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X-Plane: Macbook fps higher than MacPro :(

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Vandura25

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 11, 2008
6
0
Vancouver BC
I have an 8 core 2.8 mac pro with 6g of ram and the 8800. I also have a new 2GHz macbook with 4g of ram. Whenever I play on my macpro I always think the fps should be better. I don't have the rendering settings very high but it seems like with that machine I should be able to run them high if I wanted to. Both machines have x-plane and last night I did a test; sitting at the same airport with EXACTLY the same rendering settings, resolution, weather etc my macbook gets about 10-12fps BETTER than my mac pro (38-40ish vs 28ish)....I just about cried. When I checked my activity monitor my macbook was using a higher % of its CPU resourses compared to the macpro yet the macbook still ran smoother. When I looked at the CPU window in activity monitor (on the macpro) it looked like only one (of 8) cores was doing much...isn't there a way to tell my x-plane or my mac to use as much CPU power as possible? Is there some sort of benchmark test to see if my macpro is running as fast as it should?
Sorry for the long post! Any help would be great, I can't stand the thought of having an 8 core MP that is slower than a little macbook...
 
Consultant

Consultant

macrumors G5
Jun 27, 2007
13,314
34
Are you running the same OS, same game version, same display size, same game settings in both?
 
D

Digitalclips

macrumors 65816
Mar 16, 2006
1,475
36
Sarasota, Florida
Mac Pro Graphics

I have not tried the MacBook but I have the identical Mac Pro (mine is late model 8 core - prior to new one just out) except I moved the original ATI graphics card to slot 2 to make room for the GT 8800 in slot one and put an additional monitor, a 23" ACD on that. The GT 8800 drives a 30" ACD.

X-Plane 9 sucks so badly I returned to the last version 8, I forget the exact version number. X-Plane always stops and tells me I have too many options set even with the standard, default settings. It seems ridiculous and I have even asked the support people at X-Plane what on earth they use if my set up is so weak?

Meanwhile Second Life runs badly on the 30" on the GT 8800 and set to same resolution runs very well on my ATI stock card on the 23" leading me to suspect drivers for the GT 8800 are far from optimized.

My final beef is that Final Cut Pro on a Mac Pro no longer supports preview across video cards as my Dual G5 did. Only monitors attached to the same graphics card support preview screen. Given I want the maximum VRAM for Motion it is a pain to have to split the GT 8800 between two monitors for preview. Apple support guy (yes I have Apple extended support) mocked me for thinking this was a good idea and said 'professionals use a Cona card', well sorry for expecting my Mac Pro to be as good as my Dual G5! He also claimed VRAM is dynamically allocated between two monitors and if I was using one it would therefor get all the VRAM. I have yet to see anything to support this, I thought the VRAM was split in two, like it or not. Any input on this please?
 
V

Vandura25

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 11, 2008
6
0
Vancouver BC
Well I'm glad (sort of but not really) that my machine runs similar to yours. I agree though, how powerful a mac do you need to run x-plane with settings turned up?! Common! I still can't get over why or how my macbook out performs my pro running x-plane. That seems seriously wrong. Does your mac pro run final cut ok? I'm new to FCP and have yet to tackle any big projects on it...I hope my mac can at least do well if its not going to play games well. I wish there were better drivers for the geforce card!

Thanks for the input Digitalclips, I appreciate it!
 
Topper

Topper

macrumors 65816
Jun 17, 2007
1,186
0
Digitalclips said:
X-Plane always stops and tells me I have too many options set even with the standard, default settings. It seems ridiculous and I have even asked the support people at X-Plane what on earth they use if my set up is so weak?
Click to expand...

Oh, yah! X-Plane does not make good use of the Mac Pro multiple processors. If it will make you feel better, I'm told there isn't a personal computer made that can run X-Plane at it's highest renderings.
I don't know much about Snow Leopard but I am hoping it will help X-Plane make better use the Mac Pro's processors.

leading me to suspect drivers for the GT 8800 are far from optimized.
Click to expand...
I don't understand why but I am very certain that you are right.
I'm hoping that Snow Leopard will allow us to use more powerful video cards.
How about crossfire or sli?!
 
dimme

dimme

macrumors 68040
Feb 14, 2007
3,043
27,957
SF, CA
I run X plane ins OS X and Microsoft Flight Simulator X in Windows (Windows 7). The frame rates are similar, as someone else said not computer can run these with all the settings to the max.
 
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Kaos Theory

macrumors member
Nov 9, 2008
55
0
X-Plane 9 On NVIDIA iMac

I play X-Plane on my 2.8 GHz iMac with NVIDIA 8800GS and 2 GB of RAM, and I get excellent frame rates (around 40-60, but I don't know how to check; can anybody help here?). I play it on 1920x1200 with moderate-lower settings but very high resolution. Maybe you should try running it at these settings and see what happens. Hope this helps :apple:.
 
Topper

Topper

macrumors 65816
Jun 17, 2007
1,186
0
Kaos Theory said:
I get excellent frame rates (around 40-60, but I don't know how to check; can anybody help here?
Click to expand...

Under the "Settings" menu go to "Data Input & Output."
Click the fourth box of "frame rate."
You will then see the frame rate on the top left hand corner of the screen when you run X-Plane.
 
Topper

Topper

macrumors 65816
Jun 17, 2007
1,186
0
gkarris said:
Upgrade to the latest Mac Pro video card???
Click to expand...

Yes.
Tomshardware shows the 8800 GT beating the HD 4870 when running FSX.
But that of course is DirectX and Windows.
But...
I just found a person who says he has a Mac Pro with both the 8800 GT and the HD 3870.
He also says that the HD 3870 is faster.
If he is right, then the HD 4870 should be a lot faster than the 8800 GT.
 
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