MacBook Pro 2018 gaming?

[mvp2885]

It's going back.

I'm playing a game that really isn't graphically intensive at all and it's stuttering all over the place. I could try running it in Parallels or bootcamp I guess, but I expected better if I'm honest.

don't run games on macOS or parallels.. Use bootcamp. Running life is strange in macOS I get 20-22 fps, on bootcamp, at highest settings at 2880 x 1600 I am getting 60+ and at max resolution, around 40 fps
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I got a 2018 15" MBP a few days ago, 2.6ghz 32g ram, 1tb. It's complete ******* for games. Even in Bootcamp, I have to run Fortnite on 1200xwhatever (minimum possible) resolution, with all settings on minimum, and I get 25-30 fps.

I'm going to be returning it, and hoping that the 2019 MBP has something other than a 2016 low end graphics card.

what other games have you tried besides fortnite? I have the same one as you, and with withcher 3 at 2880 x 1600 medium settings I am getting 30 fps with is playable and looks amazing. Fortnite seems to have a patching issues, if this things (560x) can run Witcher 3 at the settings I am saying, hmmm maybe fortnite just needs an update? not sure.

 

[Mathematig]

I recommend Razer Core X and get whatever GPU you can afford.

I believe the BlackMagic option is a waste of money as you can’t upgrade the GPU later. Razer Core X supports old, current and future GPUs. Both Nvidia and AMD.

I haven’t tested Razer Core X myself though but reviews on YouTube are good so far.

I agree, Razar Core X would be a good option if you want to upgrade the graphic card later. Also, it can still serve you even you want to change to another laptop.

 

[AdamA9]

don't run games on macOS or parallels.. Use bootcamp. Running life is strange in macOS I get 20-22 fps, on bootcamp, at highest settings at 2880 x 1600 I am getting 60+ and at max resolution, around 40 fps
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what other games have you tried besides fortnite? I have the same one as you, and with withcher 3 at 2880 x 1600 medium settings I am getting 30 fps with is playable and looks amazing. Fortnite seems to have a patching issues, if this things (560x) can run Witcher 3 at the settings I am saying, hmmm maybe fortnite just needs an update? not sure.

Blackmagic isn't compatible with Bootcamp unfortunately.

 

[mvp2885]

Blackmagic isn't compatible with Bootcamp unfortunately.

yeh I heard that. I am running those games on the internal GPU (560x). Also andromeda, getting 50+ on 2560 x 1600 medium settings, BF1 50+ fps on multiplayer @ medium 1920 x 1200, I am not sure why people say you can't "game on macs" some older games like battlefield 4, I am running it at max resolution high settings getting 60+ and looks amazing. Sure you wont be able to play max res on all games, but for casual gaming and decent graphics, is not bad at all. Resident evil 7 getting 50+ on medium settings.

 

[DeepIn2U]

Ouch! That's not good to hear. I have an OWC Helios FX (same as Sonnet Breakaway 550) with RX580 turning up on Monday. I haven't decided yet whether it will go into the office or stay at home for gaming.

What game(s) have your tried?
[doublepost=1532177296][/doublepost]Ah, also - what else, if anything have you got connected to the Blackmagic?

I'd be interested in seeing these results.

I have the Blackmagic with my 2018 13" MacBook Pro. It does the job, but sometimes I feel like it could be better...

Not as promising as I had thought it would be. Wish there was a way to tell about bandwidth being used as well as onboard an external voy used with external LCD.

Blackmagic isn't compatible with Bootcamp unfortunately.

Man why does Apple always gotta cut some kind of corner ?!!!

 

[Lennyvalentin]

is this true? playing games in a Window is less taxing on the system?

It depends. If you run a game in a window at a low resolution it means you're only updating a portion of the screen (maybe even only a small portion), so the work that has to be done will be less taxing than if you run a game in full screen at the full, native resolution of your LCD panel. Retina display panels are fairly high res; 13" MBP is 2560*1600 pixels IIRC. That's more than my gaming PC's monitor at 2560*1440, and I have pretty fat GPUs driving it; 2x AMD Radeon Vega 64, and some games still chug at max settings.

The problem is you’ll reach a point with the 1080 where you will hit the TB3 bottleneck.

You should still be able to get 60FPS in just about any game though (as long as the game itself isn't the bottleneck, like say, bad AppleOS port for example or *ahem* CPU thermal throttling...), or if you run under windows instead. Macbook displays don't support more than 60FPS anyway from what I know, so anything more than that is a complete waste.

