CPU vs Graphics card Performance?

[Brannen]

G'day All,

I have a Macbook pro 13" Mid 2012 CU I7 2.9 Ghz, that I have just installed 16 gb Ram and a 500 Gb SSD. I have been trying to run a couple of flight simulators on the machine and the performance is somewhat of a stop start affair. As though the processor has to catch up on the aircraft.

I use this for keeping current in aviation, so I'm not phased about having a high performance flow, so much as the concepts and realism. That said, it would be great to have a smoother experience.

My question is, with the addition of the RAM and SSD, is it the graphics card or the CPU that is slowing the simulation down?

Thanks for your time!

 

[estabya]

It is certainly the GPU that’s holding you back. The system you have contains Intel 4000 integrated graphics which is not good for intensive games and 3D applications.

 

[smallcoffee]

G'day All,

I have a Macbook pro 13" Mid 2012 CU I7 2.9 Ghz, that I have just installed 16 gb Ram and a 500 Gb SSD. I have been trying to run a couple of flight simulators on the machine and the performance is somewhat of a stop start affair. As though the processor has to catch up on the aircraft.

I use this for keeping current in aviation, so I'm not phased about having a high performance flow, so much as the concepts and realism. That said, it would be great to have a smoother experience.

My question is, with the addition of the RAM and SSD, is it the graphics card or the CPU that is slowing the simulation down?

Thanks for your time!

It is 100% the GPU. The continual unfortunate thing about laptop computers (and Macs in general) has been the GPU. With that being said, there is hope. The addition of USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 allows you to attach an external GPU to your Mac to give yourself the best of both worlds (desktop-like performance with the mobility of a laptop). Now I know that doesn't help you right now, but at least it's an FYI.

 

[jerryk]

There may be a simple way to find out. See of the simulator has a way to change the resolution it displays in. If so, decrease the resolution. If the issues go away and the display is smoother than the GPU is likely the cause. But let me ask, are running a native macOS simulator, or are running a windows simulator under bootcamp or a windows VM? In the windows cases it becomes more difficult to pinpoint the cause and may be a combination of non-optimized drivers and other issues.

 

[Brannen]

Thanks for the replies All! JerryK I have been running them on a BOOTCAMP partition.