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Throttle When Gaming on the new MacBook Pro (560x)

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johnalan

johnalan

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 15, 2009
873
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Dublin, Ireland
Check out this video:


He's playing a popular game called Fortnite, anyway, what I found REALLY interesting is the way it stutters.

I know what its like gaming on underpowered systems, as you can see, it's really smooth and then stutters, then goes back to buttery smooth.

This proves the GPU can handle the polygons, its just the system ramping up and down.

This is really a disaster. About to return my Pro.
 
The machine can clearly handle the graphics ask with buttery smoothness, but those stutters are clearly malfunction.
On my 2012 Air I sometimes play video games, they aren't very smooth, but they don't jump from smooth to stutter.
 
Did not watch the video, and have not played fortnight. But as you can see on the forum there is a couple of threads about throttling, so it is known that it does this during intensive task. When gaming you are using both the CPU and GPU, since they share the same small heatpipes even not using the full power will still stress the cooling, so throttling should not come as a surprise.

Then there is the question of optimisation of fortnight on MacOS and the graphic setting used in game.

When I play CS, SC2, Heroes of the Storm I do not have any problems, but I have adjusted my settings so that I can play with a smoothness that I like, and this is without sacrificing to much on the graphic site. (2017 15")

Did you have the same experience playing on your system as he did?
 
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I’m hoping most wouldn’t buy the 15” mainly for gaming...if I wanted to do it, I’d buy a console/PC gaming rig. If you want portable gaming then get a Razer or Acer Predator laptop etc.
 
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Schranke said:
Did not watch the video, and have not played fortnight. But as you can see on the forum there is a couple of threads about throttling, so it is known that it does this during intensive task. When gaming you are using both the CPU and GPU, since they share the same small heatpipes even not using the full power will still stress the cooling, so throttling should not come as a surprise.

Then there is the question of optimisation of fortnight on MacOS and the graphic setting used in game.

When I play CS, SC2, Heroes of the Storm I do not have any problems, but I have adjusted my settings so that I can play with a smoothness that I like, and this is without sacrificing to much on the graphic site. (2017 15")

Did you have the same experience playing on your system as he did?
Click to expand...


Yup same experience.

I guess what I’m saying is simply this:

The video clearly shows the Mac can easily handle the graphics on high for 20 minutes. Then performance goes down the toilet.

Playing games on my Air, they don’t deteriorate over time.

This inconsistency is malfunction.

I am a huge Apple fanboy.

I just don’t think I can justify keeping a machine with this performance drop for 3.5kEUR.

Do you think they will address this in software (voltage or fans or otherwise?)
 
johnalan said:
Yup same experience.

I guess what I’m saying is simply this:

The video clearly shows the Mac can easily handle the graphics on high for 20 minutes. Then performance goes down the toilet.

Playing games on my Air, they don’t deteriorate over time.

This inconsistency is malfunction.

I am a huge Apple fanboy.

I just don’t think I can justify keeping a machine with this performance drop for 3.5kEUR.

Do you think they will address this in software (voltage or fans or otherwise?)
Click to expand...
Could you try a few thing?
Have intel power gadget running while gaming, this will show info on CPU, also open activity monitor and press command+4 which gives you GPU activity graph.
Take a game and then you see the performance drop, shift to another desktop where these 2 are visible and take a screen shot.
And how are the fans behaving throughout?

There performance drop seems really weird...
 
Apple really needs to remove gaming benchmarks from their website. These machines aren't for gaming and they should never be. It's sad to go on pro user forums and see gaming threads.
 
