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Warcraft + top-line 2011 iMac = XX fps?

J

jesuscandle

macrumors regular
Original poster
Dec 22, 2003
141
22
Boston, MA
Hi all - I recently bought a top-line iMac - nearly maxxed out on all the specs. (The 16 GB of RAM is kind of insane).

The machine is primarily for work, but I do play WOW from time to time.

Thing is, my frame rates aren't as blow-me-away awesome as I expected. I usually am around 30 fps with spikes to around 60. Never gets much higher than that. This is all with the "High" graphical presets, but the different levels don't seem to make much of a difference.

Obvs, 30-60 fps is pretty darn good and likely more than good enough to keep me happy. But I DO get some graphic lag in some spots and it just doesn't seem like that should happen on such a beefy machine.

Two questions I think - What kind of FPS *should* I be seeing? Any way to improve my current benchmarks?
 
Did you try performanc under windows.. i.e bootcamp. I have major FPS differences between windows and OSX with WOW. 20 fps or so in OSX (in OG) and 60 fps under windows.

The performance difference is really dissapointing.
 
I am getting 28-30 fps on Ultra-settings in the open world (not Stormwind or so) under OSX. Using a base 15" Macbook Pro from late 2011. GPU: ATI Radeon HD 6750M. Just something to compare with...
 
Hey, I have a iMac late 2009 i7 with a ATI 4850m and i find the best settings for my computer in OSX are.
Resolution: 2560x1440
Multisampling: 1x
Vertical Sync: Enabled
Texture Resolution: High
Texture Filtering: 16x Antisotropic
Projected Textures: Enabled
View Distance: Ultra
Environment Detail: Ultra
Ground Clutter: Ultra
Shadow Quality: Good
Liquid Detail: Good
Sunshafts: High
Particle Density: Ultra

Triple Buffering: Enabled
Reduce Input Lag: Enabled
Hardware Cursor: Enabled
Max FPS Foreground/ Background: Off

Multisampling can't be enabled with a resolution higher than 1920x1080 and some other settings enabled like sunshafts and high water effects.
With these settings I am getting on average 30FPS in populated areas and 45-60FPS in open areas which are not as populated. The main drops in FPS are Putting Liquid and Shadow Quality up, sunshafts gave me a big drop in FPS in Snow Leopard but Lion seems to have fixed this. With the AMD 6970m you should handle these graphics settings better than my machine and if you are not satisfied with the FPS results I recommend tinkering about with the Graphics settings under the "Effects" title.
Note view distance does increase FPS quite a bit when you turn it down but I'm sure you will want that on Ultra specially with the screen you have :)
 
If you just want to see a high framerate number, turn off Vertical Sync. It may cause some video tearing if you do that, but usually the tearing isn't too bad.

The graphics card in current iMacs are mobility GPUs, i.e. theoretically made for laptops (although I don't know which laptops actually use these). The GPU isn't as beefy as the rest of the iMac's hardware is. However the current iMac GPUs are still the best that's officially supported by Apple. According to barefeats.com, the best iMac gets 165 FPS in their WoW benchmark and the Mac Pro with Radeon 5870 only gets 127 FPS.

http://barefeats.com/mini11_02.html
http://barefeats.com/imac11c.html

What spots do you get graphic lag in?
 
Simple.

Turn down shadows to fair or low. You can keep everything else turned up and you'll be running at 60fps most of the time.

Shadows kill the FPS on macs at the moment.
 
acantril said:
Did you try performanc under windows.. i.e bootcamp. I have major FPS differences between windows and OSX with WOW. 20 fps or so in OSX (in OG) and 60 fps under windows.

The performance difference is really dissapointing.
Click to expand...

This. If you really care, GPU drivers are more frequently updated, which typically results in better performance on the Windows side with your exact same GPU in OSX.
 
When I used to play WOW on my mid 2009 mbp I noticed that my fps was higher when my second monitor was connected and running all my other apps.
And because I'm not a graphics whore my settings usually are: Max res: 1920x1200 everything low or off except Magic particles which are on high so you can see the incoming spells of bosses. In 25man raids I had around 80fps. And in cities around 40.
So try connecting one more monitor and use wow in windowed mode i think you will have a higher fps. At least thats what happened to me.
 
I've read that the programmers limited the frame rates so it only uses 60FPS when needed. This is because a lot of macs would overheat if they reach higher frame rates (especially the older iMacs and MB Pro's)

Besides what would you do with higher frame rates than 60? I doubt you will even be able to see the difference...
 
PeoTheOne said:
I've read that the programmers limited the frame rates so it only uses 60FPS when needed. This is because a lot of macs would overheat if they reach higher frame rates (especially the older iMacs and MB Pro's)

Besides what would you do with higher frame rates than 60? I doubt you will even be able to see the difference...
Click to expand...

In wow you can set the limit yourself. If i turn res a bit down I can do well over 100fps, even 200 fps some places.

I do however cap at 60 (thats my screens hz) and run it maxed settings, except max water and AA doesn't work, so I have water down a notch and 4x AA.
My screen is only 1680x1050 and therefore it need the AA to get rid of the blocky lines!
 
JaHull said:
Hey, I have a iMac late 2009 i7 with a ATI 4850m and i find the best settings for my computer in OSX are.
Resolution: 2560x1440
Multisampling: 1x
Vertical Sync: Enabled
Texture Resolution: High
Texture Filtering: 16x Antisotropic
Projected Textures: Enabled
View Distance: Ultra
Environment Detail: Ultra
Ground Clutter: Ultra
Shadow Quality: Good
Liquid Detail: Good
Sunshafts: High
Particle Density: Ultra

Triple Buffering: Enabled
Reduce Input Lag: Enabled
Hardware Cursor: Enabled
Max FPS Foreground/ Background: Off

Multisampling can't be enabled with a resolution higher than 1920x1080 and some other settings enabled like sunshafts and high water effects.
With these settings I am getting on average 30FPS in populated areas and 45-60FPS in open areas which are not as populated. The main drops in FPS are Putting Liquid and Shadow Quality up, sunshafts gave me a big drop in FPS in Snow Leopard but Lion seems to have fixed this. With the AMD 6970m you should handle these graphics settings better than my machine and if you are not satisfied with the FPS results I recommend tinkering about with the Graphics settings under the "Effects" title.
Note view distance does increase FPS quite a bit when you turn it down but I'm sure you will want that on Ultra specially with the screen you have :)
Click to expand...

Dude turn of VSync, Multisampling, and Lower the x16 filtering, it will give Huge improvment of FPS
 
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