Early 2011 MBP choppy gaming

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Level 1

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Early 2011 MBP choppy gaming

I finally got around installing windows 7 with boot camp on my macbook pro, strictly for gaming, and its been going great. i did encounter a weird problem though, which i'm guessing has something to do with the gpu heating up. at first, the whole system is running smooth and i start a game (let's say dragon age origins, for now) which runs flawlessly. the fan gets loud but not more than your average level while gaming. i haven't been paying much attention to how long it takes this to occur but after a long while, the whole system starts getting choppy. the first thing i'd notice is the sound getting choppy and lagging like crazy in the game and a drop in framerate. when i quit the game, windows is running slower now with the same thing happening to whatever i'm doing. a perfect example would be my mouse freezing a bit while moving it around the screen. the only fix so far is simply resetting the system, which gets really annoying when i gotta do it over and over.

i've played wow and diablo 3 in Lion for a looong time, and i've never encountered this sort of problem on the mac side. i really don't feel like getting a new gaming laptop so i'm trying to get this fixed asap. i've got the mac hooked up to a 24" external display, and the specs are;

2.20GHZ i7 quad-core

16GB RAM

AMD Radeon 6750M, 1GB (catalyst 12.7)

Windows 7, 64bit

150GB partition with a lot of free space

Oh and i'm not really familiar with fan controlling software so i'm not using any obviously.

MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion, Early 2011, 2.2Ghz i7

Posted on Aug 29, 2012 5:14 PM

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Answer 1

sanjampet

Level 5

7,982 points

Aug 29, 2012 5:52 PM in response to J. Night

Try a SMC reset, then a PRAM reset

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Answer 2

J. Night Author

Level 1

10 points

Aug 30, 2012 6:47 AM in response to sanjampet

nope, didn't help. ;/

ugh this is so frustrating!

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Answer 3

J. Night Author

Level 1

10 points

Aug 30, 2012 3:10 PM in response to J. Night

nothing?

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Answer 4

sanjampet

Level 5

7,982 points

Aug 30, 2012 3:52 PM in response to J. Night

You might want to take a trip to the Apple store or a certified Apple Service center, there might be something else going on...logic board, video card or someother software, firmware, hardware problem.

Maybe someone else on this site can offer other approaches.

Repost

Sorry I could not help

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Answer 5

J. Night Author

Level 1

10 points

Aug 31, 2012 2:51 AM in response to sanjampet

we don't have official apple stores where i live, and i don't trust these certified stores around here anymore.. after they ruined my first gen macbook.

i really appreciate you trying to help though. thanks. (:

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Answer 6

J. Night Author

Level 1

10 points

Aug 31, 2012 4:19 AM in response to J. Night

i've been monitoring the temperatures of the hard drive, gpu, and cores.. and it's safe to say that my mac isn't overheating.. so i don't think this is an overheating issue.

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Answer 7

cbs20

Level 4

2,796 points

Aug 31, 2012 5:28 AM in response to J. Night

What are the temps? I have noticed that gaming in Windows causes overheating because Windows doesn't monitor and manage the temps as good as OS X. Download SMC fan control for Windows to control the fans and increase them while you are gaming in Windows.

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Answer 8

J. Night Author

Level 1

10 points

Aug 31, 2012 7:04 AM in response to cbs20

the GPU temp doesn't seem to be going over 70 degrees C..?

and my mac isn't even HOT when i touch it. it's nice and warm.

anyway, i've been doing some reading and i'm almost convinced

it's a problem with the wireless card, though i could be mistaken.

i disabled it after the problem occurs and i could see a difference

in the performance of the system itself. when i turned it back on,

the mouse kept freezing and minimized windows took

about 1.5 seconds to maximize, etc etc.

not using a router at the moment but when i do, i'll be disabling

the card and connecting through ethernet to see if i'm right.

oh and isn't smc fan control for mac only, which also affects

windows? i'd rather use something in windows instead of mac

then rebooting.

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Answer 9

J. Night Author

Level 1

10 points

Aug 31, 2012 2:02 PM in response to J. Night

bump

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Answer 10

J. Night Author

Level 1

10 points

Sep 4, 2012 9:46 PM in response to J. Night

omg i FIXED IT! at least i think i did, yeah.

so i was playing guild wars 2, knowing that the lagging will occur soon, but just kept going anyway. was killing mobs here and there till the game started acting up but i kept on going while it seemed to get worse. i decided to go to a crafting station before logging out then i noticed that whenever i actually move my mouse pointer, the sound glitches. i minimized, uninstalled mouse drivers, went back... all gone! game was running just FINE! i was just gaming for 2 more hours without any lag! hopefully it won't appear again later, ya?

oh and btw, running the game with those specs with high graphic settings on 1920x1080.... fps 20-40 with what seems to be a steady 70 degrees celcius temp on the gpu.

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