Stuttering on an Intel Mac

[diamonddriller]

Hi Coop,

X-Plane 12.1.2 r3, Mac OS Sequoia 15.1 Beta (yes, I know!), Intel i9, 16GB AMD Radeon Pro 5700 XT.

Terrible stuttering in the Islanders G5, and also in LES's Sundowner V2 (new plane), and your X-Av. 172G5.  Probably an unhelpful log attached.  I just shut XP down in the flight.

The G5s flashed in the 172 (a bit like the Entegra problem I've had, which we examined a while back), but didn't in the Beech or the Islanders. Those displays are steady, but the stuttering was impossible.

I installed the latest G5 (and G500!) versions - and I had redownloaded from X-Av, and reinstalled to make sure I had the latest versions.

I'm now getting stuttering with any plane!  I'm not too sure what has happened.  This only started a couple of days ago.  It's probably because I was trying out my new Sundowner.   I had hardly flown the Islanders in XP12, as I still use XP11 a lot, and never flew the 172 G5.  The flashing G5s, only in the 172, is odd, though.

However, after completely powering down my iMac, and restarting, there is no stuttering with planes not using either the G5 or the G500.   So, even restarting XP after stuttering with the plugins, something remains in RAM, and everything is not cleared.  Cameron has mentioned that Macs have a problem....

Log.txt

Edited October 6 by diamonddriller

[Coop]

The Intel macs are most susceptible to some performance issues, these products will soon be migrating to the next version of the activation system, which should help mitigate this.

[diamonddriller]

Thank you Coop.  There must surely be a sizeable number of us who are still using Intel based Macs - especially the last of the 27" iMacs - which are pretty quick for day to day use.  Yes, their use for video work, etc. is totally eclipsed by Apple silicon, but for many other uses, they are more than adequate.   They do struggle a bit with X-Plane, much more so with XP12 than XP11.  Interestingly, I don't read of incredible, almost amazing performance in X-Plane even with Apple silicon, although I am hoping that M4 chips will be a lot better.   As there have been a lot of X-Plane devotees who have deserted for MSFS 2020, and now will for MSFS 2024, the Mac users of X-Plane may well become a more dominant force in the X-Plane customer base - as they have no alternative.   I can use Windows in Boot Camp on my iMac, but that's no option for Apple silicon users.  Although I've tried to use the Microsoft sim quite often, I still don't really enjoy it, for a host of reaasons.

[Cameron]

On 10/10/2024 at 7:41 AM, diamonddriller said:

There must surely be a sizeable number of us who are still using Intel based Macs - especially the last of the 27" iMacs - which are pretty quick for day to day use.

Just an anecdotal point, from our data and my typical support load, it's extremely rare! In fact, I think you might be the first one I've seen in about two years now, which is honestly kind of crazy when I think about it. The M chips seem to have a high adoption rate! It was rare enough for me to see you mention Intel and me go, "dang, that's old." 

Not a knock on you or your spending at all, just a wild realization.

[diamonddriller]

Very interesting, and a little surprising.  I guess they are using laptops or Minis with attached large monitors.   I've used an M2 Mac Studio in basic XP12, and was not that impressed.  I'm patiently waiting for the M4 Studio or some large better specced iMac.  The M3 is a bit of an "in-betweener". 

[Pils]

2 hours ago, diamonddriller said:

I've used an M2 Mac Studio in basic XP12, and was not that impressed.  I'm patiently waiting for the M4 Studio or some large better specced iMac. 

The key is to get at least the Max variant, with the most GPU cores available, and 24 GB of unified memory if possible. Anything less will likely struggle to get good X-Plane performance.

[diamonddriller]

@Pils Yep. A lotta money