Thunderbolt 3 doesn't seem to be a bottleneck until you go well above 60FPS from what I've seen in benchmarks. So it's not best, but it's good enough.

 

[Gudd]

Well I was playing games all last night on my MBP and honestly, it was fine. I've only got an RX580 which is technically old now so still only medium to high settings, but I wasn't prepared to invest any more than the cost of that. What is a pain is that for a 'whisper quiet' chassis this eGPU makes a pretty nasty noise so I'll have to replace the fan with a quieter one.

Note that I've gone somewhat OT here!! I'm on a 2017 MBP not 2018 am using an eGPU and an OWC one at that, not the Black Magic.

Everything I said earlier in the thread about WoW @ 30fps was internal Intel GPU only.

 

[ofarlig]

My Razer Core X was shipped today so should arrive tomorrow, if I have time to fiddle with it before my trip I will give some feedback on Thursday, otherwise I will have to do the tests this weekend.

 

[Gudd]

My Razer Core X was shipped today so should arrive tomorrow, if I have time to fiddle with it before my trip I will give some feedback on Thursday, otherwise I will have to do the tests this weekend.

I would really appreciate some feedback on the noise of the Razer Core X. It's very difficult to find much on it which usually indicates no problems. I've determined that the irritating noise coming from my OWC enclosure is not either of the fans, they are indeed "whisper quiet". It is instead a horrible noise coming from the PSU. Kind of like one long continual click

 

[sennomulo]

This guy figured out how to get decent gaming performance out of his 2018 MBP (2.6 GHz i7). Problem is, it takes some tweaking and you can drain the battery even when plugged in. :-/

Really hope Apple fix this with firmware. In my mind, it's just not acceptable that 2018 machines are much worse than their 2017 counterparts at gaming. For most workflows of most Mac users, stability of computing speed isn't important if it can do more computations in a shorter amount of time. I think this is why Apple chose to allow these chips to fluctuate so wildly. But there's no way you can game on it like that.

EDIT: I see Apple has finally responded to the controversy here. Let's hope that you can get stable performance at low/medium settings in games out of the box. That's the only thing that's making me hesitate. If there is a marked improvement, I'm going to pull the trigger.

 

[AdamA9]

I've just found out today that the Blackmagic is only compatible with an external monitor, and not the laptop monitor. Find that pretty astonishing. I cannot believe that is true. A few on YouTube are saying it.

I've just ordered a new HDMI lead as think I might be using a 1.4 so don't know if 2.0 will make any difference. Failing that I'll get a new monitor with USB-C.

I refuse to believe this eGPU is a lemon. And I still have a couple of weeks to return it if I want to.

 

[MacBH928]

It depends. If you run a game in a window at a low resolution it means you're only updating a portion of the screen (maybe even only a small portion), so the work that has to be done will be less taxing than if you run a game in full screen at the full, native resolution of your LCD panel. Retina display panels are fairly high res; 13" MBP is 2560*1600 pixels IIRC. That's more than my gaming PC's monitor at 2560*1440, and I have pretty fat GPUs driving it; 2x AMD Radeon Vega 64, and some games still chug at max settings.


You should still be able to get 60FPS in just about any game though (as long as the game itself isn't the bottleneck, like say, bad AppleOS port for example or *ahem* CPU thermal throttling...), or if you run under windows instead. Macbook displays don't support more than 60FPS anyway from what I know, so anything more than that is a complete waste.

Thunderbolt 3 doesn't seem to be a bottleneck until you go well above 60FPS from what I've seen in benchmarks. So it's not best, but it's good enough.

I played Shadow Warrior Redux on Macbook Pro, the stats says FPS 299. Not sure if real or not.

 

[Ma2k5]

I've just found out today that the Blackmagic is only compatible with an external monitor, and not the laptop monitor. Find that pretty astonishing. I cannot believe that is true. A few on YouTube are saying it.

I've just ordered a new HDMI lead as think I might be using a 1.4 so don't know if 2.0 will make any difference. Failing that I'll get a new monitor with USB-C.

I refuse to believe this eGPU is a lemon. And I still have a couple of weeks to return it if I want to.

Really?

This reviewer seems to be running benchmarks using it on the internal display.

 

[AdamA9]

Hmmm. Maybe the YouTuber was talking trash then.

Mine has always been in an external monitor. I'm still trying to find the sweet spot for connection and display settings.

