, once the config file has been modified (I've used this one: http://forums1.avsim.net/topic/283061-bojotes-fsxcfg-file/) and vsync is forced on the ATI card (use d3doverrider). 25-30 fps with all bells and whistles no problem. My only issue at this point is with very cloudy weather, which seems to affect performance a lot. I'm not too sure why, I'll need to delve into that at some point. But all in all, the iMac runs FSX great under bootcamp.

Hey

I currently have a high end PC and a Mac Mini and have been wanting to get rid of them both and get an iMac for a while now. The new top end 2010 iMac almost matches the spec of my PC so I thought it's an ideal time to switch.

My question to you lovely people is, has anyone played Flight Sim X on the top end iMac? I've been looking at the i7 with the ATI 5750 but as I currently have a 5850 in my PC I am worried about frame rate issues.

I have read other forums saying that FSX is more CPU hungry than anything else, so as it will be the same as my PC, along with the RAM (6GB) I'm more worried about graphics degradation.

Has anyone played FSX with an i7 and 5750 or has anyone had any experience with it on last year's i7 iMacs?

Any info would be useful

Many thanks,
James

P.S.
Would appreciate it if you could not turn this into a PC vs Mac debate too cheers!

 

[Tombs]

not quite

The new range of imacs are great but they are not a match or good enough of a replacement for a gaming pc. See my reply here:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1024975/

I installed windows 7 via bootcamp and have all the uptodate drivers installled for the gpu. I installed BF2 and was disappointed with the results, its doesnt run as well as my gaming rig, its ok but not as good. I would say the imac isnt a good replacment for a decent gaming PC, although it could make a great monitor for it!

 

[drambuie]

If you have the 2010 i7 iMac, FSX should run well in most flight situations. Unlike computer games that require a high end video card for performance, FSX is extremely CPU intensive, and at times will use all cores of the quad i7 at 100% utilization. It doesn't use HT. The 512MB ATI 5750 is more than sufficient for FSX. Video memory for texture storage is more important than raw GPU power, and 512MB is ideal. The only drawback with the iMac is the large resolution, which might cost a few FPS. Also, 64 bit Win 7 is preferrable to 32 bit, as FSX has access to more memory on a 64 bit OS.

Even an overclocked i7 960 Extreme CPU can be taxed at times by FSX.

 

[drambuie]

Hey. I have the new i7 iMac and have been playing FSX. It runs very well, once the config file has been modified (I've used this one: http://forums1.avsim.net/topic/283061-bojotes-fsxcfg-file/) and vsync is forced on the ATI card (use d3doverrider). 25-30 fps with all bells and whistles no problem. My only issue at this point is with very cloudy weather, which seems to affect performance a lot. I'm not too sure why, I'll need to delve into that at some point. But all in all, the iMac runs FSX great under bootcamp.

About your low framerates with clouds, it appears that ATI cards have ongoing performance issues with displaying clouds in FSX.