Laptops known to run FlightGear

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This page is intended to provide a reference for those looking to buy a notebook for running FlightGear. Unlike a desktop system, where you can just plug in a more or less recent NVidia card and expect things to work, laptops often don't have good OpenGL support. It is usually helpful, to specifically look out for so called "gaming" notebooks that come with hardware accelerated 3D support, as well as dedicated graphics memory.

You may also want to see Hardware Recommendations. For FlightGear versions older than FlightGear 2.0, you may want to see Notebooks known to run FlightGear prior 2.0.

The frame-rate quoted below is for the C172P at KSFO, 28R with the default options. E.g. no command-line arguments, options selected in the launcher or .fgfsrc file.

However, as most people don't run at 800x600, there is also an entry to record the typical frame-rates you see and your typical graphics settings.

If not on the list

If you went ahead and bought a notebook or laptop without consulting this, or did not have a chance, you might find that airplanes are missing texture shapes. This is due to the graphics card, GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) or driver/software not supporting and drawing certain faces/textures/sides of the model. You can try adjusting notebook and FlightGear settings to maximize performance even with notebook/slower graphics cards (see Troubleshooting performance issues).


FlightGear 2020

Manufacturer Model CPU RAM GPU OS resolution/bpp fps (quality level) advanced weather impact

(avg fps)

Comments
0 1 2 3 4 5
Acer Aspire 4830TG Intel Core i5-2410M 6 GB Intel HD Graphics 3000 Ubuntu 14.04 (64-bit) 800x600 (32) 28 19 -3 fps Intel integrated graphics.

FlightGear 3.5.0 systems (without Rembrandt/Deferred Rendering)

Manufacturer Model CPU RAM GPU OS resolution/bpp fps (quality level) advanced weather impact
(avg fps)
Comments
0 1 2 3 4 5
Acer Aspire 4830TG Intel Core i5-2410M 6 GB Intel HD Graphics 3000 Ubuntu 14.04 (64-bit) 800x600 (32) 28 19 -3 fps Intel integrated graphics.
Acer Aspire 4830TG Intel Core i5-2410M 6 GB Geforce GT 540M Ubuntu 14.04 (64-bit) 800x600 (32) 49 39 -6 fps Deticated graphics enabled with bumblebee.

FlightGear 3.5.0 systems (with Rembrandt/Deferred Rendering)

Manufacturer Model CPU RAM GPU OS resolution/bpp fps (quality level) advanced weather impact
(avg fps)
Comments
0 1 2 3 4 5
Acer Aspire 4830TG Intel Core i5-2410M 6 GB Intel HD Graphics 3000 Ubuntu 14.04 (64-bit) 800x600 (32) 10 10 -2 fps Intel integrated graphics.
Acer Aspire 4830TG Intel Core i5-2410M 6 GB Geforce GT 540M Ubuntu 14.04 (64-bit) 800x600 (32) 22 20 -5 fps Deticated graphics enabled with bumblebee.

FlightGear 2.8.0 systems (without Rembrandt/Deferred Rendering)

(waiting to be filled in by users after the upcoming release)

Manufacturer Model CPU RAM GPU OS resolution/bpp fps (quality level) advanced weather impact
(avg fps)
Comments
0 1 2 3 4 5
Manufacturer Model CPU RAM GPU OS RESOLUTION (BPP) frame rate frame rate for shader settings framerate affect due to local weather Optional Comments

FlightGear 2.8.0 systems (with Rembrandt/Deferred Rendering)

(waiting to be filled in by users after the upcoming release)

Manufacturer Model CPU RAM GPU OS resolution/bpp fps (quality level) advanced weather impact
(avg fps)
Comments
0 1 2 3 4 5
Manufacturer Model CPU RAM GPU OS RESOLUTION (BPP) frame rate frame rate for shader settings framerate affect due to local weather Optional Comments

FlightGear 2.6.0 systems

(waiting to be filled in by users)

