MacBook Pro 2018 gaming?

[M.Rizk]

What's the AMD equivalent? I really don't want to mess about with drivers etc. I only game in macOS and it's nothing serious, games like Football Manager and Cities Skylines etc. The Blackmagic cannot even handle these...

I guess Vega 64

 

[AdamA9]

I guess Vega 64

Thank you. I've just had a read of this:

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT208544

Based on Vega 64 it says the below. Now I have no clue about this stuff. I've always just played on super low graphics and been done with it. But now we've been given a sniff of eGPU support I'd love to add more grunt to my system. What is the difference between the cards recommended below? Are they all different or much of a muchness?

Sorry for all the n00b questions.

AMD Radeon RX Vega 64, Vega Frontier Edition Air, and Radeon Pro WX 9100
These graphics cards are based on the AMD Vega 64 architecture. Recommended graphics cards include the Sapphire Vega 64, XFX Vega 64, AMD Frontier Edition air-cooled, and AMD Radeon Pro WX 9100.

Recommended Thunderbolt 3 chassis for these graphics cards:

• Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box 650W3

 

[buckingham2015]

Thank you. I've just had a read of this:

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT208544

Based on Vega 64 it says the below. Now I have no clue about this stuff. I've always just played on super low graphics and been done with it. But now we've been given a sniff of eGPU support I'd love to add more grunt to my system. What is the difference between the cards recommended below? Are they all different or much of a muchness?

Sorry for all the n00b questions.

AMD Radeon RX Vega 64, Vega Frontier Edition Air, and Radeon Pro WX 9100
These graphics cards are based on the AMD Vega 64 architecture. Recommended graphics cards include the Sapphire Vega 64, XFX Vega 64, AMD Frontier Edition air-cooled, and AMD Radeon Pro WX 9100.

Recommended Thunderbolt 3 chassis for these graphics cards:

• Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box 650W3

It looks like most people are saying the Razer Core X is the eGPU chassis to get.

https://www.razer.com/gaming-laptops/razer-core-x

I don't think there's too big a difference between the various Vega 64's, so this one should be solid:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0782PSHJ3/ref=psdc_284822_rv_t1_B07BQK8YV4

 

[AdamA9]

It looks like most people are saying the Razer Core X is the eGPU chassis to get.

https://www.razer.com/gaming-laptops/razer-core-x

I don't think there's too big a difference between the various Vega 64's, so this one should be solid:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0782PSHJ3/ref=psdc_284822_rv_t1_B07BQK8YV4

Thank youl.

Given that the eGPU alone is more than the Blackmagic, will I be getting more bang here? Am I likely to see much difference, or should I just accept the mac will just be useless for the games I want to play?

 

[buckingham2015]

Thank youl.

Given that the eGPU alone is more than the Blackmagic, will I be getting more bang here? Am I likely to see much difference, or should I just accept the mac will just be useless for the games I want to play?

If you scroll to the bottom of this article, https://www.pcgamesn.com/amd-rx-vega-64-review-benchmarks , there's a table with benchmarks that will show Vega 64 vs RX 580 performance, so you can decide if it's worth it to you. It looks to give about 50% higher FPS in most games, so instead of 60 FPS, you'll get 90 FPS, for example.

You will likely see a significant difference in Windows gaming, but whether or not it's worth investing $5k total into a laptop that will see less gaming performance than a $2k gaming desktop is up to you.

 

[AdamA9]

If you scroll to the bottom of this article, https://www.pcgamesn.com/amd-rx-vega-64-review-benchmarks , there's a table with benchmarks that will show Vega 64 vs RX 580 performance, so you can decide if it's worth it to you. It looks to give about 50% higher FPS in most games, so instead of 60 FPS, you'll get 90 FPS, for example.

You will likely see a significant difference in Windows gaming, but whether or not it's worth investing $5k total into a laptop that will see less gaming performance than a $2k gaming desktop is up to you.

