The DLC hasn't been optimized for Mac, at all, has it?

[Stanley Spadowski]

It's a consistent ~ 50% drop in performance compared to the rest of the game areas with the OS X port.  In Winter March, "completely unacceptable" is the new frame rate.  Travel outside of Winter March, and it's acceptable again.

 

I'm so disappointed right now...

[Ymarsakar]

It's not just for mac.

[bartlebooth]

I don't have this problem at all playing on a 2014 13" rMBP. Plays pretty much the same regardless of zone. I could do without the constant crashes on transition though.

[Stanley Spadowski]

I don't have this problem at all playing on a 2014 13" rMBP. Plays pretty much the same regardless of zone. I could do without the constant crashes on transition though.

 

Hmm... Here are my specs:

 

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014)

2.8 GHz Intel Core i7

16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3

NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M 2048 MB

1 TB Flash Storage

OS X 10.10.3

 

I tried forcing the Intel Iris Pro graphics to stay on with gfxCardStatus in order to mimic your MBP without a dedicated GPU, to see if the NVidia GPU is the problem, and it partially helped.  There was about a 15-20% improvement in the frame rate when bypassing the NVidia card, which is troubling to me.  It still plays and dips pretty drastically compared to all the previous areas.  In Winter March it can dip down to 14 fps quite frequently in battle.

 

Outside of Winter March, I wasn't getting the best performance ever, but at least "console like" acceptable performance for a CRPG when using the Nvidia.  (35-45 fps on max settings and max resolution)

 

This is my first play through of PoE.  I bought it before launch, but put it down only 4 hours into it after reading about the game breaking bugs.  I waited for the patches to come, and figured with the release of a DLC, and it being up to version 2.0, that it was ready for a lengthy play through. Imagine my disappointment when I traveled to Winter March ~ 30 hours into the game, and the game turned into a strobed out silent film from 1916... yikes.

[bartlebooth]

That's very odd. I have graphics on medium, it's not super smooth but it's fine and certainly better than 14fps. Driver issue with the GPU perhaps? 

[Stanley Spadowski]

It's definitely the Nvidia driver as the nail in the coffin, which is crazy to me, because it all plays acceptably fine at all max settings outside of Winters March. 

 

Also, the Nvidia drivers with Macs are administered through OS X updates. So... it's not like they didn't know about it or it was a surprise from Nvidia. I mean, they have to know about it, because... well... it works outside of Winters March.    

 

How the hell did they screw that up?  

 

And yes, 14 fps during battles with the Nvidia card in Winters March, dipping down much lower with spells at times.  Walking around it's ~17-23 fps. I think you were misunderstanding that 14 fps as the numbers for the Intel Iris pro.  

 

With the Intel Iris pro I can get ~30 fps with the graphics slider all the way down, sometimes higher.  It dips down to ~21-25 fps during battles, occasionally going down further into the teens.  

 

Fortunately battles are played in "slow motion" and paused, so a terrible frame rate doesn't affect PoE as much as it would in a straight up action game.

 

Regardless, Winters March is pretty much running at 50% of the rest of the games performance, which is pretty terrible.  Actually, I guess maybe worse, since I'm basing those numbers off of a comparison of max graphics setting to the lowest setting.  Yikes..

 

Cheers 

[Ymarsakar]

2.0 White March is playable, the bugs only affect a few things like the stash and that's only sometimes on area transfer.

 

2.01 introduced a lot more broken systems.

 

Obsidian's early patches didn't break the game to this extent, so I surmise it has something to do with the PX1 content.

 

Whatever things disappear from the stash they'll get back after a more stable patch, so I would just play it on that version if you can, not worry about the rest.

Edited September 9, 2015 by Ymarsakar

[Aarik D]

Hello Stanley,

 

Do you happen to have EVGA Precision X installed? If so that is your problem. Disable the app and nvidia card should stop causing your system problems. 

 

Thank you for your support!

[Stanley Spadowski]

Hello Stanley,

 

Do you happen to have EVGA Precision X installed? If so that is your problem. Disable the app and nvidia card should stop causing your system problems. 

 

Thank you for your support!

 

No I don't have that installed.  That is a Windows program.  As the title states, and also as my reply with specs states, I'm using a Mac with OS X. I'm running the Steam version patch 2.01 of PoE.  

 

The only program I use is gfxCardStatus, which does nothing to the card.  OS X dynamically switches between onboard Intel Iris or Nvidia GPU depending on the program.  When a video game is launched, it switches to the Nvidia.  GfxCardStatus is a utility that allows me to force one to be used, and not switch.  That is how I was able to test between Intel Iris and Nvidia on the same machine.  

 

Also, Nvidia drivers are administered and installed through OS X updates.  So, the Nvidia driver I have is whatever is packaged officially with OS 10.10.3.  10.10.5 is out, but I haven't upgraded to that yet.  

 

In other words, there is no funny business going on... it's an untampered Mac setup that meets and exceeds the requirements.    

 

Cheers