macbook pro M1 - sometimes reaaallly slow

[Ben]

hey peepz,
i have a 2 week old macbook pro M1 chip, 8 GB.
sometimes the game just works well, easy, nice flow.

sometimes, after either playing for more than 20 minutes, after usiing a portal or this time even directly after startup i get incredible ♥♥♥♥♥♥ framerates. like 1 fps, even less. you click "M" for map and it takes 5 seconds only to start dimming the screen to go black and then to come back up.

any workarounds? what am I doing wrong? mac OS Big Sur and Steam all on latest updates

[Elminster]

. původně napsal:

Ben původně napsal:

when I open the activity manager under Mac OS, it shows me how much of my 8 GB are used, occupied, when i start BG3 when it's alsmost all used up to the top, i can go take a dump before my character even moves once across the screen.

when i close some programs and I see that only 5 of 8 GB are used, BG3 is smooth as baby skin ;)

But as i stated above - you will probably run into further problems with other programs that use lots of RAM or when you do multi-tasking.

Since you cant upgrade RAM wouldn't the additional charge for the version of your notebook with more ram be worth it?

I gladly spent the extra 200 bucks for the 16GB on my macbook air, but to be fair even when I have opened my usual 50 tabs on safari, chrome, pycharm, xcode, matlab, mail, news, calendar, discord, skyoe, messages, google chat, word, excel, etc... I can still start a game and still not cap the memory.
I used a 15' MBP before with 16GB and this machine seems to deal with memory a lot better.

Unless you are a programmer dealing with big data, you plan on loading 10GB of textures uncompressed or your are editing huge video footage, apparently 8GB can support you pretty easily. Most people will not need 16GB for anything, and if they occasionally play a 3d game they might just close a few apps first.

Also some apps are still leaky. I had news ramp up to 9GB of memory after I let it on for a few days. Give it a few months and most arm apps are going to have an even smaller footprint and hopefully no memory leaks.

[....]

pandariuskairos původně napsal:

Games that aren't optimized yet tend to use more memory than they will at release.

I'm using 32Gb now and have very few problems, even with EA games like BG3 or Star Citizen, but I'm still thinking about upgrading to 64Gb this year anyway. It never hurts to exercise a little overkill.

I think that is just not worth it. Most games wont use such ammounts of RAM. To be honest 32 GB is already too much - even if you do stuff that will require tons of RAM like using tons of mods. I think 16 GB is okay - 32 GB should pretty much be enough for any normal user. If you do video-editing etc. thats probably another story.

@Elminster
Thats probably true but many APPs etc. will always be poorly optimized. Also - if i buy a notebook now i want it to be futureproof - 8GB was a small amount even years ago - also to me it seems annoying if i actually have to think about what programs to close when i want to play a game etc.

Last but not least 8 GB will probably not be enough if you are into using games with many mods etc.

[Elminster]

. původně napsal:

pandariuskairos původně napsal:

Games that aren't optimized yet tend to use more memory than they will at release.

I'm using 32Gb now and have very few problems, even with EA games like BG3 or Star Citizen, but I'm still thinking about upgrading to 64Gb this year anyway. It never hurts to exercise a little overkill.

I think that is just not worth it. Most games wont use such ammounts of RAM. To be honest 32 GB is already too much - even if you do stuff that will require tons of RAM like using tons of mods. I think 16 GB is okay - 32 GB should pretty much be enough for any normal user. If you do video-editing etc. thats probably another story.

@Elminster
Thats probably true but many APPs etc. will always be poorly optimized. Also - if i buy a notebook now i want it to be futureproof - 8GB was a small amount even years ago - also to me it seems annoying if i actually have to think about what programs to close when i want to play a game etc.

Last but not least 8 GB will probably not be enough if you are into using games with many mods etc.

I completely agree with you. That is why I have 16GB.

I am just saying the 8GB version is geared at the ultralight market for mail/web browsing and most people do not need more. And if they want to game sometimes they can close other apps... ;-)

[Mosey]

Elminster původně napsal:

Now that you are done selling your BS, why don't you read the post from OP, where he says that the solution was closing other programs?

Then take the liberty of checking some benchmarks on the M1 8GB systems against other ultraportables of similar price.

I'll just leave this little reference here. Sorry if I offended Steve Jobs ghost by pointing out the obvious.


RECOMMENDED:
Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
OS: Windows 10 64-bit
Processor: Intel i7 4770k / AMD Ryzen 5 1500X
Memory: 16 GB RAM
Graphics: Nvidia GTX 1060 6GB / AMD RX580
DirectX: Version 11
Storage: 150 GB available space
Additional Notes: Default API is Vulkan 1.1. Directx11 API also provided. The recommended requirements might decrease over the course of Early Access, as performance improves.

[Elminster]

Mosey původně napsal:

Elminster původně napsal:

Now that you are done selling your BS, why don't you read the post from OP, where he says that the solution was closing other programs?

