Laptop for FSX

[Graeme1873]

Hi

I am thinking of purchasing a new laptop to replace the desktop I bought 5 years ago from PCS and which is starting to show its age. Also I no longer really have the room for the desktop and all that it entails.

My main use will be flight simming using FSX with high end addons but will,also use it for work on an ad hoc basis. Portability is not a great factor in my decision as it will sit on my dining table for the most part.

Budget is max £1100.

Are you able to suggest a spec that fits with my needs?

Many thanks
Donald

 

[Oussebon]

Have you considered a small form factor PC? https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/computers/intel-skylake-sff-gaming/
You can see the case dimensions by clicking on the individual images of the cases. I see you say 'all that it entails' i.e. monitor, kb, etc, but mention it just in case the SFFs are small enough to make the rest viable.

Otherwise, I would suggest that you hold off on any purchase for the time being, if your old PC is still just about scraping by. The reason for this is that new laptops have been released with much more powerful GPUs (that perform much closer to their desktop counterparts) than previous generations, but only the higher end ones are currently out and they are generally above £1100. The older gen laptops with things like the GTX 970M are available, but they're much, much less powerful than the newer cards.

So if you bought a laptop with a GTX 970M for £1000-1100, you'd be paying 80%+ of the cost of a GTX 1060 laptop while only getting 1/2 to 2/3[SUP]rds[/SUP] the performance. While you're not after an extreme gaming machine, it does mean your new machine will struggle to keep up with newer games/updates/expansions much sooner and you'll want to replace it maybe a couple of years or more sooner
Benchmarks: http://tinyurl.com/j3stsxx so you can see I'm not kidding about the performance difference.

You might therefore be better advised to wait and see if something like a GTX 1050 for laptops is released as this might offer improved performance over the current gen at a reduced cost that falls within your budget. Or saving up more for a GTX 1060 laptop.

 

[Graeme1873]

Have you considered a small form factor PC? https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/computers/intel-skylake-sff-gaming/
You can see the case dimensions by clicking on the individual images of the cases. I see you say 'all that it entails' i.e. monitor, kb, etc, but mention it just in case the SFFs are small enough to make the rest viable.

Otherwise, I would suggest that you hold off on any purchase for the time being, if your old PC is still just about scraping by. The reason for this is that new laptops have been released with much more powerful GPUs (that perform much closer to their desktop counterparts) than previous generations, but only the higher end ones are currently out and they are generally above £1100. The older gen laptops with things like the GTX 970M are available, but they're much, much less powerful than the newer cards.

So if you bought a laptop with a GTX 970M for £1000-1100, you'd be paying 80%+ of the cost of a GTX 1060 laptop while only getting 1/2 to 2/3[SUP]rds[/SUP] the performance. While you're not after an extreme gaming machine, it does mean your new machine will struggle to keep up with newer games/updates/expansions much sooner and you'll want to replace it maybe a couple of years or more sooner
Benchmarks: http://tinyurl.com/j3stsxx so you can see I'm not kidding about the performance difference.

You might therefore be better advised to wait and see if something like a GTX 1050 for laptops is released as this might offer improved performance over the current gen at a reduced cost that falls within your budget. Or saving up more for a GTX 1060 laptop.

Thanks for this - really helpful. The small form PC look quite interesting but I still think I'd prefer a "laptop". More than happy to wait for the updated GPU to become available but had a look at the OctaneIII which comes with the GTX 1060 and I could possibly stretch to £1250 as a budget. Would the Octane fit the bill?

 

[AndyJ]

Hi

I am thinking of purchasing a new laptop to replace the desktop I bought 5 years ago from PCS and which is starting to show its age. Also I no longer really have the room for the desktop and all that it entails.

My main use will be flight simming using FSX with high end addons but will,also use it for work on an ad hoc basis. Portability is not a great factor in my decision as it will sit on my dining table for the most part.

Budget is max £1100.

Are you able to suggest a spec that fits with my needs?

Many thanks
Donald

FSX is almost entirely CPU limited- it runs the same on my desktop with a GTX 1080 as it did with my 980 before I upgraded, I wuld priorotise a strong cpu over gpu - maybe look at something with a desktop chip?

Do you plan to fly on the laptop screen or external display(s)? if external displays you'll want to make sure the laptop has enough display outputs for how ever many screens you use, or invest in something like a matrox triple head.

 

[Oussebon]

Bear in mind that a GTX 980 is twice as powerful as a GTX 970M, so just because a GTX 1080 gives you no improvement over a GTX 980 doesn't mean a 970M is going to perform just as well as either.

 

[Graeme1873]

Thanks guys. Based on your input I think I might wait a couple of months and see what happens with the prices of the 1xxx series GPUs. Had a look at the Octane III which has the higher spec GPU and might be able to stretch to this but including the i7 processor is just too much for me.

Although I do realise that FSX is CPU hungry I do live in hope that someday a new flight sim will come out that exploits the new technology available hence want to future proof as much as possible.

Cheers
Donald

 

[Oussebon]

If FSX doesn't use hyperthreading then an i5 would be as good as an i7. I've no idea if it does or doesn't (the guy who wrote the self-titled FSX Bible on their forums says it doesn't...). If that's correct then that's £90-100 shaved off.

Also Kaby Lake is coming out shortly and may give a ~10% bump in performance, hopefully at a similar price, to Skylake.