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How much memory do i need to run Flight Simulator X deluxe edition on my iMac????

bluedoggiant

bluedoggiant

macrumors 68030
Original poster
remember, its the latest version and its DELUXE, i will be running it via bootcamp windows xp home editions service pack two, the minimum amount of memory is 256MB, recommended is 512Mb, but is 2GB more than enough to play the game, can i like put all the graphical and terrain settings at high and still have no problem playing the game? or shud i go for the 4GB? thanx alot in advance, plus, will it run faster if i use vista home basic? thanx, since imacs have 64 bit processors, if i get vista home basic, shud i get 64 or 32 bit, will i notice the difference?😕😕😕😕😕
 
First of all, go with 2 gigs if you can. It's pretty much the de facto standard these days for relatively robust machines.

Regarding FSX, memory will be the least of your problems. Games put the highest load on the video card, so that will be your limiting factor. The best available video card for the iMac is a 2600 Pro, which will probably let you put terrain, ground objects, etc. at medium low for playable framerates. I hope you didn't buy the iMac just for games, because honestly it's not really made for it.

The best OS option for FSX is Vista. Vista is the only DirectX 10 capable OS, and anything less will force you to use DX9, slowing down an already strained system. Thankfully though, the ATI cards in the iMac are fully DX10 capable, so you shouldn't have any problems there.

Hope that helped. 🙂
 
AC773 said:
First of all, go with 2 gigs if you can. It's pretty much the de facto standard these days for relatively robust machines.

Regarding FSX, memory will be the least of your problems. Games put the highest load on the video card, so that will be your limiting factor. The best available video card for the iMac is a 2600 Pro, which will probably let you put terrain, ground objects, etc. at medium low for playable framerates. I hope you didn't buy the iMac just for games, because honestly it's not really made for it.

The best OS option for FSX is Vista. Vista is the only DirectX 10 capable OS, and anything less will force you to use DX9, slowing down an already strained system. Thankfully though, the ATI cards in the iMac are fully DX10 capable, so you shouldn't have any problems there.

Hope that helped. 🙂
Click to expand...

OMG, thanx ALOT, so u think 4GB is too much?and for vista home basic, shud i get 64 bit, will i see the difference? i didnt get the imac yet, and im not getting to play games, i just like to play fsx, and roller coaster tycoon sumtimes, im getting it for video editing photo editing (creative suite premium), and ALOT of other reasons, for sure it will be the 2.8GHz model (the most high end one), so just let me know how many bit i shud have, 32 or 63 bit, and tell me if 4GB is more than enough 😀
 
bluedoggiant said:
OMG, thanx ALOT, so u think 4GB is too much?and for vista home basic, shud i get 64 bit, will i see the difference? i didnt get the imac yet, and im not getting to play games, i just like to play fsx, and roller coaster tycoon sumtimes, im getting it for video editing photo editing (creative suite premium), and ALOT of other reasons, for sure it will be the 2.8GHz model (the most high end one), so just let me know how many bit i shud have, 32 or 63 bit, and tell me if 4GB is more than enough 😀
Click to expand...

Games wouldn't see a terribly great benefit, but if you're getting into video editing you might want to get 4. Depends how serious you're going to get with it. Is this for college? Oh, and don't buy RAM from Apple - it's a major ripoff. Buy some from newegg.com and do it yourself (It's super duper easy) or find someone that will do it for you. You'll save big bucks.

Having a 64-bit OS won't make a bit of difference in FSX performance, but if I remember correctly, the 64 and 32-bit versions of Vista cost the same. Given that the Core2 Duo is 64-bit capable, I'd get it anyway. Who knows what apps are down the road that you might want to run later.
 
AC773 said:
Games wouldn't see a terribly great benefit, but if you're getting into video editing you might want to get 4. Depends how serious you're going to get with it. Is this for college? Oh, and don't buy RAM from Apple - it's a major ripoff. Buy some from newegg.com and do it yourself (It's super duper easy) or find someone that will do it for you. You'll save big bucks.

Having a 64-bit OS won't make a bit of difference in FSX performance, but if I remember correctly, the 64 and 32-bit versions of Vista cost the same. Given that the Core2 Duo is 64-bit capable, I'd get it anyway. Who knows what apps are down the road that you might want to run later.
Click to expand...

the imac is core 2 extreme, not duo, and its not SERIOUS editing, at least not yet, i just like to do creative stuff, video fx and all, thats it, ill be using the old imovie (the new one sucks), this isnt for college, im a middle schooler going into 7th grade 😉 so i shud get 2GB of memory, and the bootcamp shud run a 64 bit vista home basic and the game will run with sum pretty high graphical settings, lots of terrain, and everything, again, thanx ALOT for ur help!!!!!!
 
bluedoggiant said:
the imac is core 2 extreme, not duo
Click to expand...

The iMac is available with a Core2 Extreme for only the top-end model. Every other model of the new iMac runs on a Core2 Duo.

bluedoggiant said:
its not SERIOUS editing, at least not yet, i just like to do creative stuff, video fx and all, thats it, ill be using the old imovie
Click to expand...

Definitely go with 2 GB then, unless you have money to burn. It only gets really necessary to have more once you get into pro level apps like Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere Pro and you start working with large amounts of data and complex tasks.

bluedoggiant said:
the game will run with sum pretty high graphical settings, lots of terrain, and everything
Click to expand...