Thank you. All really useful. I've invested £3,000 into a laptop I need for work. I'm spending another £600-800 so I can game on it so I don't need to spend £2,000 on a gaming PC

 

[GerritB]

Just wanted to add that I'm also getting the crackling sound issue on the built in speakers. Headphones do seem to work for extended periods of time without the crackling ever happening.

Otherwise, when using built in speakers, what works for me, other than restarting the game, is running the "Troubleshoot sound" option when you right click the sound icon in the task bar. At one point it seems to reset the sound drivers, and it fixes the issue temporarily. Unfortunately it looks like you basically have to do this every 5-10 minutes. I'm guessing it's a driver issue. I've tried deleting the drivers, updating them, haven't been able to fix it.

I saw someone mention drivers from bootcampdrivers.com, has anyone tried those to see if those work? I tried to but couldn't select safemode as the keyboard didn't seem to be working when I needed to select it.

Brings me to another issue, my keyboard doesn't work when I restart from Bootcamp into MacOs. If I think about it, there are quite a lot of issues I'm experiencing with this thing..

Thank you. All really useful. I've invested £3,000 into a laptop I need for work. I'm spending another £600-800 so I can game on it so I don't need to spend £2,000 on a gaming PC

Yes I'm in the same situation. I had to buy the Macbook anyway (maybe not the i9, but I needed the 32gb). I also want to start gaming on PC again and am planning to build a gaming system sometime late next year, maybe even 2020. Till then I want to find the cheapest way to game with nice settings and good performance (140fps at 1080p for a game like Fortnite would be perfect for me). I may even use the GPU that I'll buy now for my gaming system later or sell it by then to earn back some money.

The eGPU makes sense if you have a laptop with a good enough CPU and consider that a sunk cost.

 

[AdamA9]

I'm wondering now if I should ditch the 4k monitor. Perhaps that might help?

 

[sennomulo]

I think this shows that optimization makes a huge difference (and Fortnite is especially poorly optimized).

 

[buckingham2015]

Okay, no idea what is going on. Yesterday, I messed around with some settings in Bootcamp, started up Fortnite, tweaked the settings until I was getting a pretty solid 60FPS.

Today, I go into Bootcamp, launch Fortnite with the EXACT same settings... and I'm getting 18 FPS. WTF?

 

[GerritB]

Okay, no idea what is going on. Yesterday, I messed around with some settings in Bootcamp, started up Fortnite, tweaked the settings until I was getting a pretty solid 60FPS.

Today, I go into Bootcamp, launch Fortnite with the EXACT same settings... and I'm getting 18 FPS. WTF?

I'm having exactly the same experience. I can set everything the same in Intel XTU, let the machine rest for 5 minutes and then start the game and have completely different framerates each time. Even during a single round the game goes down to 10 to 15 fps for a minute and then suddenly goes back to 60 fps for 5 minutes.

It's almost certainly due to throttling of the GPU, but I set my CPU to be as low as 15 Watts with multipliers in the 20's, so the Macbook should be able to cool it in that situation right? The GPU also starts throttling even though its temperature is 65-70 degrees, not sure what are high temps for a GPU, but 70 degrees doesn't seem so high?

Edit:

So right now my settings:

• Bootcamp, Windows 10 Pro, Powermode: Best performance
  
• Windows power management for cpu : 99%
• Intel Xtu: 15 Watts, disabled Turbo Power max
• Multipliers at 24x (changing them lower or up doesn't seem to make a difference on whether or not the GPU is throttling.)
• Device is fully charged and plugged in.

Outcome

• The CPU is at 68 Celsius, pulling in around 12-14 Watts. No thermal throttling
• After 2 minutes the GPU starts throttling down to 303Mhz and then further down to 213.
• GPU memory used around 2400mb
  
• GPU 63 degrees, GPU only power draw 10 to 23 Watts.

This is with the fans fully on using the application on MacOs and then restarting. But doesn't seem to make a difference.

