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edddeduck

macrumors 68020
Mar 26, 2004
2,061
13
Anyways, I see Steam has removed the mac XCOM expansion?

They never removed it :) after a 22 hour day I can confirm the Mac and PC Steam version shipped at the same time. Users outside of North America need to wait until Friday to be able to download.

Other download stores and Mac AppStore will follow soon.

I would have posted sooner but the MacRumors forum went down shortly after the question was posted.

Edwin
 

branana

macrumors member
Jan 15, 2006
65
1
Thanks.

I did play some xcom today, and it ran fine at maxed settings.

However there are some very minor annoyances.
When playing the game seems to lock at 45 FPS with v sync on or off.
However FPS goes up to 60 in the short scenes like kill shots etc.
CPU stays from 80-120% (of a max of 400%)
and GPU is never more than around 40% utilized, with around 30% of the VRAM used (around 600MB of 2GB). (Using openGL Profiler and OpenGL Driver monitor).

Using a 3rd party hardware monitor shows that GPU stays at 783 MHz (lowest 3D clock) when in play mode and goes to 1.09Ghz in cut scenes (the not pre rendered ones).

Not a big issue, playing turn based in 45FPS is totally fine, but using more GPU power to reach 60FPS would be better :)

What are you using to monitor the clock of the GPU?
 

branana

macrumors member
Jan 15, 2006
65
1
I'm having some trouble with the framerate of this game.

On a hexcore i7 970 mac pro 4,1 with gtx 680, 10.9,
on the first level (tutorial) without making any moves I am getting about 23fps regardless if I'm playing with high or low details, 2560x1440 or 1280x720

CPU usage is about 120%.

What is the problem here? Is this game extremely CPU and single thread bottlenecked?
 

sathi

macrumors newbie
Dec 7, 2013
26
0
I have not played the mac version, but I know that the PC version has many bugs, even months after release. I am damn sure about it
 

Washac

macrumors 68030
Jul 2, 2006
2,513
128
I have not played the mac version, but I know that the PC version has many bugs, even months after release. I am damn sure about it

Yup, the Mac version is pretty much the same I gave up with it months ago.
 

branana

macrumors member
Jan 15, 2006
65
1
Yup, the Mac version is pretty much the same I gave up with it months ago.

I have finished the PC version before, didn't encounter any showstopper bugs. It's a good game, don't let some annoyances stop you from giving it a shot.
 

Washac

macrumors 68030
Jul 2, 2006
2,513
128
I have finished the PC version before, didn't encounter any showstopper bugs. It's a good game, don't let some annoyances stop you from giving it a shot.

I get lock ups between menus and I never know when it will happen or where.
 

cluthz

macrumors 68040
Jun 15, 2004
3,118
4
Norway
I get lock ups between menus and I never know when it will happen or where.

I've been playing the mac version on steam recently, with the EW expansion, and it's far more stable than XCOM was with just EU on PC when I first got it.

I don't think I've had any crashes on mac XCOM:EW.


branana said:
What are you using to monitor the clock of the GPU?
HWMon. Wont work on a "Normal" mac
 

branana

macrumors member
Jan 15, 2006
65
1
I'm having some trouble with the framerate of this game.

On a hexcore i7 970 mac pro 4,1 with gtx 680, 10.9,
on the first level (tutorial) without making any moves I am getting about 23fps regardless if I'm playing with high or low details, 2560x1440 or 1280x720

CPU usage is about 120%.

What is the problem here? Is this game extremely CPU and single thread bottlenecked?

In the same place on a PC with a 7950, I get 125fps......

----------

HWMon. Wont work on a "Normal" mac


Isn't that a Windows binary. You running it with Wine?
 

imacken

macrumors 65816
Feb 28, 2010
1,232
127
I'm having some trouble with the framerate of this game.

On a hexcore i7 970 mac pro 4,1 with gtx 680, 10.9,
on the first level (tutorial) without making any moves I am getting about 23fps regardless if I'm playing with high or low details, 2560x1440 or 1280x720

CPU usage is about 120%.

What is the problem here? Is this game extremely CPU and single thread bottlenecked?
How exactly are you measuring this 23fps on a Mac?
 

branana

macrumors member
Jan 15, 2006
65
1
How exactly are you measuring this 23fps on a Mac?

