OS Neutral Elder Scrolls Online (ESO) Performance

[macnjack]

This weekend appears to be the last big Beta weekend for Elder Scrolls Online. Various mentions of how the game runs are in the general thread, but I'm posting my individual results.

I've be testing the game out on two machines and here is the general performance:

1) Mid-2011 27" iMac, 3.4 i7, 256GB SSD, 24 GB RAM 1333, 6970 2GB, Mavericks 10.9.2.

Playing on Max Settings at 25x14, the game uses between 1/2 and 2 cores of processor, and up to 2.5GB memory. 18-35 fps, avg 20.

Play is smooth but gets slightly jumpy with over many spell effects going off with 10+ people. Lowering to 19x10 make everything smooth, but mush less sharp. 25 - 40 fps, avg 32.

**Update - Turning off Shadows and AA increased fps to 35 - 80, avg 50.


2) Hackintosh, 2.9 Pentium G2020 (dual core ivy bridge), 7200 RPM HDD, 8GB 1600 Mhz RAM, GTX 650 1GB, Mavericks 10.9.2, 1920x1080. 20-40 fps, avg 30.

Max Settings uses .8 - 1.5 cores, up to 1.5GB memory. Play is smooth with the occasional hiccup in 20+ people groups.

**Update - Turning off Shadows and AA increased fps to 40 - 110, avg 65. Also added 840 EVO in place of HDD and game jumped 5-10 fps.


SSD definitely smooths play out for the game. I'll test out W8 on the hackintosh box once the client does live.

Feel free to add individual results to this.

 

[bry223]

I've been running it on my 2013 iMac 21.5 (750m). Under OSX I get about 30-40fps with everything running on High outside of Shadows/AA being disabled.

In bootcamp I'm getting 70-80fps with the SAME exact settings in the same exact location(s).

Kind of disappointed in the huge disparity, then again Im running the latest 334 drivers on the windows side, while we're still pigeonheld using the old 310 drivers that apply is supplying us with.

 

[macnjack]

Just figured out frames can been seen by /fps in chat, then displayed in upper left.

Updated original post.

 

[SingularityG]

Just figured out frames can been seen by /fps in chat, then displayed in upper left.

Updated original post.

Thanks for the command.

On the 2010 Macbook Pro I get ~35fps with dips to ~27fps, but I can't tell the difference really. This is @1280x800 with settings mostly on high and turned ON. I was really surprised that the framerate is still acceptable @1920x1800, but I am going for maximum fps.

I had jerky animations when there were a lot of characters on screen, but I solved it by turning shadows OFF completely.

If the game appears blurry, check if subsampling quality is set to high.

 

[macnjack]

I had jerky animations when there were a lot of characters on screen, but I solved it by turning shadows OFF completely.

If the game appears blurry, check if subsampling quality is set to high.

I ended up turning off shadows and AA and my performance increased 50-100% on both machines. I noticed very little change in quality, but performance was much better.

There should be a new beta in two weeks that I look forward to trying out. Turns out this past weekend was more of a stress test (which they didn't communicate real well), and many changes including collision will be added.

 

[SingularityG]

There should be a new beta in two weeks that I look forward to trying out. Turns out this past weekend was more of a stress test (which they didn't communicate real well), and many changes including collision will be added.

I am looking forward to that. Hopefully, they'll add more fun, too.

 

[isrefel]

Has anyone played this game with the iris or iris pro yet? I would be interested to see some performance numbers compared to my HD 4000.

 

[macnjack]

Has anyone played this game with the iris or iris pro yet? I would be interested to see some performance numbers compared to my HD 4000.

There were issues reported with Iris/Iris Pro on the beta forums and the reddit mac megathread. Quite a few crashes and being unable to play. The developers and/or Intel have supposedly addressed the issues and you'll get to see those numbers after the next open beta weekend, most likely 2 weeks from now.

 

[Huntn]

I've been running it on my 2013 iMac 21.5 (750m). Under OSX I get about 30-40fps with everything running on High outside of Shadows/AA being disabled.

In bootcamp I'm getting 70-80fps with the SAME exact settings in the same exact location(s).

Kind of disappointed in the huge disparity, then again Im running the latest 334 drivers on the windows side, while we're still pigeonheld using the old 310 drivers that apply is supplying us with.

This has been the consistent disparity between Windows and the MacOS performance since the 1990s when it comes to gaming. I verified this myself with Unreal Tournament, on a Pentium 3, 3ghz and a G5 with identical video cards, were Windows was double the Mac frames (approx 70 vs 35). Owning a Mac since 1993, I've always preferred the MacOS for everything except... gaming.

 

[cluthz]

I've been running it on my 2013 iMac 21.5 (750m). Under OSX I get about 30-40fps with everything running on High outside of Shadows/AA being disabled.

In bootcamp I'm getting 70-80fps with the SAME exact settings in the same exact location(s).

Kind of disappointed in the huge disparity, then again Im running the latest 334 drivers on the windows side, while we're still pigeonheld using the old 310 drivers that apply is supplying us with.

331.x drivers are available for OSX directly from Nvidia.
I'm actually using newer drivers on OSX than on win atm, because since 33x.x Nvidia surround is horrible broken in win, thus i'm stuck with 327.23 on win.

