Query whether my computer specs are ok for DCS

Hello.

This year I bought a Macbook 16inch. It needs to fulfill a number of functions, so I know it's not a perfect match for DCS

But the new Macbook 16 is no slouch, and haver fast ssd storage, and of vourse, Windows 10 in bootcamp. It seems to run DCS fine at first sight, though I have only tried single-player missions, with reasonably high graphics settings.

The specs of my Macbook 16 are as follow:

Intel 9th gen 8 core 2.3hz boostable to 4.8hz

AMD Radeon Pro 5500M with 4GB of GDDR6 memory

16GB 2666MHz DDR4 RAM

1TB SSD nvme storage

I simply wondered if somebody could give me some idea of weather my machine be up to multi-plane missions / environments in DCS

Any thoughts would be so very welocome

Thanks

Martin :)

Just try? You can go online with the free version cant you? just hop in a Su25 and a busy server and find out.

My guess is it will be borderline playable with settings turned down far enough. But keep in mind a module like the F14 can cut your framerates almost in half.

main limitation seems to be the graphics card everything else seems ok

Thanks for replying so fast :)

Several reputable sites compared my Macbook 16 inch (AMD Radeon Pro 5500M with 4GB of GDDR6 memory) to similar NVIDIA GTX Cards. The Macbook came out as roughly identical, in benchmarks, games etc to the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 (Desktop)

Does that make the comparison a bit easier? There are reasons to do with a cognitive problem I have, following a brain injury in the past. I did try to get into DCS when it was FC3 + A10. So, having some information (a guess is just fine) from people who are more knowledgeable about computer specs than I am would be really so helpful.

Thanks so much. Martin :)

DCS performance is unfortunately not often comparable to "most games" and no reviewers use it as a benchmark. Even more annoying is that performance "depends". It depends greatly on what plane you fly, what mission, what map, what module. it varies enormously with settings. Im convinced it even depends on the position of the moon and the color of my lawn.

That said, a few things are generally true. DCS really loves as much VRAM as possible. Your 4GB is going to be a bottleneck and will hurt performance. More in some modules than others. It wont make it unplayable, but you will have to (significantly) reduce settings on some modules and maps.

DCS also loves fast ram (and ideally lots of it). 2666MHz is not terrible, nor is it stellar. Its ok. 16GB is also ok, especially offline its fine, but may lead to longish load times for large/online mission. Then again, everyone has that to some extent.

DCS doesnt care how many cores you have. 2 or 8 makes no real difference. It only cares how fast they are. Yours is pretty fast.

All in all, you will be able to play DCS. You will have to make some compromises, but everyone does. Dont expect to fly VR fluidly, then again, no one really can :).

Thanks for all the help

Many thanks.

That was really helpful, and makes me very hopeful I could have a lot of fun. I can't see me wanting to play multiplayer (though that'll probably change) or getting involved with the big Supercarrier, F-14 and F/A-18C scenarios.

One nice thing about this particular Macbook is that it has 4 Thunderbolt-3 ports, which gives me, in time, access to an external GPU, and more Nmve storage. Not ideal, but helpful.

I'd already decided that, in a few years, though keeping the Macbook (my last one lasted 8 years! and is still being used by a student) I'd need to up the specs somehow. The Macbook 16 is a great computer. But there are some cheaper faster setups that don't look fancy, but are fast :) and can be secretly brought out on my mad nights!

So, over time, I should hopefully be able to keep up without it costing too much.

Many thanks, and to all that have helped. I'm really grateful

Martin

Hi

Just thought it might help, for any future queries like mine, if I gave feedback on how my Macbook Pro 16 inch is coping with DCS.

I have only just started, and I had to grab a full PC keyboard from someone, as starting the FPS command was so much easier on it.

I seem to be getting around 120 fps consistently on the Macbook, both on its own screen, and also using a 22" LG TV/Monitor with graphics at medium+ and the Macbook resolution reduced 1920 x 1080 (to match that of the monitor)

Have to admit I was happily (very) surprised.

For context, I used the SU-25T solo flight training mission. No doubt loads of other planes around would seriously clobber the FPS. But I did go through towns, at low level. The view of the cockpit, looking out of the cockpit and using F2 to get an outside view was really smooth and the FPS still at 110-120

I'd love to tell you what it'd be like on multiplayer, but I'm afraid I may never fly online.

All the best.

Martin

Interesting to see if you can pop it up to 1440p. I only lost about 10fpson the move myself but its a much better experience, I can spot an A/C at 20miles at 1440p which I couldnt do @ 1080p

Many thanks.

I'll give it a shot. I'll take a look on the Macbook (16:10) at its native resolution (3072 x 1920). I previously reduced the resolution mostly to be in synch with the monitor, which has a 1080 maximum

I haven't yet tried DCS solely on the Macbook, at its maximum/native resolution. It'll be interesting to see.

I'll give it a try and see what happens.

Thanks again. :)

DCS and Macbook Pro 16 FPS at different resolutions.

After the high framerate DCS ran at with 1920 x1200 resolution, I tried different resolutions of DCS (solely on my Macbook Pro 16 - no external monitor) and the results were a little odd. Encouraging, but odd.

My Macbook display doesn't have 1440 as an option. So, I first tried DCS with both the Macbook & DCS set to 3072 x 1920. The framerate dropped, under the same circumstance as before, in the SU-25T free flying (high, low, through urban areas, but no other planes around). The framerate stayed roughly between about 45fps to 60fps, and was smooth.

Then I lowered the resolution of the Macbook, and DCS, to 2560 x 1600. So, this is where it gets odd. Under exactly the same conditions, the framerate rose, as you'd expect, to 70-75 plus. It was very smooth, but it periodically froze. It didn't crash the program. The plane simply froze for a second and then carried on its merry way.

