Guild Wars 2

This is a weird problem that has bothering me.

Me and my friends got Guild Wars 2 beta for the mac, I had 4GB RAM and my friends 16GB RAM.
My game had an excellent frame rate, no lag and so. My friends did have some lag at 10-20 frame rate max.
I now updated my macbook to 16GB RAM too and now I have the same problem, even when my game quality is set at the lowest.

Can this really be an issue with different RAM modules?

specifications :

Processor 2,2GHz Intel Core i7
Memory 16GB 1333 MHz DDR3
Graphics AMD Radeon HD 6750M 1024 MB

I’d say your CPU is bottlenecking with that 2.2GHz clock. GW2 is highly CPU based and to get higher FPS you’ll want that i7 at least 3.5GHz. Also keep in mind that the game’s optimization level is still low, so there is no guarantee you will see great FPS even with a high clocked i7.

Second that 2.2 is prettly low clocked and won’t get The best frame rates nor is your garphics chip a 6750m isn’t very powerfull allthrou should be enough to get half decent frames on low settings

Try running something to moniter The cpu like cpuz for windows but a mac version and also gpuz for The graphics youl will probally fine your cpu is running at high % a lot of The time

Disable reflections and shaddows if you haven’t these use a lot of cpu

moonstarmac.4603:

I’d say your CPU is bottlenecking with that 2.2GHz clock. GW2 is highly CPU based and to get higher FPS you’ll want that i7 at least 3.5GHz. Also keep in mind that the game’s optimization level is still low, so there is no guarantee you will see great FPS even with a high clocked i7.

But the RAM doesn’t change anything to this, does it?
Like I said, with 4GB it was running very smooth, so I have no idea what this upgrade from 4 to 16GB can do wrong..

chris.9142:

Second that 2.2 is prettly low clocked and won’t get The best frame rates nor is your garphics chip a 6750m isn’t very powerfull allthrou should be enough to get half decent frames on low settings

Try running something to moniter The cpu like cpuz for windows but a mac version and also gpuz for The graphics youl will probally fine your cpu is running at high % a lot of The time

Disable reflections and shaddows if you haven’t these use a lot of cpu

yeah most of my graphic options are lowest/disabled and still the same..
I know it isn’t the best gaming laptop but it shouldn’t downgrade the game when I upgrade my RAM memory..

FreekHymn.3641,

Adding more RAM shouldn’t make things worse. Try removing the ram and see if things go back to normal. Maybe one of the sticks is defective.

moonstarmac.4603:

I’d say your CPU is bottlenecking with that 2.2GHz clock.

It’s not. That i7 2.2 GHz likely runs at 3.1 GHz turbo on all four cores. Whatever the software is running on fullscreen, the i7 will always run at it’s set turbo which in this case will be above 3 GHz. Still not as high as desktop power but it’s still really good.

Xystus.3241:

FreekHymn.3641,

Adding more RAM shouldn’t make things worse. Try removing the ram and see if things go back to normal. Maybe one of the sticks is defective.

Well I would try that, but these RAM modules are brand new, and my other friends whom played GW2 on 16GB this whole time have the same problem, from the start.

This all doesn’t make any sense to me, I’ll just try and get used to low frame rate ^^

Just because they are new, does guaranty they aren’t defective. You and your friend, while the problems are similar, could be different causes. How different is his macbook to yours? Model/Configuration?

FreekHymn.3641:

This is a weird problem that has bothering me.

Me and my friends got Guild Wars 2 beta for the mac, I had 4GB RAM and my friends 16GB RAM.
My game had an excellent frame rate, no lag and so. My friends did have some lag at 10-20 frame rate max.
I now updated my macbook to 16GB RAM too and now I have the same problem, even when my game quality is set at the lowest.

Can this really be an issue with different RAM modules?

specifications :

Processor 2,2GHz Intel Core i7
Memory 16GB 1333 MHz DDR3
Graphics AMD Radeon HD 6750M 1024 MB

CPU clock to low. The gaming laptop that can play WvW in this game doesn’t exist or is so stupidly expensive that it is pointless and it wouldn’t be a mac.

Sell the macbook. Google tonymac. Buy a cheap laptop and install Mac OS. An old used laptop will run Snow leopard fast as hell. Build a desktop hackintosh. Profit.

Mac OS is like 19 to 29 bucks and Mavericks is free. Use your laptop to make the boot disc/installer from Mavericks on the apple store, and then sell the macbook to the next unsuspecting sucker who thinks that a “mac” isn’t an intel “pc” running Mac OS.

