Guild Wars 2

Hello. Im playing on a early 2008 17 inch mac! I have 10.8.2 installed and i have low FPS. Anywhere from low 5 to a high 20. (mostly on the lower side)

Please fix this and get me running fast!!

Early 2008 Mac
OS X 10.8.2
2.5 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
4 GB 667 MHz
NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT 512 MB

It would help if you said at what settings & resolution you are running at.

My advance setting is best performance, with all low settings. No reflection, Subsample render and resolution is clicked on window 1680 × 1050

I have similar specs on my MacBook Pro (2.4Ghz C2D, 8Gb RAM, 9600M GT 256Mb) and considering that our machines are somewhat below the recommended specs for the Mac client, and borderline for even the Windows client. I kinda think we’re stuck at those frame rates. My only hint would be lowering the resolution (I play at 1280×800 / 1440×900).

Bootcamping to windows 7 I’ll get anywhere from 20-30fps and great playability, but the Mac client in it’s current state gives me results around 7-15 fps. A wine/cider-port will almost never give you as good performance as a native windows install. Considering that machines with our specs are already struggling to keep up in a native windows environment, I’d be impressed if ANet could push the perfomance to a “playable” level on the Mac side.

I don’t want to be all negative here – I’d love to ditch my bootcamp partition. But I’m just afraid that my (and prob your) machine is just too slow for the game in it’s current state. Perhaps we need a “super low” setting?

Don’t forsake your hardware. Bear in mind that your Windows install is running the game natively. The Cider client for Mac is emulating DirectX across the Mac hardware, and the wrapper itself needs its own resources to run. This leaves less horsepower for the game and results in a drop in performance. ANet is not responsible for the Transgaming wrapper, unfortunately, and considering TG’s utter silence with NCSoft’s other mac port (City of Heroes), I’d be amazed if they fixed the current slurry of issues being posted on the forums (most of which I posted a thread about before it happened).

It’s a Laptop, what do you expect?

On my Acer Ultrabook I have i3, 4gb ram and Intel HD Graphics 3000. I can play at everything lowest on graphic settings at 720p with acceptable fps, about 30ish when I’m soloing!

My i3 Intel HD Graphics 3000 vs your Core 2 Duo and GeForce 8600M should be roughly equal in performance.

Thank you for a reply it helps, BUT I know it may help BUT will I get any FPS improvement at all will I go from 5FPS to 10 only if so thats nothing its still a slide show, now if I get 20+ then yes I can live with that I would love if Anet or someone that has this kinda system know for sure cuz I’m not up-dating tell I come into more money only to waste it for only 5 or so frames.

( this was answered but not about hardware )

I own a 2006 model MacPro 1,1 with 2 x2 Ghz Dual-Core Intel Xeon with 7GB 667 Mhz DDR2 FB-DIMM ram.

Ok so people use laptops this guy ( OP ) has somewhat the same settings I have, I have yet to get an answer from anyone I went to mac Rumors and someone there said my Processors are whats the killer for me ok I’m running 10.6.8 right now I was told I can the ATI 5770HD I believe BUT will a card like that do anything or is this still like the beta in the PC where it was Processor intensive before coming out and running somewhat from GPU. I love my Mac and yes its old but I’m not forcking (sp) up 1500 bucks to play a game.

Snow Leopard isn’t supported. You will get nothing from ArenaNet regarding your issue so long as you are running an unsupported OS. Same will be true if your hardware doesn’t meet minimum specs.

If you are able to run it under Windows, do so.

thank you there is no point now its simple my system is just to old thanks for answering I’ll just keep fighting the 5fps ty.

I don’t get it. On the Windows Partition of my Macbook Pro 2010 the game runs smooth with all settings high but on the Mac OSX Mountain Lion Partition it seems to stay below 15 FPS

Retina Macbook Pro 2012
2.3Ghz 16GB Memory

1280×800 , 15Fps (low profile – fast graphic)

The 8600M GT is actually slower than the Intel’s integrated HD 3000. It is just too old and too slow. Even with superior Windows drivers it won’t give you any reasonable performance. I am afraid you will have to upgrade your computer (as in: get a new one )

What kind of Fps should I be getting then on this mac beta client?

