MBP retina and graphical performance.

[gentlefury]

So it sounds like games still perform better under windows instead of mac, but apple allowed support for same resolutions so its of no real loss.

Any word though on games like BF3, Metro 2033, Stalker, Diablo, or Portal 2 resolution and FPS results with max graphics? Also, could those who play skyrim quote the FPS with those settings?

It does sound like max resolution though is a bit too much for most games, so is it still worth it at the lower settings though on that screen? Can you still get fluid performance with the max settings most of the time?

Can't thank you guys enough for your feedback. Sounds like a retina might actually be worth it in the end for work and even games. Any opinions on how long it might last though? Would it become outdated quickly?

Metro is just a poorly written game. I was able to get playable framerates with DX11 and everything on normal at 1680x1050. I remember there was a lot of cfg tweaking to get that game to run well tho. And since I am not interested in playing it again, I don't want to take the time.

Older games perform well at full res...but mostly it seems like 1920x1200 is good.

 

[Lord Appleseed]

Kingdoms of Amalur runs on 2880x1800 and max. settings fluently.

I tried out GR Future Soldier again, all on max, DirectX11 enabled, only SSAO off, runs just fluently on 1440x900...

 

[gentlefury]

Dragon Age Origins runs beautifully maxed out at 2880x1800....tho the text is freaking tiny!!!

Mass Effect 3 also rocks at 2880x1800...no UI hit.

downloading Crysis 2 update to give it a try.

Crysis 2, runs very smooth at Very High system setting at 1920x1200. Downloading the DX11 pack now.

Still runs great with dx11! This thing is a beast!!

 

[gentlefury]

As I assumed it would, Alice Madness Returns runs perfectly at 2880x1800 with everything maxed including physx.

 

[Lord Appleseed]

I'd love to hear about Witcher2. Cant try it out so soon because i have to reinstall win7; had win8 Release Preview installed but it is refusing many games.

 

[gentlefury]

I'd love to hearmabout Witcher2. Cant try it out so soon because i have to reinstall win7; had win8 Release Preview installed but it is refusing many games.

I will install it today and report back. I have to try la noire next.

 

[xpcker]

awesome, i play bf3 60fps+ and lol 100000fps xD

 

[gentlefury]

Also, keep in mind, for anyone installing windows 7 on the rMBP, if you are running at 2880x1800 with DPI scaling (I set mine to 200% and that seems to work perfectly) before you start a game go into its exe's properties and go to compatibility and check disable dpi scaling option. If you don't, some games will make the cursor not line up with the game elements.

 

[Doggonit]

I am installing Windows 7 on mine right now. Any game you would like me to install in particular. I buy most games when the come out...so I might have it. (no I don't have diablo...no online purchase ability = im not interested!)

*edit

OK, windows is installed. I had to crank the DPI to 300% but it looks REALLY GOOD! Super sharp!!!

Do you have World in Conflict perchance? If so, can you benchmark that at 1920x1080 (or 1920x1200 if that's all that's available)?

 

[gentlefury]

I dont have any strategy games...sorry.

Here is a list of all my steam games if there is anything anyone is curious about:

Dark Souls Pre-Order
FEAR 3
Amnesia: The Dark Descent
FarCry 2
Borderlands
Velvet Assassin
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Saints Row: The Third
Midnight Club 2
Torchlight II Gift: Torchlight
Red Orchestra 2 (ROW)
Alan Wake American Nightmare
Risen
The Walking Dead Pre-Order
Max Payne 3 Pre-order 1(ROW)
Dungeon Siege 3
Assassin's Creed Revelations
Two Worlds 2 - Pirates of the Flying Fortress
Two Worlds II
Alan Wake CE
Skyrim HD Texture Pack
Dragon Age: Origins - Ultimate Edition
L.A. Noire Complete Edition
Mafia II DLC - Jimmys Vendetta
Mafia II
Mafia II DLC Joe's Adventures
Serious Sam Gold Pack (US)
Star Wars: KOTOR
Fallout 3 - Game of the Year
Prototype
Aliens vs Predator
Divinity II - Dragon Knight Saga
Mount & Blade: Complete
Saints Row 2 (ROW)
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II
Homefront (ROW)
Red Faction: Armageddon
RAGE
Skyrim
Fallout New Vegas: Lonesome Road DLC
Fallout: New Vegas
OddBoxx
Oblivion Game of the Year
Half-Life 2
Jurassic Park
Dead Island (NA)
Max Payne Bundle
Duke Nukem Forever
Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Standard Edition
Alpha Protocol
GTA IV Complete Bundle
Just Cause 2
Monkey Island Complete Pack
Lucasarts Adventure Bundle
Bully: Scholarship Edition
Sniper: Ghost Warrior
Hydrophobia: Prophecy
Metro 2033 Retail
Alice Madness Returns
Left 4 Dead 2
Dead Rising 2
Red Faction Guerrilla
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Conviction
Splintercell: Chaos Theory
SplinterCell: Double Agent
Total War: Shogun 2
Assassin's Creed Brotherhood
The Witcher 2 (NA)
Battlefield Bad Company 2 Standard Edition
The Witcher: Enhanced Edition
Dead Space
Dead Space 2
Crysis Maximum Edition
Crysis 2 SE
Portal 2
Back to the Future: The Game

