Mid 2012 MacBook Pro 13" gaming issues, sudden lag on some specifical events within the game... hardware failure or?

The problem is your hardware, you have a 13" MacBook Pro with only Intel HD CPU integrated graphics.

For 3D gaming you really need the power of a added dedicated GPU only avaiable on the 15" and discontinued 17" models.

But for real 3D gaming performance, you need a Windows 7 3D gaming tower as you can upgrade the video card etc. as newer game engines need better hardware.

http://www.cbscores.com/index.php?sort=ogl&order=desc

Your only option in your case is to turn the games graphics and detail WAY WAY down, so you can get consistant 50 fps as 40fps is smooth animation and you need to play for intense scenes or large maps.

You also can play some free low grade 3D games against bots. 🙂

Cube 2 Sauerbraten (free 3D game, runs fast even on older or less powerful Mac's)

http://sauerbraten.org/

Nexiuz Classic (another free 3D game, also runs fast on older/slower system)

http://www.alientrap.org/games/nexuiz

Running Windows 7 on a Mac is a basically a hack, despite the same processors, the rest of the Mac is wildly different hardware than a generic PC.

Also BootCamp uses the second 50% of a boot hard drive, that has the slowest read/write speeds.

If there are problematic sectors there, then that just adds to the performance issue.

Since Windows 7 swaps extra memory to the boot drive just like OS X does, if the swap file is slowed by substancially slower read/writes in that section of the hard drive, could explain the performance issues.

All I can suggest is turn down the effects in the game or get yourself a Win 7 3D gaming tower.

AKplusplus wrote:

...its really frustrating to get a newer laptop (4 years later) which has lower 3D performance than the old one... I just cant believe that fact...

Believe it, Apple has removed the 3D Coverflow from iTunes 11 too, makes you wonder.

FIX:

Guys, i've been struggling with this low fps issue for a while..

Turns out you have to reset SMC on rMCB because it messes up some video settings - I ran HW tests on the bootcamped windows and it showed GPU working on very low mhz

I have this issue 2 times per week (maybe recent updates are pushing it), when it happens just:

1) shut down,

2) hold SHIFT + CTRL + ALT + Power button for few seconds,

3) then boot normally to windows..

Just for your info:

I play on 1920 x .., with 'mat_viewportscale 0.7' (which means my interface is rendered on 1920 while the game itself is rendered on somewhat lower value x0.7) and game runs on 60fps (limited on 60) all the time with very rare lows to 50 fps in heavy teamfight

rMCB 15" 2013 , gforce 650M

Hope this helps!

How exactly is a Mac's hardware "wildly different" than a generic PC? They have the same CPUs, GPUs, RAM, motherboard/logic board chipsets, SATA controllers, USB controllers, Bluetooth chipsets, WiFi chipsets. Sure, not necessarily in the same combinations, but most of the hardware can be found elsewhere.

The only "hack-y" thing is the emulation of a BIOS, which is what Windows needs to boot. Macs have a sort of half-EFI system that Windows can't recognize, at least not by default. Changing it up so Windows can be installed and boot via UEFI is proving quite a challenge, but if someone were to get it to work properly, it would open up a whole raft of new possibilities for running Windows on a Mac. Alas, it is merely a pipe dream for now.

AKplusplus wrote:

Still this bothers me because I had MacBook Late 2008, so same game (Dota2) and a older laptop with even weaker graphics card, but none of these glitches showed up

You have lags in game when gamescene contains things that your integrated card can not render in hardware or at least in one pass - looks like volumetrics things are out of luck for you. From other side, your older MBP have good enough discrete card like probably GF330m or something, that have this exactly features enabled in hardware. Here from comes your result - lags on new integrated card and smooth play on old discrete one.

@dmdimon:

I understand what you wrote but my older laptop also had an integrated nVidia 9400m graphics card which i assume should have a lower performance then the new Intel HD4000...

may be. But both bootcamp and native Mac games will switch from 9400 to 9600 - so in games you're comparing hd4000 vs GF9600

9600 have dericated superfast videomemory, hd4000 uses shared with CPU usual memory - so definitely 9600 will beat hd4000 on memory-intensive scenes, no matter what is realised in hardware. And 9600 is better GPU from hardware POW also.

