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Playing Fornite on 2018 MBP 15" gets warm

D

DaveMike11

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 26, 2014
142
10
Hello,

I had a question on my new 2018 MBP 15" (2.6/16GB/560x/512SSD) which i purchased few days back. I'm new to Mac and this was my first apple macbook purchase.

I'm not into gaming. My son plays his games using my other windows laptop & Xbox. He was trying to play Fortnite game in my new macbook to see the performance with the MBP. In 10 mins of playing the macbook gets very warm and i can hear the disk spinning noise. He says he is seeing about 10-20 FPS.

Is this normal and expected behavior ? I expected a $2800 machine to be able to handle the fortnite game well. I see Apple advertise the Fortnite game in their website as well.

Is there any settings i have to do to make the Mac run very smoothly when playing the Fortnight? Pls share your experiences.

Thanks in advance for your time.
 
Yes it’s normal. It’s using the gpu and need to cool. Most games will make it warm or anything graphic intensive really( or cpu as well)
 
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DaveMike11 said:
Hello,

I had a question on my new 2018 MBP 15" (2.6/16GB/560x/512SSD) which i purchased few days back. I'm new to Mac and this was my first apple macbook purchase.

I'm not into gaming. My son plays his games using my other windows laptop & Xbox. He was trying to play Fortnite game in my new macbook to see the performance with the MBP. In 10 mins of playing the macbook gets very warm and i can hear the disk spinning noise. He says he is seeing about 10-20 FPS.

Is this normal and expected behavior ? I expected a $2800 machine to be able to handle the fortnite game well. I see Apple advertise the Fortnite game in their website as well.

Is there any settings i have to do to make the Mac run very smoothly when playing the Fortnight? Pls share your experiences.

Thanks in advance for your time.
Click to expand...
Hello! As a new Mac owner you should know that Apple's software updates are actually quite important. This model in particular has an update available that will likely fix this issue. Its not normal, there is an update that should fix it. Go to the Apple menu and choose App Store, then choose Updates and run whatever is there. Let us know!
[doublepost=1533911766][/doublepost]
Closingracer said:
Yes it’s normal. It’s using the gpu and need to cool. Most games will make it warm or anything graphic intensive really( or cpu as well)
Click to expand...
Not normal.

https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1973?locale=en_US
 
Games generally require your computer to redraw the gaming world as quickly as it can, which is of course a lot of work, so they will cause the machine to run hot. As would any demanding software. What you hear is not disk spinning nose, but most likely the internal cooling fan. Operating your laptop under these conditions is perfectly safe and will have no practical detrimental effect.

That said, 10-20 fps seems a bit low. Your sun is probably playing the game using settings which are too demanding for the machine (but it will not make it run hotter, the quality gameplay will simply suffer).

RumorConsumer's post above is slightly misleading. Yes, you should make sure that you have installed all updates since they fix important bugs. And yes, its perfectly normal for this machine to run hot and loud when running demanding software for prolonged periods of time.
 
leman said:
Games generally require your computer to redraw the gaming world as quickly as it can, which is of course a lot of work, so they will cause the machine to run hot. As would any demanding software. What you hear is not disk spinning nose, but most likely the internal cooling fan. Operating your laptop under these conditions is perfectly safe and will have no practical detrimental effect.

That said, 10-20 fps seems a bit low. Your sun is probably playing the game using settings which are too demanding for the machine (but it will not make it run hotter, the quality gameplay will simply suffer).

RumorConsumer's post above is slightly misleading. Yes, you should make sure that you have installed all updates since they fix important bugs. And yes, its perfectly normal for this machine to run hot and loud when running demanding software for prolonged periods of time.
Click to expand...
Agree. Sorry that was not clear. Thanks for the clarification. Heat normal. Framerate is not. Low framerate is a known issue and will be resolved with the update. Warmth isn't curable.
 
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RumorConsumer said:
Hello! As a new Mac owner you should know that Apple's software updates are actually quite important. This model in particular has an update available that will likely fix this issue. Its not normal, there is an update that should fix it. Go to the Apple menu and choose App Store, then choose Updates and run whatever is there. Let us know!
[doublepost=1533911766][/doublepost]
Not normal.

https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1973?locale=en_US
Click to expand...

It’s science. The laptop will get warm under load .... plus it’s metal so it will hold heat more then plastic
 
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The game unfortunately performs terrible under MacOS, which really is a shame since it is used as an example on Apple's website and considering it's not really a CPU/GPU intensive game at medium settings. If you did get the update RumorConsumer described and still have performance issues, then that's normal. The game is just not optimized for MacOs.

On my i9 under MacOs I wasn't able to load the game before I was already dropped from the bus at the last point on the map on the first round. On the second round it used to load quicker, but after last weeks update it just crashed making the game unplayable. The drops to 10-20 fps are also normal under MacOs.

