Impressed with 2016 MacBook Pro gaming performance

[MarcBou]

The MBP has a 16x10 display, so any resolution that is a multiple of that will give you the highest clarity. BUT when it comes to Overwatch, while you should select a 16x10 display resolution (like 1920x1080), you must select the 16x9 aspect ratio setting (it's a different setting). This will result in some black bars on the top/bottom of the screen while in game. If you select the 16x10 option, the game removes the black bars by effectively zooming in and you'll actually lose a small amount of displayed content on the left/right sides of your screen.

Higher resolutions resulted in FPS dropping lower than I'd like. And messing with the render scaler resulted in a less than consistent experience for me. But hey, it's easy to play around with the settings, so figure out what works for you.

TL;DR, For Overwatch only: Select a 16x10 resolution. Select 16x9 aspect ratio setting.

Finally I selected 16:10 and 1920x1200 (1680x1050 for better fps). I don't like to have the black bars for gaming.

I got like 60-70fps downgrading the settings. Render scale at 100%.

 

[Patrick-Photo]

Finally I selected 16:10 and 1920x1200 (1680x1050 for better fps). I don't like to have the black bars for gaming.

I got like 60-70fps downgrading the settings. Render scale at 100%.

I run Battlefield 4 and Overwatch at 2880x1800 and with 50% resolutionscale. Getting a solid 60fps with Battlefield in between medium-high and between high-ultra with Overwatch. This looks nicer than 1680x1050 in my eyes.

 

[MarcBou]

I run Battlefield 4 and Overwatch at 2880x1800 and with 50% resolutionscale. Getting a solid 60fps with Battlefield in between medium-high and between high-ultra with Overwatch. This looks nicer than 1680x1050 in my eyes.

high-ultra on overwatch? I don't know I'll have to try more stuff, I just downgraded all to get the max fps possible, I guess I have to play a little bit with the settings cause I don't know wich ones exactly makes me drop fps, I just went from high to lowering everything, haha.

 

[Patrick-Photo]

high-ultra on overwatch? I don't know I'll have to try more stuff, I just downgraded all to get the max fps possible, I guess I have to play a little bit with the settings cause I don't know wich ones exactly makes me drop fps, I just went from high to lowering everything, haha.

Believe me the Pro 460 is a whole lot better than you think and the impact of using the native resolution paired with a lower texture resolution is much less .

I'll post a screenshot in a moment when I'm back on bootcamp.

[UPDATE]
Here's my screenshot. It's a bit of a mix between high and ultra as you can see . Owh and menu's drop back 45-50fps but in the match it's vsync locked at 60fps.

 

[bakelord]

Just thought I'd mention my experience playing Doom (2016) under Windows via Bootcamp. I used the stock drivers (i.e. not from bootcampdrivers.com) and got some great results (considering the form factor of the machine):
1680x1050
Mid settings (no custom tweaks, no resolution scaling)
Default AA (some temporal 8x mode - very nice)
Vulkan rather than GL driver (this is important!)

I was seeing between 50 and 70fps which is very playable.

 

[Karnicopia]

Why try and game on this garbage when you can blow it out of the water for a sensible price with this monster:

http://www.theverge.com/2017/1/3/14...-laptop-announced-price-release-date-ces-2017

Well the gauntlet has been thrown down. This is exactly what people have been asking for, desktop gaming performance, RAM for miles, probably more ports than you could ever use and look at all that keyboard travel! Jet engine cooling ports mean you can throw a high wattage gaming card in there. It's like someone took everyone's complaints about the MacBook Pro and made a laptop about it.

 

[Patrick-Photo]

My settings for Battlefield 4... And yes I saw it's using D11 instead of Mantle (which is a bit higher even :

 

[improwise]

What about fannoise with the different GPU options? Would be running Windows 99% of the time on mine if I get yet another MBP, and that means the dedicated/discrete GPU would always be used as graphic switching is not supported. Doesn't seem to be an option not to get a dGPU these days, right?

 

[MarcBou]

What about fannoise with the different GPU options? Would be running Windows 99% of the time on mine if I get yet another MBP, and that means the dedicated/discrete GPU would always be used as graphic switching is not supported. Doesn't seem to be an option not to get a dGPU these days, right?

I have the 460 and I barely hear anything.

Getting a MBP and use Windows 99% of the time? Hmm doesn't make much sense.

 

[Patrick-Photo]

What about fannoise with the different GPU options? Would be running Windows 99% of the time on mine if I get yet another MBP, and that means the dedicated/discrete GPU would always be used as graphic switching is not supported. Doesn't seem to be an option not to get a dGPU these days, right?

You can hear it spinning and cooling but then again you're pushing the GPU close to 100% and the CPU for a good amount too. Temperatures never exceed 70-75 degrees Celcius for the GPU and while playing games it's not too loud.

If you want to run windows 99% of the time why not wait what CES will bring? The Dell 9560 (1050 4gb) is already announced as are some gaming notebooks. My guess is there will be a few more by the end of CES.

 

[bakelord]

What about fannoise with the different GPU options? Would be running Windows 99% of the time on mine if I get yet another MBP, and that means the dedicated/discrete GPU would always be used as graphic switching is not supported. Doesn't seem to be an option not to get a dGPU these days, right?

The fan noise was fairly quiet in Windows - noticeable but not unpleasant, although it did ramp up quickly playing games. The body of it got hot too, but not too uncomfortable to the fingers.