Macbook Air (No Retina display) v MacBook Pro (No Retina)

[744kid]

Given the issue with Apple Retina displays, can I ask Hardy (or anyone else who knows) if the following would be an OK spec for PSX on a laptop:

Macbook Air (no retina)
1.4GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i5, Turbo Boost up to 2.7GHz
8GB 1600MHz LPDDR3 SDRAM
512GB PCIe-based Flash Storage

Does the "turbo boost" from 1.4GHz to 2.7Ghz takes care of the speed necessary to run PSX? I assume "turbo boost" means some kind of over clocking but I'm not sure.

I know a 13in laptop display is not the optimum environment but I spend much of my time travelling with a laptop and running PSX on a laptop is my preference. Should I forget it or would the above work with acceptable performance?

Alternatively, it is still possible to buy a Non-Retina Macbook Pro with following specs:

2.9GHz Dual-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 3.6GHz
8GB 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM — 2x4GB

On my reading of Hardy's specs, this should work OK. Is that correct?

Sorry for all these questions but I'd like to have the right hardware available when PSX is released.

Thanks.

744kid

[Hardy Heinlin]

The following systems are required to run PSX:



Java version 1.6, or 1.7, or a higher compatible version. If Java is not already installed on your computer, it can be downloaded free of charge from java.com.

Apple OS X, or Microsoft Windows, or Linux or any other operating system that supports one of the above Java versions, and that includes a PDF reader for viewing the operations manual. (PDF readers are also available in the Internet.)

A monitor with at least 800 x 800 pixels. Undersized monitors can be used as well—for example, to display certain small flight deck sections on networked monitors—, but the instructor screen will then be cropped, and should then be displayed on a second, suitable monitor. Do not use Retina displays.

Dual-core or multi-core microprocessor, running at 2.5 GHz or higher.

4 GB RAM or more.

3 GB free hard disk space.

A keyboard, ideally one that includes a numeric keypad.

A mouse, or any similar pointing device.

Access to a DVD drive is required for the initial installation.



Optional:

USB yokes, sticks, pedals, throttles, buttons, and other USB inputs.

Add-on software & hardware compatible with the Aerowinx TCP/IP network.






Note: Java utilizes hardware acceleration for the graphics. Hence, the frame rates in the simulator are very high, typically ranging from 30 to 70 fps.

[Jeroen Hoppenbrouwers]

And just to confuse you more: Hardy's specs will give you an excellent experience. I have been running PSX on a 1.1 GHz 2GB machine with XP and everything works perfectly well, it's just that I don't get super fps on all displays when I do something complex at high zoom levels. In all cases the sim is perfectly flyable usable, though not necessarily perfect. It never becomes a slide show.

So if you intend to drive multiple monitors at high zoom (realistically sized PFD and ND) you need a powerful computer. If you can, say, dedicate one computer to PFD and ND and everything else to another computer, you need less powerful machines.

If you want to drive external scenery, the usual "bigger is better" statement applies. You want to dedicate the scenery generator to its own pure scenery machine.


Hoppie


edit: better description of what I actually meant

[Hardy Heinlin]

And just to confuse you more: Hardy's specs will give you an excellent experience. I have been running PSX on a 1.1 GHz 2GB machine with XP and everything works perfectly well, it's just that I don't get super fps on all displays when I do something complex at high zoom levels. In all cases the sim is perfectly flyable.

Your definition of "perfectly flyable" disagrees with my definition :-)

For a minimum "perfect" setup, I expect real-size displays running at 30+ fps, and that also in turbulent air, meaning: all parts of the indications are permanently updated. For this minimum "perfection", you need the system requirements I quoted. Everything below it is "flyable" tamagochi toy level, in my opinion. It may work for a networked CDU-only computer, though. But that's network option stuff.


Cheers,

|-|ardy

[744kid]

Thanks for the clarification, guys. Guess I'm going to have to break the piggy bank for something more substantial for a "perfectly flyable" experience...well, something "usable"

[Phil Bunch]

I've personally concluded that the scenery generator PC is the most stressful computer hardware requirement - MSFS doesn't run perfectly smoothly 100% of the time in all situations on my fairly powerful tower PC with dual video cards.  As is well-known, highly cluttered airports as you come in for a landing often require a lot of CPU and video card power.    It's too bad that (the last I heard) MSFS was abandoned by MS and never began using multiple cores very much if at all...maybe XPlane would work better as a scenery generator???  I've personally had so many difficulties with XPlane that I haven't tried it recently.

[400guy]

There have been a lot of changes (improvements) to both X-Plane and FlightGear lately.

Both would be worth a look.

[Jeroen Hoppenbrouwers]

X-Plane is as well supported by PSX as FSX.  FlightGear I am not sure about, there has been work there but the current status escapes me. In any case, anybody can jump in and hook it up -- there are no hidden or secret APIs, everything is published and maintained officially for PSX.


Hoppie

[John Golin]

Phil - Lockheed licensed the FS engine ESP from MS and have continued work on it as Prepar3d.  

Prepar3d is basically FSX.1, and is also supported by Garry's VisualPSX addon - be aware though the licence Lockheed negotiated prohibits selling for entertainment purposes... which is interesting for PMDG - as I understand it their agreement with Boeing requires their products are for entertainment use only, which means the cannot support P3D.

[Pierre Theillere]

Hi guys!

The plugin for X-Plane has been tested fully fine during dozens hours flying, so, even officially still beta, it works OK, even in latest 10.30beta 3-64bits...