Do want to play the game at good performance?
If you do want to play the game you need to get Bootcamp and install it on Windows. To get good performance however, you will need to do some tweaking which make you end up with a situation that is less then ideal, here's a short description that will at least give you the performance, so bare with me:

After you've installed Bootcamp with Windows 10 and the game, start by installing the Intel XTU application to limit the heat coming from your CPU. Here you can adjust 'multipliers' and the maximum Watt that is allowed for the Turbo boost. Set all the multipliers to ±24x and wattage to 25 as well. You will now have solved the CPU throttling problem and that will lead to really good performance in game for about 3 to 5 minutes. However, after that your GPU will start to throttle for apparently no reason as temperatures are fine. This is most likely a driver issue, which you can 'solve' by downloading GPU drivers from Bootcampdrivers.com. Go through the process as they're described on the website to install the new drivers.

The above will solve the performance issues and you'll be able to play a full round at 1800x1100 with medium settings at 55-60 fps. So that's really good! The problem is however your laptop will become really, really hot. Especially the part above the keyboard which almost becomes too hot to touch. My expected reason for this is that the current Bootcampdrivers.com drivers don't fully support the Macbook 2018 models with the T2 chips, which makes it so that the GPU doesn't get recognized as 555X/560X, the OS looses data from the fans and cooling doesn't work optimally. This may cause the fan curve to be less than ideal and cause the excessive heat on the GPU.

So it isn't exactly plug and play, and certainly is not without issues but you can actually play Fortnite at pretty good settings (which it should considering the specs). I'm just not sure if the heat it generates with the above solution is healthy for the system, you might want to wait for new Bootcampdrivers.com update or a fix from Apple (which hopefully is coming).
 
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leman said:
My suspicion somehow is that he tries to run the game at full retina resolution with highest settings :)
Click to expand...
You can play the game at 720x500 and still get terrible performance currently. The game really is in a bad state on MacOs, I would say unplayable. Epic's forum is full with complaints about the framerate drops and crashes.
 
mdnz said:
Fortnite runs really bad on macOS. Run it in Windows via Bootcamp if you want higher fps.
Click to expand...

Honestly it’s not worth running bootcamp just for Fortnite. If you’re a gamer just buy a windows laptop. For the price of a 15 inch MacBook you can get a laptop with a Nividia 1070 inside.
 
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Tinmania said:
Fortnite on a macbook pro? Only if you like to die young.



Mike
Click to expand...

Which is honestly why I sold my MacBook Pro. I wanted to play games as well so I just got myself a Dell G7 which has the Intel i7-8750H which is a better cpu then my 2017 MacBook Pro and Nividia 1060 max Q. It’s a shame because I loved my MacBook.


Do Note I just didn’t care to do boot camp and got some money out of it.
 
Closingracer said:
Which is honestly why I sold my MacBook Pro. I wanted to play games as well so I just got myself a Dell G7 which has the Intel i7-8750H which is a better cpu then my 2017 MacBook Pro and Nividia 1060 max Q. It’s a shame because I loved my MacBook.


Do Note I just didn’t care to do boot camp and got some money out of it.
Click to expand...

FFS

Mac and Pro to most of us means we are using Mac apps for Pro work. If you aren't doing that then by all means buy anything else. Build a PC, buy a console, buy a Windows laptop with gaming GPU. Just don't rant and moan like your whole world fell over while the rest of us are busy working.
 
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CreeptoLoser said:
FFS

Mac and Pro to most of us means we are using Mac apps for Pro work. If you aren't doing that then by all means buy anything else. Build a PC, buy a console, buy a Windows laptop with gaming GPU. Just don't rant and moan like your whole world fell over while the rest of us are busy working.
Click to expand...
... he said he did just that.

Edit:
It's really weird how upset some people get when they see others expecting to be able to do some casual gaming on their MacBooks, which, judging by their specs, they should be perfectly suitable for.
Nobody comes in here asking 'why is Crisis not running at 144fps at 4K on my 2018 MBP. Everybody that expects these machines to be able to run casual games like Fortnite which was used in advertisement, and do so at low/medium settings at 30-60fps at around 1400-1600x1000 is perfectly right to do so.

Whether that means that person himself is gaming multiple nights, only twice a month or only wants to let their kid use it. It doesn't mean the machine won't get used primarily for work, but it should be able to run these games.
 
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GerritB said:
... he said he did just that.

Edit:
It's really weird how upset some people get when they see others expecting to be able to do some casual gaming on their MacBooks, which, judging by their specs, they should be perfectly suitable for.
Nobody comes in here asking 'why is Crisis not running at 144fps at 4K on my 2018 MBP. Everybody that expect these machines to be able to run casual games like Fortnite at low/medium settings at 30-60fps at around 1400-1600x1000 is perfectly right to do so.
Click to expand...

