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Resolved Retina Macbook Pro: Is it yet known if it can run Guild Wars 2 with settings maxed?

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Libertine Lush

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 23, 2009
682
2
fermer101 said:
Yeah I too rarely hit 60, it usually hovers around 50fps most of the time. I'm using the default auto-detect settings which set everything to medium and I'm running @ 1920x1200 on an external monitor. I have the latest 306.02 beta drivers installed.
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Ah, no wonder. You can ramp up almost all settings and still get great fps.

I very curious about how you installed the 306.02. Perhaps you saw a brief discussion in this thread about how installing Windows drivers on an Apple laptop is different, in that it you usually can't use the driver's setup installer--and that it's not even exclusive to Apple, happens with some Windows OEM companies too. But because of what PunktPunktPunkt posted, I just went ahead with the installer in the 306.02, selecting the Clean Install option. Since I saw no further improvements from this latest firmware, I just wonder if using the "Have Disk" installation method may have made a difference.
 
luffytubby

luffytubby

macrumors 6502a
Jan 22, 2008
684
0
I wonder - What if you lowered it to 1680x1050 resolution and then cranked up everything?

Forget about AA, go for ubersampling instead.

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Libertine Lush said:
Ah, no wonder. You can ramp up almost all settings and still get great fps.

I very curious about how you installed the 306.02. Perhaps you saw a brief discussion in this thread about how installing Windows drivers on an Apple laptop is different, in that it you usually can't use the driver's setup installer--and that it's not even exclusive to Apple, happens with some Windows OEM companies too. But because of what PunktPunktPunkt posted, I just went ahead with the installer in the 306.02, selecting the Clean Install option. Since I saw no further improvements from this latest firmware, I just wonder if using the "Have Disk" installation method may have made a difference.
Click to expand...

On my Sony I have the same. But I only had to use a modified ini from Laptop2Go websibte one time, and now it wants to run every driver from Nvidia website with no issues. I think the ini overrides a limitation that says it only want apple/sony/dell/asus drivers.
 
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Libertine Lush

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 23, 2009
682
2
A new Nvidia driver is out!

http://www.nvidia.com/object/notebook-win8-win7-winvista-64bit-306.23-whql-driver.html

This is not a beta version unlike the last few. However, going off forum opinions, most say the distinction in stability between beta vs. WHQL-certified drivers isn't meaningful.

Don't know if this is the one with GW2 specific improvements. It only says:

Performance Boost – Increases performance for GeForce 400/500/600M Series GPUs in several PC games vs. GeForce 301.42 WHQL-certified drivers.​
 
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Libertine Lush

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 23, 2009
682
2
Adding to the post above, this is a quote from Nvidia:

Guild Wars 2 is heavily CPU-bound, meaning it benefits more from CPU power than GPU power. As I said on GF.com earlier (http://www.geforce.c....ment-649045916), there was little time between the release of 306.02 beta and the finalizing of this driver, so we've had little opportunity to investigate ways to improve performance and fix the Ambient Occlusion profile. Rest assured, we will continue to look at ways of improving the end-user experience in the game." ​

Source: http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/64297-new-nvidia-drivers/#entry1927715
 
L

Libertine Lush

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 23, 2009
682
2
Good news on the new driver paired with the modded INF. I'm experiencing what seems like a few more frames from this pairing. Seems, because I only compared it to the previous driver in one location. However, it feels a decent amount smoother in areas where the framerate drops below 30.

Something odd--but probably a very good thing--is that I noticed in WvW, the game is frequently using less than half of the GPU (often dipping to 40%). So presumably there's a lot more room left for optimization by Arena Net and a lot of power in the rMBP's 650M unused.
 
luffytubby

luffytubby

macrumors 6502a
Jan 22, 2008
684
0
Any of you tried the Mac OSX client on your Retina MBPs. If so, what performance loss are you seeing?
 
K

kuma59

macrumors newbie
Sep 20, 2012
1
0
luffytubby said:
Any of you tried the Mac OSX client on your Retina MBPs. If so, what performance loss are you seeing?
Click to expand...