Again, the best you'll do on an iMac is medium low. No amount of processor or RAM upgrades will fix this, either. Wouldn't want to get your hopes up.

bluedoggiant said:
again, thanx ALOT for ur help!!!!!!
Click to expand...

Sure, I'm glad to be of service. 🙂

Incidentally, I have a copy of FSX Deluxe sitting on my bookshelf. My friend has his own copy as well, and I've played it on his computer - a beefy dual-core 64-bit processor with an ATI x1950XTX, 4 gigs of RAM, and two 10,000 RPM hard drives running in RAID 0. Even then, at medium settings, the game was choppy.

FSX was designed to last Microsoft for many years, and it will. It's an amazing piece of software. I just decided not to bother with for a year or so until computer technology advances to a point where I can make the most of it with hardware costing under $2,000. For now, I'm using FS 2004 and it's just great. Get some add-on aircraft to keep it interesting and you could be as happy as I am with it. 🙂

And for the record, I have the same computer that my friend has, only with 7200 RPM hard drives to keep the noise down and an x1250 for low power consumption. It runs Photoshop, Premiere Pro, and of course FS 2004 all like a dream.
 
bluedoggiant said:
OMG, thanx ALOT, so u think 4GB is too much?and for vista home basic, shud i get 64 bit, will i see the difference? i didnt get the imac yet, and im not getting to play games, i just like to play fsx, and roller coaster tycoon sumtimes, im getting it for video editing photo editing (creative suite premium), and ALOT of other reasons, for sure it will be the 2.8GHz model (the most high end one), so just let me know how many bit i shud have, 32 or 63 bit, and tell me if 4GB is more than enough 😀
Click to expand...

Apple only 'support' 32bit XP/Vista through their bootcamp drivers (much like other vendors), so I'd stick with 32bit for the best driver support.

If you can afford a 2.8GHz iMac, you can afford to buy 4Gb RAM! If you only want to get 2Gb however, buy a single 2Gb stick, so you can slot in another 2Gb to get 4Gb, later down the line if you end up needing it.

Extra RAM will be necessary if you like to have multiple apps open at the same time and like to fill up your Leopard 'spaces' 🙂
 
l33r0y said:
Apple only 'support' 32bit XP/Vista through their bootcamp drivers (much like other vendors), so I'd stick with 32bit for the best driver support.

If you can afford a 2.8GHz iMac, you can afford to buy 4Gb RAM! If you only want to get 2Gb however, buy a single 2Gb stick, so you can slot in another 2Gb to get 4Gb, later down the line if you end up needing it.

Extra RAM will be necessary if you like to have multiple apps open at the same time and like to fill up your Leopard 'spaces' 🙂
Click to expand...

ok, so ill get the 32 bit, but the minimal requirements for running fsx on vista is HIGHER than that of xp, so will i notice any difference, using a 2GB of memory?
 
I'll be interested in hearing how you make out. Flight Simulator X is a hog. I was running it on a quad core 2.67 extreme with an 8800 Ultra vid card and ran very well with everything (except autogen) turned up. I had 4GB OF DDRII...
CPU is very important in FSX, as well as graphics - you need both...
Anyway report back how you do please - I love the game.

Rich 😎
 
I have a 17inch Core 2 Duo iMac.

It has a

2.0ghz Core 2 Duo processor
2GB RAM
ATI x1600 128mb
Windows Vista Ultimate

I can run FSX deluxe at all settings set to "Medium-high"

With you having a faster processor and better graphics card you should be able to run it at all settings set to "high" with no problems.

The next iMacs will probably be able to run it at Ultra High.

~Matt
 
Matt342 said:
I have a 17inch Core 2 Duo iMac.

It has a

2.0ghz Core 2 Duo processor
2GB RAM
ATI x1600 128mb
Windows Vista Ultimate

I can run FSX deluxe at all settings set to "Medium-high"

With you having a faster processor and better graphics card you should be able to run it at all settings set to "high" with no problems.

The next iMacs will probably be able to run it at Ultra High.

~Matt
Click to expand...

ya, and by the time of the next imacs, the new fs will be out lol
 
Matt342 said:
I have a 17inch Core 2 Duo iMac.

It has a

2.0ghz Core 2 Duo processor
2GB RAM
ATI x1600 128mb
Windows Vista Ultimate

I can run FSX deluxe at all settings set to "Medium-high"

With you having a faster processor and better graphics card you should be able to run it at all settings set to "high" with no problems.

The next iMacs will probably be able to run it at Ultra High.

~Matt
Click to expand...


Wow, sounds great! Any idea how it will run on the new 2.4 GHz aluminum iMac with an ATI Radeon 2600 HD 256 MB? But only 1 GB of RAM.

Thanks for sharing your experiences!
 
Slarti42 said:
Wow, sounds great! Any idea how it will run on the new 2.4 GHz aluminum iMac with an ATI Radeon 2600 HD 256 MB? But only 1 GB of RAM.

Thanks for sharing your experiences!
Click to expand...

When it comes to Ram, if you have to ask then max it out man. OS X takes up at least 512mb just to run the computer. That leaves you 512 for everything else. Do the math.
 
2Gb is more than enough. You GPU is the biggest factor by a long long way.

Probs get med settings across the board. The iMac really isn't designed for high end gaming power such as FS-X requires.

I have a X1900XTX and a 3.4ghz C2D @ 1600x1200 and with everything maxxed I get 10-30+ FPS 😛 😱😱😱😱😱😱
 
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