So, the Macbook was giving a good framerate, and the game was smooth, but periodically froze for a second. But, with the highest resolution, though the framerate was lower, it was smooth and didn't stop once.

I am not particularly techie. But I know Mac screens are a little "different". Apple really do want you to run the machine at 3072 x 1920. So, at the preferred resolution, all was well with the Macbook but the fps simply dropped as you'd expect.

At 1920 x1200 DCS also ran smoothly and with a high framerate.

The problem came with the intermediate resolution. Still 1:6 and reasonably fast, but apparently not to its liking.

During the two high resolution tests, it was very strange trying to read the fps on a 16" screen, at a high resolution. A magnifying glass would have come in handy :)

So, in future I'll stick with the 1920 x 1200 sweet-spot, and I'm very pleased that my little machine has enough juice to run DCS smoothly.

Thanks for the suggestions :)

Martin

There's nothing special about Mac hardware - it's just a screen built to Apple's specs by LG, Samsung, Sony, whomever got the bid for that batch of units.

I expect what you are encountering is not a hardware issue really and more the infamous 'DCS stutter'. You can search these forums reading till your eyes bleed and not find a cause for it.

< SPECULATE WILDLY >

My 'gut' says it is some just in time (JIT) code that loads textures, map objects/blocks and/or other assets and it gets hung up in the logic tree somehow and loses pace with what is supposed to be drawn on the screen. Slow disk or RAM - not sure - I still experience it on a machine with fast CPU, RAM and NVME storage - makes me lean towards code logic being an issue...

I'd just pick a res and focus on that for now. 2560x1600 is basically the 16:10 version of 1440p in gaming. If the frame rates are high enough it's probably a good res to focus upon. 1920x1200 is in between the normal 1080p and 1440p gaming resolutions.

It's all about bandwidth. If the machine has enough bandwidth to fill the graphics pipe at the higher res smoothly then I'd run that.

FWIW, my own experience has been that higher frame rates lead to mastering the difficult aircraft like the Spitfire quicker. The Spit is lady in the air and a PITA on the runway. If you are dealing with low frame rates while trying to discern visual cues for rudder and brake during take off and landing you are in for a hard time of it.

HTH

Thanks reece146.

That was really so helpful. It's always good to get an answer to something that I thought was totally weird.

I've decided to stay with 1920 x 1200 in future. It gives great graphics on my Macbook, or my 22" TV/Monitor, and very smooth, framerates. Judging by the minute size of the framerate counter, the smaller screen sizes also help.

I know that a time will come struggle when my Macbook will struggle with DCS as it develops further. Fortunately I have already decided on a number of solutions to that which won't be expensive (ugly and cheap, but with decent specs for the time) and will leave me with the Mac for other uses. My last one was 8 years old when I handed it to a friend, and it's still going great today. I'd done a DIY increase of RAM, and replaced my hard drive with an SSD. That gave it a new lease of life, for what my friend needed it for.

Thanks again for the help. I now have a sense of what might be happening. I'm really grateful.

Pretty encouraging, when you think of it

All the best. Martin :)

Yeah, the older Mac equipment was very nice. I've got a fleet of MBPs and Minis spanning ~2001-2016). They are all running Linux now. The Minis make decent enough Kubernetes nodes for the home lab.

My wife's iMac is still running MacOS but that'll get switched to Linux also sooner than later (don't fix what isn't broken is the approach on that one).

My old Macbook Pro 13" Mid-2012 was the only laptop I've owned so long. It just kept going. I'd have eaten 3 Windows over that time period.

I think it was the last variant that you could open up yourself to put in an SSD, extra RAM & the like. Wonderful.

I do like the Macs, but I knew, when buying my Macbook Pro 16,that there'd be no DIY upgrading. But, on the upside, it does have 4 Thunderbolt 3 ports, and that can add a lot of oomph to it. External GPU etc. Also, with Thunderbolt 3 and fast external NVME SSD's I can add extra storage, as if it was in the machine.

But, my plan B when my Macbook is a bit past it for PC Gaming, is to buy a cheap, ugly gaming laptop, that'd be good enough for all I'd need. I'd have to hide it away for special occasions though!

Once again, thanks for your help.

dumb question, have you tried installing DCSWorld and jumping into MP with the TF-51 or SU-25, you dont need to be able to deploy, just to be able to get airborne and report back.

Hi again and thanks for the advice.

I tried DCS once before, and even

have some paid modules.

Sadly, it didn't work out. I have a neurological condition that affects cognition and concentration. But, I wanted to try DCS again (& now also iL-2) with a more relaxed approach. Happily, my new Macbook turned out to be well up to the job. Whether I am, remains to be seen. So, I'll be happy starting with the easier sigle-player missions and see how it goes.

I know multiplayer is great, but I'm content to wait awhile. :)

Happy flying :)

Martin

You can still have a lot of fun in single player, non combat if you treat DCS as 'just a flight simulator'.

I do that a lot - bush flying with the Yak-52 and just touring around in the higher powered aircraft. I have both XPlane11 and IL-2 but don't spend any time with them - it's always DCS for me regardless of the type of flying.

The UH-1 is a lot of fun also but really needs a proper collective stick I think. I keep getting "lost' in the throttle quadrant due to regular aircraft finger/muscle memory, Ha!

TF51 is a great tourer and not that terrible for ground handling in DCS.

At this point just have fun with it - see where it leads. :)

Thanks Reece

That was really helpful, and thoughtful.

I'll take it as it comes. There's lots to do/crash into :)

Thanks again