Specs:

Early 2011 17 inch Macbook Pro (1920 X 1200 Resolution)

Processor: 2.3 GHz Intel Core I7

Memory: 8 GB 1333 MHZ DDR3

Graphics Card: AMD Radeon HD 6750M 1024 MB

I’m using a brand new macbook pro retina display 2.6 GHz i7 16GB RAM …. i get half the frame rate on my mac that i do on this same laptop bootcamped…

there’s something wrong with this picture why do i feel like they just wrapped their game in a wine skin or something… this isn’t a real port or the performance wouldn’t be this terrible.

@DarkVengance

It is BETA client. Instead of complaining, please get directX dialog from Windows and its equivalent from MAC (no idea if they have one) and provide them.

DarkVengeance.5042:

why do i feel like they just wrapped their game in a wine skin or something…

Because it is essentially what they did.

And because Nvidia drivers for the 650M are much worse under OS X than under Windows. BTW, 10.8.2 has an improved driver which dramatically improves the performance of the 650M. It is still below the Windows one, but its much better than before.

Cal.1985:

@DarkVengance

It is BETA client. Instead of complaining, please get directX dialog from Windows and its equivalent from MAC (no idea if they have one) and provide them.

Direct X is windows dude that’s why open GL would have been the way to go for Arena net. Open GL engineers are much harder to come by because it’s more difficult to code…

@DarkVengeance: nonsence. OpenGL is not any harder to code, in fact, OpenGL and DirectX are extremely similar nowadays. The reason why there are not so many OpenGL programmers nowadays is simply because DX is more popular.

Dwight.5709:

Hello. Im playing on a early 2008 17 inch mac! I have 10.8.2 installed and i have low FPS. Anywhere from low 5 to a high 20. (mostly on the lower side)

Please fix this and get me running fast!!

Early 2008 Mac
OS X 10.8.2
2.5 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
4 GB 667 MHz
NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT 512 MB

Which of the following is your Hard Drive?
250 GB (5400-rpm)
200 GB (7200-rpm)
300 GB (4200-rpm)

If it’s anything but the 200GB drive, swap it out for a faster drive (with more space too). You might want to check how much HD space is remaining. Less than 10-20% remaining will result in slower overall performance.

You could go up to 6GB of RAM (by installing 8GB), but beware… 667 RAM is spendy right now.

Another issue impacting performance is the fact that Apple has effectively de-emphasized X11 which things like Wine and Cider rely on. Now that XQuartz is an open source project I wonder how the X11 drivers for newer graphics chips will get their proprietary interface info?
I have two data points – first the game runs much better as an administrator — don’t know why, and second I get better frame rates on Windows XP under Parallels than as a native game.
This port smells of a “quick and dirty” – I can hear them now — “we are getting bad press and not competing with WoW since we have no Mac client – get me one – cheap”

DarkVengeance.5042:

I’m using a brand new macbook pro retina display 2.6 GHz i7 16GB RAM …. i get half the frame rate on my mac that i do on this same laptop bootcamped…

there’s something wrong with this picture why do i feel like they just wrapped their game in a wine skin or something… this isn’t a real port or the performance wouldn’t be this terrible.

They did just wrap the game with Transgaming/Cider (which is a fork of Wine). I’m hoping to do some performance tests this weekend on my min-spec Mac for Windows (below req for Mac game).

Hi,

I have very low FPS (not above 15) with a MacBook Pro Retina 2,3 GHz, but only since a few days. Before, I could run Guild Wars 2 with the highest graphics.

@Red, Another thread was discussing the low FPS on new Macbook Pros and it was suggested to reset your SMC. I did on mine and saw a huge jump in performance.

Details on how to do this can be found here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964

The thread discussing this technique can be found here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/mac/Low-FPS-on-2012-MacBook-Pro/first#post321617

Just as a side note, I don’t think a Macbook Pro is going to be able to run GW2 on the highest settings at a good frame rate. The limiting factor is the mobile graphics card.

@Fael

I will try to reset the SMC as you have suggested, thank you.

