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Poor Performance on COD4?

James Bond

James Bond

Diamond Member
My dad owns a really beefy Mac Pro with the following:
8-core 3.0GHz
4GB 800MHz DDR2 RAM
8800GT

He has never really played any games on it, but he bought COD4 the other day since it had come out for Mac. After getting it loaded, he was having a tough time playing, so I went over to my parents place to check it out and help him get configured. Turns out that with settings on medium (1600x1200, 2xAA, normal detail), he was getting around 15-25 fps. It felt like I was playing on a laptop with a 30" screen.

Is there any way to run tests to see why his performance is so lacking so badly? I could get this done on a PC, but I really have no idea where to start on his Mac.

He doesn't currently have Boot Camp loaded, so I thought that this may be a good time to get it installed and see if there is a noticeable performance gain.
 
I'd try loading Boot Camp, definitely. Mac ports of 3D games are rarely good in my experience. Some of the newer ones are getting better, but really for gaming just have him use Vista SP1 with DX10.
 
Originally posted by: Kaido
I'd try loading Boot Camp, definitely. Mac ports of 3D games are rarely good in my experience. Some of the newer ones are getting better, but really for gaming just have him use Vista SP1 with DX10.
Click to expand...

So if he runs boot camp will there be any performance hit? How bad?
 
Nope.. no performance hit. It's a native install, so it runs just like if you installed it on a Dell, or home built system.
 
Why the hell did he wait for COD4 to come out on Mac then? 🙂

I think I'll install BootCamp, Vista Ultimate, then get TF2 loaded and see what's up 🙂

Edit: That being said - what's the best way for me to troubleshoot his MAC OS install? Something is definitely not right.
 
I hate when people suggest Bootcamp. Its not emualted, they ported it using a DX9 to Open GL layer.. its a native app.

It runs a little worse however but atleast he bough it and supported mac gaming. its annoying to have to dual boot just for gaming
 
Originally posted by: AnthroAndStargate
I hate when people suggest Bootcamp. Its not emualted, they ported it using a DX9 to Open GL layer.. its a native app.

It runs a little worse however but atleast he bough it and supported mac gaming. its annoying to have to dual boot just for gaming
Click to expand...

I agree it's annoying to dual boot, but what's more annoying is that game companies can't do a proper port.
 
Originally posted by: Kmax82
Originally posted by: AnthroAndStargate
I hate when people suggest Bootcamp. Its not emualted, they ported it using a DX9 to Open GL layer.. its a native app.

It runs a little worse however but atleast he bough it and supported mac gaming. its annoying to have to dual boot just for gaming
Click to expand...

I agree it's annoying to dual boot, but what's more annoying is that game companies can't do a proper port.
Click to expand...

Aspyr is (unfortunately?) the best porting house for Mac games.
 
Originally posted by: Jack Flash
Originally posted by: Kmax82
Originally posted by: AnthroAndStargate
I hate when people suggest Bootcamp. Its not emualted, they ported it using a DX9 to Open GL layer.. its a native app.

It runs a little worse however but atleast he bough it and supported mac gaming. its annoying to have to dual boot just for gaming
Click to expand...

I agree it's annoying to dual boot, but what's more annoying is that game companies can't do a proper port.
Click to expand...

Aspyr is (unfortunately?) the best porting house for Mac games.
Click to expand...

It shouldn't be left up to a third party game company to do a port. This should be handled by the main dev house, I think the quality of the titles would be much higher if that was the case.

I don't really play computer games any more, so it's a moot point for me. But it'd be nice to be able to have a couple good games on OS X to play when I get bored every once in a while.
 
Originally posted by: Kmax82
Originally posted by: Jack Flash
Originally posted by: Kmax82
Originally posted by: AnthroAndStargate
I hate when people suggest Bootcamp. Its not emualted, they ported it using a DX9 to Open GL layer.. its a native app.

It runs a little worse however but atleast he bough it and supported mac gaming. its annoying to have to dual boot just for gaming
Click to expand...

I agree it's annoying to dual boot, but what's more annoying is that game companies can't do a proper port.
Click to expand...

Aspyr is (unfortunately?) the best porting house for Mac games.
Click to expand...

It shouldn't be left up to a third party game company to do a port. This should be handled by the main dev house, I think the quality of the titles would be much higher if that was the case.

I don't really play computer games any more, so it's a moot point for me. But it'd be nice to be able to have a couple good games on OS X to play when I get bored every once in a while.
Click to expand...

I didn't realize that it was third parties doing the porting... That really is quite lame.

It will probably be annoying for him to have to dual boot, but honestly I think it will be a good learning experience. He uses Parallels, but doesn't really _use_ it.. Just knows how to open a couple apps.
 
I think there is something wrong with his installation or system, though. My iMac with the underclocked (in OS X) Mobility 2600 XT manages no fewer than 30 fps at 1280x800 with no AA and low AF but all other details set as high as they go.
 
Originally posted by: Jack Flash
I think there is something wrong with his installation or system, though. My iMac with the underclocked (in OS X) Mobility 2600 XT manages no fewer than 30 fps at 1280x800 with no AA and low AF but all other details set as high as they go.
Click to expand...

I agree - something MUST be wrong. I'm installing Vista Ultimate tonight, and I have no doubt that it will run perfectly.

I'm so inexperienced with Mac's, though, that I don't know where or how to troubleshoot ;(
 
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