kraigballa

Q: My top of the line iMac keeps freezing when playing games

I just purchased a brand new iMac, with a ton of ugrades to it. For some reason when I play a game like Counter Strike GO, about every fourth round my computer completely freezes and the only option is to press the power button on the back of the iMac to reboot it. I even tried to download a fan control app so when I play I can turn the fan speed up. However this doesn't seem to fix the issue. Any ideas? Below are my computer specs:

 

Hardware

  • 3.5GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 3.9GHz
  • 32GB 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 4X8GB
  • 1TB Serial ATA Drive @ 7200 rpm
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M 4GB GDDR5

Software 

     OS X 10.9.2 (13C64)

iMac, OS X Mavericks (10.9.2)

Posted on Apr 9, 2014 7:03 PM

Close

Q: My top of the line iMac keeps freezing when playing games

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

Page 1 of 3 last Next
  • by MichelPM,

    MichelPM MichelPM Apr 9, 2014 7:11 PM in response to kraigballa
    Level 6 (14,172 points)
    iPad
    Apr 9, 2014 7:11 PM in response to kraigballa

    Is CounterStrike GO a game that actually runs on your iMac or is this an online game?

  • by kraigballa,

    kraigballa kraigballa Apr 9, 2014 8:20 PM in response to MichelPM
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 9, 2014 8:20 PM in response to MichelPM

    It's a game ran on the iMac.

  • by MichelPM,

    MichelPM MichelPM Apr 9, 2014 8:29 PM in response to kraigballa
    Level 6 (14,172 points)
    iPad
    Apr 9, 2014 8:29 PM in response to kraigballa

    Since this is a new iMac, you have one free year of AppleCare. Use it!

    Make an appointment with an Apple Store for diagnosis and repair.

    Demonstrste your issues to the genius so they can see the problem.

    Have you had this iMac for less than 14 days?

    If Apple finds an issue and you have had this iMac less than 14 days, you can return the iMsc for a full refund and re-order another brand new top of the line iMac that may not have a hardware issue.

     

    In the future, Consider purchasing extended AppleCare before your first year of ownership expires.

    If you let your free first year of AppleCare expire, you won't ever be able to purchase and register for the extended warranty, again.

    Good Luck!

  • by MichelPM,

    MichelPM MichelPM Apr 9, 2014 8:50 PM in response to kraigballa
    Level 6 (14,172 points)
    iPad
    Apr 9, 2014 8:50 PM in response to kraigballa

    One thing you can try is to make sure you have a minimum of apps open, running in the background.

    According to the game's specs, you more than exceed to mimumum requirements to play the game.

    Do you play this alone or is this game designed to be a online multiplayer game?

    Do you play this game online even though the game resides and launches from on your iMac?

  • by kraigballa,

    kraigballa kraigballa Apr 9, 2014 9:09 PM in response to MichelPM
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 9, 2014 9:09 PM in response to MichelPM

    It's a multiplayer online game that I play through the iMac. I've had everything closed except CS and it still persists.

  • by MichelPM,

    MichelPM MichelPM Apr 9, 2014 9:26 PM in response to kraigballa
    Level 6 (14,172 points)
    iPad
    Apr 9, 2014 9:26 PM in response to kraigballa

    Does this feel like it could be an Internet issue.

    Are you using a broadband connection and, if yes, what is the average speed of that connection?

    Are there any other computers or devices that share this connection and, possibly, get used at the same time?

  • by MichelPM,

    MichelPM MichelPM Apr 9, 2014 9:39 PM in response to kraigballa
    Level 6 (14,172 points)
    iPad
    Apr 9, 2014 9:39 PM in response to kraigballa

    Have you tried dropping the resolution of your iMac's screen down to a slightly lower resolution instead of the iMac's native resolution of 2560 X 1440?

  • by Mike Sombrio,

    Mike Sombrio Mike Sombrio Apr 10, 2014 3:23 AM in response to kraigballa
    Level 6 (17,283 points)
    Apple Watch
    Apr 10, 2014 3:23 AM in response to kraigballa

    First, Did you buy the computer from Apple with 32gb of ram or did you or a reseller upgrade it?

    Next, is your iMac having a kernel panic? http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3742

    If so post a recent panic log http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2546?viewlocale=en_US

  • by kraigballa,

    kraigballa kraigballa Apr 10, 2014 10:49 AM in response to Mike Sombrio
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 10, 2014 10:49 AM in response to Mike Sombrio

    I purchased everything from Apple. I checked and I don't see anything resembling a kernel panic.

  • by MichelPM,

    MichelPM MichelPM Apr 10, 2014 12:00 PM in response to kraigballa
    Level 6 (14,172 points)
    iPad
    Apr 10, 2014 12:00 PM in response to kraigballa

    You haven't answered any of my questions.

    It could very much be a Internet connection issue if you do not have sufficient bandwidth speed.

  • by MichelPM,

    MichelPM MichelPM Apr 10, 2014 12:01 PM in response to kraigballa
    Level 6 (14,172 points)
    iPad
    Apr 10, 2014 12:01 PM in response to kraigballa

    .

  • by kraigballa,

    kraigballa kraigballa Apr 10, 2014 5:44 PM in response to MichelPM
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 10, 2014 5:44 PM in response to MichelPM

    My iMac would completely freeze because of the internet connection...? Seems implausable. However, I have 20 Mbps down and 1 Mbps up. Is that what you mean?

  • by kraigballa,

    kraigballa kraigballa Apr 10, 2014 5:45 PM in response to MichelPM
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 10, 2014 5:45 PM in response to MichelPM

    I've dropped the resolution on the game. However, with everything this Mac has I don't see why I would need to do this.

  • by MichelPM,

    MichelPM MichelPM Apr 10, 2014 6:29 PM in response to kraigballa
    Level 6 (14,172 points)
    iPad
    Apr 10, 2014 6:29 PM in response to kraigballa

    Okay.

    I do not know how multiplayer online games work, but I would imagine that you are accessing some sort of gaming server for online multiplayer gaming and that means your are both downloading control events and uploading control  events,as well? It may very well be that 1 Mbps upload could be a bottleneck for data transfer.

    I simply do not know.

    All I know is if you were just playing this game from your Mac as a single player and no Intenet connection, your iMac would, probably NOT be experiencing these issues.

    AND, if 20 Mbps per second is your purchased, top Internet speed, depending on how busy other user are accessing the Internet and sucking up bandwidth from your ISP, the bandwidth from your ISP can very greatly and can have an impact on your Mac's actual Internet speeds.

    SInce this is real-time online game, it is possible that your Mac can freeze up with trying to send and receiving real time player commands over the web to the game servers and back to client computers.

    What this amounts to is that there are too many variables that can affect your Mac's performance is this situation.

    Is there any other way to test your iMac by playing this game, locally, without Internet access, as a single player to see of your iMac crashes in this situation?

    That would rule out issue that are directly related to your Mac hardware.

Page 1 of 3 last Next