SoyCapitanSoyCapitan said:
Apple really needs to remove gaming benchmarks from their website. These machines aren't for gaming and they should never be. It's sad to go on pro user forums and see gaming threads.
Click to expand...
Yes apple should remove the benchmarks, and the machine is not a gaming machine, but saying that it is sad to see threads about it on the forum dedicated to the machine, and not a profession?? come on...
What people use the machine for should not matter as long as they understand what the machine is, and can do. I do not have my machine for gaming, but rather for work with photo editing, huge presentation, writing, excel and then I generally prefer the 15" format.
I use it to game occasionally, not that I expect near the same kind of performance as an equally priced anything windows would give, but that should not mean that concerns can not be posted
 
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As for the situation at hand, it's hard to judge what part of the equation caused the issues without diving deeper, so I'd wait for competent people to properly test it. It could be anything from a defective machine, to poor software optimisation, to something running in the background, or indeed poor engineering decisions from Apple.
 
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SoyCapitanSoyCapitan said:
Apple really needs to remove gaming benchmarks from their website. These machines aren't for gaming and they should never be. It's sad to go on pro user forums and see gaming threads.
[doublepost=1532255088][/doublepost]

And on a laptop.
Click to expand...

You’re missing the point, weirdly.

It doesn’t matter if it’s Fortnite or production Machine Learning modelling.

Performance. Needs. Consistency.

Watching Fortnite stutter is a lot more impactful than watching a power gadget graph dip.
 
johnalan said:
Yup same experience.

I guess what I’m saying is simply this:

The video clearly shows the Mac can easily handle the graphics on high for 20 minutes. Then performance goes down the toilet.

Playing games on my Air, they don’t deteriorate over time.

This inconsistency is malfunction.

I am a huge Apple fanboy.

I just don’t think I can justify keeping a machine with this performance drop for 3.5kEUR.

Do you think they will address this in software (voltage or fans or otherwise?)
Click to expand...

I've never seen anyone return a MacBook, leave macOS and go to Windows because of Fortnite. You would be a first.

Jus as a side point, I went for the 13" with an eGPU and playing games on high settings doesn't even invoke the fans on my laptop. Thought about that combination?
 
johnalan said:
Check out this video:
Click to expand...
Any person making a face like that dude makes me violently unwilling to click on his video. Which is why I never watch linus tech tips junk videos for example.

Nozuka said:
Apple doesn't care about gaming. And it shows.
Click to expand...
Well honestly, it's a laptop that's 15mm thick, including its screen. You can't expect miracles.

I'm going to game on mine, when I get it, but I certainly won't be playing twitch reaction games like fortnight on it, and I'll also be a realist when it comes to my expectations of what it can deliver for me.
 
johnalan said:
It’s not about Fortnite for Christ sake.

It’s about the performance curve in a 3500euro laptop.

I don’t even play Fortnite. It’s just a ****ing illustration.
Click to expand...
I wouldn't try to unscrew a screw with a hammer. I wouldn't try to game on a MacBook Pro.
 
johnalan said:
Yes I tested it. I meant I’m not an avid or regular gamer and I don’t play games on my MacBook. Ffs what does it matter. This forum is so weird.
Click to expand...
It does actually matter a lot, you come with an example from fortnight and now you want it to stretch it to cover the whole machine. We do not know what cause the drop in fortnight, we know of a general trend with throttling, if you just want to discuss throttling we have plenty threads for that.

Heck, the whole topic of this thread is gaming on the MBP...
johnalan said:
I don’t play games on my MacBook
Click to expand...
 
I have been using my 2018 15" I7 MBP for playing WoW (with eGPU), doing Affinity Designer work, ZBrush 2018 work and everything else I use a laptop for (web, mail etc.) and have had no issues. If there is a performance "drop" it is not noticeable enough to me and I am getting work done. I am sure if I put up a bunch of graphs and hyper focus on it all I would see something. Instead just choosing to use my new machine and enjoy it.

If there is a known issue, I will just wait for Apple to address it the best they can. If you do not want to invest in what Apple is selling then it is your choice and it does not impact me.
 
I get better perofrmance from my base 15” 2018 than i have on my late 2013 15” on league of legends or diablo 3
So,I don’t know if this has to do with this Fortnite or my only 2 games i play are less demanding than this one
 
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