Guild Wars 2

Hello, I’m just wondering if anyone else is thinking about how the new iMac Retina 5K might play Guild Wars 2. Does anyone have one yet?

I’m currently playing on a Macbook Pro (mac client), and I have to turn most graphics to Best Performance. If anyone gets a new iMac, I would love to know how it plays, especially in WvW.

Speculation is also welcome.

I don’t think it would be a good idea. The graphics card in the 5K iMac isn’t overly good, and in order to drive the 5K display it has to use a LOT of it’s graphics/processing power (in fact the graphics card it has is arguably worse than the Nvidia card found in the regular high end 27"). I think if you do a little bit of research it actually has worse performance than the regular non-5K iMacs. Bottom line – a 5K screen is ridiculous. Sure it’s going to look gorgeous, but the amount of power and resources needed to drive the screen is going to hinder the computers capabilities.

Ill just leave this right here…http://techcrunch.com/2014/10/20/retina-imac-review/
I would say it would be just fine if not great.

here is a direct quote from someone who has actually used it for gaming.
The new iMac is also a powerful gaming machine, if that’s your thing. I played Civilization V on the machine at its max possible resolution (which is still just 3200×1800 in HiDPI mode, and therefore still scaled on the iMac’s Retina display) and the gameplay experience was smooth and fast, even in later stages of the game when the map gets a bit crowded with visual elements. Other action games, like last year’s Tomb Raider, also performed well.

Just installed it w/a 5k iMac w/m295x. When I tried to run at 5k it crashed, but I can run at 2560×1440 and am getting between 30 to 50 fps. Set to supersampling, with AA, most options pegged high. Looks great!

karmamule.6923:

Just installed it w/a 5k iMac w/m295x. When I tried to run at 5k it crashed, but I can run at 2560×1440 and am getting between 30 to 50 fps. Set to supersampling, with AA, most options pegged high. Looks great!

Can you show a pic or vid? Real curious and Im gonna need a new iMac soon but want sure if it would play in 5K, lag or have tearing, or overheat.

Waiting for mine with i7/32gb ram/295×. Will post when I receive it.

I just tried playing it on an i5 Retina Mac and it keeps crashing too.

just got the beast, the game plays flawlessly with everything maxed out. its a bit laggy in 5k but that was expected, plus, the icons are sooooo small in that resolution it’s not recommended but with half of that in full screen the game looks amazing and is very fluid.

Fhenrir, you can scale UI elements, there’s a setting for it in the options. Try to make them larger, tell us if it helps with readability.

Just Ordered my iMac 5K with the core i7, m295x graphics card, and 512 flash storage. As soon as I get it I will test it out and let you know. I will also check out the icon sizing issue and post about that too.

I have the iMac 5K w/ i7 and it constantly crashes on me….

I’m talking with GW2 Support to troubleshoot it, but it’s taking awhile. The current theory is that that GPU and CPU are running far too hot during the times when it decides to crash. As to why they are running that hot, I don’t know. I haven’t played the game at full resolution (for the same reason Fhenrir said… UI gets too tiny, even if you scale it up to its largest size), but even with all graphics lowered to the bare minimum (and looking like utter crap), it will still crash.

I’m wondering if other iMac 5K users are having this issue too, or if this is a special case?

Hi fellow Guildies,

Any updates from the iMac 5k users?

Any word/recommendations from a GW2 staff member perhaps?

I would really like to know if the game runs flawlessly on the system and what the optimal settings are (not at full 5k of course).

Appreciate any feedback.

I’m guessing the main issue is going to be the same complaint other 4K PC players have made. Even at the largest current font and UI settings, it is very difficult to read text or use the UI as it is very small compared to 1080p). I’m guessing that it will be even worse on a 5K display…..

I wouldn’t anticipate any actual technical video issues, but I’m guessing that is possible (there were a few with the 4K PC systems when trying to span multiple displays, I think).

Has anyone had success playing GW2 through Windows? (Boot Camp)

I too use the iMac 5K, and the game crashes, no matter the resolution. I’ve heard (on non-5K iMacs) running on Windows resolves lag/crash issues. I don’t feel like spending the time or money on this work-around if it doesn’t work.

Anyone with experience here?

Let’s be real, I’m running the game on a much better hardware and I’m struggling @4k, it’s just a mere dream to game on a resolution like that with mobile hardware just yet.