It is legal to install Mac OS. Apple has tried and failed to claim that it invented everything and had the right to control what OS could be installed on a one intel machine over another. They did however find some corrupt judge to agree to stopping the sale of preinstalled Mac OS machines in the US. Still legal in many countries in Europe.

Last step. Exchange the hundreds of dollars you saved (while gaming much faster) and exchange them for quarters and put them in a kiddie pull. Swim around in them and enjoy life.

Xystus.3241:

Just because they are new, does guaranty they aren’t defective. You and your friend, while the problems are similar, could be different causes. How different is his macbook to yours? Model/Configuration?

it is almost exact the same macbook. bought at the same time.
And I know these could be defective but I refuse to believe this since I just had a defective pair and this had me in a kittenstorm of problems for half a year. It wouldn"t be natural to have another defective pair :p

Deathjester.9841:

FreekHymn.3641:

This is a weird problem that has bothering me.

Me and my friends got Guild Wars 2 beta for the mac, I had 4GB RAM and my friends 16GB RAM.
My game had an excellent frame rate, no lag and so. My friends did have some lag at 10-20 frame rate max.
I now updated my macbook to 16GB RAM too and now I have the same problem, even when my game quality is set at the lowest.

Can this really be an issue with different RAM modules?

specifications :

Processor 2,2GHz Intel Core i7
Memory 16GB 1333 MHz DDR3
Graphics AMD Radeon HD 6750M 1024 MB

CPU clock to low. The gaming laptop that can play WvW in this game doesn’t exist or is so stupidly expensive that it is pointless and it wouldn’t be a mac.

Sell the macbook. Google tonymac. Buy a cheap laptop and install Mac OS. An old used laptop will run Snow leopard fast as hell. Build a desktop hackintosh. Profit.

Mac OS is like 19 to 29 bucks and Mavericks is free. Use your laptop to make the boot disc/installer from Mavericks on the apple store, and then sell the macbook to the next unsuspecting sucker who thinks that a “mac” isn’t an intel “pc” running Mac OS.

It is legal to install Mac OS. Apple has tried and failed to claim that it invented everything and had the right to control what OS could be installed on a one intel machine over another. They did however find some corrupt judge to agree to stopping the sale of preinstalled Mac OS machines in the US. Still legal in many countries in Europe.

Last step. Exchange the hundreds of dollars you saved (while gaming much faster) and exchange them for quarters and put them in a kiddie pull. Swim around in them and enjoy life.

Tempting.. tempting.. but not an option :p
This macbook is a requirement for my school (to prevent having different problems on mac/windows, saves a lot of time for the teachers)

I thank everyone for their time spent figuring this out.

I indeed think that a macbook pro isn’t the best gaming platform, but since I don’t have other options I will need to get used to this.

FreekHymn.3641:

I thank everyone for their time spent figuring this out.

I indeed think that a macbook pro isn’t the best gaming platform, but since I don’t have other options I will need to get used to this.

Yeah if you need it for school? Nothing you can do. Hackintosh laptops aren’t exactly easy to get running. All has to do with the on board network/sound card motherboards use. The gigabyte motherboards often use the same chips which is why tonymac recommends them.

Now if you are seeing much different performance on nearly identical machines, are you on different versions of Mac OS? That could be the issue. Also on a bright note, AMD mantle might be coming to Mac OS and linux, so Mac OS will be fine for gaming on a lot of the newer games (mass effect 4, Star wars battlefront, new dragon age). Everquest Next will be 8 core (same engine as planetside 2 that was just optimized) so even an i7 laptop chip should be good in that game.

Some other performance tips. As solarnova mentioned in another thread keep culling (chars visible under graphics option as high as you can go before your performance is unplayable, which would prob me medium or high for your chip), put the next setting at medium (textures on players). Set reflections to sky or off (there is water under the ground somehow that screws performance up). Set shadows off or lower. Those are prob the biggest hits. After I followed the advice in his thread I was playing at 1080p at very high fps (mostly due to the 4770k) on a GTX 260 216 core (which sucks). I took off AA and don’t have super sampling on but the graphics aren’t bad looking at all. Buying a 7870ghz edition on newegg, but I was blown away that a card that old could play very well in wvw at 1080p.

if your macbook has a thunderbolt port like a rMBP you can get eGPU (external GPU) set up (sonnet echo express pro expansion chassis) that would allow you to get a mid-high ranged card. its a very very pricey ($500 chassis + whatever your card costs) set up but allows you to still have one machine in the end while still retaining some form of portability. Though in terms of cost, you could easily get a dedicated gaming pc for that kind of money.

on the other hand an external setup allows you to do some serious design work and computation on a MBP.