Issues with games on a macbook pro (2012)

[Maniac]

Hey, I have the new macbook pro 2012. None ratina display. The specs are:

GT 650M 512mb GPU
Quad Core i7 CPU upto 3.3ghz with turbo boost
4GB ram
Running the latest OS X version

And so far, every game I have tried to run through steam has had huge issues with the performance. Take Team Fortress 2 for example, if I try to get into any game, it gets stuck for about 3-4 minutes on the very last part of the loading screen. I have to turn the settings on low otherwise it will lag a lot! :( the same goes for counter strike source. There are terrible lag spikes. But if I run the same games over on the windows 7 bootcamp (on the same device), I can run the games with maximum settings and an fps of 90+. I mean I can run skyrim on close to ultra for god sakes! with a smooth 60+ fps. This is really disappointing, as I am sure everyone on this sub forum would agree.. Once you go OS X you never go back! I absolutely love this operating system and I hate having to go on windows 7 to play my games.

Does anyone else have these issues? I would love it so much if I can just pop on over to team fortress 2 and play it smoothly. This laptop and its specs are more than capable of running it, and the game is bloody great! I need help guys, I have tried many things, I have looked it up but with no luck. Any help would be much appreciated.

[Maniac]

guys ?:(

[capnoid]

Are there any backgroup processes running that is stealing CPU-power etc? Check the task manager for stuff like that. Also, update to the latest GPU drivers.

[Maniac]

The GPU drivers are fully updated, and I run it with nothing in the background. I forgot to mention my macbook comes with integrated graphics card as well as the dedicated. And the integrated gpu alone should be enough to run these games on max settings. Something is clearly not right here :>

[capnoid]

Could this be related? It's a sleep/wake bug on OSX causing OpenGL to perform slow. There are some more tips a bit down in the thread. Even if the thread below is about World of Warcraft it should still be a generic issue.

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/6712712447

Also, make sure you update OSX to latest version as well if you haven't already.

[capnoid]

This should solve it: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964 Read under system performance a bit down.

And info: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1451750

[Maniac]

ill try it now and get back to you :)

[Topher]

Be careful playing games in bootcamp as I always find that windoes runs the CPU a lot hotter than OSX does. You can work around by setting the fans to max themselves non stop in windoes mode with Lubbos or some other ad on to windoes but the ony trouble I have ever had on any macbook pro was the fan lifespan on original macbook pro.

[Maniac]

thanks for the help :) it worked! I don't understand why I had to reset SMC. Or why it went wrong in the first place. I really hope I don't have to reset it like every week. I've spend too much money for this laptop to have stupid bugs :(

[dcy665]

Has anyone tried setting up a game mode for their power setting? I don't have the problem on my current systems; iMac and my wife's MacBook Pro. But the MBPro had a power policy that supported game (my own setup) then when one played a game it would enable it to prevent shutting down the drive and such.

If fact, I have tweaked my iMac now that I recall. I disabled turning off the drive. I have never had much luck with constantly spinning drives up and down. Your milage will vary.