On Origin:
Batman - Arkham City
Battlefield 3
Mass Effect 3

 

[Doggonit]

List

Alright, can you check out how Assassin's Creed Revelations, Mafia II, and Homefront run at 1920x1080 (or whatever is closest, I plan on playing games on a 1080p monitor via HDMI)?

And perhaps if you can run BF3 at that/similar res too and play around with the options to see what sort of details produce what frame rates?

Apologies if I'm asking for a little too much.

 

[gentlefury]

Alright, can you check out how Assassin's Creed Revelations, Mafia II, and Homefront run at 1920x1080 (or whatever is closest, I plan on playing games on a 1080p monitor via HDMI)?

And perhaps if you can run BF3 at that/similar res too and play around with the options to see what sort of details produce what frame rates?

Apologies if I'm asking for a little too much.

OK, I will get those going in a bit.

LA Noire actually runs at 2880x1800...but its too choppy to play...1920x1200 set to balanced runs and looks great!

 

[gentlefury]

I loaded up witcher 2 at 2880x1800 ultra settings just to see how hard it would hit it...and it brought the machine to its knees! It was hard to exit out of it! Now on to more realistic settings.

 

[gentlefury]

ok, took some tweaking of settings to find the balance of quality and framerate and this is what I came up with. It plays very smooth and looks beautiful.

 

[gentlefury]

ok, so this is weird. I was getting a strange stutter in COD4 at 2880x1800. If I stopped moving it was fine and smooth, but if I started walking it would do this weird stuttery thing.

I went into the settings and there was a setting for dual graphics card. I figured why not experiment. Turned it on, and now it runs flawlessly! 60FPS at 2880x1800 with everything cranked to max (I turned off AA even tho it was running fine with it on..because that res is so high its not needed and it gives it a few more fps.)

Anyone have any idea why enabling dual GPU would make it run smooth? I know the HD4000 is disabled in windows....whats the deal?

 

[pacman7331]

2.7/16/512

Performs very well in bootcamp. I've not tried much in OS X. I installed the latest beta drivers from NVIDIA's site (requiring .inf hack to install) and the performance is frankly in my opinion amazing, but i'm sure could be better, and some would find "unplayable".

D3 runs retina resolution with all high enabled and I notice really no lag whatsoever. The retina graphics are a feast for the eyes unlike anything i've seen rendered before aside from perhaps gci movies. But the latest drivers are needed for this, and are not official yet.

Geekbench score for this sucker is 12306 and that is in 32 bit mode.

Ive waited a long time for Apple to build a computer with a decent graphics card for gaming. FINNALY they did it. And it's hopefully a new day for Apple, and the future only brighter. Frankly this machine is a masterpiece.

 

[gentlefury]

ok, so after some tweaking and using the latest beta drivers, I got skyrim running at 2880x1800 with the high res texture packs at about 30fps!!! It looks fantastic!!

Click images to see full res.
----------

Assassins Creed Revalations is next on deck.

 

[gentlefury]

Assasins Creed: Revalations

2880x1800 runs very smoothly...not very many graphics concessions made! Looks gorgeous!