I didn't try ESO on OSX yet, but performance on win7 is stellar.

 

[marddin]

Did anyone get to play ESO on the new retina with nvidia 750m w/ 2gb vram?

I have the old retina with 1gb vram.

 

[doh123]

Did anyone get to play ESO on the new retina with nvidia 750m w/ 2gb vram?

I have the old retina with 1gb vram.

I played on my "old" Retina MBP with Geforce 650 1gb. It runs great, so I'm pretty sure the 750m would run great too.

 

[star-affinity]

I've been running it on my 2013 iMac 21.5 (750m). Under OSX I get about 30-40fps with everything running on High outside of Shadows/AA being disabled.

In bootcamp I'm getting 70-80fps with the SAME exact settings in the same exact location(s).

Kind of disappointed in the huge disparity, then again Im running the latest 334 drivers on the windows side, while we're still pigeonheld using the old 310 drivers that apply is supplying us with.

That difference is just ridiculous… I'm really tired of gaming performance on OS X. It just never seems to improve. Is anyone telling Apple about this?

 

[doh123]

That difference is just ridiculous… I'm really tired of gaming performance on OS X. It just never seems to improve. Is anyone telling Apple about this?

While Apple could maybe do some stuff to make it much better... a lot comes down to highly optimized DirectX, with a GPU designed to handle it well, vs OpenGL. I bet if the Windows version was using OpenGL it would have a performance hit. Not as drastic as this, but some... The latest Windows drivers for most GPUs push gaming performance, especially for DirectX... where I think Apple cares more about stability. I doubt we'll ever get them to care about higher or lower FPS in a game.

 

[SingularityG]

That difference is just ridiculous… I'm really tired of gaming performance on OS X. It just never seems to improve. Is anyone telling Apple about this?

I think the situation will improve with a rising number of games released for OS X. Right now, it is more of a bonus that a game can be played under OS X.

 

[Moonraker]

I posted my initial ESO beta testing results on a separate thread as they take up a lot of screen space;

ESO Beta - Initial Mac & PC Graphics Benchmarking

 

[snarfquest]

I dunno what my FPS is, but the game looks great and is smooth and fast on max settings on my 2012 MacPro with ATI (Macvidcards) 7970.

 

[Jyby]

I get ~45 FPS on medium, native resolution for my Macbook Air

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1594690/

 

[Farseen]

Late 2013 rMBP 15" Win 7 Choking

I have a late 2013, MacBook Pro Retina upgraded everything, Windows 7 with latest nVidia drivers (337.88).

I have a strange problem. I'm getting great FPS numbers, around 40 when I dabble into some ultra settings, and a constant 50-60 if I turn off a few goodies.

BUT! I'm noticing that even when I'm getting good fps, I lag ever so slightly every 5-10 seconds, especially if i'm running straight in a direction. Its not internet lag though, I'm sure of it. If I turn my settings down to Low, it never happens, and I don't have any sort lag on any other games.

Weird thing is my FPS isn't dropping or anything...its as if the game is just choking. I don't get it.

 

[VI™]

I have a late 2013, MacBook Pro Retina upgraded everything, Windows 7 with latest nVidia drivers (337.88).

I have a strange problem. I'm getting great FPS numbers, around 40 when I dabble into some ultra settings, and a constant 50-60 if I turn off a few goodies.

BUT! I'm noticing that even when I'm getting good fps, I lag ever so slightly every 5-10 seconds, especially if i'm running straight in a direction. Its not internet lag though, I'm sure of it. If I turn my settings down to Low, it never happens, and I don't have any sort lag on any other games.

Weird thing is my FPS isn't dropping or anything...its as if the game is just choking. I don't get it.

I was getting something similar. Thought it may be due to heat throttling.

 

[Moonraker]

I have a late 2013, MacBook Pro Retina upgraded everything, Windows 7 with latest nVidia drivers (337.88).

I have a strange problem. I'm getting great FPS numbers, around 40 when I dabble into some ultra settings, and a constant 50-60 if I turn off a few goodies.

BUT! I'm noticing that even when I'm getting good fps, I lag ever so slightly every 5-10 seconds, especially if i'm running straight in a direction. Its not internet lag though, I'm sure of it. If I turn my settings down to Low, it never happens, and I don't have any sort lag on any other games.

Weird thing is my FPS isn't dropping or anything...its as if the game is just choking. I don't get it.

There have been various reports about similar fos drops and periodic lag which stalls the game for a few seconds. On PC side they had a memory bug which as bad and now hotfixed but still this seems to occur from searching ESO forums so I suspect it is more server side issue than client specific. There should be some new fixes going to client in next weeks patch so check and see how it is after that (Mon in NA Tue EU)

it's hard to see it specifically on the Mac client with the other potential sources of the problem but monitor it especially after the next update.

I suggest reporting it via /bug in game also and/ or make a support ticket.

Also worth keeping an eye on temperature of the Mac as we get into warmer weather and the game will push heat up especially on higher settings, though a correctly functioning and clean (i.e. no dust, fluff etc.) Mac should avoid any heat issues. Especially on laptops it is more of an issue.