Gaming performance a little less than expected?

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So I just got a 2012 15" 2.6ghz macbook pro with the 1gb of graphics memory on the GT 650 and I was told by a post on here that it would run LOL and WOW at virtually max settings and that even a 2012/2013 13" would run them way better than my 2012 but it isn't... now I came from a 2010 13" 2.66 macbook and it would run LOL on medium at about 20-40fps now this computer will run LOL at med-hi to high (only that shadow detail setting changes) at 60fps smashed right to the ceiling but then will drop down to 20fps sometimes? ... this is why I like console gaming... sooooo I did figure out to uncheck the auto graphics switching check box and this helped (is the graphics switching really that dumb that it tries to switch to integrated while gaming????) but it still does it, while it does it about half as much and only down to the 30's vs the 20's (fps) it is still annoying and it only runs very high settings at about 30fps.

Is this normal? I went from 256mb shared DDR3? on a 320M to 1gb of DDR5 on a 650M with a 2.6 quad-core i7, can't it run very high at a constant 40-50fps? Why the drop downs?

Should I just forget OS X and bootcamp and install on windows? I have yet to play WOW but I'm hoping it runs better on OS X than LOL.
 
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According to Wikipedia I went from 90 gflops to over 600 gflops, lol seems like a lot to me... so about 7x the performance?
 

pigoo3

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Should I just forget OS X and bootcamp and install on windows? I have yet to play WOW but I'm hoping it runs better on OS X than LOL.

This is what we tell people all the time. Macintosh computers aren't the best gaming computers. Many folks here on Mac-Forums specifically install Windows via bootcamp for this purpose...or just use a Windows computer for gaming.

Also remember that certain games are optimized for a specific graphics hardware. For example...some games run much better with NVIDIA...and other games run better with other graphics hardware.

- Nick
 
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You can lay most of the issues and the front door of the graphics drivers. They simply aren't released as frequently or optimised for games like they are under windows. That's simply down to the popularity of windows gaming.

If you want to squeeze the gaming performance out of your hardware then bootcamped Windows is the way to go
 
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So its the driver's? So do I need an OS to install? like i need to go bye a compy of windows 7 to bootcamp or does it just do it?

I just don't get how the core2duo and 320M ran LOL at medium at like 20-40fps usually low 30's dropping to 20 sometimes and the i7 and 650M run it on med-high or high smashed at 60fps but still drops to 20?
 
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I quit playing wow this year and sold my gaming PC. Even with dual GT 560 Ti's in SLI more under Win7 I only got 40-60FPS at Med-high settings in areas like town or in a raid using raid finder. So there ya go.. The MBP isn't doing to bad, its the game thats taking a nose dive.

That said, the ____M on the 650M means its a Mobile chipset, not a high performance chipset. Don't expect it to perform nearly half as good as a older NON mobile chipset (I.e; a stand alone card). The more memory is required for textures in a game, the slower the mobile platform will become due to memory sharing from the system over a much slower buss.
 
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I quit playing wow this year and sold my gaming PC. Even with dual GT 560 Ti's in SLI more under Win7 I only got 40-60FPS at Med-high settings in areas like town or in a raid using raid finder. So there ya go.. The MBP isn't doing to bad, its the game thats taking a nose dive.

That said, the ____M on the 650M means its a Mobile chipset, not a high performance chipset. Don't expect it to perform nearly half as good as a older NON mobile chipset (I.e; a stand alone card). The more memory is required for textures in a game, the slower the mobile platform will become due to memory sharing from the system over a much slower buss.
Yeah I know there is the 665M 670M and 680M too but I went from a 320M to a 650M that is why I'm kinda pissed. And I was told on here even a 2013 13" with Intel HD 4000 should run LOL at high, I hate the pix-elated shadows but when I take the shadows from med to high FPS goes from 60 to 30 but I have heard that not only do mac's suck for gaming but the mac LOL client sucks so I'm going to try and boot camp, just don't want viruses and crap, why I went mac in the first place, they just work

Any body ever hacked/modded a different graphics card into a macbook? I did think about getting a iMac with a 780M but then I was like I might as well just build a hackicough cough aasashdadjffgkrnfjfrhahdkff........... and I really wanted a laptop anyway so thats what I got.
 
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Yeah I know there is the 665M 670M and 680M too but I went from a 320M to a 650M that is why I'm kinda pissed. And I was told on here even a 2013 13" with Intel HD 4000 should run LOL at high, I hate the pix-elated shadows but when I take the shadows from med to high FPS goes from 60 to 30 but I have heard that not only do mac's suck for gaming but the mac LOL client sucks so I'm going to try and boot camp, just don't want viruses and crap, why I went mac in the first place, they just work

Any body ever hacked/modded a different graphics card into a macbook? I did think about getting a iMac with a 780M but then I was like I might as well just build a hackicough cough aasashdadjffgkrnfjfrhahdkff........... and I really wanted a laptop anyway so thats what I got.

