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Gaming on 16 inch MacBook pro


My video on the bootcamp gaming performance. Skip to 4:04 for the Benchmarks on the Radeon 5500, with the eGPU and RTX 2060 Super, and how it compares to the MSI GS65.

I had limited time to work on this video because I was borrowing the MacBook Pro AND the RTX 2060 Super from two other friends.
 
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Are you guys aware of the issue running Europa Universalis 4 on the 16"? There's a forum thread about it on their forums, I'm really disappointed in the lackluster response over there. Seems very odd that it would be a Catalina issue.

forum.paradoxplaza.com

EU4 Upper screen renders half black on MacOS Catalina

Hi, I updated to MacOS Catalina and my PDX games are acting weird. Both CK2 and EUIV were showing upper screen half black. I managed to fix it for CK2 by changing the settings to fullscreen = no and borderless = yes plus gui_scale = 1.000000 but...
forum.paradoxplaza.com forum.paradoxplaza.com
 
thedocbwarren said:
Not sure what you're referring to but I do this all the time with my 16. the 5500m is stellar in performance on a lot of modern games. In fact some of the games can run at 4K. Now my average is 1080p ultra with 60 frames on things like Skyrim SE, ESO, Dues Ex, HR and MD.
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I meant in a virtual machine. Not on bare metal. clearly i can't read haha
 
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Quick question on the CPU side of things. If gaming-wise I am looking to just play WoW casually, is there really any need to go to i9 vs i7? I am really only considering going for the 5500 4GB upgrade on the GPU and hoping that will be the more important variable in playing WoW. Any input highly welcome
 
Can someone tell me what fps I can expect from Final Fantasy XV with 5500m 8gb? At native resolution, medium settings, and 1080p high settings?
 
laubtom said:
Quick question on the CPU side of things. If gaming-wise I am looking to just play WoW casually, is there really any need to go to i9 vs i7? I am really only considering going for the 5500 4GB upgrade on the GPU and hoping that will be the more important variable in playing WoW. Any input highly welcome
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Definitely don't need the i9 for gaming, no.
 
laubtom said:
Quick question on the CPU side of things. If gaming-wise I am looking to just play WoW casually, is there really any need to go to i9 vs i7? I am really only considering going for the 5500 4GB upgrade on the GPU and hoping that will be the more important variable in playing WoW. Any input highly welcome
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WoW is an older game that doesn't tax modern systems at all. You could probably do well with the integrated Iris graphics in the 13". If that's your only requirement, I can't see spending any more money on graphics or CPU.

simonmet said:
Definitely don't need the i9 for gaming, no.
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I agree, but when I was ordering mine, when I configured the i7 with 1TB and the 8GB card the difference between the i7 and i9 was only $100. At that price it was a no brainer.
 
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venom600 said:
I agree, but when I was ordering mine, when I configured the i7 with 1TB and the 8GB card the difference between the i7 and i9 was only $100. At that price it was a no brainer.
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That’s exactly why it’s the model I went with too. The i9 has a marginally higher boost clock, and though the base is lower, I found that the i9 mostly sustains around 3 GHz under load; or above the i7’s base, anyway.

So I’m unsure whether the i7 does better for gaming, but the i9 can’t be much worse, and you’ll get a better performing chip in intensive multi-threaded applications like video transcoding. That, and its effect on resale value, makes it easily worth the $100 like you said.
 
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The problem with WoW though....it makes my 16" 5500 Pro 4GB spin it's fans like crazy and I can easily boil an egg on it. Not sure I would game on it in this stage for long.
 
I have a new loaded 16" MBP coming and game a little. Two quick questions. First, has the problem with WoW not supporting the 5500 8 GB card been resolved? Does anyone play Second Life? Would the higher end MBP still run hot as it did on my current 2018 MBP w/ Radeon Pro Vega 16?
 
dtancu said:
The problem with WoW though....it makes my 16" 5500 Pro 4GB spin it's fans like crazy and I can easily boil an egg on it. Not sure I would game on it in this stage for long.
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It may seem extreme to you, but it isn't. The computer knows how to protect itself, and having the fans ramp up and feeling it get hot is what it's supposed to do. It'll throttle down dramatically before it allows damage. Stop worrying, play your game as much as you want to, and have fun.
 