Manufacturer Model CPU RAM GPU OS resolution/bpp fps (quality level) advanced weather impact
(avg fps)
Comments
0 1 2 3 4 5
Acer Aspire 5750G Intel Core i5-2410M 4 GB Geforce GT 540M Windows 7 (64-bit) 800x600 (32) 35 57 -10 fps -5 fps on 1366x768 (32)
HP Pavilion dm4t Intel Core i3-2350M 6 GB Intel HD Graphics 3000 Windows 7 (64-bit) 800x600 (32) 30 57 -10 fps Intel 8.15.10.2696
HP Pavilion dm4t Intel Core i5-2430M 16 GB AMD Radeon HD 7470M Windows 7 (64-bit) 800x600 (32) 35 57 -10 fps Catalyst 12.4

FlightGear 2.4.0 systems

Manufacturer Model CPU RAM GPU OS fps Comments
Acer Aspire 5750G Intel Core i5-2410M 4 GB Geforce GT 540M Windows 7 (64-bit) 90
Acer Aspire 5520G AMD Athlon 64 X2 2GHz 2 GB Geforce 8600M GS 512Mb Gentoo amd64 25-50
Dell Studio 1555 Intel Core 2 Duo T6400 4 GB ATI Mobility Radeon HD4570 512MB Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty) 10 FlightGear 2.2 from git [commit 65607d4a7b8576905bb08f68a506aa87db258368] @1440x900: 10fps (driver xorg-radeon from git [commit 903e90c31cf0319be9297529aa7b8daa1756cf63] with "mid" profile) with maximum details.
Lenovo Y550 Intel Core 2 Duo T6400 4 GB GeForce GT 240M Freebsd 8 ,ubuntu 90
Lenovo T400 Intel Core 2 Duo 4 GB ATI Radeon Ubuntu 11.10 (Dev) 40
Lenovo N500 Intel Pentium Dual CPU T3400 @ 2.16GHz 3 GB intel GMA GM45 Linux Mint 13 (Maya) 17

FlightGear 2.0.0 systems

Manufacturer Model CPU RAM GPU OS fps Comments
Dell Alienware M15x Intel Core i7 Q720 (8 core) 4 GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 260M Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic) 56 Fullscreen (1920x1080) : 60fps, 30fps @KSFO with lots of traffic.
Sony VPCCW13FX Intel Core 2 Duo P7450 (2 core) 4 GB nVidia GeForce G210M Windows 7 Home Premium 50+ Default settings.
HP Pavilion dv6500 Intel Core 2 Duo T7250 2GHz 2 GB nVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS Vista Home Premium 32-bit SP2 30fps+ @ KSFO 28R with shaders on, in the rain.
Dell Precision M4400 Intel Core2 Extreme X9100 3.1Ghz 4 GB NVIDIA Quatro FX 770M Vista Business 64-bit SP2 20+fps @ KSFO 28R (frame rate throttled to 20).
Toshiba Satellite A500-18T Intel Core2 Duo P7450 2.13Ghz 4 GB NVIDIA Geforce GT 230M GNU/Linux Ubuntu Lucid Lynx 64 bits 30+fps @ KSFO 28R, shaders on.
Acer Aspire 9420 Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T5500 (1,66Ghz/2M) 1 GB NVIDIA Geforce Go 7300 Vista Ultimate 32-bit SP2 25+fps @ KSFO 28R (shaders on).
Acer Aspire 4530-6823 AMD Athlon 64 X2 QL-62 2.0 GHz 3 GB NVIDIA GeForce 9100M G Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit, Ubuntu 10.04 LTS 64-bit 10-15+fps (Win), 20-25+ (Ubuntu) Frame rate is significantly better at high altitudes, sometimes breaking 40+ FPS
System76 Pangolin Performance PanP7 Intel Core i5 520M 2.4 GHz 2GB ATI Mobility Radeon HD4570 Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic) 64-bit 40+fps Tested only at native resolution(1366x768). Flightgear was self-compiled (build-script). Bonobo Performance Laptop has identical hardware. Similar Performance Expected.
ASUS U30X-A5 Intel Core 2 Duo U7300 1.3 GHz 4GB Intel Graphics 4500MHD (integrated) Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit 10+fps Frame rate best at high altitudes over unpopulated areas.
APPLE MacBook Pro 15 Intel Core i5 2.4 GHz 4GB NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M 256 MB Mac OS X 10.6.6 33 fps Windowed 1440x900
APPLE MacBook Pro 15 Intel Core i7 2.0 GHz 8GB AMD Radeon HD 6490M 256 MB Mac OS X 10.6.8 39 fps Windowed 1680x1050