 

[AdamA9]

I didn't want to start a new thread for this, but one very bloody anoying thing about the Blackmagic is its inibility to let me use my mouse when it's under load.

Playing a game and using a Bluetooth mouse connected via the eGPU it is chopping and jumping all over the screen. Makes me wonder about the other peripherals connected to the back of it, just how much of their performance is throttled by the eGPU when it's under significant load.

I'm just not getting the best out of this thing. I have my 27" 4K monitor plugged into it, and the eGPU into my mac, but even on basic games it isn't smooth and it stutters. I put it down to one of many things but I'm struggling to nail down exactly what.

• Bad monitor settings. Could I change these to improve performance?
• Bad cables. I don't think this is it as I'm using everything supplied and a OneX HDMI lead.
• Crap eGPU. Finally, it could just be that this thing is not great and I should return it for something a bit more substantial.

 

[Gudd]

Why is the bluetooth mouse connected via the eGPU? In fact HOW is it even connected via the eGPU?

Have to say these eGPUs are not 100% refined just yet. Ultimately I would have loved one of the 'all-in-one' dock-like eGPUs with the extra port options but I was afraid of exactly this. There is only so much bandwidth to go round and I know I would have wanted to connect SSDs and all sorts. Ultimately 4k is quite a lot of data too isn't it?

I've been playing with an apple Magic Mouse connected via bluetooth directly to the MBP and haven't noticed any lag. It's not the best of experiences due to the lack of physical buttons but I didn't notice lad as such.

 

[Lennyvalentin]

I played Shadow Warrior Redux on Macbook Pro, the stats says FPS 299. Not sure if real or not.

Oh, that's probably real. Shadow Warrior is a late 1990s game, it doesn't even use hardware acceleration, it ran using software rendering on the main CPU only, and those were hella slow at the time by our standards. You might actually be capping out the FPS counter on such a fast processor as what we got today... After all, this was a time when a 400MHz CPU was pretty friggin' wicked.

Why is the bluetooth mouse connected via the eGPU? In fact HOW is it even connected via the eGPU?

There are eGPUs that have bluetooth transcievers? Weird! I'd assume the guy's using a BT mouse with a USB wire attached to it and plugged into his eGPU chassis, but who the hell knows.

USB devices attached to an eGPU going full tilt might well suffer performance drops due to the thunderbolt interface possibly saturating during 3D rendering. I'd avoid hooking additional stuff up to the eGPU if possible...

I've been playing with an apple Magic Mouse connected via bluetooth directly to the MBP and haven't noticed any lag. It's not the best of experiences due to the lack of physical buttons but I didn't notice lad as such.

I played Portal 2 back when that game still was pretty new using a Magic Mouse; it worked surprisingly well if you just enable right-click for the mouse in the system settings; all you need for Portal is 2 mouse buttons. The game also ran passably on my old 2011 machine. It wasn't smooth, that's for friggin sure, but it ran well enough that I was able to play through much of it when I was off visiting my parents.

You'd think Apple would have put the lightning jack on the new Magic Mouse up at the top end though, so you could still use the mouse while it was charging. Jesus christ... How those people reason I'll never be able to figure out!

 

[AdamA9]

Why is the bluetooth mouse connected via the eGPU? In fact HOW is it even connected via the eGPU?

Have to say these eGPUs are not 100% refined just yet. Ultimately I would have loved one of the 'all-in-one' dock-like eGPUs with the extra port options but I was afraid of exactly this. There is only so much bandwidth to go round and I know I would have wanted to connect SSDs and all sorts. Ultimately 4k is quite a lot of data too isn't it?

I've been playing with an apple Magic Mouse connected via bluetooth directly to the MBP and haven't noticed any lag. It's not the best of experiences due to the lack of physical buttons but I didn't notice lad as such.

Because it's a Bluetooth mouse that needs one of those USB receivers plugged into the mac. Since I don't like dingles, and the mac only has USB-C, I plugged it into the back of the eGPU (there are 4 USB slots). It works fine, until the eGPU needs to do some grunt work.

If I cannot use the USB slots as USB slots, what are they for!?
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USB devices attached to an eGPU going full tilt might well suffer performance drops due to the thunderbolt interface possibly saturating during 3D rendering. I'd avoid hooking additional stuff up to the eGPU if possible...

The Blackmagic eGPU has 4 USB slots, a USB-C slot and an HDMI slot. I'm using it as it was designed to be used. As a hub (so I don't have to use those god awful dongles).