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I don’t know....it’s not all about the CPU though, right?
Just sold my 2nd iMac in 10 years with screen burn spots due to excessive heat from the GPU behind the screen while playing games on it.
Screen is just an example, a MBP will also overheat the SSD, memory DIMMs, GPU etc.
It will also pull dust in massively in time due to the airflow.
Might be irrelevant for the lifetime though, I can’t say. First experience with MBP gaming here.
 
You’ll get dust regardless. Play in a clean area. If it’s dusty. Don’t. The iMac screen burn, that’s very interesting. Never heard that but also stopped buying iMacs years ago.
 
dtancu said:
First experience with MBP gaming here.
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Ok, I'll be blunt... you're WAY over reacting. If you think this is bad, you'd have lost your mind over the Retina and Touchbar 15" models. My 2015 with the Radeon M370x would run so hot and so loud it would heat up the entire room and I'd have to wear headphones to drown out the noise. Same with the old Mac Mini that had discrete graphics too. Even with the fans going full blast and it throttling like crazy, it'd still be well over 160 degrees. That is sitting on a desk at an angle and plenty of airflowThe touchbar 15s are even worse.

The 16" is a revelation by comparison. It's much, much cooler and much, much quieter. I can literally play a game with it sitting on my bed, and it never goes much over 140 degrees. If it gets dusty, i'll do what i did with the old 15"... take the bottom cover off and blow the dust out once a year. Seriously, enjoy it, stop worrying and know that this is the best it's been in years.
 
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dtancu said:
The problem with WoW though....it makes my 16" 5500 Pro 4GB spin it's fans like crazy and I can easily boil an egg on it. Not sure I would game on it in this stage for long.
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Fans spin on my GS65 laptop and that gets hot as well. Just the reality of gaming on a laptop. If the heat is that concerning to you, get a laptop cooler.
 
dtancu said:
The problem with WoW though....it makes my 16" 5500 Pro 4GB spin it's fans like crazy and I can easily boil an egg on it. Not sure I would game on it in this stage for long.
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soulreaver99 said:
Fans spin on my GS65 laptop and that gets hot as well. Just the reality of gaming on a laptop. If the heat is that concerning to you, get a laptop cooler.
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I have a 2015 Razer Blade 14" that has a Nvidia GTX 970m GPU, it gets really hot as well. I think the fans on the MacBook Pro 16" is actually quieter compared to the Razer Blade, when both are running at full till.
 
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MacLappy said:
Actually I think the fans on the MacBook Pro 16" is actually quieter compared to the Razer Blade, when both are running at full till.
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Not surprising, Apple has done a great job and designing a quiet machine, even with fans spinning
 
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Has anyone tried emulating newer systems (PS3 or newer) on this?
How is performance?
 
Hi all - I’m thinking about getting the MacBook Pro 16, and was wondering exactly how loud/obnoxious the fan noise is when gaming in bootcamp?

I spend a lot of time commuting on train, and I’m hoping to be able do some gaming on this thing on the go - is the fan noise such that it’s too loud to be using on a train carriage do you think? And/or can I get it down to decent levels using Throttlestop?

Thanks!
 
Adamski707 said:
Hi all - I’m thinking about getting the MacBook Pro 16, and was wondering exactly how loud/obnoxious the fan noise is when gaming in bootcamp?

I spend a lot of time commuting on train, and I’m hoping to be able do some gaming on this thing on the go - is the fan noise such that it’s too loud to be using on a train carriage do you think? And/or can I get it down to decent levels using Throttlestop?

Thanks!
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If you are gaming in bootcamp - the fans will always be blowing. It's about as loud as a gaming laptop which I don't really think is that bad when you are gaming are paying more attention to the sound on your speakers or headphones.

Since you are talking about using this on the train, you will hear the train more than you will hear the fans.
 
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Any one using parallels 15 for gaming? I saw it support Directx11 now, what's the gpu loss compared with the bootcamp solution?
 
I'm using Parallels 15 for a Skyrim playthrough on an older MBP. My 16" one arrives tomorrow. I'll know then how much better it behaves.
 
AlanShutko said:
I'm using Parallels 15 for a Skyrim playthrough on an older MBP. My 16" one arrives tomorrow. I'll know then how much better it behaves.
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What's your settings (details/quality/resolution) and FPS on your MBP 15?
 
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