Fullscreen FPS capped at 119–120 in BlueStacks after macOS Tahoe 26 update

For assistance with what was previously reported by the BlueStacks Android emulator app, as compared with what is now reported, contact the app support. The Bluestacks support organization knows their app best, and would know whether faster refresh rate reports might constitute an app bug. Possibly now fixed, too.

MacBook Air with M3 processor isn’t going to have a fast display refresh, either. It is a 60Hz M3 model, so those sensitive to motion blur or with apps requiring higher refresh rates may want to make a different model choice.

MacBook Pro with M3 Pro and M3 Max processors can do 120Hz with the Apple ProMotion feature:

Change the refresh rate on your MacBook Pro or Apple Pro Display XDR - Apple Support

Again, McBook Air with M3 cannot do 120Hz:

Among other options, Mac Studio with M4 Max supports 4K 240Hz over HDMI: “Up to two displays with 6K resolution at 60Hz over Thunderbolt and one display with 8K resolution at 60Hz or 4K resolution at up to 240Hz over HDMI“. Mac Studio with M4 Pro supports one 4K display at 240Hz. (Details)

If you need graphics refresh rates past 240Hz, you’ll need an operating system and hardware that supports that.

And within the current Apple product line, a MacBook Air with M3 can’t do 120Hz.

You can send feedback to Apple requesting higher refresh rates, too: Product Feedback - Apple

I can visibly see the difference between 60/120/144/165/240/360 hz displays, and with me a lot of young people / gamers too. Aside of that, capping frame rates may cause the game to stutter or deliver worse performance.

It's in my opinion just malpractice of Apple to try to control this. I don't believe this is an existing bug because if so I'd assume Apple already done something about it. Try to look it up on the web, many people complain.

Some insights:

• This is NON-BYPASSABLE & Hardcoded in Tahoe 26 (confirmed by several (game)developers and myself)
• Disabling Vsync machine wide will make your machine more unstable and will NOT remove the cap
• Changing display settings 3rd party will also NOT work
• Downgrading to 15.6 WILL WORK BUT: make sure to make a backup & this doesn't resolve the current issue
• I haven't confirmed the issue to be existing for everyone. If you have experienced more than 120 FPS in a game please let me know in this topic.

Thank you for your response, but the TS does not mean refresh rates. We're (me included) are talking about hard enforced FPS cap. This happens in every application, every game, even with ProMotion disabled. This is for people who use high refresh rate (external third party) monitors that display above the 120 ProMotion threshold.

Eg: Minecraft, a fairly low running game used to be able to run on 400 to 900 FPS depending on surroundings and modifications on a MBP 14" M4 Pro (non-binned). Since the Tahoe update, this game is running on a maximum of 120 FPS.

I hope Apple can fix this issue soon.

[Edited by Moderator]

Hi,

What a dodge that response is...

Essentially, macOS Tahoe caps the frame rate of games (and probably apps in general) to 120 fps, regardless of whether it's fullscreen or not.

I have a game that usually ran at 300fps on the previous OS and ever since I updated, it's capped to 120fps.

I'm gonna assume this is a bug or an oversight because it's such a shame.

Gaming on mac has never been easy but now it's even more unbearable, because not only is the frame rate low, I also get stutters and lag spikes while playing (which I did not get prior to updating the OS).

Also, I don't see what the "game mode" does, it should enhance the gaming experience or at the very least NOT make it worse than it was. It seems to me like it's just an extra layer of needless "features".

If I could downgrade to the previous OS I would but Apple has made it nearly impossible to do safely.

Seriously considering selling my mac for good and just moving on to windows (which I absolutely do not wish but my hands are tied).

I hope this will be fixed in future versions.

Again, unacceptable.

This issue does not only affect gamers and game developers.

Any developer trying to optimize their code as much as possible will be faced by this and induce hours of meaningless debugging because Apple decided to enforce a frame rate cap on all applications.

This is probably a mistake and I hope it will get reverted in future updates, or give us an option to toggle it off.

