Gaming on 16 inch MacBook pro

[Seppolainen]

had my base unit for a few days now. Tried first to game in macOS, something was constantly off. Installed win10 via bootcamp and tried the games again and much better feeling/performance. Its pretty decent considering the HW in the laptop. While gaming on macOS I had weird latency/ping issues in all online games, this disappeared in windows.

Can confirm the above with high initial temps in win10, played some. overwatch and they jumped to 99ish but once fans kicked in it settled around 70-80. overall, the performance is enough for my lite gaming needs.

Maybe Im old, but the ghosting does not bother me...

 

[dta]

Will we be able to play Half-Life: Alyx on Bootcamp with VR attached? For example the Valve Index requires:

• OS: Windows 10, SteamOS, Linux
• Processor: Dual Core with Hyper-Threading
• Memory: 8 GB RAM
• Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 / AMD RX480
• Additional Notes: Available DisplayPort (Version1.2) and USB (2.0+) Port required

But the recommended system has:

• Processor: Quad Core+
• Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 or better
• Additional Notes: Available USB (3.0+) Port required for Headset Pass-Through Camera

 

[_Kiki_]

You can’t control fans in Windows, this is blocked by Apple. But there was a trick - if you set fans to manual in MacOS and then reboot to Windows they will stay at the last speed. This used to work on my 2018 MBP, don’t know if it still works now.

Because T2 chip ?

 

[hvfsl]

Will we be able to play Half-Life: Alyx on Bootcamp with VR attached? For example the Valve Index requires:

• OS: Windows 10, SteamOS, Linux
• Processor: Dual Core with Hyper-Threading
• Memory: 8 GB RAM
• Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 / AMD RX480
• Additional Notes: Available DisplayPort (Version1.2) and USB (2.0+) Port required

But the recommended system has:

• Processor: Quad Core+
• Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 or better
• Additional Notes: Available USB (3.0+) Port required for Headset Pass-Through Camera

It looks like the AMD 5500M will just about meet the min specs for VR. But then VR does need a high frame rate or you will feel more queasy, so you might not want to run it on the new 16inch.

 

[-narcan-]

Will we be able to play Half-Life: Alyx on Bootcamp with VR attached? For example the Valve Index requires:

Hope so, looking forward to using it with my Quest.

 

[iemcj]

Hey guys, I have a question - are you experiencing frequent stuttering in games? I played Battlefield 5 and Star Wars Fallen Order and both games play incredibly smooth for a laptop, 40-60 fps at the highest settings (with a 1080 resolution) but there is frequent stuttering where the game will pause for a second until it "loads". I wonder if it's got anything to do with the GPU memory (I have the 550 4 gb) or is this something to do with my SSD disk? Anyone else got similar issues and/or know how to reduce the stuttering?

Fallen order has this "studdering" problem across the board. From high end pcs to xbox 1x to the ps4, it's happening on all of them. I'm not sure on battlefield but with the star wars game, it's the game itself that's the fault.

 

[MrGunnyPT]

Fallen order has this "studdering" problem across the board. From high end pcs to xbox 1x to the ps4, it's happening on all of them. I'm not sure on battlefield but with the star wars game, it's the game itself that's the fault.

Something to do with Unreal Engine and whatever the hell it's running in background there

 

[mikethebigo]

As a former owner of Surface Book 2- yes it is, ever so slightly. The CPU, on the other hand, is much batter on the MBP. So in terms of gaming, I think the MBP 16'' will come out ahead.

Where are you getting that from? A quick Google netted me this:
"In terms of overall gaming performance, the graphical capabilities of the AMD Radeon RX 5500 8GB are significantly better than the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB. The GTX 1050 Ti has a 122 MHz higher core clock speed than the RX 5500, but the RX 5500 has 80 more Texture Mapping Units than the GTX 1050 Ti."

