Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Valve Warns of Gaming Performance Issues With NVIDIA Graphics Cards on Mac OS X 10.6.4

MacRumors

MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
63,545
30,856



154758-steam_logo.jpg


Late last week, Valve Software alerted users of its Steam game distribution platform that Apple's Mac OS X 10.6.4 released last Tuesday appears to be causing performance issues for players of high-end games on Macs with NVIDIA graphics cards. As a result, Valve recommends that users for whom this might be an issue hold off from updating their systems.
The recent 10.6.4 update from Apple has noticeable performance issues for NVidia graphic chip owners running high performance games.

If you wish to avoid this, you should consider waiting to install the 10.6.4 update until Apple has had the opportunity to address this issue.
Click to expand...
Valve made a splash earlier this year when it brought its popular Steam platform to Mac OS X and began releasing titles in its own game library for the Mac. While Mac users of Steam have reportedly been enjoying relatively good stability compared to Windows users, they have also been experiencing lower framerates, degrading the gaming experience somewhat.

We noted last week that Valve is working with Apple, as well as graphics card manufacturers NVIDIA and ATI, to improve drivers and make other changes that should improve the gaming experience on the Mac platform. In the meantime, however, Mac OS X 10.6.4 appears to be a step backward, at least for high-performance games, and it is unknown when Apple will address the issue.

Article Link: Valve Warns of Gaming Performance Issues With NVIDIA Graphics Cards on Mac OS X 10.6.4
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2010/06/21/valve-warns-of-gaming-performance-issues-with-nvidia-graphics-cards-on-mac-os-x-10-6-4/
bitslap47

bitslap47

macrumors 6502a
Jul 9, 2007
634
353
Great...I'm sure this translates to other graphic intensive operations as well.
 
henrikrox

henrikrox

macrumors 65816
Feb 3, 2010
1,219
2
Oh my gad, i really thought osx could be good at gaming, but alas, this comes up. with a huge letdown and a big punch in the stomach for gaming on a mac.
 
D

D0rk

macrumors member
May 23, 2009
56
0
I had this weird itching feeling about 10.6.4, and it was enough to not motivate me to update my MBP. Guess I have enough justification to hold off even longer now.
 
green86

green86

macrumors 6502a
Sep 27, 2007
535
270
North Carolina
Another Apple Failure :rolleyes: You know how Microsoft "patches" tend to "break" things? Just more evidence Apple is headed in the wrong direction...
 
S

slb

macrumors 6502
Apr 15, 2005
464
311
New Mexico
Strange. No problems on my machine. Not that it will stop the astroturfing trolls who hang out here from making smarmy remarks.
 
W

wunderboy

macrumors member
Sep 12, 2008
53
1
I dont' game on my mac but like to keep up on what is going on. Wasn't there a MacRumors article on the fact that Valve said the next update would slightly improve performance?
 
baryon

baryon

macrumors 68040
Oct 3, 2009
3,878
2,929
Steam game performance sucked as much as it does now when Steam first came out for the Mac, so I didn't notice any performance drops since 10.6.4. I don't use my 9600 because it keeps crashing the system so I'm stuck with 9400, but it's playable. I don't have major issues I can run it at 30 fps with most things on High, except Anti-Aliasing which results in horrible lags.
 
Sun Baked

Sun Baked

macrumors G5
May 19, 2002
14,937
157
Sort of funny, people were asking if this update "improved performance due to the Valve announcement" and it looks like it did the opposite. :eek:
 
gumbyx84

gumbyx84

macrumors 6502
Dec 7, 2008
491
0
After reading this, I'm actually happy OS X didn't tell me about the update. While I don't play Steam stuff often, I would like it to work when I do want to play it.

Anyone know if there are issues with other games or with WINE/CXG?
 
henrikrox

henrikrox

macrumors 65816
Feb 3, 2010
1,219
2
slb said:
Strange. No problems on my machine. Not that it will stop the astroturfing trolls who hang out here from making smarmy remarks.
Click to expand...


When Valve goes out publicy and say that you shouldnt update to 10.6.4, there is something wrong.

Don't be so obvious.
 
T

The General

macrumors 601
Jul 7, 2006
4,825
1
Must not be a problem for people with ATI video cards. I was just thinking yesterday that HL2 performance has been getting better and better with every update. It runs about has fast in OS X for me as it does in Windows now. I couldn't be happier.
 
tbobmccoy

tbobmccoy

macrumors 6502a
Jul 24, 2007
967
216
Austin, TX
10.6.4 also seems to have f'ed up my Safari installation. Safari is crashing at least once an hour now under normal use... I switched to Firefox for now. :(
 
Full of Win

Full of Win

macrumors 68030
Nov 22, 2007
2,615
1
Ask Apple
Kind of late for an "Apple update breaks X" report. I'm squarely in the camp of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" when it comes to Apple updates. I've been burned way too many times by them.
 
gmcalpin

gmcalpin

macrumors 6502
Oct 2, 2008
462
74
Somerville, MA
slb said:
Strange. No problems on my machine. Not that it will stop the astroturfing trolls who hang out here from making smarmy remarks.
Click to expand...
It might be a coincidence; it might not. But after updating to 10.6.4, I've had Half-Life 2 periodically drop in framerates for a few seconds at a time. It's really frustrating.

And in one unusual quirk, after loading a new section of a map (after an auto-save), the game dropped to about 1 fps permanently. Quitting and reloading the save game doesn't even fix it — yet after I replayed up to that point (and continued from there), no problems.

It NEVER did that before. All of my Source games performed flawlessly in 10.6.3.

But yeah, like the other guy said: If Valve says there's a problem, there IS a problem.
 
Erwin-Br

Erwin-Br

macrumors 6502a
Feb 6, 2008
603
62
The Netherlands
Let's see how the fanboys will try to turn things around and blame this on Valve. :eek:

I have updated to 10.6.4, and while my frame rates are still the same (around 70fps), I did have to reboot my system twice because of it getting locked up. (The screen freezes, and sounds begin to loop at a very fast pace.) Not looking good.
 
IlluminatedSage

IlluminatedSage

macrumors 68000
Aug 1, 2000
1,563
339
Yep, I can confirm this problem.

Over the weekend i was playing Enemy Territory Quake Wars on my Mac Pro, with Nvidia 8800 GT Apple Card.

And it crashed a couple times. system is unstable with the new 10.6.4 update with games on this.

Also, there is major lagg now. so something in the system is causing things to be aweful for gams now.

so... now i know why, was getting a little worried about my Mac going bad, but i guess its all about the system update. Thanks Apple!

I hope Apple gets working on this fast, it is a major problem.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom