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Gaming on 16 inch MacBook pro
- Thread starter icyfire
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Did they work for you? I installed those drivers and at first saw good performance. After a few minutes, however, my GPU clock drops from around 1100 MHz to 550MHz. This drops the FPS in half. Tested in Overwatch and PUBG.
GPU temps go up to 92C and then go back to around 78C after the clock speed is reduced.
I wonder if this is a driver issue or is there something wrong with my Mac? My specs are core i9 2.3, AMD 5500M 8GB, 32GB Ram.
Anybody else having this issue? I would appreciate any tips/suggestions. Thanks!
I guess you are the same guy that posted on the bootcampdrivers forum. I’ve haven’t had the time to try them out properly. Threw up a dota 2 games native resolution with bots and fooled around for 20 mins and fps were around 60-80. Will report back once I’ve got the time to try some real gaming. Got i7/5500M(8GB)/16gb ram.
Has anyone else had similar experiences? I'm using mine for video editing and rendering so I'm not going to give up the 8gb 5500 but would it be worth it going from the 2.4 to 2.3 for heat purposes?
Aus-Rotten88's experience is most likely related to the fact that Windows energy management drivers are at best rudimentary.
You won't notice any difference between 2.3 and 2.4 in terms of heat. If anything, the 2.4 might be actually a bit more energy efficient.
I own the base model and I'm getting some really stable performance when gaming in bootcamp and on MacOS.. The actual opposite of me and my friend who owns a 5500M told me.
Seems like base model is the way to go for a stable dGPU
I've seen throttlestop reviews working on other T2 macs so I would assume it'll work here as well.
Also I keep seeing mention of setting a fan curve in macOS and that fan curve being respected when booting into Windows to prevent throttling - is there a preferred app for that, since it doesn't appear to be an OS thing? I'm kind of surprised given kext deprecation that it's a thing...
Also I keep seeing mention of setting a fan curve in macOS and that fan curve being respected when booting into Windows to prevent throttling - is there a preferred app for that, since it doesn't appear to be an OS thing? I'm kind of surprised given kext deprecation that it's a thing...
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Yes, I’m the same guy. I tried dota 2 today. When set to native resolution, I have the same thing happening: smooth performance at 90fps for the first few minutes and then drop to 50-60fps after that. Same GPU clock behavior... it’s definitely throttling. When running at 1080p however, the FPS stays consistently around 120.
I wonder if I can fix it in some way, maybe with a future driver update or some GPU undervolting? Or maybe I should starting thinking about swapping for another Mac with 5300.
Yeah I'm also thinking about that. I mean as long the 5500M is not significantly better there is really no point wasting 200 € on it.
Great!
I would try Throttlestop. If the issue is indeed that the CPU's heat is overwhelming the laptop or hogging the ressources and thus forcing the GPU to slow down, it's a very easy fix with Throttlestop.
Once the i9 is reigned in maybe the 5500M will be able to shine. I severely doubt it outputs significantly more* heat than the 5300M, on paper they're fairly similar. It's much more likely the extra 2 cores of the i9 are the issue, the damn thing needed to be in a fridge to perform above base clocks in the 2018 MBP.
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Hey y‘all, I am still in the process of deciding about the configuration of my future MacBook Pro 16.
While the base version seems to be a decent config for gaming, I am still debating on wether to get the 8gb 5500m on top of the base config for future proofing.
I’ve also read a lot about the i9+5500m config possibly throttling regarding fluctuating FPS but what about the i7+8gb 5500m combination? If there is anyone willing to share some experiences about this particular config, I would be very interested to hear about that. Thanks!
While the base version seems to be a decent config for gaming, I am still debating on wether to get the 8gb 5500m on top of the base config for future proofing.
I’ve also read a lot about the i9+5500m config possibly throttling regarding fluctuating FPS but what about the i7+8gb 5500m combination? If there is anyone willing to share some experiences about this particular config, I would be very interested to hear about that. Thanks!
So basically once we figure out how to manage the thermals in windows better the i9/5500 will be the clear winner? I'm only gaming on the side so its not my #1 concern, but it would be a bit frustrating to see the base model doing much better in windows gaming.
The only way I’ve found to stop the throttling is to use ThrottleStop and lower the multiplier app the way to 8. I’m also using MacsFanControl to max out the fans.
Could you elaborate on how to setup throttlestop for a suitable underclock? I thought MacsFanControl didn’t work on T2 chips macs such as the 16”.
You can’t underclock, but you can tell the cores to run at a lower frequency. For fan control just enable the app in Mac OS and your settings will remain during a reboot.
It's a 5-10% framerate increase tops. It's it's still not at powerful as a 350 dollar Xbox1x. Even the option for an extra 200 bucks is only going to make it better by a few frames, it's really not that different.
New drivers released on bootcampdrivers.net for the 2020 AMD driver.
After some gaming and benchmarks, this card is basically the equivalent of a mobile 1060 or an AMD RX 480. Pretty impressive and should handle most games max settings with at least 30 FPS.
What’s even more impressive is that AMD has brought anti-lag and GSYNC-like tearing reduction that works on Mac displays.
Not only that, you can even reduce your desolation and tick on AMD Image Sharpening to make your graphics comparable to native resolution. This allows you to reach 60 FPS without games looking blurry.
Probably the best MacBook for gaming ever released.
After some gaming and benchmarks, this card is basically the equivalent of a mobile 1060 or an AMD RX 480. Pretty impressive and should handle most games max settings with at least 30 FPS.
What’s even more impressive is that AMD has brought anti-lag and GSYNC-like tearing reduction that works on Mac displays.
Not only that, you can even reduce your desolation and tick on AMD Image Sharpening to make your graphics comparable to native resolution. This allows you to reach 60 FPS without games looking blurry.
Probably the best MacBook for gaming ever released.
That made me so thrilled. So who's going to be the first to try it with VR?😀
I'm interested in getting the 16 inch Macbook Pro myself for my Birthday next March and I was wondering what GPU option would be the best? I play a game called Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty which requires a desktop GPU to run. I'm thinking of importing the 16 inch Macbook with the 8GB Radeon Pro Graphics Card from the US which may be cheaper than buying it from the UK. What do you guys think?
I’ve been playing league of legends every day for over 3 weeks on this machine. Max settings 100-150fps on an LG 4K monitor. Amazing machine, and the best part?
Base config not a single upgrade.
I wouldn’t pay $1 more for anything into the stock 16. GPU upgrade is a waste won’t do a thing for gaming.
Base config not a single upgrade.
I wouldn’t pay $1 more for anything into the stock 16. GPU upgrade is a waste won’t do a thing for gaming.