From what I've read and my limited experience, it's best to first max the resolution, then apply AA, as a higher resolution will have a more significant impact on visuals than AA, especially when you're running at such an low resolution--very low! In COD4 (Mac version) for example, running at my native res (1680x1050) renders a hugely superior looking game than at a lower res with 4x AA. Of course that also means you'll have a much easier time spotting other players in multiplayer, as the tiny little dot that is their knee will appear clearly as that in sniper scope; meanwhile, at a lower res, it's harder to distinguish between knee and all the other similar textures in game. Since you haven't tried it, I urge you to. So long as you maintain an above 30+ fps, I'm confident you'll prefer the visuals.
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Has 10.6.4 Improved Your Gaming?
- Thread starter MikhailT
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From what I've read and my limited experience, it's best to first max the resolution, then apply AA, as a higher resolution will have a more significant impact on visuals than AA, especially when you're running at such an low resolution--very low! In COD4 (Mac version) for example, running at my native res (1680x1050) renders a hugely superior looking game than at a lower res with 4x AA. Of course that also means you'll have a much easier time spotting other players in multiplayer, as the tiny little dot that is their knee will appear clearly as that in sniper scope; meanwhile, at a lower res, it's harder to distinguish between knee and all the other similar textures in game. Since you haven't tried it, I urge you to. So long as you maintain an above 30+ fps, I'm confident you'll prefer the visuals.
Performance wise, AA usually is more of a strain though. That's what I was testing. For example, Halo is completely unplayable with any AA turn on, not matter how low the other settings are.
Depends on how much of a resolution bump you're comparing AA to, but yes AA is usually a frame rate killer, more so at higher res. But I'm only speaking of visual quality. Since you said you're content with such an incredibly low resolution, I thought you may be pleased to find your system could possibly run at a higher res--and consequently, much better visuals.
The update really screwed my steam experience. Can't play TF2 for more than 2 minutes without it crashing 
back to bootcamp
back to bootcampThats good news. I appreciate your hands on approach to the players concerns rbarris. I've never seen this from devs of high profile titles outside of their own official forums.
Big contrast to what we're used to from apple. XD
I updated to 10.6.4 and TF2 seems to play the same as on 10.6.3. Mac Pro in my sig (XFX 4870 1GB flashed) with the following video settings (from the config file):
"videoconfig"
{
"AutoConfigVersion" "1"
"ScreenWidth" "1680"
"ScreenHeight" "1050"
"ScreenWindowed" "0"
"ScreenMSAA" "4"
"ScreenMSAAQuality" "0"
"MotionBlur" "0"
"ShadowDepthTexture" "1"
"ScreenMonitorGamma" "2.200000"
"mat_forceaniso" "2"
"mat_picmip" "0"
"mat_trilinear" "0"
"mat_vsync" "0"
"mat_forcehardwaresync" "1"
"mat_parallaxmap" "0"
"mat_reducefillrate" "0"
"r_shadowrendertotexture" "1"
"r_rootlod" "0"
"r_waterforceexpensive" "1"
"r_waterforcereflectentities" "1"
"mat_antialias" "2"
"mat_aaquality" "0"
"mat_specular" "1"
"mat_bumpmap" "1"
"mat_hdr_level" "2"
"mat_colorcorrection" "1"
"VendorID" "4098"
"DeviceID" "37952"
"DXLevel_V1" "90"
}
"videoconfig"
{
"AutoConfigVersion" "1"
"ScreenWidth" "1680"
"ScreenHeight" "1050"
"ScreenWindowed" "0"
"ScreenMSAA" "4"
"ScreenMSAAQuality" "0"
"MotionBlur" "0"
"ShadowDepthTexture" "1"
"ScreenMonitorGamma" "2.200000"
"mat_forceaniso" "2"
"mat_picmip" "0"
"mat_trilinear" "0"
"mat_vsync" "0"
"mat_forcehardwaresync" "1"
"mat_parallaxmap" "0"
"mat_reducefillrate" "0"
"r_shadowrendertotexture" "1"
"r_rootlod" "0"
"r_waterforceexpensive" "1"
"r_waterforcereflectentities" "1"
"mat_antialias" "2"
"mat_aaquality" "0"
"mat_specular" "1"
"mat_bumpmap" "1"
"mat_hdr_level" "2"
"mat_colorcorrection" "1"
"VendorID" "4098"
"DeviceID" "37952"
"DXLevel_V1" "90"
}
Improved Slightly
I noticed slight FPS increase in WoW and Heroes of Newerth increased noticeably(5-10fps) i wasn't getting bad frames in either, but its more consistant now. anyone else get the same? im running the i5 15"MBP btw
I noticed slight FPS increase in WoW and Heroes of Newerth increased noticeably(5-10fps) i wasn't getting bad frames in either, but its more consistant now. anyone else get the same? im running the i5 15"MBP btw
10.6.4 really improved Team Fortress 2 for me. It's playable now. I dont' have any before and after specs, but it's definitely a much better play now.
