10.6.7 gives very bad gaming performance

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
Contact the game developer and let them know of the issue. You did backup before upgrading? If not, you should be aware that downgrading is not that easy:

http://discussions.apple.com/click.jspa?searchID=-1&messageID=6183892

Recommend you always backup*:

http://www.macmaps.com/backup.html

before upgrading anything. You never know when software which has not been tested, has some feature that won't be to spec after an upgrade unless you verify every single software you depend on with its developer that it has been tested.

The same problem is already submitted on Blizzard's forums as well:

http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/2267599143

I have a 11" Air and get the same issue

10.6.6 = 40fps in Starcraft 2
10.6.7 = 8fps in Starcraft 2

I hope we get a fix soon cause that's a huge drop in performance effectively killing the Air as a usable machine for anything using the GPU

Message was edited by: Allan Davis

I recommend for any games you find are clearly not compatible to post to:

http://snowleopard.wikidot.com/

What was the last release of 10.6 that worked for the game and last release of the game you tried.
This will at least help others looking for compatibility to know where to stop upgrading until new releases are provided for the game.

Having the same problem(2011 mbp 2.2ghz 4 g/b Ram 1 g/b ati)before 10.6.7 Starcraft 2 on ultra would run at 35-45fps now on medium/high 27-33 Fps. Also experienced multiple crashes with Firefox and itunes (system had to be restarted) Not happy. Out of the box great gaming performance, poor stability on exit (crashed 2 out of 4 times) To be honest i'd rather have the crashing at least i could game at an acceptable level. Have noticed Lower FPS with 10.6.7 in Wow, sc2, Warhammer online and eve online. im 10 days in to my purchase and thinking of returning. I bought Apple so i didnt have to spend time fixing update errors like in win vista/win 7. I know this driver has underclocked considering my gpu rarely goes above 69c (before 10.6.7 70+ while gaming). Very dissapointed in Apple!!

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
If your Mac came with 10.6.6 or less, downgrade back to 10.6.6 or less until the game developer in question has caught up.
If you are running 10.6.6 you already have evidence it works for others, and it may be a sign you need to start a new topic thread to isolate your issue. Here's a link to where to start one:
http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1337

you'll get a wider audience able to figure out why you have instability on exit, and won't confuse the original poster with solutions that don't apply to you. Upgrading the operating system is for fine tuning certain features within the operating system, and not to add compatibility to other software unless the other developer says it
does.

If you bought a Mac with 10.6.7 you should ask before buying if there are any known incompatibilities before
buying, since you can't downgrade past the operating system that ships with Macs, except you can run an older
version of Windows in virtualization, which is just as fast as a PC, if the said software has a PC counterpart*
http://www.macmaps.com/macosxnative.html#WINTEL

it is not Apple's fault if a developer can't keep up with changes on http://developer.apple.com
this is clearly a sign this has happened.

Message was edited by: a brody

I think there there are already so many problems with 10.6.7 that developers are definitely not to be subject to be blamed there...(Just my subjective view)...

Thanks Brody, Im new to Apple osx ive always been a Windows person. If i downgrade back to 10.6.6 (which it shipped with) will i loose games that i've installed or does it just roll back? I didn't do a time back up (which i will in future) I've read a lot about 10.6.7 this morning and it seems gaming has taken a big FPS hit on multiple Apple platforms (Air/Imac/MBP) with this update. Makes me 😟. why cant i have the 10.6.6 driver just without the crash on game exit. Seems i have to choose between crashing or being able to play a game at an acceptable FPS/Quality. All this for £2,200? this new toy is feeling more like a big fat white elephant sat on my desk rather than a slim sexy new beast.

Either something is wrong with the games you're trying to play or something is wrong with your specific system. As is the case with everyone else on this thread. People complain about drops in performance in games with _every single update_, and obviously that cannot be the case. I have not seen any drop in gaming performance with the games that I play.

I would advise both contacting the game manufacturer to see if this is a "known issue" for them, in which case it's probably something that will be fixed by an update to the game. I would also begin doing some basic troubleshooting on your machine... repair permissions, [repair the hard drive with Disk Utility|http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1417], [start up in Safe Mode|http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1455] and see if that changes anything, etc. You may want to refer to the [Mac OS X speed FAQ|http://www.index-site.com/Macosxspeed.html].

Crash on exit typically is a sign of bad RAM or hardware elsewhere. You have a warranty on the machine, read up on bad RAM*:

http://www.macmaps.com/badram.html

If you have no errors from the hardware test, just remember the RAM can still be bad. Sometimes just replacing the RAM can fix everything. A new machine unless the game is not caught up with the operating system should not have crash on exit for any games unless something is wrong with the machine itself. Since Thomas Reed is having no trouble the problem is clearly with the hardware of the machine or how the operating system was installed.

Downgrading will not lose anything you've installed, as long as you don't erase and there are no other problems with the machine. As with any upgrade or downgrade, a backup is a MUST*:

http://www.macmaps.com/backup.html

There is nothing wrong with the games i play.. wow/sc 2 the 2 most popular mac games? What im saying is 10.6.7 for 2011 MBP has a downclocked driver! My temps are anything from 7-11c lower in the same games but 10-15fps lower as well. in SC 2 in Ultra 22fps my fans never go above 3400RPM, temp stays at 70C. if i lower it all to low graphics still 22fps ?? in 10.6.6 40FPS + fans would go up to 5,400 to cool etc then back down. It seems now SC2 dosent even generate heat to even cause fans to increase much. Which is nice but its not playable where as before it tore through SC2 but ran a little warmer.. Just proves this update/driver isnt pushing my card anywhere near as hard as 10.6.6. Maybe this is how Apple has made it stable? by gimping performance, they generate less heat?

No the crash on exit was a 10.6.6 issue while gaming. The only crashes i have had since 10.6.7 are with Itunes and Chrome. the crash on exit is to do with GPU switching in 10.6.6 as it was less frequent when GPU switching was unchecked but offered far superior gaming performance.

GPU switching should not be crashing on a new machine unless you have a lemon. Take it in for service or use the return/replacement policy of the machine if it is still in effect.

the crash on exit was a 10.6.6 issue while gaming. The only crashes i have had since 10.6.7 are with Itunes and Chrome.

You can argue all you like, but if you're having crashes, there's something wrong. Especially if you're having crashes in iTunes, which is rock-solid here. You pooh-poohed my suggestions for troubleshooting your problems, but if you simply look for someone else to solve your problem for you, you'll be disappointed.

BTW, since it now sounds like you're also having some potential hardware issues, I would add running [Apple Hardware Test|http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1509] and [resetting the SMC|http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964] to the list.

im not arguing, im saying what your offering is not a fix. 10.6.7 is known for crashing Itunes simply read the forums. Gpu switching has been crashing EVERY 2011 mbp when you exit a game. Not 1 not 2 every MBP, hense the 2011 mbp graphic driver update (says in update/patch details). This update has fixed the crash issue. My original post was to highlight the fact it has fixed the crash issue but at the cost of reduced performance in gaming under osx.This is also reported by other forums. The problem isnt with my machine it runs cooler and general osx tasks are more stable. by trade i supply I.T systems business to business i know what im talking about when i say performace has degraded after an update. If you havent experienced games crashing pre 10.6.7 you either game under bootcamp or are 1 in a million.