gthomas

no, I think you misheard something. In no way does EC have a 10X performance boost

There are a tremendous number of error messages in the log files. Try removing those sceneries. If that a doesn't work, remove all custom scenery and plugins, then replace 1 by 1. I am assuming there is a extreme reason you are still on Mountain Lion.

really 2x? supposition/predigest or measured? But that still does not answer 'what is decent?' It would be interesting to see a version of x-plane truly optimized for the mac instead of a cross platform design understandably tilted toward the PC to attract disaffected MSFS users. The things that would enable a mac pro to slay dragons are not done (those choices either do not exist on the PC or would perform poorly), while other choices perform well on a PC but not a mac. These are programing choices not inherent positives or negatives of either system. The current situation is that XP runs faster on an iMac than it does a mac pro. If the opposite choices were made the results would be different. It is these choices made by LR, more than video card drivers, that affect mac users on XP. however, the question remains: 'what is decent?'

What do you call decent?

first, the 45+ is an indication that it is not badly optimized for the mac even if it were at an airport with no scenery, which it is not, this would show that it's not XP/Mac that is the issue Since you thought "it would be very interesting to know how [ I ] can obtain that value": 2.93 GHz i7 16GB RAM Compressed Textures Resolution: High Trees: Overgrown Objects: Mega Tons Roads: Tons # of cars: New York World detail: Very high Airport Detail: high shadow: static HDR: off Screen Anti-Aliasing: 8x anisotropic filter: 2x clouds: 10% aircraft: 172SP weather: low viz just went to an airport with no scenery: 59 FPS

45+ FPS with 2010 iMac

You can install on a Mac using Crossover from http://codeweavers.com

Mid 2012 MBP has a thunderbolt port. A properly executed TB drive will be about the same speed as your internal. I don't think the drive is your bottleneck. How much VRAM does your graphics card have? 51GB (big problem) or 1GB (a little better.)

Wow, harsh. Have you ever paved new ground in an field? I have, it takes time, often you start over, and start over, and start over... To paraphrase Tim Cook: It's more important to be right than to be [fast]. I've been working on a pay-ware project for almost 4 years. While a lot of that was learning, much of it was clean-slate, I can do this better, start over. So where am I stuck? The ortho landscape. Looks great from the air, but looks like I need new glasses when taxing—this is a 50+ year old, highly landscaped, family owned airport. My fear? NorCal is going to redefine XP scenery to an extent that I my have to cut my target price in half.

nevertheless, I still stop by almost everyday, just to see

That would require a google account. Being in tech, I will not go there. I know too much.

A heavily trafficked road at one end, power lines and a 3m stone embankment at the other. This privately owned, public use airport is a tight squeeze. Heavily landscaped, interesting mix of buildings. Custom static aircraft.

There has not been a single successful virus with Mac OS X ever. Trojans? Yes. Viruses? No. When I say successful. I mean viruses that have spread. People have tried, they didn't spread. (Why would someone randomly enter their Admin password?) Trojans are the user's fault, but the company protects against all known trojan issues. Every time a vulnerability crops in a third party add-on (cough, flash, cough, java) it is shut down world wide until that third party updates it. Leave Symantec off, it's a bag of hurt and protects against nothing. Yesterday I did something I do every 2-3 years, I ran ClamxAV which checks every known invader to OS X. Nothing. I do this to validate my claim: I am online 24/7. Nothing.

cross platform?

sometimes the intertubes deflate