Significant Lag on Mac OS - Your Experience?

[ReenignE]

I am curious if others are having similar issues. Has the game run without issue on Mac OS for you?

System Specs

15.4" MacBook Pro Retina

CPU: 2.8 GHz Intel Core i7 4980HQ
RAM: 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
GFX: NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M 2048 MB

OS X 10.9.5
1920 x 1200
Very Low Quality

This is currently the best Macbook Pro available in terms of hardware. Rather new, I have only tried Civilization 5 and Starcraft 2 aside from DG2 with little to no lag in either of the two.

Slowdown is most apparent when a number of units are on the screen, this is to be expected to an extent. Though at times, it is so bad that the game stops rendering for a few seconds completely, only to shakily start rendering again. It was enough that I stopped playing altogether.

At all times I find the process to be using a significant amount of the CPU, 400%+ which translates to over four logical cores fully saturated, while other games tend to hover around one core of usage. A large number of units in both of those do cause a slowdown, though it is nowhere near the magnitude observed in DG2 for me, also with far more units.

I will be checking the game out shortly on my Windows rig, it will be an Apples to Oranges comparison though considering that aside from running Windows it is a liquid cooled i7 & SLI system(and apparently an Orange!).

I am really just curious if anyone else on a Mac is able to play without such slowdown, or without having to reduce the resolution much.

[Joker]

Hey guys, our apologies for the instability. Could you try this build and let us know if there's any performance or stability improvement?

1.) Right click DG2 in Steam. Select > Properties > Betas
2.) Enter this beta access code: "dg2macbuild1"
3.) Click Check Now
4.) Select the "mac" beta from the drop down list above.
5.) Restart Steam, and you should have the previous build begin to download.

[Rossco]

Hi, same issue:

Spiking FPS which is resolved by disabling network connection.

[Rossco]

This is with the dg2macbuild1 beta.

[mexell]

Hi,

in the retail version on my MBP 8,2 (2011, i7, Radeon HD6750M) I am experiencing unlit levels and really choppy performance. I am installing the mentioned Beta right now and will report back.

[mexell]

Still unlit levels.

[curt]

As of 11/14, will not launch. On 11/12 it would launch after 2 or 3 tries, but performance was very slow with very low frame rates and most levels unplayable because of lack of lighting regardless of video settings.

iMac
Model Identifier: iMac9,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 3.06 GHz
Number of Processors: 1
Total Number of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 6 MB
Memory: 8 GB
ATI Radeon HD 4850 512 MB
10.9.5

This same rig plays Windows version of the game flawlessly under BootCamp.

[SpetzNaz]

Performance even with the beta build provided is terrible... same as before really. So choppy that it's essentially unplayable still.

[TheMyth]

Late 2013 3Ghz - 8 Core Mac Pro with 6GB D700 Graphics, 32GB of ram here on 10.10.1 Yosemite - same issue of slowdown at any setting - slows down with multiple bad guys on screen - i was doing multi-player with a friend and my system literally is doing like 3 fps... it's not the horsepower of these machines - something else is going on with the OS X port

[Jaxsom12]

I got a Mac pro here, 17'' 2.6GHz i7 8gb ram and just standard intel HD graphics 4000. I'm having a problem where i can't really load the game. I start it and suddenly my activity monitor reports somwheres between 300% and 500% of CPU usage. By the time i click play, get passed all the company logo screens and to main page, my fans are on high trying to cool my laptop down. It's the only game i have that does that. I tryed very quickly running into setting and lower thing. but even at the smallest resolution and meduim graphics the fans are on high and at the very end i start to smell the start of maybe something burning. Not sure if it's just my computer or the game but was wondering about that.

[SpetzNaz]

I'm just following up to indicate that the game is still essentially unplayable with the extremely low frame-rate/choppy behavior. Any updates as to what's causing this, or how to fix it?

[Nick Wilton]

The problem seems to be that the game is heavily CPU-bound on the OSX version.

On my Mid-2014 MacBook Pro i7 2.5Mhz 16Gb with GeForce GT 750M, the running Yosemite the game saturates all my CPU cores (350-400%) as soon as the launcher starts (i.e. not even the game itself).

The game is playable for a few minutes, but eventually the high temperatures on the CPU and GPU causes the machine to reduce throttle the clockspeed causing significant lag.

I don't recommend playing this game on a MacBook as it will likely shorten the life of your computer... the slim design of these computers won't cope well with extended periods of high thermal load.

[acilate]

Running a similar setup to the last commenter, and I can't even load the game. After starting the loader, CPU gets pinned at full capacity and only a graphics configuration page comes up in the DG2 loader. I can't click on anything and the background changes at about 10 seconds per frame. I'm completely stuck!

[pedros]

Having the same problem

Late 2011 Macbook Pro
Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro8,2
Processor Name: Intel Core i7
Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz
Number of Processors: 1
Total Number of Cores: 4
L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB
L3 Cache: 6 MB
Memory: 8 GB
Boot ROM Version: MBP81.0047.B27
SMC Version (system): 1.69f3

Graphics Card
Chipset Model: AMD Radeon HD 6770M
Type: GPU
Bus: PCIe
PCIe Lane Width: x8
VRAM (Total): 1024 MB
Vendor: ATI (0x1002)

[edt_oni]

Actually, Defense Grid 2 runs fairly well on my computer. I've played about 25 hours, finished the Story mode on Normal.

My processors run about 70% for each core. The times I get lag is when I have many towers and aliens on the screen. Sometimes, it appears the aliens jump forward instead on moving forward smoothly.

I use the settings
Resolution 1600 x 1000
Fullscreen Off
Quality Medium Sync Off

2014 Mac Mini

Model Name: Mac mini
Model Identifier: Macmini7,1
Processor Name: Intel Core i5
Processor Speed: 2.6 GHz
Number of Processors: 1
Total Number of Cores: 2
L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB
L3 Cache: 3 MB
Memory: 8 GB
Boot ROM Version: MM71.0220.B00
SMC Version (system): 2.24f32

Intel Iris:
Chipset Model: Intel Iris
Type: GPU
Bus: Built-In
VRAM (Dynamic, Max): 1536 MB
Vendor: Intel (0x8086)
Device ID: 0x0a2e
Revision ID: 0x0009

[Mark]

Also having these problems on my 2010 Macbook Pro. It runs the first few levels fine (on low graphics) but then starts to freeze on the last 1/3 of the 4-5th level with the CPU maxed out. It's hard to tell as it runs so badly I can't play it anymore, but it seemed to start happening when the stealthed creeps appear, but it could just be a coincidence that these appear around this time.