Then take the liberty of checking some benchmarks on the M1 8GB systems against other ultraportables of similar price.

I'll just leave this little reference here. Sorry if I offended Steve Jobs ghost by pointing out the obvious.


RECOMMENDED:
Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
OS: Windows 10 64-bit
Processor: Intel i7 4770k / AMD Ryzen 5 1500X
Memory: 16 GB RAM
Graphics: Nvidia GTX 1060 6GB / AMD RX580
DirectX: Version 11
Storage: 150 GB available space
Additional Notes: Default API is Vulkan 1.1. Directx11 API also provided. The recommended requirements might decrease over the course of Early Access, as performance improves.

You did not offend anybody, just shown your ignorance and prejudice.

This was taken on a my Macbook Air
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2418508145

[Mosey]

Elminster původně napsal:

You did not offend anybody, just shown your ignorance and prejudice.

This was taken on a my Macbook Air
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2418508145

Oh, you mean the same Macbook air that meets the memory requirements? You know, the one the OP is specifically not using?

I said mac products are great, assuming you buy the upgraded widget. I simply stated a readily observable fact which is their lower end systems are, surprisingly, lower end.

Apple fan boys are just as annoying as the irrational haters. Their hardware is fine, it's their entire business model that's disgusting.

And for the record my five year old PC is running the same settings, so what? You know why? It meets the requirements I listed. And the OP's system does not, which is why it runs poorly and he has to actually close down processes to make it run.

[Elminster]

Riiiight

[Elminster]

broccoli původně napsal:

Elminster původně napsal:

You are mistaken on both accounts. ;-)

UMA means the GPU and CPU use the same RAM as opposed to on a dedicated GPU which has its own RAM. It wouldn't need its own RAM if it didn't need it. Seriously, look things up.

As for the second claim, technically they can optimize things. Compilers are an example. But the point is that with a game nearly everything has already been done. Apple makes good hardware, but stop believing they have magic. That's stupid. You're stupid if you believe every bit of marketing fluff.

You are still mistaken on both accounts... no time or will to explain it to you ... your view is both superficial and simplistic. Believe what you want.

[Klauth]

Elminster původně napsal:

broccoli původně napsal:

UMA means the GPU and CPU use the same RAM as opposed to on a dedicated GPU which has its own RAM. It wouldn't need its own RAM if it didn't need it. Seriously, look things up.

As for the second claim, technically they can optimize things. Compilers are an example. But the point is that with a game nearly everything has already been done. Apple makes good hardware, but stop believing they have magic. That's stupid. You're stupid if you believe every bit of marketing fluff.

You are still mistaken on both accounts... no time or will to explain it to you ... your view is both superficial and simplistic. Believe what you want.

I Like MacOS a lot, does a lot of good stuff. Also, it has a real very good backup tool.
However, it won't consume less RAM because it is MacOS or M1.
There is no sane reason to buy something with less than 16GB in 2021. The cost is minimal, and if you're going to game on this, any time the OS is swapping to disk, performance is going to thanks *massively*.

[Elminster]

Klauth původně napsal:

Elminster původně napsal:

You are still mistaken on both accounts... no time or will to explain it to you ... your view is both superficial and simplistic. Believe what you want.

I Like MacOS a lot, does a lot of good stuff. Also, it has a real very good backup tool.
However, it won't consume less RAM because it is MacOS or M1.
There is no sane reason to buy something with less than 16GB in 2021. The cost is minimal, and if you're going to game on this, any time the OS is swapping to disk, performance is going to thanks *massively*.

Two things here on buying 16GB/8GB:
This is a different discussion and I agree, I have 16GB on my Air, and I never even thought of getting the 8GB. But let's say I was getting a Macbook Air for my Mother, who does not ever play games or edit videos or program. 8GB is plenty.

On efficiency on RAM footprint / latency:
You are wrong, the low level design of both hardware and os play a crucial role, so using windows 10, Linux or Mac OS, as well the choice cpu architecture and board design would result in totally different memory consumption and latencies even with the same applications. Moreover you have a compiler which is usually different etc etc. There are plenty of people doing research in this, so YES it does make a lot of difference.

[Klauth]

Elminster původně napsal:

On efficiency on RAM footprint / latency:
You are wrong, the low level design of both hardware and os play a crucial role, so using windows 10, Linux or Mac OS, as well the choice cpu architecture and board design would result in totally different memory consumption and latencies even with the same applications. Moreover you have a compiler which is usually different etc etc. There are plenty of people doing research in this, so YES it does make a lot of difference.

For RAM latency, that is for sure, having CPU X or Y can make a lot of difference, I agree.
But for RAM footprint ? I'm ready to acknowledge this can be true for the code, with different cpuset between X and Y, but for all the data sets (levels, skins etc ...), it can't be different between X and Y. And I think code is quite minor in the total fullprint.

Andy way, you've picked my curiosity, I'll need to have a look to the M1 design :)