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FSX on a MAC

I still can't see the point of buying a Mac to play Windows games on. If all I wanted to do was use Office type stuff with some Video and Photo editing, then sure the extra cost might be worth it for the Operating System, but if I was to get one for my primary usage i.e. FSX, gMax, gaming and video editing etc. then I'd essentially be paying over the odds for a swanky looking PC that's more expensive to upgrade.
One example I've seen was a comparison between upgrading a Mac Pro to it's full memory capability, from Apple it was going to cost ~$9000 vs ~$1400 for identical memory from a third party vendor. I don't begrudge other people spending their money on stuff if they want, but I have better uses for mine.
As for better reliability etc. a colleague brought a Mac Book last year to go to see with, it now looks less than prisitine, what with white being a crap colour to keep clean, and various keys don't work. I remember another guy on one of my ships who was missing a number of keys off his less than 12 months old Mac Book. Meanwhile my two year old Toshiba is running fine and looks as good as it did when I got it.
Similarly my iPod touch randomly resets or plays silly buggers far more often than my PC to the extent I had to reset the thing and reload all my music last week.


Bummer.

My iPod has been doing pretty good. I did fill it up though and that caused some issues for a few days. I reloaded it with less movies on it and it was fine again.



Bill
 
Something that has totally taken me by surprise has happened with getting this iMac.

With all my past computers, it was taking me 20 min's to compile a FS9 model in Gmax/MakeMDL. (20 min's!!!). When my last PC fried after installing a PSU and GC, I got this iMac. Recently, I started compiling models again, getting back into my workflow. This darn thing compiles models in 2 min's. I timed it..! I thought maybe they were exterior models only, or the compiler was malfunctioning..

Tested everything to make sure......

2 min's to compile...!

So I guess it is true that the more powerful the CPU (or GPU) is, the faster the compiler will run.. (For the past several years, they have always averaged 20 min's on a nearly finished to finished model with tons of mesh being right at the limit).


I thought I would share that.


Bill
 
Bill,
How long does it take to compile an FSX model?
I've never really compiled FS9 models on any of my machines, apart from the Ark Royal but that only involved running an x file through MakeMDL and never took that long.
The iPod was quite a bummer as I was on the ski slopes at the time and had to go without music for the day after spending the bus ride making the ultimate skiing playlist!
 
Bill,
How long does it take to compile an FSX model?
I've never really compiled FS9 models on any of my machines, apart from the Ark Royal but that only involved running an x file through MakeMDL and never took that long.
The iPod was quite a bummer as I was on the ski slopes at the time and had to go without music for the day after spending the bus ride making the ultimate skiing playlist!


With FSX, 10 to 30 seconds. I have never seen it go a full min. Awesome compiler... I am glad they redid it with SP1a. It is now a Lamborghini of compilers..


On the iPod failing on a ski trip... tripple arrghhh! Man, that would be a major bummer...



Bill
 
Now to mention the bits that the mac guys really seem to be avoiding...

I guess lets start out with the actual product page of that G5 Bill was bragging about.

mac1.jpg


Now lets see here... 2800 USD... OK, it must have a top of the line processor, 8 GB DDR3 ram, 2 of the best graphics cards on the market, and a few hard drives in RAID.

Wait what?
2 2.8 GHz Xeon processors? Xeon? Don't servers use those?
2! GB DDR2! ram?
ATI 2600! LOL!
1, yes 1 320 GB 7200 rpm hard drive
NO monitor

Hmmm... ok, well two harpertowns of that calibre are about 10-1100 dollars if you do your shopping. Perhaps that price is justified. 2 GB of DDR2 ram? lol... 20 dollars at most? A case with those features, maybe 160 USD (comparing it to thermaltake armor... right). The 2600 is 55 dollars. 320 GB at 7200 rpm costs ya 50 USD. so thats 1100, 1120, 1280, 1335, throw on a power supply, thats 1400. Throw in other miscellaneous parts, ok benefit of the doubt with the motherboard, MAYBE 2000 dollars total.

2000 dollars for parts that are 2 years old, minus the processors...?!

Maybe I can configure some newer parts. Let's have a look.

Processors are already expensive, lets keep those.

Bill said something about 32 GB ram, lets see. WHAT 9,100 DOLLARS!!! THAT MUST BE A TYPO!!! Ok 4 gb ddr2 is 40 dollars, multiply that by 8... ok 320. Hmmm a difference of nearly 9000 dollars. I guess I'll be sticking with the 2GB.

RAID card... well based on the price of the ram, I'd better not look at that. Woops, looked, 800 dollars?

