rMBP external display performance issue

[snyder17315]

Hello all!

I've run across something interesting/puzzling and was hoping someone could help me out.

I have my rMBP hooked up to a Thunderbolt display, and under win7; i'm seeing less fps performance using the external display than the retina display at the same settings. I'm specifically noticing this in Battlefield 3, where the difference is about 10fps between the two (retina faster).

Just curious if anyone had any thoughts why this might be the case? Thanks and happy holidays!

 

[A Hebrew]

This is probably unrelated but: Are you clam shelling your laptop?

 

[snyder17315]

This is probably unrelated but: Are you clam shelling your laptop?

I am indeed.

However, I will add that the external keyboard/mouse and plugged into the USB ports on the Thunderbolt display and NOT directly into the rMBP. If that would make a difference.

 

[bukeyolacan]

I have 15" mid 2012 mbp and having constant slowdowns on bootcamp but I found some solution. When I use the laptop monitor games work without problem but when I use the clam shell mode connected to external display it starts to lag every 15 seconds. I opened the laptop display half and choose to show desktop only on external monitor and its gone.

 

[A Hebrew]

I am indeed.

However, I will add that the external keyboard/mouse and plugged into the USB ports on the Thunderbolt display and NOT directly into the rMBP. If that would make a difference.

Try using your display without the laptop clam shelled. I remember reading something about it before, but am not sure if it slowed down GPU or CPU performance...or both...

 

[snyder17315]

Follow-up post. I did some testing today playing Battlefield 3 the following ways:

1. Clamshell mode, external display only
2. Retina display only
3. Mirrored display - retina and external on

In each case, the onboard display provided better fps (as much as 10fps difference), allowed for the game to be ran at a higher resolution (1280x720 vs. 1600x900 specifically) and higher aniostropic filtering (8x vs 16x).

Interesting, albeit, disappointing results. Not sure what else to try at this point as I've also downloaded and installed the latest nvidia windows driver as well.

I was hoping to retire my windows box and use the rMBP exclusively, but it looks like a quick gaming fix aside; i'll still be dragging out the PC to do any serious amount of gaming.