FlightGear 1.0 hardware recommendations: Difference between revisions

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FlightGear 1.0 hardware recommendations (view source)

Revision as of 06:23, 7 April 2009

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Remember these hardware recommendations are based on informal user experience, be sure to consult other sources before making serious decisions regarding computer hardware.
Remember these hardware recommendations are based on informal user experience, be sure to consult other sources before making serious decisions regarding computer hardware.


== Recommended hardware specs - for FlightGear 1.0 ==
== Recommended hardware specs - for FlightGear 1.9.1b ==
Recommended hardware specs - for [[FlightGear 1.0]]
 
For example
x86 PC:


* 1-2 GHZ (multi-core benefits may be employed by threaded FlightGear components such as for example the tile loader)
* 1-2 GHZ (multi-core benefits may be employed by threaded FlightGear components such as for example the tile loader)
* 512-1024 MB RAM (more is better: as of 01/2008 FlightGear will often easily eat up >= 500 MB RAM by default, thus if less free RAM is available the FlightGear process would be significantly slowed down due to OS swapping)
* 512-1024 MB RAM (more is better: as of 01/2008 FlightGear will often easily eat up >= 500 MB RAM by default, thus if less free RAM is available the FlightGear process would be significantly slowed down due to OS swapping)
* 3D hardware accelerator, 128-256 MB, [[OpenGL]] 1.2 capable (2.0 even better!)
* 3D hardware accelerator, 128-256 MB dedicated RAM, [[OpenGL]] 1.2 capable (2.0 even better!) (You may want to check out [[Supported Video Cards]].
* 400-500 MB free HD space needed for minimum installation (>=2 GB for compilations recommended,note that the full base package checkout is ~2.5GB as of 1/2008), in addition: approximately ~100-150MB per installed scenery tile (terrain: non-ocean)
* 500 MB free HD space needed for minimum installation (>=2 GB for compilations recommended,note that the full base package checkout is ~2.5GB as of 1/2008), in addition: approximately ~100-150MB per installed scenery tile (terrain: non-ocean)
* Soundblaster compatible soundcard (optional?) - preferably with EAX support
* Soundblaster compatible soundcard (optional?) - preferably with EAX support
* Gameport or USB (HID compatible) joystick/yoke and/or pedals (optional)
* Gameport or USB (HID compatible) joystick/yoke and/or pedals (optional)
== 3D graphic cards that are known to work  ==
* NVIDIA GeForce MX420/440 (64Mb), GeForce 4 series, GeForce FX series, GeForce 6 series, GeForce 7300GT, GeForce 7600, GeForce 7900GS, GeForce 9800GT.
For problems with nvidia chips, take a look here :
http://wiki.flightgear.org/flightgear_wiki/index.php?title=Troubleshooting_Problems#Slow_Framerate_with_Graphic_Card_with_Nvidia_chip
Comparison of NVIDIA Graphics Processing Units:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_NVIDIA_Graphics_Processing_Units
* ATI Radeon 9000/9200/9250 series, Radeon 9600/9800 series
For problems with ATI chips, see [[Troubleshooting_Problems#Corrupt_Textures_on_ATi_Cards]].
Comparison of ATI Graphics Processing Units :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_ATI_Graphics_Processing_Units
Basically, you should be fine with any NVIDIA or ATI card that is not older than 12-18 months; however, you need to take into account that some of the newer features in FlightGear may not work as expected or may not even work altogether with older hardware. In general, 3D cards that make use of shared memory should be avoided (PCI express cards that share memory are ok). Also, if you intend to use FlightGear under Linux you may first want to check whether the driver for your card is fully supported under Linux (and your X version) or not, in general linux driver support is generally considered to be better for nvidia-based products than for ATI ones, however both  manufacturers provide primarily closed-source drivers, in binary form.
In addition, for products from both ATI & nvidia it is not unusual to notice that the same machine/hardware setup performs "better" (in the sense of reached average framerates, using identical startup&runtime settings) under Win32 than under Linux, this is often an indicator for the unfortunate fact that Win32 OpenGL driver implementations tend -at least so far- to be more completely and efficiently implemented than the linux ones.
Currently, you can basically forget about using any Matrox cards as FlightGear is very heavy on textures, but only the high-end matrox cards will have sufficient capabilities to deal with FlightGear's requirements.
TODO: explain PCI vs. AGP (2x,4x,8x) vs. PCI-E
See also [[Howto: Improve Framerates]]


=== Related Mailing List Discussions ===
=== Related Mailing List Discussions ===
MILSTD
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