 

[Pangalactic]

Where are you getting that from? A quick Google netted me this:
"In terms of overall gaming performance, the graphical capabilities of the AMD Radeon RX 5500 8GB are significantly better than the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB. The GTX 1050 Ti has a 122 MHz higher core clock speed than the RX 5500, but the RX 5500 has 80 more Texture Mapping Units than the GTX 1050 Ti."

That is the 13'' SB2. The 15'' has a GTX 1060 inside.

 

[shardey]

That is the 13'' SB2. The 15'' has a GTX 1060 inside.

The 13" has a 2GB GTX 1050 and the 15" has a 6GB GTX 1060. There is no 1050ti for the SB2 line. I had the 15" and undervolted the CPU and GPU and was a solid machine for me. I did not have throttle issues while setting the max CPU frequency to 3.5-3.7ghz with a 0.1V undervalued. I also was able to undervolt the GPU to 0.8V @1800~mhz and overclocked the memory by +500mhz.

 

[JFF99]

Hey guys, I have a question - are you experiencing frequent stuttering in games? I played Battlefield 5 and Star Wars Fallen Order and both games play incredibly smooth for a laptop, 40-60 fps at the highest settings (with a 1080 resolution) but there is frequent stuttering where the game will pause for a second until it "loads". I wonder if it's got anything to do with the GPU memory (I have the 550 4 gb) or is this something to do with my SSD disk? Anyone else got similar issues and/or know how to reduce the stuttering?

I have a Desktop PC with an RTX 2080 and it stutters with Fallen Order - it stopped when I turned on V-sync. Not sure if that will work on the mac. Can I ask how you are running Fallen Order at 1080 on the MBP 16”? Everytime I try to lower the resolution the game goes into a window that is about 1/4 the size of the normal screen. Any tips on getting it to run full screen?

 

[loui100]

I have a Desktop PC with an RTX 2080 and it stutters with Fallen Order - it stopped when I turned on V-sync. Not sure if that will work on the mac. Can I ask how you are running Fallen Order at 1080 on the MBP 16”? Everytime I try to lower the resolution the game goes into a window that is about 1/4 the size of the normal screen. Any tips on getting it to run full screen?

Thanks for the tip. Turning off v-sync did seem to improve matters a great deal. Now it runs almost buttery smooth 50-60 fps at 1080, high settings Quite impressive for a non-gaming laptop. I'm curious to see what improvement the adrenaline "gaming" drivers will bring.

Re) resolution, I used the borderless window option and set an 1080p resolution in Windows, which the game seems to adapt to if you use the borderless window option (it worked for me in Battlefield 5 too).

 

[MrGunnyPT]

So been playing World of Warcraft on this and it's absolutely insane despite the ghosting here and there. Just connect this to an external monitor full throttle it's perfect.

 

[Whackman]

So are there any games that this MAcbook Pro 16 inch would be able to play in 1080P with really high settings for AA and at least 60 fps? Sorry, i have never gamed on a PC or a MAc. Would like to try it on my 1080P projector.

 

[MacBookGamer]

So are there any games that this MAcbook Pro 16 inch would be able to play in 1080P with really high settings for AA and at least 60 fps? Sorry, i have never gamed on a PC or a MAc. Would like to try it on my 1080P projector.

Pretty much all games.

 

[MrGunnyPT]

So are there any games that this MAcbook Pro 16 inch would be able to play in 1080P with really high settings for AA and at least 60 fps? Sorry, i have never gamed on a PC or a MAc. Would like to try it on my 1080P projector.

Should be fine for all games since GTA V and Witcher 3 run fine.

 

[apb87]

Got my 16inch i9 2.4 /8GB graphics yesterday. Running around in Wow, I was able to get 60+ fps on 10 with the full 100% scale. I turned off SSAO, Shadows and changed liquid quality to fair tghough. Something about those brings it down to the 40s in the ~4k resolutions.

edit: this was using the native mac wow client

 

[Whackman]

Got my 16inch i9 2.4 /8GB graphics yesterday. Running around in Wow, I was able to get 60+ fps on 10 with the full 100% scale. I turned off SSAO, Shadows and changed liquid quality to fair tghough. Something about those brings it down to the 40s in the ~4k resolutions.

