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Gaming on a Retina Macbook Pro

so, ive been using this as a gaming PC for a few months now. it's been great.

Borderlands 2 has a decent framerate @ 1080p over HDMI. framerate might get better if i turn off PhysX, which is totally pointless.

Torchlight 2 plays nicely at native res with pretty much everything maxed and AA turned off.
 
ggabriele3 said:
Borderlands 2 has a decent framerate @ 1080p over HDMI. framerate might get better if i turn off PhysX, which is totally pointless.
Click to expand...

PhysX really hammers the FPS, that and ambiant oclusion knock the fps down by about 20 each. Without them I get around 60fps at 1920x1200 with the other settings maxed.
 
DTKblaster said:
PhysX really hammers the FPS, that and ambiant oclusion knock the fps down by about 20 each. Without them I get around 60fps at 1920x1200 with the other settings maxed.
Click to expand...

yea, and physx is so pointless it actually takes me out of the game. definitely turning it off.

i'm not even sure what ambient occlusion is. or tesselation.
 
ggabriele3 said:
yea, and physx is so pointless it actually takes me out of the game. definitely turning it off.

i'm not even sure what ambient occlusion is. or tesselation.
Click to expand...

Buzz words. Tessellation, in simple terms, adds a higher level of texturing to objects. That's not what it actually does, but what it appears to do (trying to be figurative).
 
Hey, guys. This is a bit late in this thread but here:

My friend has a rMBP and likes playing Counter Strike: Global Offensive on Bootcamp. Problem is, the game has relatively low performance on his Mac.

It runs at around 50fps, falling below 30fps at times. It might not sound weird to you, but it is. CS:GO is in no way a 'heavy' game and better performance from a GT 650M is expected considering he's playing at 1280x720 with all video settings set to Low, Multicore Rendering enabled and Paged Pool Memory Available set to High.

Also, the problem seems to be random as sometimes (with the same settings) he'd get around 100fps easily.

At first I thought it was thermal throttling but he says the computer is warm, not extremely hot or anything.

So, does anyone have an idea about what might be the cause ?
And if any fellow CS:GO players with rMBPs can share their experience concerning performance, it'd be really great.

Thanks.
 
inket said:
So, does anyone have an idea about what might be the cause ?
And if any fellow CS:GO players with rMBPs can share their experience concerning performance, it'd be really great.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

It's the EFI bug. Tell him to reset his SMC whenever this happens.

Resetting SMC goes as follow:

1) Turn off computer. Make sure power adapter (MagSafe 2) is connected to both the computer and to a socket. There has to be light (green or orange) on the plug.

2) Hold down Control + Option + Shift on the left side of the keyboard and Power button on the top right of the keyboard at the same time.

3) Wait a few seconds and release all of those buttons at the same time.

4) Now turn on computer.

Performance should be back to normal.
 
Thank you for your answer bill-p! He'll try resetting the SMC next time there's a performance problem.

Would you mind explaining the bug or giving me an informative link ? "the EFI bug" makes it sound like a really common/known bug.
 
inket said:
Thank you for your answer bill-p! He'll try resetting the SMC next time there's a performance problem.

Would you mind explaining the bug or giving me an informative link ? "the EFI bug" makes it sound like a really common/known bug.
Click to expand...

We actually don't know more about it... other than that it happens randomly... and it limits CPU frequency to around 1.2GHz, so everything runs a lot slower than normal.

Here's a thread discussing it:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1452267/

We're not sure if it's a common problem... since I know some people who aren't affected (or maybe they don't "notice" the performance degradation caused by it). But we do know it's a known problem for some rMBPs.
 
It should be of note that resetting the SMC (at least in the mid-2012 cMBP) doesn't make an obvious fan-spinup anymore, so I'd attempt it more than once.
 
so a minor update on my gaming experience. I'm new to tweaking this kind of stuff so it's mostly experimenting.

I was playing borderlands 2 over HDMI @ 1080p and Torchlight 2 at native res. I was getting good framerates.

then Nvidia put out a driver update, and for like 2 days I got a great FPS bump. it was amazing. then, for no apparent reason, it dropped to like 15fps making the games run like crap. I'm still trying to figure this out.

then I tried running Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. can't get above 20fps no matter what tweaking I do, with it without Morrowind Overhaul 3. maybe the code just isn't optimized.

I'm now trying Fallout 3. vanilla install is looking amazing at 1600x1200 at ultra settings, AA off. not maxed, but worlds beyond what I originally had playing it on the console.

so, bottom line, I'm hooked and I will be building a real gaming PC at some point :)
 
I am having issues as well. I tried with W7 and W8 and, mainly, with FIFA 13. I say mainly because I tried Alan Wake once or twice as well with the same negative results.

I don't understand why but it all runs smoothly at first but, randomly, it stops doing it. The FPS just drop and I can't have a smooth gaming experience. I have the latest Nvidia drivers and play on a 1920x1200 resolution with all maxed out. I had this setup for about 2 weeks now playing almost everyday. Today I turned on my rMBP to play a bit and it happened again. I'll try the SMC reset and get back to you. Anyway, is there any news about this?
 
That performance drop is unfortunately Apple's fault:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1452267/

Temporary fix is to reset your SMC (turn machine off, hold down Control + Option + Shift (all 3 on the right-hand side) + Power button at the same time, release, then power on), but that's not guaranteed to fix the problem.

You'll have to wait until the next EFI update.
 
bill-p said:
That performance drop is unfortunately Apple's fault:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1452267/

Temporary fix is to reset your SMC (turn machine off, hold down Control + Option + Shift (all 3 on the right-hand side) + Power button at the same time, release, then power on), but that's not guaranteed to fix the problem.

