Frame rate of 4 FPS on XPlane 11 iMac

Question

Hi

I used to have no major problems running X-Plane 10 on my iMac. Downloaded the demo of 11 and I get a frame rate of 4 FPS. This is even with every graphics option on minimum :(

Is my machine a supported configuration or not?

• 2011 27-inch iMac
• 3.4GHz Core i7
• 32GB DDR3 RAM
• AMD Radeon HD 6970M with 2GB VRAM

Thanks

Joe

Answer 1

Hi Joe,

I am not with Laminar Research; just a flight simmer.  I don't have any association with any other business linked with my comments below.

X-plane 11 has a tendency to be resource hungry over and above X-Plane 10.  Have a look at the following link at  https://www.x-plane.com/kb/x-plane-11-system-requirements/  Although your system "fits"  the minimum requirements serious flight simmers build a purpose built PC equal to or with greater specifications than the recommended specifications.  Personally I think your weakest link is the graphics card with only 2Gb of VRAM which contributes to the low frame rate.  A purpose built PC allows you to upgrade components as and when necessary or when affordable 

Because X-plane 11 is resource hungry good cooling is required to cool the graphics card and the CPU.  Does your system have cooling?  If not you may or will experience crashes when flying due to overheating.

Also have a look at the following link at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tvp8C0rPAuw  This video may also help as well in answering your question.  The author, Michael Brown owns a company in the USA that builds purpose built PCs for flight simulation especially for X-Plane.  Laminar Research recommends this company as the supplier of PCs in the USA.

When X-Plane was first released there were comments in this forum whereby Mac systems were experiencing problems with AMD cards.  NVidia cards give a better performance.  Because your system has some "age" this may be a contributing factor as well.

I hope this helps in answering your question.  Others no doubt may have a different view.

Glenn

Comments

Hi Glenn

Thanks for your reply. 

I always expected that to be the case with my iMac to be honest.

How about this machine instead ... it's my work laptop :)

• Dell XPS 15 9560
• Intel Core i7-7700 2.8GHz (8 core)
• 32GB RAM
• Intel Graphics HD 630

I know this is a laptop GPU but the laptop display is 4K, so it must be fairly powerful.

Dxdiag reports 128MB VRAM but a total available shared memory of 16GB, so will that make a difference?

Thanks

Joe

---

Hi Joe,

I have some reservations on this machine.  However, download the official digital demo version from Laminar Research and install the software to ascertain if the software will run on your machine.  From reading a few earlier/recent questions in this forum there appears to be at least one "dodgy" site making X-Plane available.

The demo version from Laminar Research is the full version but has a time limit ( 10 mins?) which kicks in when you select a flight.  I understand the configuration of any yokes or pedals can be done without taking up the demo time.  With the demo you will be restricted to a specific airport and will not get the benefit of full scenery.

If you find the demo version works purchase the software and you should be given necessary password keys which will then unlock the demo version and enable the full version. 

The demo version can be downloaded from this link at https://www.x-plane.com/desktop/try-it/

Good luck

Glenn