Does Intel HD Graphics 620 work with X-Plane?

Question

I'm looking at two computer setups. Option 1 seems to be closer to the correct system requirements mentioned at http://www.x-plane.com/kb/x-plane-11-system-requirements/. The second one is a less expensive unit, and I'm not sure it would make the cut, especially with the graphics card. Thoughts?

Option 1:

Processor: Intel Core i7-6500U Processor (4MB Cache, up to 3.10GHz)
Memory: 8GB PC3-12800 DDR3L 1600MHz SODIMM
Graphics: NVIDIA Quadro M500M 2GB

Option 2:

Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-7500U Processor (2.70GHz 4MB)
Memory: 8.0GB DDR4 2133 MHz
Graphics: Intel® HD Graphics 620

Comments

I have the HD 620 but with lower specs than yours and it is very unplayable for the most I get at least 25fps depending on where I fly and then suddenly the laptop hangs and I have to constantly manually shut it off.This is due to the Laptop only having 6gb ram.

Answer 1

In general, we would always advise against an Intel GPU as they are never as powerful as a discrete GPU from Nvidia or AMD.

If possible, I would suggest a different Nvidia card as well. I believe the Quadro cards are designed for specific workstation software and are therefor quite a bit more expensive without being necessarily better for running X-Plane. Do you have an option for a different Nvidia card, like the 9xx or 10xx series?

Comments

Thanks for the Advice! I'll steer away from the Intel GPU's. 

Concerning the Nvidia card... here's my dilemma. We theoretically could get an Nvidia GeForce GPU or something else designed more for gaming. A dedicated gaming platform would be the obvious choice. However, I'm not a gamer, and thus don't necessarily need a dedicated gaming laptop. 

I am a licensed pilot, but we just don't have the money for me to fly more than a few hours per month. So my end goal here is to practice certain things in a simulator world that would take too much time to practice in real life (for example, using an E6B on a long cross-country flight). I don't need the best in-game graphics for that; I just need to be able to see the panel gauges clearly, add some weather variation (no IFR stuff, more just wind, day/night, etc.), and see enough outside the cockpit to navigate effectively. And I need it all to run smoothly, which is borderline on my current system.

Even though the Quadro is designed more for workstation software, does it have the juice to at least run X-Plane in this regard? The specific laptop I'm looking at is the Thinkpad P40. It gives us the portability for the traveling that we do, the power for the music recording/editing that we do, and hopefully the GPU performance for lighter use of X-Plane. Thoughts?

 

 

 

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The spec you list for the Quadro say it has 2 gb VRAM, which falls between our minimum and recommend GPU specs, so I think it would be ok for lighter use as you say. Mostly we recommend Nvidia or AMD cards as they tend to give more power for a lower price, and can be swapped out and upgraded on a desktop. Laptops & Macs tend to be a whole other animal since all the parts are permanent.

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I have 16gb of RAM and an intel HD 620 with 8GB of VRAM

Will that work with X Plane 11?

Thanks