@Plantastically – sounds like you have the same issue as me.

I finally got the game to run through campaigns without crashing by having it set to the lowest of the lows (basically in the visual settings, using the “setting preset” that is the lowest). It looks like complete crap, but it runs and I can make it through a chain of events without having to quickly log back in and pray I didn’t miss the loot boss.

Though admittedly… this workaround kind of defeats the purpose of playing this game on such a spiffy screen. I’d be interested to know if bootcamp + gw2 plays nicely on the 5k iMac… (though myself, I’m probably not going to go through the bootcamp setup process… I had it before on a previous Mac and maintaining both partitions just to play 1 game was so not worth it for me).

No the hardware’s dosnt exist to play 4k never mind 5k well on any level of graphics settings

chris.9142:

No the hardware’s dosnt exist to play 4k never mind 5k well on any level of graphics settings

Tbh,im not even gonna bother with 4k..There are so much scaling issues going on even in windows,webpages,and in most games..30hz,30fps with vsync on cap…The need to own a High end gpu,or even in sli/crossfire. and than still averaging 22 – 37fps in games like bf4..4k – 5k is such a hype for people who have too much money and want the newest thing Right away without proper hardware available to make it all run smooth.They give up so much just to be able to run at that reso with a crappy fps.

Just got my iMac 5k, and the game crashes about every 10 minutes when I try to play. Anyone else have this issue?

Guildwars+imac 5k = video crash overtime!

Gavian Whishaw.2930:

We will have a few in house so I can let you know how it works out once we get them set up.

I guess they are still on back order after 3 months.

ting.3268:

Though admittedly… this workaround kind of defeats the purpose of playing this game on such a spiffy screen.

Playing at 5k is just not an option, no matter the plattform. Even highest-end gaming hardware can barely drive a game at that resolution. 2560×1440 (exactly half of the native 5k) is a realistic target for the hardware you have to work with on the iMac.

zdrtx.5920:

Hello, I’m just wondering if anyone else is thinking about how the new iMac Retina 5K might play Guild Wars 2. Does anyone have one yet?

I’m currently playing on a Macbook Pro (mac client), and I have to turn most graphics to Best Performance. If anyone gets a new iMac, I would love to know how it plays, especially in WvW.

Speculation is also welcome.

The 5 k screen will be good for photo work, viewing the internet, but the GPU can’t run anything near 5k except older DX 9 games. Apple claims 3.5 TFLOPS of GPU power, which puts it under a desktop 280x at 4 (so view 280x benchmarks and you are close). If you want a comparison to the exact same architecture, my R9 290 Tri-x has well over 5 TFLOPS of GPU power on it’s overclock. I can run Guild Wars 2 at a 3k downsample via AMD VSR (downsampling via Catalyst), but text/mouse cursor is too small to read on my 24 inch monitor (would prob be ok on a 27 inch) and I still can’t “max” the game. Granted you need less AA or no AA at high resolutions.

I can run games like Mass Effect at 5.2 K downsampled in Gedosato with 4k texture packs. That GPU might be able to run those games at 4k (which would look really good), but not Guild Wars 2. I can run a game like Shadows of Mordor at a locked 30 FPS at 4k but 60 is a pipe dream on a single GPU card.

You can PROBABLY do 1440p and maybe supersampling with some settings off or down.

The CPU? Good. The I7 option would be faster since it has a higher clock speed/turbo boost and you can’t OC the cpu in a Imac. You want a CPU as fast as you can get on single core performance for GW2 and that CPU is as good as it gets without overclocking and building your own machine or ordering an overclocked I5/I7. The Hyperthreading won’t help much for gaming until we are on new API’s (and would still require a new version of the game/port to that API) and the I5 would still be fine, but if you are going all out on an Apple product you might as well get the I7 which will get you a few more FPS in zergs. 4k gaming? Build you own. The dual GPU AMD could handle it as could 2 980’s. No single GPU card can. The next AMD series? Maybe 4 k. We have to wait and see how it performs.

5k screen is cool, but you will need TWO cards that are not even out yet to actually achieve decent FPS in new games and you can’t upgrade GPU’s in an IMAC. The only thing I can imagine the 5k screen being really cool in is Adobe photoshop or to watch 4k movies on.