I have tried to run WoW on my Mac Mini, it has HD4000 graphics.. hah. no.. Who ever told you it would run at high, was uh high.. It want run even at low setting at 1920x1080. Not run and be raid playable that is. Not sure anyone here would tell you that it would though, these guys have little more common sense then other forums out here.

And its not that gaming sucks on a mac. Its just many games are designed for DirectX. Thus there is no DX on a Mac, its a windows API.

Also, never ever will a Mobile graphics chipset ever be as fast as a stand alone card. Well not until they start integrating graphics RAM into the CPU/iGPU wafer. Then maybe, but not at present. This is why mobile graphics perform so slow, they share graphics memory with the system RAM, thus slower RAM and slower buss means slower video.

If you looking for a gaming laptop, then Alienware may be the place you should be looking at. They make laptops with "real" standalone video cards built inside. Keep in mind, battery life on those is like 5mins and they way about 12-15 pounds. So expect to work up a good sweat toating that around. ;-)
 

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Also, never ever will a Mobile graphics chipset ever be as fast as a stand alone card. Well not until they start integrating graphics RAM into the CPU/iGPU wafer. Then maybe, but not at present. This is why mobile graphics perform so slow, they share graphics memory with the system RAM, thus slower RAM and slower buss means slower video.

Interesting that this should come up. I'm coincidentally experiencing something interesting. I play a fair amount of the online game Runescape...and I play on about 4 different computers in my home (different rooms). Three of them are laptops...and one is an older iMac. I'm going to mention two of them.

- One is the most powerful computer I have at the moment...an "Early 2011" 17" MBP (8gig of ram, 2.2ghz quad-core i7 cpu, Radeon HD 6750M graphics with 1gig of vram, OS 10.8).
- The other is a 2006 white iMac (2.16ghz Core 2 Duo, 2gig ram, Radeon X1600 graphics with 128meg of vram, OS 10.6).

When I play Runescape on both of these computers (on the minimum graphics setting)...the fans on the 2011 MBP sometimes are screaming/high rpm...yet at the same time...the MUCH less equipped 2006 iMac is silent.

Both computers have "Radeon graphics"...but I'm figuring the main difference could be the "mobile" graphics chipset on the 2011 MBP...versus the non-mobile graphics chipset on the 2006 iMac desktop. Of course the irony is that the much older computer (2006 iMac)...is certainly running more quietly at the same graphics detail setting (min detail setting).

I still need to experiment with higher detail settings (I'm figuring that the 2011 MBP will do better from a frame rate standpoint). But what I want to see is...if the iMac starts getting noisy as well (higher fan rpms).

- Nick
 

chscag

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If you looking for a gaming laptop, then Alienware may be the place you should be looking at. They make laptops with "real" standalone video cards built inside. Keep in mind, battery life on those is like 5mins and they way about 12-15 pounds. So expect to work up a good sweat toating that around. ;-)

LOL, good way to build up your biceps without having to go to the gym to work out. Sager is another manufacturer who builds Windows notebooks that weigh a ton. Practically indestructible though.
 

pigoo3

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Keep in mind, battery life on those is like 5mins and they way about 12-15 pounds. So expect to work up a good sweat toating that around. ;-)

Ha ha. This is the exact sort of thing I think about when folks post complaining about "how heavy" a 13" MBP is at 3.5 pounds vs. 3 pounds for a 13" MBA. ;)

I mean...come on. Half a pound...8 ounces...227 grams...REALLY! That's nothing. Laptops at one time used to weigh 6-7 pounds (even more for the very early ones)...and those of us that carried those around are no worse for wear!;)

- Nick
 
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I have tried to run WoW on my Mac Mini, it has HD4000 graphics.. hah. no.. Who ever told you it would run at high, was uh high.. It want run even at low setting at 1920x1080. Not run and be raid playable that is. Not sure anyone here would tell you that it would though, these guys have little more common sense then other forums out here.

And its not that gaming sucks on a mac. Its just many games are designed for DirectX. Thus there is no DX on a Mac, its a windows API.

Also, never ever will a Mobile graphics chipset ever be as fast as a stand alone card. Well not until they start integrating graphics RAM into the CPU/iGPU wafer. Then maybe, but not at present. This is why mobile graphics perform so slow, they share graphics memory with the system RAM, thus slower RAM and slower buss means slower video.

If you looking for a gaming laptop, then Alienware may be the place you should be looking at. They make laptops with "real" standalone video cards built inside. Keep in mind, battery life on those is like 5mins and they way about 12-15 pounds. So expect to work up a good sweat toating that around. ;-)
The 650M has 1gb of dedicated memory?

I thought about a 17" Alienware but again I like mac, no need to wipe the HDD and reinstal everything to make the **** thing work every 2 years
 

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