MacBook Pro 2019 16" crashes with Civ VI and Humankind in late game

There is a problem with the MacBook Pro graphics hardware/software that causes both Civ VI and Humankind to crash in the late game. On my MacBook Pro, when I reboot it (using Bootcamp) to Windows 10 I can play both games without crashes. However, there is graphics corruption in Windows 10. This suggests to me there is a hardware problem with the graphics. Since others have experienced identical problems as mine, I'm inclined to believe this is a problem across the entire line of notebooks and not a problem specific to my notebook.


See this discussion for further details, including screenshots of what the graphics corruption looks like, from over a year ago: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251718101?page=2


I am convinced at this point that the notebooks have a flaw in the hardware.


Does anyone know more about this?

MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 11.6

Posted on Nov 22, 2021 2:56 PM

Reply

Similar questions

3 replies

Nov 22, 2021 4:47 PM in response to Jason Zwolak

The Apple laptops are not really considered gaming systems because these laptops are very hard to keep cool plus the laptop uses a mobile version of the GPU which is no where as good as a stand alone GPU in a PC desktop. As far as playing the game on Windows on the Apple laptop keep in mind that the GPU Windows driver Apple provides may not be of the same caliber as the standard GPU drivers from AMD/NVidia for their dedicated PCIe desktop graphics cards. Check to make sure your laptop meets or exceeds the "Recommended System Requirements" for the game.


You should contact the developer/publisher of the game for assistance. You may also find help or useful information on the games' own forums.


When playing games make sure to quit all other running apps and Login items so the entire system can be dedicated to running just the game for best results. You may also want to disconnect external devices (especially external drives) in case one of them may be taking up critical computer resources.

Nov 28, 2021 4:57 AM in response to HWTech

I think this would be a reasonable answer if the OP said something like "the game is running slow". The laptop crashes, as in the entire computer crashes and reboots. The operating system is crashing here.


Also, this is a top of the line MacBook Pro with an AMD Radeon Pro 5500M with 8GB of GPU memory. This GPU is advertised by Apple to out perform most desktop GPUs and Apple shows it doing amazing things in their product launch videos. I would be fine to accept a performance issue, even given this is supposed to be a very high performing computer and GPU. (Intel Core i9 2.4 GHz 8-Core, 32 GB RAM 2666 MHz DDR4) However, this isn't a performance issue... the computer is crashing and it does so in two games: Humankind and Civ VI. The crash happens under similar conditions. There are graphics artifacts during game play in both games on both macOS and Windows 10 (and Windows 11). The problems are consistent with what other owners of this notebook have experienced. I'm pretty much convinced there is a design flaw in the graphics processing unit of the MacBook Pro.

Nov 28, 2021 7:15 PM in response to Jason Zwolak

You do realize companies will say all sorts of things to make their product look good. All I know is that I would never consider any Apple laptop to be a gaming laptop. If the game runs fine, then great, but I would never count on games working correctly on an Apple laptop.


Are you playing those games at 1080p resolutions? With this GPU you will most likely need to run the game at 1080p instead of your laptop's native screen resolution.


Even AMD never mentions gaming for the Radeon Pro 5500 GPU (instead AMD is advertising 3D Content Creation and Video Editing):

https://www.amd.com/en/graphics/radeon-apple-5000m-series


And here are some GPU benchmark comparisons to dedicated desktop GPUs. The Radeon Pro 5500m is at best 1/3 of the performance level of a high end GPU from 2017 and the gap quickly increases from there.

https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=Radeon+Pro+5500M&id=4165


This article is showing the 5500M as being comparable to the AMD RX570 and AMD R9 390. The RX570 is just an average Desktop GPU from 2017, while the R9 390 was a higher end GPU from 2015. This helps to reinforce my earlier notion that Apple laptops even with a decent mobile GPU is not a gaming laptop. Yes, it will be able to play some games, but which ones....that is the question. This is not the GPU gaming powerhouse you think it is.

https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/radeon-pro-5500m.c3463


Now games are notorious for crashing even on a high end gaming desktop system, so it does not surprise me to find games crashing on your laptop. Games are also using the GPU in ways that other apps are not so games will encounter GPU driver issues whereas other apps may not ever have a problem. While there can certainly be a hardware GPU issue here, there can also be a GPU driver issue at play, or some bad code in the game, or some other third party app you have installed that is interfering with the normal operation of macOS.


To look for possible software issues run EtreCheck and post the report here using the "Additional Text" icon which looks like a piece of paper. If you give EtreCheck "Full Disk Access", then the summary of the recent logs will also be included which may provide additional clues.


Like I said before, you need to check with the game developer to see if this may be a known issue with the game on this laptop or perhaps just an issue with macOS. Unless you have some third party software that is interfering, your best option is to contact the game developer for assistance. Since you posted a link to a thread from last year, then obviously some others are having similar issues, but did any of them ever contact the developer so the developer could attempt to address the issue?

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

MacBook Pro 2019 16" crashes with Civ VI and Humankind in late game

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.