OK, so we all know it crashes often on the 5k imac. I have a PC but my wife has been playing on the i7 5k m290x imac, and its crashing pretty consistently at Vinewrath, or any large event. We’re not trying to play at 5k, we know thats not going to happen, and thats ok, but we’d sure like to be able to play and not crash at every large event. Other than bootcamp, I’m not sure what to do. We really don’t want to set up bootcamp. What will make this playable?

Sir Cusfreak.5971:

OK, so we all know it crashes often on the 5k imac. I have a PC but my wife has been playing on the i7 5k m290x imac, and its crashing pretty consistently at Vinewrath, or any large event. We’re not trying to play at 5k, we know thats not going to happen, and thats ok, but we’d sure like to be able to play and not crash at every large event. Other than bootcamp, I’m not sure what to do. We really don’t want to set up bootcamp. What will make this playable?

This is the unfortunate reality of the Mac client. large-scale events with high player numbers are more likely to cause crashes. You can reduce the chances by changing all settings to absolute minimum just for those fights. Of course that will make the game look like crap.
I don’t particularly like it either, but Bootcamp is to this day the best solution to get GW2 to run on your Mac reliably.

The only advantage a 5K display would give you for internet viewing is a larger desktop. No actual web content is going to be geared for even 4K HD (much less the more awkward 5K Mac spec).

Viewing standard HD content on a 5K display is going to be difficult due to the small size it will be in native format (I’m not talking about video when I say standard HD…that can be scaled….with performance costs, of course).

Can confirm that GW2 runs on the iMac 5k. 5k resolution produces graphical bugs which is probably a scaling issue, anything below 5k runs fine. I recommend using 1440p and cranking all the settings up as this provides the BEST performance imo and looks good. There is a very faint blurriness when using 1440p but I attribute this to the game again not scaling correctly with the 5k’s 4:1 pixel ratio.

any updates on this?

Gavian?

I am running at 1980 × 1080 on my 5K iMac and the game will crash within 10 minutes if there are lots of other player characters around, such as in WvW games. Seems ok doing the personal story.

So it seems like those with the m295x graphics card can run GW2 and for those with the base model it keeps crashing? Just trying to find a pattern here, but not much to go on since not everyone reported their specs.

I’m strongly considering getting an imac in the next month, so more experiences would be welcome. Also considering getting the 295x for better gaming performance. Still couldn’t quite catch whether GW2 works better through bootcamp or not, so would love to hear an answer on that as well. And I don’t need to play at 5K resolution since I never play full screen anyway, so I’m more curious if it can run 1440p smoothly at full graphics, both in bootcamp and OSX.

sfinlay.5249:

I am running at 1980 × 1080 on my 5K iMac and the game will crash within 10 minutes if there are lots of other player characters around, such as in WvW games. Seems ok doing the personal story.

That doesn’t have anything to do with your Mac precisely, the mac version crashes in WvW since the game was launched. It was at some point fixed for almost a year and then they broke it again with the last feature patch.

aurora.2804:

So it seems like those with the m295x graphics card can run GW2 and for those with the base model it keeps crashing? Just trying to find a pattern here, but not much to go on since not everyone reported their specs.

I’m strongly considering getting an imac in the next month, so more experiences would be welcome. Also considering getting the 295x for better gaming performance. Still couldn’t quite catch whether GW2 works better through bootcamp or not, so would love to hear an answer on that as well. And I don’t need to play at 5K resolution since I never play full screen anyway, so I’m more curious if it can run 1440p smoothly at full graphics, both in bootcamp and OSX.

You really need to think about the iMac and your gaming experience with Guild Wars 2. First the client isn’t native so a lot of people are having issues with this beta client.

Here’s a few people complaining about the same issue: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/support/Client-crashes-during-heavy-graphic-fights/first#post4953510

Roamer.2185:

aurora.2804:

So it seems like those with the m295x graphics card can run GW2 and for those with the base model it keeps crashing? Just trying to find a pattern here, but not much to go on since not everyone reported their specs.

I’m strongly considering getting an imac in the next month, so more experiences would be welcome. Also considering getting the 295x for better gaming performance. Still couldn’t quite catch whether GW2 works better through bootcamp or not, so would love to hear an answer on that as well. And I don’t need to play at 5K resolution since I never play full screen anyway, so I’m more curious if it can run 1440p smoothly at full graphics, both in bootcamp and OSX.

You really need to think about the iMac and your gaming experience with Guild Wars 2. First the client isn’t native so a lot of people are having issues with this beta client.