I have HDMI out to a 4k monitor, a 2TB SSD, a mouse USB receiver and a Scarlet 2i2 connected to it...

 

[iMacDragon]

Because it's a Bluetooth mouse that needs one of those USB receivers plugged into the mac. Since I don't like dingles, and the mac only has USB-C, I plugged it into the back of the eGPU (there are 4 USB slots). It works fine, until the eGPU needs to do some grunt work.

wireless, not bluetooth, then.

 

[Gudd]

I have HDMI out to a 4k monitor, a 2TB SSD, a mouse USB receiver and a Scarlet 2i2 connected to it...

All I can really suggest here is that you get hold of Apple support and ask their opinion on what you have connected and the stuttering / lag (maybe you have to go through Black Magic support?). I can totally understand your frustration but my personal opinion without any access to figures for the amount of data that is going to be pushing through one cable is that I would not be connecting that much. But I don't know the design of the BlackMagic internally. I know that's not what you are going to want to here.

What I do know is that there is a reason that so many eGPU's don't come with any ports on the back at all except the one that connects to the computer. Because they want to ensure that every ounce of bandwidth is available to the GPU. Even if there is an additional Thunderbolt 3 hub or whatever it is in there, it's still connecting back to the computer through one cable.

As an aside, it does sound like that is not a Bluetooth mouse. Is the receiver plugged into the rear of the eGPU with it pointing away from the mouse? If so, it is remotely possible that the reception between the two is not good. I have in the past had this for what seems like no apparent reason and just moving the mouse / receiver closer or within sight of each other can help. It's probably not that though, it's probably the data going through the hub when there's a lot going on.

 

[AdamA9]

wireless, not bluetooth, then.

Sorry, you're right. It's a wireless mouse. 2.4 GHz Radio Frequency.

All I can really suggest here is that you get hold of Apple support and ask their opinion on what you have connected and the stuttering / lag (maybe you have to go through Black Magic support?). I can totally understand your frustration but my personal opinion without any access to figures for the amount of data that is going to be pushing through one cable is that I would not be connecting that much. But I don't know the design of the BlackMagic internally. I know that's not what you are going to want to here.

What I do know is that there is a reason that so many eGPU's don't come with any ports on the back at all except the one that connects to the computer. Because they want to ensure that every ounce of bandwidth is available to the GPU. Even if there is an additional Thunderbolt 3 hub or whatever it is in there, it's still connecting back to the computer through one cable.

As an aside, it does sound like that is not a Bluetooth mouse. Is the receiver plugged into the rear of the eGPU with it pointing away from the mouse? If so, it is remotely possible that the reception between the two is not good. I have in the past had this for what seems like no apparent reason and just moving the mouse / receiver closer or within sight of each other can help. It's probably not that though, it's probably the data going through the hub when there's a lot going on.

I might have to contact them then. There's a big sell on this being a replacement for dongles as well as an eGPU, but if it cannot do both then it doesn't do as advertised.

The received isn't pointing at the mouse. It's about 1ft away from the mouse, but it's at the back of the eGPU. I'm hoping there will be a magic mouse 2 or whatever number we'll be up to so I can just get that and do away with mine.

 

[GerritB]

Just decided to try out Fornite on my i9 32gb 1tb on MacOs just to see how it runs and the results are not good. Without anything else running in the background I can't even get the game to run stable at any framerate (30/60/120) and/or at any resolution (all the way down to 1280) with low settings.


One thing that also bothers me is that it seems to load a very long time and ends up skipping the initial lobby area. Don't know if this is normal, but it just seems to hang at 95% loading, up until a minute or 2 later it shows you jumping.

If anybody can test this game and can check the results/post the settings I'd greatly appreciate it

 

[AdamA9]

Happy to have a go with my eGPU, but looking at YouTube a lot are suggesting the game cannot be run that well. This isn't so bad, but I'd want better, tbh.

 

[Lennyvalentin]

The Blackmagic eGPU has 4 USB slots, a USB-C slot and an HDMI slot. I'm using it as it was designed to be used. As a hub (so I don't have to use those god awful dongles).

I see where you're coming from; 100%; I also like using my things as they're designed!

However, for the purpose of troubleshooting, have you tried plugging in your mouse and/or any other stuff directly to your Mac to see if it makes a difference?

Best of luck. I hope you get everything sorted soon!

 

[sk8r1230]

More gaming info here. Check the power limit discussion near the end. May help everyone here.