 

[ken840]

Having 60 FPS is the definition of casual gaming, gaming on Mac OS to begin with is quite casual due to the performance drop you get. I need to get as close to 165 FPS so my 165 Hz screen gets the frames it should, G-Sync helps a bit here of course but it cannot do everything.

I managed to get the fans running full speed and with Intel XTU I am at max all core boost all the time (3.6 Ghz). Still it doesn't work perfectly in all games. Temps are below 90 degrees at all times for the CPU so if it was made for higher boost you should get some more performance (the i7 for example).

Below are what I tried so far with my i5 13" and Razer Core X with a GTX 1080 and compare it to my 7700k at 5 Ghz with the same GTX 1080 which is not even the highest end gaming rig to begin with.

PUBG
PUBG gets more stable FPS but it's still in the 70-100 region, maxes out at 110 sometimes. That is okay even though it is more in the casual realm of gaming, my other rig gets around 100-130 fps depending on situation. This at 2560x1440 resolution and everything at low except for textures and view distance which is at ultra, also FOV is 103.

CS:GO
CS:GO is also just okay, 200-300 FPS most of the time depending on map, some are better though. Very rarely will it go below 200. This is as I said okay but not really in the realm of serious gaming performance as my other rig never goes below 350 and is at 450+ 99% of the time. This at 2560x1440 resolution and most settings on low and 2x MSAA and 4x AF.

I will continue to try some games out in an hour or so, I want to test Overwatch, not that I play it that often but it is interesting to see.

You have an Asus PG279Q monitor like me I guess or something similar happy to see someone who knows what he's talking about, can you send some stats about Overwatch please?
I'm thinking about buying a new 2018 MacBook Pro 15 together with a Razer Core X too, I already have a MSI Gaming X 1080 Ti waiting for them But I don't know if it's better a 2.2 or 2.6 i7

 

[M.Rizk]

I'm having exactly the same experience. I can set everything the same in Intel XTU, let the machine rest for 5 minutes and then start the game and have completely different framerates each time. Even during a single round the game goes down to 10 to 15 fps for a minute and then suddenly goes back to 60 fps for 5 minutes.

It's almost certainly due to throttling of the GPU, but I set my CPU to be as low as 15 Watts with multipliers in the 20's, so the Macbook should be able to cool it in that situation right? The GPU also starts throttling even though its temperature is 65-70 degrees, not sure what are high temps for a GPU, but 70 degrees doesn't seem so high?

Edit:

So right now my settings:

• Bootcamp, Windows 10 Pro, Powermode: Best performance
  
• Windows power management for cpu : 99%
• Intel Xtu: 15 Watts, disabled Turbo Power max
• Multipliers at 24x (changing them lower or up doesn't seem to make a difference on whether or not the GPU is throttling.)
• Device is fully charged and plugged in.

Outcome

• The CPU is at 68 Celsius, pulling in around 12-14 Watts. No thermal throttling
• After 2 minutes the GPU starts throttling down to 303Mhz and then further down to 213.
• GPU memory used around 2400mb
  
• GPU 63 degrees, GPU only power draw 10 to 23 Watts.

This is with the fans fully on using the application on MacOs and then restarting. But doesn't seem to make a difference.

Have you tried using drivers from bootcampdrivers.com? They seem to perform better than Apple’s.

 

[GerritB]

Have you tried using drivers from bootcampdrivers.com? They seem to perform better than Apple’s.

Yes that was posted before I tried those drivers and they actually fixed the performance, however there are problems with those drivers. You lose the temperature sensor data so you don't have an idea about the GPU temperature. They also give you a notice when starting up Fortnite that there are known issues with that version of the drivers and the game so I hope he gets to update them to an even more recent version.

 

[ofarlig]

You have an Asus PG279Q monitor like me I guess or something similar happy to see someone who knows what he's talking about, can you send some stats about Overwatch please?
I'm thinking about buying a new 2018 MacBook Pro 15 together with a Razer Core X too, I already have a MSI Gaming X 1080 Ti waiting for them But I don't know if it's better a 2.2 or 2.6 i7

I run an AOC Agon AG241QG since CSGO is my main game I don't want more than 24" and TN does make a slight difference there as well.