With OpenGL Profiler.app from Apple's developer website. I can also visually tell it is definitely less than 30fps. As for which level, I am not running a benchmark in Xcom. I am letting the game load into the very first tutorial level and not move around at all, and check the framerate. Granted, the entire level runs at about the same framerate.
 

imacken

macrumors 65816
Feb 28, 2010
1,232
127
With OpenGL Profiler.app from Apple's developer website. I can also visually tell it is definitely less than 30fps. As for which level, I am not running a benchmark in Xcom. I am letting the game load into the very first tutorial level and not move around at all, and check the framerate. Granted, the entire level runs at about the same framerate.
Thanks. I never knew that even existed. Downloading now.
 

imacken

macrumors 65816
Feb 28, 2010
1,232
127
Thanks. I never knew that even existed. Downloading now.

OK, interesting tool.
With this game @ 2560x1440 with all settings @ high, I am getting 38-42fps at the same spot you are talking about.
Funnily enough, the rate is the same when I change to 1920x1080.
Sorry, should have said, I have a 6970M 1Gb and 3.4GHz i7 with 16Gb RAM.
 

branana

macrumors member
Jan 15, 2006
65
1
OK, interesting tool.
With this game @ 2560x1440 with all settings @ high, I am getting 38-42fps at the same spot you are talking about.
Funnily enough, the rate is the same when I change to 1920x1080.
Sorry, should have said, I have a 6970M 1Gb and 3.4GHz i7 with 16Gb RAM.

Can you post CPU usage numbers for just the Xcom thread?
 

branana

macrumors member
Jan 15, 2006
65
1
I've attached screenshots of what I'm doing.
 

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branana

macrumors member
Jan 15, 2006
65
1
Thanks for helping me with all this information. Can you grab 1 last thing with OpenGL Driver Monitor? GPU Core Utilization numbers:

I attached another screenshot. Make sure you set the drop down in the toolbar to "Linear" rather than "Log" to make the chart easier to read.
 

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imacken

macrumors 65816
Feb 28, 2010
1,232
127
Thanks for helping me with all this information. Can you grab 1 last thing with OpenGL Driver Monitor? GPU Core Utilization numbers:

I attached another screenshot. Make sure you set the drop down in the toolbar to "Linear" rather than "Log" to make the chart easier to read.
Can't get the Driver Monitor to show anything.
 

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imacken

macrumors 65816
Feb 28, 2010
1,232
127
You have to select things you want to monitor from the tray on the right. Click on "Parameters" in the bottom right to show this tray.

Sorry, sleep got in the way!
I don't seem to have the same parameter choices as you. See below.
 

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edddeduck

macrumors 68020
Mar 26, 2004
2,061
13
I'm having some trouble with the framerate of this game.

On a hexcore i7 970 mac pro 4,1 with gtx 680, 10.9,
on the first level (tutorial) without making any moves I am getting about 23fps regardless if I'm playing with high or low details, 2560x1440 or 1280x720

CPU usage is about 120%.

What is the problem here? Is this game extremely CPU and single thread bottlenecked?

You contacted Feral support? We can see if anything obvious pops up compared to our iMac with the same card.

BTW is that card an official Mac one (EVGA GeForce GTX 680 MAC Edition) or a PC one? We don't support unofficial cards as they can sometimes have strange side effects that only occur in certain circumstances compared to the official "Mac" cards that OS X supports.

I know Washac (who has mentioned issues on his Mac) has a Windows graphics card in his MacPro which seems to have side effects that don't happen when we load the game on Apple supported/shipped card versions. We investigated but it appeared that it was related to the graphics card at the time :'(

Usually unofficial cards just work but we cannot buy all the different PC/Windows cards to test and work around weird side effects so although we try and make sure unofficial cards work (and we don't block them) we cannot guarantee performance or side effects. We often find these cards can work great 99% of the time but then have a problem with a specific area that the reference Apple cards don't.

If you do email support mention you spoke to me on the forums and they will make sure your details get sent over to me to have a look in engineering.

UPDATE: FYI on an 27" iMac with a 680 2GB (2560x1440 and Highest possible settings) I am getting over 30 fps. I had a beta of an upcoming game on max settings tabbed out in the background when I did this test.

Edwin
 
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