So who else out there is using a MacBook Pro for this game
I’m running it on my 16" MBP with Windows 10 installed on a bootcamp partition.
I have the 2019 Intel i9-9880H 2.30GHz 8 cores, 16GB ram, and AMD Radeon Pro 5500M 4GB model. It runs fine for the most part on medium settings at 1440 resolution, except for the slide shows that happen on takeoff and landing
I’m sure we’re in a very small group, but was just wondering how many others out there are torturing the fans on their MBP with this game (I think my poor mac is trying to mimic a 747 taking off)
I have a similar model but with 32GB ram and the AMD Radeon Pro 5500M 8gb.I tried running X plane but it struggles on high settings. FS2020 perfectly well but I cannot use it on my lap as it gets really hot and like you the fans get worked very hard. it is handy for the odd flight on it but I normally use a desktop built especially for X plane and FS2020. | also prefer to fly in VR which I can do in X plane. Hopefully not too long a wait for FS VR.
I’m using a new 5k iMac with bootcamp. Runs well but the high resolution of the monitor makes the GPU work pretty hard and limits FPS. I found the best performance with the game resolution set to exactly half that of the native screen resolution.
I’ve tried reducing the resolution in game but then everything gets a bit stretched and blurry. Do you also see that, or is it scaling correctly for you?
Most of the resolution options are blurry and stretchy. The only ones that work well are ones that are integral fractions of your native resolution (native resolution divided by two, or native resolution divided by three, etc.). For example, the 5k iMac native screen resolution is 5120 x 2880. I run the game at exactly half that resolution: 2560 x 1440. Because each dimension is scaled down in the same proportion, the aspect ratio is preserved and the image is not stretched. Also, since the resolution is divided by an integer, the GPU doesn’t have to work as hard.
I have a MBP 13" 2020 with i7-1068NG7 quad core @ 2.30GHz and 32GB RAM and experiencing similar issues. But I do get random stutter periods not only during takeoff and landing but also during flight. I have an EGPU Radeon X580 4GB and do get 35 FPS in medium when it’s not stuttering.
I believe it’s related to the CPU. The game is heavily CPU dependent and doesn’t scale well. It uses DX11 instead of DX12 which would’ve helped a lot I believe. I really hope MS improves this.
Similar here, same as the OP MacBook Pro 16 inch 2019.
First I got freezes (had to kill the App via Task Manager) after around 5min of flying. After reducing details to medium, I get periodically freezes but with one exception the game comes back after around 5-1ß seconds and continues.
I am not sure if it is an overheating / under clocking issue or something else.
Update: I just got myself a RX 5700 XT (along MBP 13 2020, i7 2.3GHz, 32 GB RAM) playing using High setting and FullHD and I’m getting now around 50 FPS in external view, around 40 FPS in cockpit, which seems reasonable, BUT I get lots of intermittent stutters pulling FPS down to 20 due to “LIMITED BY MAIN THREAD” which I suppose means the CPU is at it’s limit and probably is being throttled down…
Ok guys BREAKING NEWS: it seems for a very big part it’s the airplane displays (MFDs) causing the issues. Try flying the bushplane - for me, flying it gives me butter smooth 40-60 FPS in or outside of cockpit with no noticeable stutters whatsoever. Man… what a f*** relieve.
You can mostly fix this by setting the correct Affinity Mask, so that MSFS utilizes all the cores and threads. It fixed it for me, see link that I posted before about how to setup Affinity Mask
Do you know what affinity mask I need to use? The post in the thread says to use “17179869183” for their processor, but the two provided calculators both have have a maximum value of 65535.
I have the same setup. Laptops are just not good for flight simming. I wouldn’t even try it on mine. Kind of a waste of time. You can build a good desktop PC for less than a MacBook Pro.
Using a laptop for just messing around once in awhile might be okay but for using the simulator often the experience is quite bad!
@Pete1961 : same as who, mine? Thanks to @anon34259575 AffinityMask solution by @Byly103 (see link above) I am now getting butter smooth 60 FPS in High setting - on a Macbook Pro 13, which is surely not made for gaming after this AffinityMask fix the CPU seems to be better utilized and I think this is the best I can get out of this setup (Macbook Pro 13 2020, i7 quad core 2.3GHz, 32 GB RAM, EGPU RX5700 XT) good luck!
It only works if you provide the exact correct value. You can’t fill in the number for 1 core while you have 4 cores. Pretty sure it works, my frame rate is much more stable and I have seen more people report this.
For me I noticed only 4 out of the 6 cores were used. After setting the AffiniyMask, all cores are now being used which resulted in better performance.
after this AffinityMask fix the CPU seems to be better utilized and I think this is the best I can get out of this setup (Macbook Pro 13 2020, i7 quad core 2.3GHz, 32 GB RAM, EGPU RX5700 XT) good luck!