Should be fine for all games since GTA V and Witcher 3 run fine.

Okay, thanx! Awesome!

 

[Ma2k5]

What is the average battery life hit on bootcamp as compared to macOS (due to the dGPU always being on in bootcamp).

 

[riptidewahoo]

I've been messing with gaming in both macOS and Windows 10 on my new 16". I have been a PC gamer for over 20 years and all the hassle with drivers and glitches and stutters and dual booting and everything else has really driven me back to my PS4 Pro.

I just don't think Boot Camp gaming is worth it at this point. You've gotta run games off an external drive if you don't want to pay crazy $$ for internal storage. There are also so few new PC exclusive games now and consoles keep improving (i.e. pseudo "4K" - good enough for me) to the point that I'd rather just game on my comfortable couch with my OLED TV in HDR... just my thoughts.

 

[MrGunnyPT]

I've been messing with gaming in both macOS and Windows 10 on my new 16". I have been a PC gamer for over 20 years and all the hassle with drivers and glitches and stutters and dual booting and everything else has really driven me back to my PS4 Pro.

I just don't think Boot Camp gaming is worth it at this point. You've gotta run games off an external drive if you don't want to pay crazy $$ for internal storage. There are also so few new PC exclusive games now and consoles keep improving (i.e. pseudo "4K" - good enough for me) to the point that I'd rather just game on my comfortable couch with my OLED TV in HDR... just my thoughts.

If you wanna game on a Mac machine with games that require windows you just better off getting a eGPU and external SSD.

Cheaper option just build another rig really.

 

[loui100]

I've been messing with gaming in both macOS and Windows 10 on my new 16". I have been a PC gamer for over 20 years and all the hassle with drivers and glitches and stutters and dual booting and everything else has really driven me back to my PS4 Pro.

I just don't think Boot Camp gaming is worth it at this point. You've gotta run games off an external drive if you don't want to pay crazy $$ for internal storage. There are also so few new PC exclusive games now and consoles keep improving (i.e. pseudo "4K" - good enough for me) to the point that I'd rather just game on my comfortable couch with my OLED TV in HDR... just my thoughts.

Generally I'm in the same situation. Playing some games on Mac and Bootcamp just for the heck of it, but otherwise PS4 Pro is my go-to machine for "fun". Though I downright refused to play topdown RPGs like Divine Divnity 2 on a console so I look forward to that (the port to Mac is great!). I'm kinda curious if in the future playing some VR games in BootCamp with Oculus Link might be viable...

 

[MrGunnyPT]

Generally I'm in the same situation. Playing some games on Mac and Bootcamp just for the heck of it, but otherwise PS4 Pro is my go-to machine for "fun". Though I downright refused to play topdown RPGs like Divine Divnity 2 on a console so I look forward to that (the port to Mac is great!). I'm kinda curious if in the future playing some VR games in BootCamp with Oculus Link might be viable...

My go to is usually the PS4 Pro and my desktop at home ehehehe

 

[gplusplus]

This thread is too huge at this point. Has thermals with an external vs internal monitor been discussed yet? If so, what's the verdict?

One issue is the power consumption of the actual Thunderbolt port. Or rather, the controller. To be honest, I'm not entirely sure which part gets the brunt of the power consumption, but I do know that there is consumption involved with the interconnect.

 

[anticipate]

I am not much of a gamer these days (more Apple Arcade than PS4 Pro which I sold... though I miss VR - that is so much fun).

Anyway, I installed GTA V and was able to play at max settings at 1920X1200 with everything turned on BUT motion blur effects. It looks amazing and ran about 40-50 fps.

That's pretty nice for a non-gaming laptop.