Here’s a few people complaining about the same issue: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/support/Client-crashes-during-heavy-graphic-fights/first#post4953510

Forgot to mention that I already have a 2009 27" iMac and am looking to upgrade to the retina version. I’ve hardly had any problems with the mac client so I’m looking more for issues specific to the retina imac, not mac in general.

Thought I’d give a small update in case anyone is still interested in this topic.

Got my new retina iMac two days ago, and so far I couldn’t have been more satisfied! I bought it with the better 295x graphics card, but otherwise it has the base specs (haven’t even had time to upgrade the 8 gb ram yet).

I’ve only tried it on OSX so far and not on boot camp, but it runs smoothly on max graphics and hasn’t crashed a single time. I’ve mainly been doing silverwastes these past days so I can’t say much how it performs in WvW and other areas, but it handles pve well even in crowded fights. I’ve been playing it both full screen at 1440p and windowed 1600×1200 and it hardly ever goes below 30 fps.

So all in all, I don’t think playing gw2 on the retina imac is going to be an issue if anyone else is still concerned.

Why did Gavian never even update us as to how the office ones are working?

I’ve had an iMac Retina for about 3 months. I can’t play WvW or large world events because I just crash during those. I’m not even using the full 5k, I use 2.5k resolution.

guess that makes sense why he never replied then. Hey guys new mac works great just don’t participate in world bosses or any real large events otherwise our beta client of 2 years will crash.

i literally just installed the game on my new iMac 5k and it crashes soon after logging into any character. sigh. back to wow i go it seems

Ambroze.9354:

i literally just installed the game on my new iMac 5k and it crashes soon after logging into any character. sigh. back to wow i go it seems

Lower the resolution in the game settings (which can be done from the character selection screen).

A brand new iMac… lower the resolution… This is odd…

Moesmaker.9581:

A brand new iMac… lower the resolution… This is odd…

The Guild Wars 2 Mac client is anything but optimised unfortunately.

Moesmaker.9581:

A brand new iMac… lower the resolution… This is odd…

5K is a very very high resolution. You’d be hard pressed to find a 5K monitor for sale out in the wild, so no it’s not an odd suggestion (new things often take MORE time to be supported as well… So having a “brand new” anything is no guarantee that something should work well). Game makers are still in the processing of supporting 4K, why would 5K be expected to work in games when apple is one of the few manufacturers who create a 5K display? The higher your resolution the more strain you’re putting on your CPU and GPU. 5K is a lot of strain.

Did I mention 5K?

What is say is that it is rather strange that Ambroze bought a new Mac and that GW2 crashes after login.

That said, GW2 crashes on LOTS of Macs nowadays. On my Mac, it is the ONLY game that crashes all the time.

Still a bit odd.

This thread is still here a year later, and yet they still have not improved the UI at all to work with 4k or even 5k resolutions. They even said they will be getting some 5K displays in-house.

Moesmaker.9581:

Did I mention 5K?

What is say is that it is rather strange that Ambroze bought a new Mac and that GW2 crashes after login.

That said, GW2 crashes on LOTS of Macs nowadays. On my Mac, it is the ONLY game that crashes all the time.

Still a bit odd.

They specifically say they have a brand new 5K iMac. Your reply was in response to their comment and my accompanying one about lowering the resolution. So you didn’t have to specifically mention 5K, because we were already talking about a 5K iMac. If they had any other mac there wouldn’t be a need to lower the resolution and it would be a moot point.

GW2 has always crashed lots on OS X. Ever since the beta client for OS X was released people have been complaining on the forums about not being able to play or having the game crash frequently. There have been short reprieves where the number of crashes has lessened, but they’ve always been there. It’s not a new problem. (and not an acceptable problem either, obviously).

all you guys have to do is download windows bootcamp. runs way smoother

bbennett.7463:

all you guys have to do is download windows bootcamp. runs way smoother

That’s not really an “all you have to do…” kind of thing. I personally play through bootcamp, but I have the HDD space to do so and I had a Windows license. It’s extra money and effort to be able to play the game which should be playable on OS X, since it is advertised as such. That’s not a solution at all.

I recently got a 5k iMac, and I can confirm that running the game at max resolution causes the chat log to be effectively unreadable. It also still suffers from all of the crashing problems all macs do thanks to the wrapper issue.