Mafia II is coming up next! Any other requests?

 

[Grumbles106]

Hey everyone, I created an account specifically to ask this question. Can you expand further upon how you guys are installing the Nvidia beta drivers? Apparently it has something to do with an .inf hack because I've tried installing the beta drivers downloaded directly from the Nvidia drivers page but they will not install.

How much of an improvement will I see with the beta drivers? Will it fix the stuttering that happens in GTA:IV?

Thanks for your time!

 

[Lord Appleseed]

ok, so after some tweaking and using the latest beta drivers, I got skyrim running at 2880x1800 with the high res texture packs at about 30fps!!! It looks fantastic!!

Could you specify what you tweaked plox? I'd LOVE to play Skyrim at that resolution. What are your Skyrim settings btw.?
Edit: Ugh, the lack of AF in your screens hurts my eyes....

Hey everyone, I created an account specifically to ask this question. Can you expand further upon how you guys are installing the Nvidia beta drivers? Apparently it has something to do with an .inf hack because I've tried installing the beta drivers downloaded directly from the Nvidia drivers page but they will not install.

How much of an improvement will I see with the beta drivers? Will it fix the stuttering that happens in GTA:IV?

Thanks for your time!

Download the driver and the modded .inf from here: http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/topic/29609-v30479-windows-8-64bit-nvidia-oem-mobile/

Extract the driver, replace the nvwi.inf inside with the modded one and run setup.exe

The driver will improve graphics performance but not guarantee improvement for any game.

 

[gentlefury]

Could you specify what you tweaked plox? I'd LOVE to play Skyrim at that resolution. What are your Skyrim settings btw.?
Edit: Ugh, the lack of AF in your screens hurts my eyes....


Download the driver and the modded .inf from here: http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/topic/29609-v30479-windows-8-64bit-nvidia-oem-mobile/

Extract the driver, replace the nvwi.inf inside with the modded one and run setup.exe

The driver will improve graphics performance but not guarantee improvement for any game.

I forgot I killed AF to test performance....but with 8x it still performs the same. I have to try 16x next.



that's my settings,

I am also using:
http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/2581

and:

Memory limit increase - fix lagging (thz to TurkeyStyle)

Quote:
Go to C:\Users\[USERNAME]\Documents\My Games\Skyrim
Open skyrim.ini, and check for [Papyrus] section. If it's not present, just create one at the end of the file.
Add iMinMemoryPageSize=100000 and iMaxMemoryPageSize=5000000
Add iMaxAllocatedMemoryBytes=1800000000
WARNING! Do not increase iMaxAllocatedMemoryBytes value, because memory fragmentation may cause the game to crash or freeze.
More info and direct link to source:http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=170

 

[j-a-x]

Kerbal Space Program is amazingly smooth on mine. Just got it last night so did not try many games yet!

 

[Lord Appleseed]

Okay I've tried Skyrim with that tweaks, but 2880x1800 is still too choppy for my taste. I will stay with 1920x1200 16xAF, 2xAA, Ultra (except shadows and distance detail to high).
Also I have my FPS limited to 30, takes away that shuttering.


BTW, if you guys want better AF in Skyrim then force 16xAF though the NVIDIA CP, its much better/sharper than Skyrims AF.

 

[gentlefury]

Okay I've tried Skyrim with that tweaks, but 2880x1800 is still too choppy for my taste. I will stay with 1920x1200 16xAF, 2xAA, Ultra (except shadows and distance detail to high).
Also I have my FPS limited to 30, takes away that shuttering.


BTW, if you guys want better AF in Skyrim then force 16xAF though the NVIDIA CP, its much better/sharper than Skyrims AF.

A bit more tweaking and I have it running very smooth, 2880x1800 HR textures, ultra settings!

also using Nvidia Inspector tweaks



take a look!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uc4hSVMHzrI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrnAOqcRgR4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1oo_m-kLW4

Sorry, for quality, but this is the only way to show how it runs without hindering performance.

 

[Lord Appleseed]

A bit more tweaking and I have it running very smooth, 2880x1800 HR textures, ultra settings!

YOu have the beta drivers installed (304.79)? Funny how on my Skyrim Settings it shows my GPU, but in yours it shows only weird letters under Graphics Adapter.