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Gaming performance of HD 4000 vs 650m

J

jvpython

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 25, 2011
284
0
New Zealand
Hello, I have a brand new base model 2012 15" MBP and I've noticed something odd about the performance of the 650m while playing a game like COD4. According to benchmarks the Nvidia 650m is more than twice as powerful as the Intel HD 4000. Yet I've switched between both using gfxCardStatus to see how they play COD and the difference is, I find, quite small. Graphic settings were 1440x900, 4x AA, everything on max. The HD 4000 got around 20fps on average and the 650m got only around 30fps on average. Does that seem normal?
Thanks for the feedback
 
COD4 is a really old game - you are only seeing 30 FPS with maxed settings? Are you sure you haven't capped your frames at some point?
 
Dark Void said:
COD4 is a really old game - you are only seeing 30 FPS with maxed settings? Are you sure you haven't capped your frames at some point?
Click to expand...

No I don't think it's capped as the fps can go right up to 70 I look at a wall (very little to render) and sometimes goes bellow 30fps if there is a lot of detail. 30fps would be the average.
 
try a better game, one really made for pcs, not a port. And yes its still a 50% difference between the HD 4000 and the 650m
 
I presume you are running the mac port of the game. What your benchmarks show is that the port sucks :)

The 650m will show much better performance in Windows.
 
Are you trying to compare the performance on the fly? As in using gfxcarstatus whilst the game is already up and running?

I think the game will use the graphics option when it is loaded whether that is HD4000 or 650M. I'm not sure you can switch graphics options in-game and see an instant performance boost or decline. At the very least you have to restart the game.
 
jvpython said:
No I don't think it's capped as the fps can go right up to 70 I look at a wall (very little to render) and sometimes goes bellow 30fps if there is a lot of detail. 30fps would be the average.
Click to expand...

Must be something up, 650M should run circles around that game. I suppose it is the OS X variant as others have pointed out.
 
I would almost certainly guess it is either the port done wrong or some other software incompatibilities.

I run SC2 on Bootcamp versus OS X seeing a difference from up to 200 FPS to 15-30 FPS. Just make sure your fans are working properly and if not download a third party program like luddos because people have reported insane overheating up to 100 degrees Celisus, which you can boil water at 1 atm pressure
 
Are the OS X copies really that terrible?

I played WoW on both OS X and Windows before and there wasn't a difference. Is that the exception?
 
Dark Void said:
Are the OS X copies really that terrible?

I played WoW on both OS X and Windows before and there wasn't a difference. Is that the exception?
Click to expand...

WoW has a native version for Mac, plus, Blizzard works closely with Apple to make sure that the drivers are properly optimised. Most Mac games are just Windows versions slapped on an win32/DirectX emulator...
 
Dark Void said:
Are the OS X copies really that terrible?

I played WoW on both OS X and Windows before and there wasn't a difference. Is that the exception?
Click to expand...

There seems to be people with and without issues. I think the very fact that I'm playing on the Retina and it's OX 10.8.1 (relatively new) is the reason that there seem to be a lot of bugs. Most programs aren't optimized for this yet. I'm pretty sure it's software based because otherwise it wouldn't make sense that when switching to Windows there was such a significant increase in performance.

It's disappointing because Mac OS X is so visually appealing and all the gestures and the interface itself is very user-friendly. The scaling on Bootcamp is average.

I monitored the FPS through Blizzard's in-game monitor (Ctrl + Alt/Option + F) and on Mac I couldn't even play on majority of resolutions with low settings while I could play on Ultra at 2880 x 1800 on Windows. Beats me why this is, but all I can say is it sucks.

P.S. Just in case it's due to some error in the settings, does anyone have a default or just a variables.txt file (both of them, there happens to be two) for the Mac version of Starcraft 2. I'd love to be able to play it natively.
 
The only thing that bottlenecks the 650M are the OS X drivers. Give them some time, and they will destroy the HD4000 in terms of performance.

The difference between these two cards is HUGE! You can't even compare them. The HD4000 is made for running day to day apps like Mail and Word and iTunes and stuff. As soon as it goes into 3D stuff such as gaming is, it will crap out.
 
leman said:
WoW has a native version for Mac, plus, Blizzard works closely with Apple to make sure that the drivers are properly optimised. Most Mac games are just Windows versions slapped on an win32/DirectX emulator...
Click to expand...

Doesn't COD4 have an OS X version as well? I thought it did, that's why I compared the two. I know the difference between a port and a native version, but maybe I am thinking of a different game. Possibly COD2 even, not sure why I am associating it with a native OS X version.

@Cassadian: I played on Snow Leopard (forget which version at the time) and on the NVIDIA 320M integrated chip. With custom settings and the 1280x800 resolution of the 13'', I was able to cap my frames at 60 and it didn't really budge unless it was graphically intensive - like AV or a raid, and then it would only drop to around 35-50 or so without any real noticeable skipping or lagging. That was in Cata as well, not so sure how well I would fair in Mists. I don't play anymore though, just thought I would bring the game up for comparison but it may not even be viable.
 
Dark Void said:
Doesn't COD4 have an OS X version as well? I thought it did, that's why I compared the two. I know the difference between a port and a native version, but maybe I am thinking of a different game. Possibly COD2 even, not sure why I am associating it with a native OS X version.
Click to expand...

You might be right actually, I have done some search and it appears that COD4 does have a native port (one NOT done via Cider). I didn't play the game so I might have been confused, sorry for the noise!

Edit: sorry, i mean a port which is NOT a Cider port! Cider ports are windows versions with an emulation layer, so they usually perform worse.
 
Last edited:
leman said:
You might be right actually, I have done some search and it appears that COD4 does have a native port (one done via Cider). I didn't play the game so I might have been confused, sorry for the noise!
Click to expand...

No worries, I was not too sure myself and too lazy to search so thank you for doing that. :)
 
Dark Void said:
No worries, I was not too sure myself and too lazy to search so thank you for doing that. :)
Click to expand...

It's possible there is a deeper issue though. I mean if Blizzard truly is working closely with Apple why is there such a significant difference in performance between the two platforms I have been running it on.
 
Cassadian said:
It's possible there is a deeper issue though. I mean if Blizzard truly is working closely with Apple why is there such a significant difference in performance between the two platforms I have been running it on.
Click to expand...

Not sure.

I've had good performance in both OS X and Windows with WoW using the same hardware.
 
Cassadian said:
It may be because I'm using the Macbook Pro with Retina Screen.
Click to expand...

Possibly, perhaps there is some sort of optimization issue between the two platforms driver wise? Again, not sure.

I was using 1280x800 resolution.
 
I presume you are running the mac port of the game. What your benchmarks show is that the port sucks

The 650m will show much better performance in Windows.
Click to expand...

Yes I am running the Mac port indeed.

Are you trying to compare the performance on the fly? As in using gfxcarstatus whilst the game is already up and running?
Click to expand...

No I'm not switching on the fly. I have to exit the game to change anyway.

Thanks for all the input guys :) Seems like the general thought is that the Mac version might just not be very well ported... I just hope it's not just me seeing this performance.
 
Hey guys, I think I may have found the issue I was really having. There were known anti-aliasing performance issues with Nvidia cards (ie. like in my MPB) which I found out about when doing some more research. A patch - http://en.kioskea.net/faq/7480-call-of-duty-4-patch-for-mac-os - was released earlier this year to fix this. It would also explain why my frame rate easily triple when I turn AA off and why the HD 4000 was getting similar FPS with AA.
 
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