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 |