Fortnight being a very busy MMO needs to be played on a proper gaming device with a mouse. Otherwise you’re just asking for some 10 year old kid with a gaming rig to shoot you in the face all day. Waste of a 3000 dollars.

But don’t ask me. I’m busy making a living with my laptop so all these complaints are pissing in the wind stories.
 
CreeptoLoser said:
FFS

Mac and Pro to most of us means we are using Mac apps for Pro work. If you aren't doing that then by all means buy anything else. Build a PC, buy a console, buy a Windows laptop with gaming GPU. Just don't rant and moan like your whole world fell over while the rest of us are busy working.
Click to expand...

I do as well. But between a tad bit of gaming and better hardware with a windows Laptop it’s a win win for me


2017 MacBook Pro with
2.9ghz Intel i7 quad core
16GB of LPDDR3 RAM ( maxed at 16)
AMD pro 560


Or

Dell G7
2.2GHZ six core cpu Intel i7
8GB of DDR4 RAM ( will upgrade to 32 at some point
Nividia 1060


All in all I get a better computer with windows with the added benefit of gaming as well
 
CreeptoLoser said:
But don’t ask me. I’m busy making a living with my laptop so all these complaints are pissing in the wind stories.
Click to expand...
Does this make you feel better by posting it? Believe me there are people that make a lot more money and still spend some hours per week gaming. Since you are such a busy guy, I guess it shouldn't be hard to ignore these topics. I admire that you even have time to post here at all.

Like I said, it's for casual gaming, he even says it's for his son. The game runs on phones and consoles way less powerful, is used in Apple's marketing and runs on laptops with lower specs. Again no reason he should expect it to be this bad.

Edit:
BTW these are the settings Apple said they used testing Fortnite: For the 15" the resolution was 2560 x 1440, and settings on 'Epic'. To be perfectly clear, there is no way you get a playable game at those settings currently in MacOs. Whether that's to blame on Apple or Epic I don't know, but it's just not (my guess is Epic which doesn't see MacOs as an important enough market to optimize for).

In Bootcamp it is playable up to 1800x1100 at medium settings at 55-60fps like I stated above after all those tweaks. So if the extreme heat gets solved (which I expect comes from the GPU as you can still see the CPU temps and those don't exceed 70), you could play the game just fine.

If you'd accept 30fps, 2560x1440 might be possible using Bootcamp and the tweaks but I haven't tested that.
 
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GerritB said:
... he said he did just that.

Edit:
It's really weird how upset some people get when they see others expecting to be able to do some casual gaming on their MacBooks, which, judging by their specs, they should be perfectly suitable for.
Nobody comes in here asking 'why is Crisis not running at 144fps at 4K on my 2018 MBP. Everybody that expects these machines to be able to run casual games like Fortnite which was used in advertisement, and do so at low/medium settings at 30-60fps at around 1400-1600x1000 is perfectly right to do so.

Whether that means that person himself is gaming multiple nights, only twice a month or only wants to let their kid use it. It doesn't mean the machine won't get used primarily for work, but it should be able to run these games.
Click to expand...

Amen. I don’t game a lot but when I do I expect these specs to work well. This is why I at first had 2 laptops... a gaming one and the MacBook. I decided to sell my windows laptop and just keep the MacBook Pro. Three months later I decided to just use windows. The apps I need is on both so it’s a non issue of which OS. I just preferred macOS because it’s easy and plays great with my iPhone.
 
CreeptoLoser said:
Fortnight being a very busy MMO needs to be played on a proper gaming device with a mouse. Otherwise you’re just asking for some 10 year old kid with a gaming rig to shoot you in the face all day. Waste of a 3000 dollars.

But don’t ask me. I’m busy making a living with my laptop so all these complaints are pissing in the wind stories.
Click to expand...

Because you can’t use a mouse with a MacBook? I have whenever I did play games on it ( wow) it didn’t need to ( KOTOR didn’t really )
 
GerritB said:
... he said he did just that.

Edit:
It's really weird how upset some people get when they see others expecting to be able to do some casual gaming on their MacBooks, which, judging by their specs, they should be perfectly suitable for.
Nobody comes in here asking 'why is Crisis not running at 144fps at 4K on my 2018 MBP. Everybody that expects these machines to be able to run casual games like Fortnite which was used in advertisement, and do so at low/medium settings at 30-60fps at around 1400-1600x1000 is perfectly right to do so.

Whether that means that person himself is gaming multiple nights, only twice a month or only wants to let their kid use it. It doesn't mean the machine won't get used primarily for work, but it should be able to run these games.
Click to expand...

Right on. All work and no play makes Mac a dull boy.
 
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If Apple is going to use Fortnite in their advertising, then it really should run better than it does. I love Apple products. But when my son wanted a gaming laptop, we got a Windows one. Not sure why Macs do so poorly for gaming and really, the OP is justified in being disappointed in the Macs performance.
 
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