You'll have to wait until the next EFI update.
Click to expand...

Is there a definite way to make the bug appear? Ive tried everything to get it to do it. no dice.
 
Dyno-Mike said:
Is there a definite way to make the bug appear? Ive tried everything to get it to do it. no dice.
Click to expand...

Go into Bootcamp, run a GPU or CPU stress test... and then wrap the computer inside a blanket or something.

Give it about 10 minutes.
 
bill-p said:
That performance drop is unfortunately Apple's fault:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1452267/

Temporary fix is to reset your SMC (turn machine off, hold down Control + Option + Shift (all 3 on the right-hand side) + Power button at the same time, release, then power on), but that's not guaranteed to fix the problem.

You'll have to wait until the next EFI update.
Click to expand...
Did that and it worked! Does this issue affect performance on MAC OS as well or only Windows? I can't tell because I don't play games under MAC OS and this machine is powerful enough so I don't notice a drop in performance on my everyday use. Anyway, it fixed issues under Windows so I guess it did under MAC OS as well. Hope Apple fixes it on the next EFI update and I'm shocked that this is known to happen for a long time and Apple haven't done anything about it yet.

Thanks, mate ;)


bill-p said:
Go into Bootcamp, run a GPU or CPU stress test... and then wrap the computer inside a blanket or something.

Give it about 10 minutes.
Click to expand...
At least you'd get a portable stove then :D
 
dastinger said:
Did that and it worked! Does this issue affect performance on MAC OS as well or only Windows? I can't tell because I don't play games under MAC OS and this machine is powerful enough so I don't notice a drop in performance on my everyday use. Anyway, it fixed issues under Windows so I guess it did under MAC OS as well. Hope Apple fixes it on the next EFI update and I'm shocked that this is known to happen for a long time and Apple haven't done anything about it yet.

Thanks, mate ;)
Click to expand...

Yeah, it affects Mac OS as well. It causes audio stuttering and scrolling lag... among other things. Once the SMC locks on to the issue, it'll cause the CPU to downscale to 1.2GHz indefinitely... and the GPU is also scaled back.

The upside is that the computer is still somewhat usable, and there is absolutely no fan noise or heat. Plus battery life is also boosted.

But then who gets a machine of this caliber to scale back and watch battery life sips?
 
bill-p said:
Yeah, it affects Mac OS as well. It causes audio stuttering and scrolling lag... among other things. Once the SMC locks on to the issue, it'll cause the CPU to downscale to 1.2GHz indefinitely... and the GPU is also scaled back.

The upside is that the computer is still somewhat usable, and there is absolutely no fan noise or heat. Plus battery life is also boosted.

But then who gets a machine of this caliber to scale back and watch battery life sips?
Click to expand...
Now that you talk about the battery I know MAC OS performance dropped as well. It was like 3 days ago that I used my MBP for 6 hours or so without charging it and I was pretty amazed and wondering what happened to the battery. Now I know and I'm not happy about it anymore lol.

Is there any software I may use to tell me how the CPU is working? And stress tests, how to do them?

Btw, I don't know if anyone here noticed it already but there's a way to know if the SMC was reset. If the battery is not fully charged, when you do it, the light on the charger will turn from orange to green for a few seconds.
 
rMacbook Pro 2.7 ghz 16gb RAM - Gaming

I have a Retina Macbook Pro 2.7ghz with 16gb ram and 750 ssd.

I bought Witcher 2 from the Mac store, i found it completely unplayable even at the lowest settings. some people found it ok, but who wants to have a rmacbook pro 2.7 16gb to run games at the lowest settings?

i emailed the mac store told them my issue and they immediately refunded my money for the game.

i am now thinking of setting up windows 7 bootcamp and buying the game from steam and trying again.

i also have half life 2, call of duty black ops and they both play ok.

this is my 2 cents.
 
i actually love the new rmbp i got a few days ago

its overclocked and it runs great

i tested battlefield 3 today, and made a video.

If anyone wants to see some games just hit me up, and ill try to make a video about it.

Battlefield 3 - 1440x900 medium preset until 05:40 into the video, then i change to high preset, same resolution

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUvSZCjOZIQ
 
daemonskank said:
I have a Retina Macbook Pro 2.7ghz with 16gb ram and 750 ssd.

I bought Witcher 2 from the Mac store, i found it completely unplayable even at the lowest settings. some people found it ok, but who wants to have a rmacbook pro 2.7 16gb to run games at the lowest settings?

i emailed the mac store told them my issue and they immediately refunded my money for the game.

i am now thinking of setting up windows 7 bootcamp and buying the game from steam and trying again.

i also have half life 2, call of duty black ops and they both play ok.

this is my 2 cents.
Click to expand...

im sorry...but you wasted another 1500 on a larger ssd? too funny... damn apple and their proprietary hardware..
 
daemonskank said:
I have a Retina Macbook Pro 2.7ghz with 16gb ram and 750 ssd.

I bought Witcher 2 from the Mac store, i found it completely unplayable even at the lowest settings. some people found it ok, but who wants to have a rmacbook pro 2.7 16gb to run games at the lowest settings?

i emailed the mac store told them my issue and they immediately refunded my money for the game.

i am now thinking of setting up windows 7 bootcamp and buying the game from steam and trying again.

i also have half life 2, call of duty black ops and they both play ok.

this is my 2 cents.
Click to expand...

A few guys on here have stated that, on Bootcamp, The Witcher 2 runs pretty great on high settings.
 
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