Guild Wars 2

Just started using the Mac client again after a month or so off, and I’m very impressed. It runs smoothly on my iMac and my MacBook Pro, with only minor issues with map lag and occasional sound glitches.

Thanks again ANet for making this game Mac friendly, booting to the Windows side is a drag!

First, thanks very much ArenaNet and TransGaming for coming together to make a working Mac port, I’m thrilled to have it! Now, on to the performance analysis:

I am currently running on a 27" iMac, with a 2.93GHz i7 and 16 gigs of RAM. The graphics card is an ATI Radeon 5800 series.

In Windows 7 under Bootcamp with high/medium graphics settings, I average around 30-37 FPS in almost all situations. Sometimes in a particularly nasty WvW battle it can drop to the high 20s, but its very playable. The Mac port runs from 20-30 FPS in normal play, and drops to around 10 in WvW fights. Still playable, but far from ideal.

Also, I’ve noticed that the graphics on the Mac side don’t seem to be as “rich” as the Windows side with all settings identical. I know that’s next to useless from a troubleshooting standpoint, but the colors seem more washed out, and things seem almost less 3D. I imagine its a result of native Apple drivers versus the ATI Catalyst drivers I use on the Windows side, but I’m not sure.

I’m probably going to continue using Bootcamp for now, just because it is more enjoyable, but I am really looking forward to seeing how the beta comes along. Thanks again!