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

MacFro

macrumors member
Jan 23, 2013
46
0
Finally got my new iMac last week. I have installed the game in OSX and started it up. I haven't played a full game yet, but have done a few quick tests.

Is it possible to get the framerate to show during gameplay without having to hold the mouse over the menu button?

And, i would love some input on what to do with the settings. I have no experience in tweaking game settings so feel kind of lost.

I have the 27", 3.4ghz i7, 32gb ram, 680mx, 3tb fusion.
 

joe-h2o

macrumors 6502a
Jun 24, 2012
997
445
Post a video or anything that proves it cause it's impossible to get a constant 60 fps on mine in OSX.

So, wait, you want him to prove his comment because it conflicts with your well documented evidence... oh wait, you haven't posted any evidence.

You want us to take your word for it, but not his?

Gotcha.
 

karpich1

macrumors regular
Dec 18, 2007
170
0
I don't have much to add...

Just that I THOUGHT the benchmarks I saw posted for World of Warcraft (another Blizzard title) showed that Windows had slightly better performance. And that it was mostly due to more game-optimized Win drivers or how the OS handled the requests.

And that the difference wasn't huge, but just that it was there. So some people preferred Bootcamping into Windows to play the big Raids in WoW.


If so, I could see that being the case here too. Since you're talking about a Blizzard game on both platforms... and Blizzard is one of the few gaming companies that take native cross-platform-ports very seriously.

But I don't know of the links so I COULD VERY WELL be incorrect.
 

MacFro

macrumors member
Jan 23, 2013
46
0
Did some quick (!) tests last night, and when i run at native resolution and graphics turned to Extreme (all on full except vertical frame sync and anti aliasing), i never get below 50-60fps in osx during gameplay. Tried two different missions and the first (ground map mission) stayed between 50-70+, and the other (space map mission) stayed around 80-90fps, and upwards to 100fps when little was going on. Actually the space map mission went up to 130-140fps during the intro sequence to the mission.

When i turned on vertical frame sync the space map mission was at a constant 60fps. I like this feature as it provides much smoother sideways scrolling.

When i tested i played the campaign, and did not complete both missions, but did go into battle with several units, blow up buildings, defend base etc. I will try more intense missions later and report back how that goes. Difficulty level was set to normal.

Coming from 15-20 fps on low settings on a 2007 mbp, these results are very pleasing :)
 
Last edited:

Motliest Crue

macrumors regular
Jun 10, 2010
107
0
1987
I'm not sure how you guys are getting such good FPS.

680mx i7

I am running SC2 as follows:
1920 x1080
graphics - extreme
texture - ultra

everything else set to ultra / extreme with antialias off.

in 1v1 or 2v2 i get 35FPS in 3v3 or 4v4 battles both vs humans and AI i drop to 0-5 FPS.

Thoughts?
 

Serban

Suspended
Jan 8, 2013
5,159
928
I'm not sure how you guys are getting such good FPS.

680mx i7

I am running SC2 as follows:
1920 x1080
graphics - extreme
texture - ultra

everything else set to ultra / extreme with antialias off.

in 1v1 or 2v2 i get 35FPS in 3v3 or 4v4 battles both vs humans and AI i drop to 0-5 FPS.

Thoughts?

On my macbook air 13" with HD4000 everything max out i still get in 3v3 10-12 fps...so i think you have a issue with the OS
 

Irishman

macrumors 68040
Nov 2, 2006
3,386
842
My understanding is that the major reason that OS X does not have as good of performance as Windows is that OS X is lacking the equivalent of "Direct X" for the Mac platform.

Not quite right.

OSX uses OpenGL for graphics. OpenGL is up to version 4.3, and supports feature parity with DirectX. It features optimizations and tweaks such as hardware tessellation.

The problem is the version of OpenGL baked into OSX isn't on version 4.3.

It's on 3.2!

To put that into perspective, OGL 3.2 was released almost 3 years ago.

Version 4.0 was released in 2010!

Come on, Apple!

http://www.opengl.org/wiki/History_of_OpenGL
 

Motliest Crue

macrumors regular
Jun 10, 2010
107
0
1987
On my macbook air 13" with HD4000 everything max out i still get in 3v3 10-12 fps...so i think you have a issue with the OS

Hmm, not sure how it would be an OS issue.

I am not having problems in any other games and I did not have any problems with those settings during the missions.

I guess it must be because of the amount of units on screen during 4v4 battles.
 

JordanNZ

macrumors 6502a
Apr 29, 2004
765
264
Auckland, New Zealand
Not quite right.

OSX uses OpenGL for graphics. OpenGL is up to version 4.3, and supports feature parity with DirectX. It features optimizations and tweaks such as hardware tessellation.

The problem is the version of OpenGL baked into OSX isn't on version 4.3.

It's on 3.2!

To put that into perspective, OGL 3.2 was released almost 3 years ago.

Version 4.0 was released in 2010!

Come on, Apple!

http://www.opengl.org/wiki/History_of_OpenGL

But the feature set has nothing to do with the speed of the implementation.
And besides, how many games are actually using OpenGL 3.2 on OSX? Starcraft2 isn't.
 

Irishman

macrumors 68040
Nov 2, 2006
3,386
842
But the feature set has nothing to do with the speed of the implementation.
And besides, how many games are actually using OpenGL 3.2 on OSX? Starcraft2 isn't.

Do we know what games use what version and feature set at all, unless the developer/porting house tells us?
 

CarloUK

macrumors member
Oct 13, 2009
72
0
Bath UK
I have the iMac 27 with 32Gb ram i7 and the 680MX
It runs perfectly at native resolution no problem

The issue with this machine is not its speed its the temperature the GPU runs at. With these games I find it easily reaches 90C and the fans bellowing
 

JordanNZ

macrumors 6502a
Apr 29, 2004
765
264
Auckland, New Zealand
Do we know what games use what version and feature set at all, unless the developer/porting house tells us?

The console logs can tell you a lot...
But if the game will launch on Snow Leopard, then it's a given it's not using 3.2.


The only current game I know of that uses 3.2 core profile is 'The Witcher 2'. And possibly LOL, although I haven't checked that one.
 

Irishman

macrumors 68040
Nov 2, 2006
3,386
842
The console logs can tell you a lot...
But if the game will launch on Snow Leopard, then it's a given it's not using 3.2.


The only current game I know of that uses 3.2 core profile is 'The Witcher 2'. And possibly LOL, although I haven't checked that one.

I wonder if Batman: Arkham City uses it.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.