Probably problem will soften if you'll lower resolution for games.

That statement is basically completely false. There is no real difference in the hardware used between a Mac and a PC. The only real difference in the systems is the BIOS and or Mac EFI. The Mac EFI being very limited in what you can do with it as Apple has locked that down and does not allow any User Access to it. As apposed to even the newest PC hardware that does use the EFI system they still allow the User to access and make changes to it in certain ways. Even to go as far as to revert the system to the older BIOS system so you can install older version of Windows on it.

ds store wrote:

Running Windows 7 on a Mac is a basically a hack, despite the same processors, the rest of the Mac is wildly different hardware than a generic PC.

Also BootCamp uses the second 50% of a boot hard drive, that has the slowest read/write speeds.

If there are problematic sectors there, then that just adds to the performance issue.

Since Windows 7 swaps extra memory to the boot drive just like OS X does, if the swap file is slowed by substancially slower read/writes in that section of the hard drive, could explain the performance issues.

All I can suggest is turn down the effects in the game or get yourself a Win 7 3D gaming tower.

I have experience something very strange with my 15" late 2011 model lately. I've been ripping all my owned DVD movies on the Mac lately, making digital backup of them. And when I first started doing it I would see CPU usage somewhere around 50-60%, or even higher at times, and CPU temps in the high 80 to low 90°c range, highs in the 190°f range. After the system has reached that temp for a few minutes the CPU usage % would drop to the low 20 to mid 30% range and the temps would drop to the mid 150 to low 160°f range, 65+/- to low 70°c range, and stay there. Now even after the system has been off for an extended period of time and completely cooled down, I'm talking overnight or longer, the system will not go above that high 20 to low 30% CPU usage range and the temps never get above that 165+/-° f, 71°c range.

It is like the system has a built in Governor to throttle back the CPU usage and temp range. It like you are allowed X amount of minute at the high CPU usage and temp range then the system throttles back to lower the temps even if the system has cooled and been completely shut down and restarted. Like it is a EFI system limit built into it.

I'm going to do a SMC and PRAM reset and see if this problem goes away and I can use all of the horse power of the system without it being throttled back.

So if my your system is reacting in the same way maybe your older system doesn't hat that governor system that the newer unit have aand that is why the games run better on the older system.

I'll post back with my results later today.

NOTE: This is with both the internal superdrive and also using an external DVD drive that I know is faster then the superdrive. It is the system that is limiting the ripping speed, CPU usage % and the temp high point. I've even ripped the same movies that I got the higher CPU % and temps and they now rip at the lower % and temp.

AKplusplus wrote:

Thx again. But im not a full time gamer, i just play few games from time to time, so im sticking to my MBP for now 😀.

Still this bothers me because I had MacBook Late 2008, so same game (Dota2) and a older laptop with even weaker graphics card, but none of these glitches showed up, even on the same settings... its really frustrating to get a newer laptop (4 years later) which has lower 3D performance than the old one... I just cant believe that fact... I still think its some windows compatibility problem, but why didnt my old Macbook had that problem, the game ran smoothly on that hardware, under windows ofc!

Shootist007 wrote:

It is like the system has a built in Governor to throttle back the CPU usage and temp range. It like you are allowed X amount of minute at the high CPU usage and temp range then the system throttles back to lower the temps even if the system has cooled and been completely shut down and restarted. Like it is a EFI system limit built into it.

you're basically right. Google for thermal throttling. But keep in mind that probably you have hidden problems with cooling system:

If you see throttling, either your thermal interface material (grease, pad, etc.) between the die and heatsink is not evenly applied or the heatsink surface is not flat - or processor packaging itself is not good.

Furthermore, if you can't reset that throttle(basically it should reset itself automatically) - most probably you already have slight thermal damage.

No hidden cooling problems on my Mac or any of my other computers. I am religous about keeping the fans and radiators clean.

After doing the SMC & PRAM reset the system was back to using 50-60%+ CPU and the temps again went to the low 190°F mark when ripping a movie.

Basically I have the coolest running Mac I have ever heard of. At idle the CPU is usually in the high 30 to low 40°c range and my house is always warm.