Hmmm I recall Bill also talking about having a terabyte or so of HDD space. 300 dollars for 1 TB? I thought that was more like 100 dollars...

I've definitely got to choose a better graphics card... hmmm choices choices. You've got the 2600, the 2600, the 2600, the 2600, 8800GT?!, and some obtusely priced workstation card. I guess I'll go with the 8800GT. Hmm that is 2 years old too. I thought I was looking for new stuff?

Carrying on and scrolling past the 100 dollar DVD drive, 600 dollar 20 inch monitor and all the other overpriced goods, it doesn't look like I can afford something newer than 2 year old parts.

You don't even need to use logic here to see WHY this is an epic waste of money. You can get a windows computer that would totally wipe the floor with that thing for significantly less than 2000 dollars. For the price of the base G5, you could build an i7 machine that would pretty much wipe any G5 configuration except the most expensive one. I don't even want to see how much that would be. I'd rather get that new car instead, or even use it for a nice down payment on a new house.

Bill, I'd love it if you could justify ANY of these prices for me. Pick any single one and justify it. In fact I am more than open to anything that macs do better than PC's. I'd happily admit it and accept it too! I've spent countless hours scouring the internet for something BETTER about macs and I can't find it. I WANT to find SOMETHING, even ONE thing! There HAS to be a reason people are wasting their money on those things! I feel left out not knowing. If it is so much better, I want to know why, and I'll even buy one!

Please, someone give me some real reasons, or even ONE real reason why a mac is worth the price of a new car! I really want to know! I've never had any of the problems with my "pc"s that you guys have been talking about. Vista runs a thousand times better on my laptop than XP did on my old desktop. I don't know if i should attribute that to Vista or XP. I just don't see any reasons why someone would move to a mac based on this thread and my real-world experiences.
 
AFAIK, there are no significant differences between a stock Quad and a Xeon. I've seen quite a lot of guys using them on the web.

Must be the lower price or something.

I agree on the video card though. A 2600 is nothing short of a joke.
 
Yep....

:d

No worries guys.. Stay with PC's...


I am loving it over here.


:ernae:


My 2600 runs FSX awesome and burns a FS9 model in 2 min's. My smile is touching my ears right now. Havent been this happy about a computer in ages.


:rapture:



Bill
 
No worries guys.. Stay with PC's...

I am loving it over here.

Havent been this happy about a computer in ages.

I DO plan on staying with PC's because you apple folks won't give me any reason to switch and from my previous experience with "pc"s I have no reason to switch.

Please, give me a good reason to switch! Give me a reason Mac might be better than windows! I want to know! I'm willing to listen! I have to be missing SOMETHING if people are willing to spend that much more money for them. I want to know what I'm missing!

Bill I'm glad you are happy with your new (apple) computer. I just want to know why!

:help:
 
I DO plan on staying with PC's because you apple folks won't give me any reason to switch and from my previous experience with "pc"s I have no reason to switch.

Please, give me a good reason to switch! Give me a reason Mac might be better than windows! I want to know! I'm willing to listen! I have to be missing SOMETHING if people are willing to spend that much more money for them. I want to know what I'm missing!

Bill I'm glad you are happy with your new (apple) computer. I just want to know why!

:help:




Hmmm... I thought I had been doing that. :faint:



<--- off to enjoy my day off and fly in FSX... :d



Bill
 
I think the point is, Bill's flying - not wondering what's gonna break next, tweaking, and upgrading, and updating his OS so someone doesn't steal his identity! :icon_lol:

I was in Staples the other day - big poster in the front window "PC Problems? We can fix them!" Never see anything like that for Macs, even at a Mac Store. You do the math.

Ghostrider
 
I think the point is, Bill's flying - not wondering what's gonna break next, tweaking, and upgrading, and updating his OS so someone doesn't steal his identity! :icon_lol:

I don't spend my time wondering whats gonna break next, tweaking, upgrading, and updating my OS either!

My laptop with Vista Ultimate runs more solid than any computer I've ever used. EVER!

I honestly believe you guys either have really really bad luck or were suffering some form of PEBCAK on your Windows based machines. I have never had any of the problems you guys are talking about, especially not with my Vista laptop!


Just BTW Ghost, You said "PC Problems?" We can fix them! A Mac is a personal computer! It didn't say Windows Problems? or Linux Problems? or even Mac Problems? Just "PC" Problems.