I have made a thread on the forums where I test a lot of different games and I am continuing to update it as I find more time, I did do some retesting after setting Intel XTU a bit differently and changing the power plans a bit so PUBG and CS:GO might have slightly different results. Gonna try to test Assasins Creed Origin and For Honor tomorrow.

Link to the thread: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/2018-mbp-13-i5-gaming-with-egpu.2129579/

 

[G725]

so I hope he gets to update them to an even more recent version.

There should be an update after August 7th.

 

[AdamA9]

Guys, why are there different brands of the Radeon RX Vega 64 about? I want to change the Blackmagic for one, but don't know why there are different brands and prices.

 

[Vazza]

Guys, why are there different brands of the Radeon RX Vega 64 about? I want to change the Blackmagic for one, but don't know why there are different brands and prices.

Top one has a lower clock speed so is cheaper. The bottom one has a slightly lower clock speed than the middle one but I think it’s more expensive because it’s a well known brand (and perhaps because of the “free bundle”).

 

[AdamA9]

They all come with FC5 which I'm not arsed about, but the bottom Asus also comes with

• FREE Asus ROG Strix Fusion 300 7.1 USB Gaming Headset

So really I should just go for the cheaper ones then? Will I notice any difference in those clock speeds?

 

[Lennyvalentin]

So really I should just go for the cheaper ones then? Will I notice any difference in those clock speeds?

Most likely no; Vega likes to heat throttle after a short warm-up phase, so you basically never hit top clocks unless you put a full-on raging waterblock with a good pump and radiator in the loop on the thing.

Depending on the quality of the cooler of the model of card you buy (and quality of the ASIC of your card), you might see some minor differences in clocks/performance, but the differences is probably so small that you can't detect it any other way than through benchmark numbers. In gameplay conditions they should feel basically exactly the same.

Personally I feel my Vega boards perform the best when you put them in power saver performance profile. While you lose a few percent performance, you also drop A LOT of heat dissipation as well. 50W or more less heat isn't uncommon versus balanced, and especially turbo profiles.

 

[Ma2k5]

Top one has a lower clock speed so is cheaper. The bottom one has a slightly lower clock speed than the middle one but I think it’s more expensive because it’s a well known brand (and perhaps because of the “free bundle”).

The Asus also has an extra year warranty - and potentially better cooling going by brand (no citation).

 

[travod]

Has anyone tried Civ VI on new 13 inch i5? I was thinking of getting it due to better CPU...

 

[M.Rizk]

Found this on YouTube (WoW)

 

[AdamA9]

Most likely no; Vega likes to heat throttle after a short warm-up phase, so you basically never hit top clocks unless you put a full-on raging waterblock with a good pump and radiator in the loop on the thing.

Depending on the quality of the cooler of the model of card you buy (and quality of the ASIC of your card), you might see some minor differences in clocks/performance, but the differences is probably so small that you can't detect it any other way than through benchmark numbers. In gameplay conditions they should feel basically exactly the same.

Personally I feel my Vega boards perform the best when you put them in power saver performance profile. While you lose a few percent performance, you also drop A LOT of heat dissipation as well. 50W or more less heat isn't uncommon versus balanced, and especially turbo profiles.

Thank you. I'm going to put it in the Razor Core X enclosure. It'll sit on my desk alongside the 13-inch MacBook Pro. The Blackmagic is there currently and silent as ever.

I've just processed a return on it, it's going back on Thursday so I will order the Razor Core X and Radeon RX Vega 64 as a replacement.

 

[Vazza]

Has anyone tried Civ VI on new 13 inch i5? I was thinking of getting it due to better CPU...

Haven’t tried yet but apparently runs ok on the lower to medium settings.