bootcamp - Mac Pro - Windows 8 - DCS World

[cichlidfan]

The CPU might be OK on low settings but I think the video card is a show stopper with only 256MB of memory.

[BitMaster]

agree to cichlidfan, CPU might work for modest missions as a server... that could be the mini's destiny if it was mine haha ;)

 

Bit

[BitMaster]

This is a great thread, I am about to buy a new imac and the prospect of being able to play DCS on it is fantastic.

 

My PC is integrated into my Hornet home cockpit, maybe I can build a Ground Unit chair for the imac & combined arms...

 

 

 

Cannot believe this "all smooth" at max settings with 1GB VRAM and somewhere close to a 27" iMac native resolution you need +1.5GB VRAM as indicated by my Asus GPU Monitoring SW. With 1.5GB VRAM you still hit the limit with a few dozen MB and force swap.

 

 

I have played on a MBP Retina Mid2012 at 1080p with low-medium settings

and I tortured this little book to the max, heat and fans always at max when gaming and an iMac also has Notebook parts, not Desktop. The GPU is a notebook variant and lacks ROP and Shaders.

 

For the price of a nice 27" iMac you get a decent i7 machine with 980GTX and some extras included while you save the mac from being misused ( cooling issue ).

 

That is the way I went just lately, save the Mac and game on a rig that is DEDICATED to DCS alone. See sig.

 

If you buy a new Mac Pro for gaming you must be doing something wrong !!

For that money you can go tripple SLI at 5 GHz and smoke the Mac Pro at any discipline.

 

I love Macs, I love OSX and I love to game on my Mac too, games it was ment and built for. DCS for sure is beyond that on most Macs and too expensive on those that could.

 

Bit

Edited March 4, 2015 by BitMaster

[ctguy1955]

DCS on MiniMac

 

The CPU might be OK on low settings but I think the video card is a show stopper with only 256MB of memory.

 

 

Even if I were to only be able to practice landing the P51 in single player, I would be happy

to do this as it will cost me nothing. If I turn everything way down, do you think it

will allow me to do just that ?

 

I have 5600 invested in my Home PC and do not want to bring it to the firetrap of a old

house Im staying in for work. I miss flying so much !!!!

 

 

 

Edited March 4, 2015 by ctguy1955

[cichlidfan]

Even if I were to only be able to practice landing the P51 in single player, I would be happy

to do this as it will cost me nothing. If I turn everything way down, do you think it

will allow me to do just that ?

 

With only 256MB of VRAM, I would be surprised if you can fly anything.

[ctguy1955]

mac mini upgrade your video card to any pci-e card ?

 

The CPU might be OK on low settings but I think the video card is a show stopper with only 256MB of memory.

 

What about This:

 

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=297040&highlight=mac+mini

[ctguy1955]

My wife just mentioned that She has a older PC with a good video card that I may borrow

to bring up here ( Malta/Round Lake New York ) to practice my landings. YEA !!!!!

[mart]

MacBook Pro and Monitor Sze

 

Hi,

 

I'm new here, so I hope I'm not butting into the wrong part of the forum. I have a MacBook Pro (mid 2012), running Yosemite. It's has 8GB 1600MHz DDR RAM, an Intel 2.9 GHz Core i7 (with boost up to around 3500 - I think) and Intel HD Graphics 4000 (1 GB assigned to it).

 

The Bootcamp partition is running Windows 7 (64) and though I don't have any internal SSD Drive, I do have a USB 3.0 Machine, and a USB 3.0 Samsung External SSD HardDrive, onto which I've installed DCS.

 

So, firstly I'm happy to report that it all works. I don't have an FPS counter, but it runs smoothly on Low, and Medium, at height, and is best on Low for whizzing around towns, in the SU-25t until I immediately crash!

 

I've discovered that the best way to set the monitor resolution, is to do it within the program, and not on my monitor.

 

As I understand it, the lower the screen resolution, the less drain on the frame rate. But does it also matter what SIZE monitor you use. I am experimenting wih 2 flat HDMI HDTVs. They can both get high resolutions which I reduce slightly. But my impression is that the frame rate is higher on the smaller screen (20") than on the larger screen (40"). That kind of make some sort of intuitive sense, but then lots of things that seem to make sense to me turn out to be wrong!

 

If anybody could shed any light on the effect on monitor size (both at the same resolution) on frame rate, I would be just so grateful.

 

Also, just to add to the discussion about Macs and DCS, Macbook's are, generally, not the fastest of Macs in any one year. I love the Su-25t but I have a twist joystick, not yet having bought rudder pedals. As the flight models in a lot of Flaming Cliffs 3 planes tend, mostly, to be simpler than many DCS modules, am I likely to see higher frame rates over my beloved Su-25t.

 

So, that's monitor size, and Flaming Cliffs 3 compared to some other planes. I promise to report back, for any MacBook people out there, and who may like to know, should their MacBook/Bootcamp set-up is slightly borderline. I'm afraid I can comment on things like graphics cards, as when you ow a MacBook, this sort of stuff soon becomes a distant memory.

 

This may also be a good time to thank so many in the community who only recently gave me the confidence to get up in the air. I really do appreciate it.

 

Thanks,

 

Martin

[mondaysoff]

The new Mac Pro

 

Does anybody know how this rig would handle DCS

 

http://www.apple.com/uk/mac-pro/

 

I was looking at the minimum spec

 

3.7Ghz quad core

12gb DDR3

Dual AMD Fire pro 2gb

 

I love DCS, (the only game I play) but also love photo/video/music editing.

My current rig (see spoiler) in DCS can give me 20-30 fps on medium settings in single player @ 2560X1440, but can get hot very quickly, so extra external cooling has to be added (desk fan lol). I would love to sometime in the future try out multiplayer with the hope of having a machine that would stay with me and not fold under the first battle scene.

 

Some might say, why not get a dedicated rig for half the price, well, I love the Mac for everything else as well as DCS, and Bootcamp has run Windows faultlessly for me for many years.

 

So, just wondering if it would be worth taking the plunge, as I am not a computer performance expert.

 

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[BitMaster]

If, by all means, it needs to be an Apple Computer, then, get an iMac for the sake of DCS.

 

The Mac Pro is not faster, maybe even slower, depending on drivers and dev stage of DCS.

 

Get the fastest iMac you can, add the biggest GPU and PCI-E based Flash Drive, that is basically all you need.

 

 

Again, for less money you can go SLI 980 GTX-Ti and 5GHz......way way way faster than any Mac can ever be as of now.

[chaos]

 

I love DCS, (the only game I play) but also love photo/video/music editing.

.

 

The days of the Mac being the 'preferred' platform for audio and video editing are long gone. If you want to buy a Mac for the looks then by all means, go take out a loan and pay through the nose for a hunk of brushed aluminium...

[mondaysoff]

The days of the Mac being the 'preferred' platform for audio and video editing are long gone. If you want to buy a Mac for the looks then by all means, go take out a loan and pay through the nose for a hunk of brushed aluminium...

 

If, by all means, it needs to be an Apple Computer, then, get an iMac for the sake of DCS.

 

The Mac Pro is not faster, maybe even slower, depending on drivers and dev stage of DCS.

 

Get the fastest iMac you can, add the biggest GPU and PCI-E based Flash Drive, that is basically all you need.

 

 

Again, for less money you can go SLI 980 GTX-Ti and 5GHz......way way way faster than any Mac can ever be as of now.

 

Thanks for your advice guys, guess I'm going to have to get a second rig then if I want to get deeper into DCS.

 

Anybody know if I could use the iMac just as a monitor plugged in from a second rig?