However, my MacBook Pro Retina is able to run Guild Wars 2 with the highest settings at a good FPS. It already did it.

Update :
Miraculously, my problem seems to have been resolved : I can play with good settings and FPS again !
Sorry Fael, but it is not thank to you… I haven’t reset my SMC yet.

Red Malo.7406:

Miraculously, my problem seems to have been resolved : I can play with good settings and FPS again !
Sorry Fael, but it is not thank to you… I haven’t reset my SMC yet.

Which means that your SMC started working on its own The SMC issue with the rMBP is known – the last EFI firmware update is the culprit. Virtually every rMBP user suffers from it.

You guys all know that the iMacs have mobile graphics cards right?

DeadPhone.3084:

You guys all know that the iMacs have mobile graphics cards right?

Why would this be relevant for this thread?

so how about the 330m that also too slow or are your graphics requirements just made up?

Fael.5681:

Just as a side note, I don’t think a Macbook Pro is going to be able to run GW2 on the highest settings at a good frame rate. The limiting factor is the mobile graphics card.

Again, this comes down to the Cider wrapper. Considering that I can get upwards of 50FPS running GW2 in Boot Camp and only 15 FPS in the Mac client using the exact same hardware (a 330M 512), what does that tell you? Especially when I can play the entire Half Life series at full quality in OS X at 45 FPS. The Cider wrapper adds a lot of bulk to the game’s process and the graphics suffer.

green plum.7514:

DeadPhone.3084:

You guys all know that the iMacs have mobile graphics cards right?

Why would this be relevant for this thread?

think about it. Mobile version of an nvidia 88000 gs even at 512 mb ram isnt as good as a desktop card.

DeadPhone.3084:

green plum.7514:

DeadPhone.3084:

You guys all know that the iMacs have mobile graphics cards right?

Why would this be relevant for this thread?

think about it. Mobile version of an nvidia 88000 gs even at 512 mb ram isnt as good as a desktop card.

And the 2011 iMac has basically a desktop 6850, which even now is an ok budget card and surely able to run any modern game at acceptable settings. It doesn’t matter whether its a desktop or a mobile card, what matters is how fast it is. And OP’s card is obviously extremely slow.

The SMC completely fixed my framerate problems and more than doubled my framerate on my rMBP. It was going back and forth between about 20ish sometimes and 60ish other times. I was really confused but after doing the SMC reset it works fine Cheers!

Hello fellow guild wars 2 fans!

I was wondering if someone could answer a few questions for me pertaining to a fps problem. I am experiencing 7-10 fps at the lowest possible “best performance” settings.

Here are my relevant computer specs:

Processor 2.8 GHz Intel Core i7
Memory 8 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
Graphics Intel HD Graphics 3000 512 MB

I am guessing my problem is the GPU? Can anyone verify this?
And if I replace it with a gaming oriented card will that solve my issues?
Or are these just beta problems and will the final mac release be more performance polished?

Also, I read about restarting my SMC (don’t know what that is). I don’t have a retina, but could that work?

Thanks!

The Intel HD graphics family just wont cut it with a game like GW2, especially when using it through the TransGaming Cider wrapper. So yes, your GPU is to blame. It’s just not beefy enough.

Just to confirm (for others who might need to know) – Today’s patch dropped my FPS on my rMBP from 40-60fps to 5-20fps… the SMC reset suggested above returned me to 60fps+

a) Just FYI for those who might have the same problem today.
b) Huge thanks to the folks who discovered it and passed it on! Was afraid I’d have to start booting into wind-blows seven again (shudder).

I would like the Thank Anet for trying to make this on the Mac, but being a loyal Mac for years I just can’t part with my mac pro 1,1 at this time, I just don’t have the means for 2500 to 4000 dollars to play this game. I had done all the research I can do to upgrade my mac with a 3Ghz ( 300$ plus ) plus labor to install and going to 10.7.5 OSX, even with doing all this its still not enough to play this game. I do wish alot of the new guys with new Macs the best of luck and hope they enjoy this game it was fun tell I only get 3 to 4fps regardless. Thank You and Anet please hurry with the native Mac maybe then I can get 10 fps someday.