This question is very interesting. I have the MacOSX Client too and I get only 15 Frames per second on 1440x900 with Custom settings. (Sorry i'm french). ~30fps in "performance settings".
Also, GfxCardStatus indicates me that the Nvidia card is used but it's the Intel one I see in Control panel... I bought my MPBr in august which was delivered in september. OSX Moutain Lion already installed. I did updates through 1.8.2 this morning. I don't know if I can install latest Nvidia drivers for my Nvidia GT 650M.
 
luffytubby

luffytubby

macrumors 6502a
Jan 22, 2008
684
0
kuma59 said:
This question is very interesting. I have the MacOSX Client too and I get only 15 Frames per second on 1440x900 with Custom settings. (Sorry i'm french). ~30fps in "performance settings".
Also, GfxCardStatus indicates me that the Nvidia card is used but it's the Intel one I see in Control panel... I bought my MPBr in august which was delivered in september. OSX Moutain Lion already installed. I did updates through 1.8.2 this morning. I don't know if I can install latest Nvidia drivers for my Nvidia GT 650M.
Click to expand...

ouch. That's a performance loss.

1) Nvidia drivers come when you search your Mac for updates. You shouldn't have to download anything.

2) Could it be that OSX does not recognize GW2 as a graphic intensive app? Maybe it ran on HD 4000?
 
F

funnyletter

macrumors newbie
Sep 30, 2012
1
0
luffytubby said:
ouch. That's a performance loss.

1) Nvidia drivers come when you search your Mac for updates. You shouldn't have to download anything.

2) Could it be that OSX does not recognize GW2 as a graphic intensive app? Maybe it ran on HD 4000?
Click to expand...

I just started running the mac beta client on a base-model rMBP, and not to put too fine a point on it, uh, it drags ass. Using fairly low settings I still get low FPS. Here's a screenshot of my settings, and you can see my FPS is in the 20s. And that's in a totally deserted area. I've confirmed with GfxCardStatus that it's using the discrete GPU, not the HD4000.

I just assumed the mobile GPU couldn't keep up with the game at retina resolutions until I read people talking about how it runs on the same hardware under Windows. It seems like the mac client is extremely poorly optimized.

I didn't even realize how amazing the game looked until I cranked the settings up to high for a couple minutes and looked around at all of 16fps...
 
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hacke

macrumors member
Nov 15, 2011
82
0
Do you think the GT 650M will work better in the new iMac 2012 or will the 'game performance' be the same or even worse?
 
L

Libertine Lush

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 23, 2009
682
2
hacke said:
Do you think the GT 650M will work better in the new iMac 2012 or will the 'game performance' be the same or even worse?
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My guess is the iMac will run it marginally better because, presumably, it will have an even more powerful CPU (GW2 performance still hinges a lot on CPU muscle). However, I don't know if the 650M in the iMac is significantly overclocked like the rMBP one.
 
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hacke

macrumors member
Nov 15, 2011
82
0
Thanks for your opinion! I will just standby and see what the benchmarks will tell me ;)
 
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Pyromonkey83

macrumors 6502
May 24, 2009
325
0
I dont understand how you guys are getting such horrible performance from your rMBPs. I'm getting about 40-50fps everywhere I go (including WvW) at 1920x1200 with most settings on medium, and a couple on low. It visually looks only slightly different to me than my gaming PC on full ultra and the quality is nowhere near enough for me to care.

And before you ask, I am using the Mac Beta client, not boot camp, and I haven't done anything to my MacBook Pro at all to improve any kind of performance.

Specs are

2.6Ghz i7
512GB SSD
16GB RAM
 
T

Trubbles

macrumors regular
Oct 20, 2012
104
22
Pyromonkey83 said:
I dont understand how you guys are getting such horrible performance from your rMBPs. I'm getting about 40-50fps everywhere I go (including WvW) at 1920x1200 with most settings on medium, and a couple on low. It visually looks only slightly different to me than my gaming PC on full ultra and the quality is nowhere near enough for me to care.

And before you ask, I am using the Mac Beta client, not boot camp, and I haven't done anything to my MacBook Pro at all to improve any kind of performance.

Specs are

2.6Ghz i7
512GB SSD
16GB RAM
Click to expand...

You are also posting 2 months later ;)

...

On another note, I just ordered a 15" rMBP (8/256/2.6GHz) and reading this thread has left me psyched! I wasn't expecting much in terms of FPS (I thought I'd have to go down to 1440x900 for sure, on low-medium) so what I'm reading here has me very hopeful :)
 
S

Sambo110

macrumors 68000
Mar 12, 2007
1,686
0
Australia
Pyromonkey83 said:
I dont understand how you guys are getting such horrible performance from your rMBPs. I'm getting about 40-50fps everywhere I go (including WvW) at 1920x1200 with most settings on medium, and a couple on low. It visually looks only slightly different to me than my gaming PC on full ultra and the quality is nowhere near enough for me to care.
Click to expand...

There was a bug a little while ago that made gaming performance terrible on the rMBP's. I couldn't even get 20 FPS in CS:GO. It was updated, and now in CS:GO, for example, maxed out it never drops from 60.
 
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