I was affected as a uni student making a multi threading assignment and lost an entire day trying to find the reason why my frame rate got slashed like this.

hussain_73 wrote:

After updating to macOS Tahoe 26 on my Mac (M3, 60 Hz display), BlueStacks Air and other high-FPS apps are capped at 119–120 FPS in fullscreen mode, even though the emulator can render higher FPS in windowed/borderless mode.

This problem did not exist in earlier macOS versions•

.

Disabling transparency (“Reduce Transparency” in Accessibility) slightly lowers GPU usage but does not remove the FPS cap• .

The issue seems related to the new fullscreen compositor / vsync enforcement•  in Tahoe 26.

for your third party—if in doubt search the developers website or contact their: Support/Help/FAQ/Known issues/compatibility/updates…

Contact a third-party vendor - Apple Support

Contact a third-party vendor - Apple Support

https://support.bluestacks.com/hc/en-us

Buy a Windows PC and a RTX 5090 and a power supply to match, or buy a top-end Android device if you want the fastest Android graphics.

Mac isn’t going to give you top-end gaming.

If you want higher-end graphics, tell Apple: Product Feedback - Apple

I usually play minecraft on my 2023 macbook pro 16 m2 pro . Before updating i used to get around 600-900 FPS, i know it is a bit extra for the 120 hertz display but the game felt smooth. After the update it is capped to 120 FPS and now if feels very laggy and stutters with sudden movement and all.

Apple doesn't "cap" refresh rates. Apple's marketing name for this technology is "ProMotion". The idea is to support a variable refresh rate, primarily lower rates to reduce energy use. The only documented maximum frame rate that I can find from Apple is 120 fps for iOS devices. And since modern Apple Silicon Macs are nothing more than iOS devices, that maximum rate would apply to them too.

This is important for developers so they have guarantees of expected frame rates. What you're describing is some custom logic from a popular game that is able to support frame rates over 120 fps. Apple's ProMotion technology enables all developers to achieve great game performance, even if they don't have the money and resources of the big game studios.

So if some game had been able to achieve 300 fps before Tahoe, that was a bug and Tahoe fixed it.

I don't know what you mean about unable to downgrade "safely". One of the few remaining differences between the iOS and macOS platforms is the ability to downgrade. There's nothing risky about it.

And finally, it's important to note that Apple manufactures these devices. The reason for the 120 fps limit is because that's a hardware limit. You would need an external display that is capable of supporting a higher refresh rate. The vast majority of Macs sold have an integrated display.

This could be improved in future versions, but it would be at least a couple of years. Don't try downloading some 26.1 beta version and hoping for a fix.

Excuse me if I'm being daft, but if your screen has a 60Hz refresh rate, what possible benefit can you get from rendering whatever at more than double the number of fps?

I mean your software may spew out 120fps but your screen is unable to display them, it is simple math, not?

What am I missing?

Thank you for you reply.

I can understand that an app may generate 400 fps.

Refresh rate obviously affects what fps your screen can display.

A 60Hz refresh rate means the screen is redrawn 60 times per second, so there is no way it can faithfully reproduce 400fps.

Beside, the human eye can't discern such a high frame rate. You may be able to discern 60fps from 30fps, but most people will not be able to distinguish visually something played at 120fps from something at 60fps.

400fps is way beyond what our eyes can discern.

If you cap FPS at your refresh rate, the actual FPS will always be at or below your refresh rate, which results in noticeably degraded performance, while settings target FPS to something like 2x refresh rate will always exceed your refresh rate so there are no dropped frames/stutters.

This is common knowledge for anyone who plays games. Games on my MacBook are noticeably more choppy now and I hope Apple will address this soon. No other operating system does this.

naman_rana wrote:

I usually play minecraft on my 2023 macbook pro 16 m2 pro . Before updating i used to get around 600-900 FPS, i know it is a bit extra for the 120 hertz display but the game felt smooth. After the update it is capped to 120 FPS and now if feels very laggy and stutters with sudden movement and all.

A bit extra? No. Whatever app was reporting 600 to 900 FPS playback was reporting rubbish.