Macbook Pro 15 mid-2010 performance issues

[Superspeed500]

I have an MacBook Pro 15 from mid 2010 with Mac Os X Lion. I have installed Steam for Mac Os X and I want to play games on it. The problem is that the system is slow. I can run more resource heavy games under Windows.

I have recently given more space to Mac Os X. That made it lag less. My system lag the most when I start or run games. The system runs ok.

Why do I get this lag in games? Is it my RAM that Os X eats to much of or is it my disk speed that is bad (5400 RPM, 320 GB) or something else?

Some of my specs:
MacBookPro6,2
Intel Core i5, 2.4 GHz
4 GB RAM
Intel HD GPU, 288 MB
Nvidia GeForce GT 330M, 256 MB
OS: Mac OS X Server Lion 10.7.5 (11G63) (Is the server version more laggy than regular OS X? I do not use server, I just have it from the app store :3)

 

[Dwinguel]

If I understand you correctly, you have tried running the same games on Windows and Mac OS and see a significant difference in Mac OS, right?

Could you name the games you have tried?

I expect a worse performance in Mac OS than Windows, but it shouldn't be that significant. Unless you are running games that are running Wine in the background (the Witcher is one of them), in which case the difference in performance will be quite significant.

If we know which games you have tried, that should help finding the problem.

 

[Superspeed500]

Correct

Thx for replying.

I have tried to run Team Fortress 2 (Runs smooth on Medium/High i bootcamp, lags on low in Mac Os X), Gmod (Runs fine with the same settings as my i3 computer with Intel HD 3000 have) and Roblox (Lags on places that it didn´t lag on in Bootcamp). I will test some more games and see if I can get the FPS to show up. The games I will test is all based on Source by Valve.

Quartz debug says that my system runs betwwen 5 and 50 FPS when I am using Firefox :3

 

[maflynn]

I'm no expert but if the game is running fine on the same computer but just different operating system, that basically removes the hardware as the issue.

So its either the OSX version of the game, or OSX itself. I'd probably bet my money on the fact its OSX which isn't known for its gaming performance.

 

[Superspeed500]

ok

Ok, Apple says that Os X Mavericks will be faster. Maybe that will help.

Edit: I think that Mac Os X is a very hard drive heavy os. Maybe the performance go down because of my hard drive? I know that my hard drive in my Mac is super slow. My 5400 RPM drive in the Mac is slower than the drive in one of my other computers.

Edit: My FPS in TF2 jumps from 0 to 60.
My problem seems to be graphics related. Mavericks will as far as I know get an OpenGL upgrade and that might help :3