When do y'all think the minor glitches will be fixed? I am assuming a lot of it is issues with OS X/ Apple/NVIDIA/ATI and the substandard OGL 3.0 system compared to DX 9/10. I'm hoping that Valve is able to persuade Apple to put more work into drivers and gaming!
Example:
Example:
Attachments
An FYI:
I just opened up Steam for the first time today, and after it updated, was greeted with a news item that there are known issues with 10.6.4 and nVidia cards. It advises to delay updating the OS until Apple has had time to create a fix.
.
I just opened up Steam for the first time today, and after it updated, was greeted with a news item that there are known issues with 10.6.4 and nVidia cards. It advises to delay updating the OS until Apple has had time to create a fix.
.
This message: http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1314406
Unfortunately, the warning comes several days after the release of 10.6.4, so many people have already updated.
And I thought this patch was supposed to improve graphics drivers... Already updated before seeing that message.It doesn't seem to have hit everyone anyway.. I'm using nvidia cards and its been fine.
Updating from 10.6.2 to 10.6.4 has improved my Geekbench score by 300 points on my home-made Core i7 computer. From 10.6.0 to 10.6.4 showed a Geekbench improvement of 1800 points.
The only game I play is X-Plane 9, but I use it to keep flying skills current rather than as a game. Graphics is a Nvidia GeForce GTS 250 with 1 gig GDDR3 memory.
Flying a Mig 21 at 500 mph at 400 feet over Miami with all X-Plane settings at the highest, I was not able to bog the computer down lower than 30 fps on 10.6.4. Using the same computer on 10.6.2, I could bog it down to 19 fps with the same plane and settings. But even at 19 fps, performance is good. After moving beyond the high population area, fps jumped to 150-312 fps.
The only game I play is X-Plane 9, but I use it to keep flying skills current rather than as a game. Graphics is a Nvidia GeForce GTS 250 with 1 gig GDDR3 memory.
Flying a Mig 21 at 500 mph at 400 feet over Miami with all X-Plane settings at the highest, I was not able to bog the computer down lower than 30 fps on 10.6.4. Using the same computer on 10.6.2, I could bog it down to 19 fps with the same plane and settings. But even at 19 fps, performance is good. After moving beyond the high population area, fps jumped to 150-312 fps.
That's what the file looked like when I opened it. Tell Valve they're not supposed to be quoted.
I think that mac hardware is decent. running game is actually not optimized for mac. I think that Apple should develop some special acceleration plug in just like derectX from MS. open GL is not connected with gaming performance at all. if Apple wouldn't do something better, no matter how you have high end hardware, gaming experience is still sucks. it's all about codes.
This is crap. it was running buttery smooth unnder 10.6.3
It's now running like crap under 10.6.4
I have a mac pro with a GTX285 and am getting less than 20FPS at 2560x1600 where as before I was getting over 70fps
*edit* I've just tried 4 different games.
All the same effect. Used to run great. Now runs *****.
Not happy jan
It's now running like crap under 10.6.4
I have a mac pro with a GTX285 and am getting less than 20FPS at 2560x1600 where as before I was getting over 70fps
*edit* I've just tried 4 different games.
All the same effect. Used to run great. Now runs *****.
Not happy jan
There's an update for the 285 for better compatibility under 10.6.4, maybe you should download it? I know it's on Nvidia's site somewhere.