Late 2016 RP455 gaming tests & benchmarks

[wmk]

There have been many questions regarding gaming capabilities of the new MacBook Pros. Although none of them have been designed as gaming laptops -- they are not gaming machines and never meant to be; that's why they are not equipped with any "gaming" GPU, similarly to ThinkPad W-Series workstations and other professional laptops -- I have just tested my 15-inch Late 2016 w/Radeon 455 with Tom Clancy's The Division and it runs surprisingly very well. Unfortunately, since this is not a GeForce card supported by Nvidia GeForce Experience with its capture functionality that has almost no performance impact, I had to use an fps-killing Windows DVR (aka Xbox Game Bar), therefore the final result doesn't show how smooth the gameplay really is.

In case anyone's interested I can record some more gameplay with a video cam or an HD-camera smartphone even; and by the way, both GPU and CPU temps were fine; fans were spinning like crazy, but they are actually pretty quiet, especially comparing to the real gaming laptops, like my Asus G750 ROG.

 

[wmk]

I don't want to create a new thread each time I publish a new test, so will post it in here -- GTA 5 PC test and benchmark -- the same machine, the same resolution /1680x1050/, full vsync, the same crappy video capture tool. The game runs very well and smooth; at native resolution /2880x1800/ frame rate drops dramatically, however thanks to Retina everything looks very good even when scaled...

 

[SoyCapitanSoyCapitan]

500 gaming threads.

3 professional app use threads.

Well done MacBook Pro forum.

 

[Clint_Barton]

What about a capture software like OBS?

 

[wmk]

What about a capture software like OBS?

Looks like too much effort as far as I can see /to minimize the performance hit; otherwise OBS would give me the same result as Windows DVR/; I wish AMD provides ShadowPlay-like solution, out of the box.

 

[Clint_Barton]

Looks like too much effort as far as I can see /to minimize the performance hit; otherwise OBS would give me the same result as Windows DVR/; I wish AMD provides ShadowPlay-like solution, out of the box.

could you look into Raptr? its some sort of game streaming program i think

 

[wmk]

Tried Raptr, removed it immediately

In the meantime AMD released Crimson ReLive with the game capture and streaming functionality; already tried to deploy it on my bootcamp, but failed several times /although the bootcampdrivers.com-signed driver itself installs without any problems, ReLive installer crashes all the time, even if I use AMD cleanup utility to remove everything/. Will have to try again, as thirstydude shows here on the forum that it works.

Meanwhile, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege test; performs the best on high/medium settings; captured with FRAPS, which decreases the frame rate by around 5 fps --

wmk/134514

 

[wmk]

Forza Motorsport 6 APEX (beta) test, high settings, 1920x1200 (captured gameplay has been re-scaled by Windows Game DVR to 1728x1080 for some reason); performs very well, 45-60fps

 

[dark_mark]

A little bit off topic, as this game doesn't run on a dedicated graphics, but it's still the same machine, used in my previous tests ---- Forza Motorsport 6 APEX (beta) test, high settings, 1920x1200 (captured gameplay has been re-scaled by Windows Game DVR to 1728x1080 for some reason); performs very well on integrated Intel HD Graphics 530 -- 45-60fps; note, that this game has DirectX 12 enabled by default.

This is BS. You can never make Forza Motorsport run on Intel HD 530. In bootcamp it always uses dedicated graphics. In macOS it will always switch to dedicated graphics the moment you launch that game

 

[wmk]

This is BS. You can never make Forza Motorsport run on Intel HD 530. In bootcamp it always uses dedicated graphics. In macOS it will always switch to dedicated graphics the moment you launch that game

Wait a sec -- you're right; the last time I had a game working under bootcamp was 5-6 years ago on older MacBook Pros, so I already forgot that integrated graphics is always disabled... -- all right, changing the clip description -- thanks.

 

[wmk]

At last, I managed to install Crysis 3 and copy my game progress from the other machine.
It works and looks great even at 1920x1200p...

wmk/134514

 

[manhattanboy]

500 gaming threads.

3 professional app use threads.

Well done MacBook Pro forum.

Looks like Apple knew more about the "Pros" using this laptop than we thought

 

[wmk]

Looks like Apple knew more about the "Pros" using this laptop than we thought

Well, although I'm not sure if I understand suspended SoyCapitan's comment, when I have anything to share with the users of any professional application or solution, I usually go to the dedicated product's forum first, while this is a MacRumors, a place for the general audience, with some group apparently interested in gaming on a mac laptops -- that's why I posted my original post in here, in the MacBook Pro section, instead of any gaming sub-thread.

I was interested in this as well, before I got my late-2016 machine. I was curious if the Apple claims are true, and if I would be able to play some games on this laptop occasionally. I didn't have to check if any of my "Pro" apps like Vmware would work on those laptops because I knew they would work. Gaming is a different story, that's why you can find so many gaming-related threads in here, while, according to Capitan, there are only few "Pro"-related ones.

As for the Apple itself, most of the people seem to forget that this is an Apple Inc., a publicly traded corporation, not a non-profit organization with the goal to satisfy everyone who claims to be a "Pro" and expect specialized "Pro" equipment. There are thousands of Apple shareholders expecting return of investment; they don't care of any "Pros" -- they expect the company to sell products and solutions to as many customers as possible, not to invest in a company keeping some line of expensive products aimed at a relatively small group of potential "Pro" customers; products that do not necessarily attract a standard laptop owners.

Besides, it's a year 2016; we should all already use to the overused "Pro" term by now. Take GoPro as example -- do you believe those expensive cameras are aimed at professional users only? -- sure, some "Pros" use them, but more than 90% of the GoPro cam owners are pure amateurs, recording their epic biking or skiing fails in HD or 4K even.