From Wikipedia: Today a PC may be a desktop computer, a laptop computer or a tablet computer. The most common operating systems are Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and Linux, while the most common microprocessors are x86-compatible CPUs, ARM architecture CPUs and PowerPC CPUs.
 
not wondering what's gonna break next, tweaking, and upgrading, and updating his OS so someone doesn't steal his identity!

Similarly not a problem I have with any of my three PCs, and after all Bill is running Windows on his Mac to fly FSX!
 
Ok, I think we've thoroughly established that....

1) Some folks like PC's.

2) Some folks like Mac's.

3) Some folks like PC's and Mac's.

My original question has been answered, FSX plays just fine on a Mac.

This thread has served it's purpose and now runs the risk of deteriorating into the usual, and pointless, Mac vs PC bologna.

Moderators, as the OP I ask you to please lock this thread. Thanks


Codeseven
 
Well Codeseven,
I've kept well out of this little debate as I have no experience with Macs but I don't think the thread has run it's course yet. It is a remarkably civilised thread with interesting, if somewhat subjective results reported. What stands out is that if you are not a PC dabbler, prepared to go inside the case and also fiddle with the software then a highly complex Microsoft game will run better (for some) on what we used to call "emulators" on alien operating systems!!!
If Microsoft is listening then perhaps in future their os should be categorised as "Gamer" or "Business" or maybe "Media" or even "Mess about with everything..but in a shallow sort of way"?
 
Err... no they're running Win XP on Apple built PCs to run FSX. If it was an emulator that'd be impressive.

Hmmm so you're saying that the XP running on a Mac is not effectively an Emulator to enable PC games to run on a Mac? I used emulators so my son could run Mario etc on a pc, isn't that effecively the same thing?.
 
Well, no, it's no different from running XP on any other PC. Current Macs use Intel chips with PC memory, graphics cards, hard drives etc. When you load XP it is to all intents and purposes just a PC running XP, there's no trickery involved.
The only current difference between a PC and a Mac is the Operating System, if you have a correctly specced PC you can run OSX on it the main problem benig the hardware specs for Macs are tied down more tightly so it's harder to get a generic PC to run OSX than it is to get a Mac to run XP.
 
There's an idea, sell the Mac OS separately and let people install it freely like Windows. Then we wouldn't have to worry about a 2800 dollar minimum price tag. :ernae:
 
Well, no, it's no different from running XP on any other PC. Current Macs use Intel chips with PC memory, graphics cards, hard drives etc. When you load XP it is to all intents and purposes just a PC running XP, there's no trickery involved.
The only current difference between a PC and a Mac is the Operating System, if you have a correctly specced PC you can run OSX on it the main problem benig the hardware specs for Macs are tied down more tightly so it's harder to get a generic PC to run OSX than it is to get a Mac to run XP.


At 'insanelymac.com' they do install OSX onto regular PC computers, and love it. They also buy the Apple computers and install just windows on them.

Its basically merging though individuals varied approaches...

*Note; Its very 'tricky' to install OSX onto a standard PC. It also disqualifies the EULA for OSX as they are designed for Mac computers. According to a head hauncho at Apple, it is done because of requirements that the hardware perfectly sync with each other. They explained that one of the major reasons PC's have so many issues is there are a zillion hardware components all intermixed and alot of them are subquality or use different settings. (Made sense to me, from what all I have been through).

I think that goes in line with how the graphics card issues have been working for the past 2 years.. (Its been two years already since FSX came out?? eeks.. ).


Yep... If any of you think Macs are too expensive, odd, wierd, not worth it, a waist of time, then hey, look no more. Forget you saw this thread... All is well... Macs are just another line of computers that are available to the market, thats all..

:p

Peace, baby....

:rapture:


Bill
 
Hmmm so you're saying that the XP running on a Mac is not effectively an Emulator to enable PC games to run on a Mac? I used emulators so my son could run Mario etc on a pc, isn't that effecively the same thing?.

Hey Roger,

Its just slightly different but also basic..

You take part of the hard drive of the Mac and format it as a seperate HD space or zone, (like having vista and XP on one HD). Boot Camp (a Mac OS program) is then installed between them. This installs 'button links' that make it possible to 'click' and the machine goes into reboot and boots up into the sister OS.

This is also being done by people that have Linux, so they are running Linux 'and' Mac. (I wonder if its possible to run 3 OS's on one of these... That would be interesting).


So, not really an emmulation. However, with Cross Over and with Wine (both are programs used to enable alot of PC programs and games to run in Mac mode, not Windows), these create a 'bottle' program structure that enables an EXE to run as an APP, which is the difference primarily with Apple OS systems..



Bill
 
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