[Early 2011 MBP] Low FPS in Windows 10

[Precog: I know that Windows 10 is not, and never will, officially supported in Early 2011 MBPs, so waiting for something from the Apple side is pointless. The intent of this thread is to see if anybody found an out-of-the-box solution to the problem. Downgrading to Windows 8.1 is not an option]

Hi everybody, I have an Early 2011 MBP with a Radeon HD 6490M as video card. I installed Windows 10 x64 and the 5.1 Boot Camp drivers for the Early 2011 MBP (Boot Camp Support Software 5.1.5621) that where working like a charm in Windows 8.1. Everything works fine, including audio controls as somebody on another topic had issues (Early 2011 MacBook Pro windows 10).

However, I experience extremely low fps in video-demanding applications (i.e., games), much lower than when I was running Windows 8.1. I suspect this is a driver problem, specifically a power-saving kind of thing. It looks like Windows runs the video card in power saving mode because it thinks it runs on battery, while on the other hand is plugged in. Indeed, in Windows 8.1 I experienced low fps when unplugging the laptop for a while (hence discharging the battery), plugging it again. The drivers still thought the laptop was running on battery, and everything was super slow until I rebooted.

I tried the 15.201.1151.0, the latest AMD drivers. Note that with those Windows recognizes my video card as an HD 7400M, but the Catalyst Control Center seems to kind of work, even though with very few options I can configure. The power settings for instance only show empty drop-down lists for battery and plugged-in behaviors.

I also tried the 15.201.1310.0 (the latest AMD Boot Camp Drivers), and the 13.250.28.1000 (the AMD drivers shopped with the 5.1 Boot Camp), but with these whenever I start the AMD CCC, I get the error "AMD Catalyst Control Center cannot be started. There are currently no settings that can be configured using AMD Catalyst Control Center". Anyway, with all these drivers I always get 10-15-20 fps in games where before I got at least 60+.

Does anybody have this same issue? Suggestions on workarounds, or other drivers to try?

MacBook Pro, Windows 10

Posted on Nov 6, 2015 3:08 AM

19 replies

Rudegar

Level 10

180,582 points

Nov 12, 2015 8:19 AM in response to st1led

what game what fps ?

and what settings

I have arkham origins which run ok with my settings and ran skyrim and have bioshock infinity and many others on win10 in bootcamp on my iMac if it's easy to get it to display fps I could try to of cause that would be without a win8.1 comparison to measure it up against

st1led Author

Level 1

0 points

Nov 13, 2015 5:15 AM in response to Rudegar

So, take for instance Heroes of The Storm (which is also free to play, so feel free to install and see what happens).

I play with every setting at bare minimum (which is either "Low" for things like texture details or "Disabled" for shadows and physics"), at the native resolution of 1680x1050. I get ~30 fps in the character selection screen, and no more than ~20 in game, which can easily go down to ~5-10 when there is a lot of action happening in the screen.

FunkyMus

Level 1

0 points

Dec 23, 2015 12:54 PM in response to st1led

I am running win10 64bit with video drivers v15.201.1151.1008 and it works like a bomb ...

st1led Author

Level 1

0 points

Dec 25, 2015 7:30 AM in response to FunkyMus

Is this an old beta? Where did you find that drivers? I am using an apparently newer version (v15.201.1151.1010), which is part of the Catalyst 15.11.1 package currently in the AMD latest beta drivers page http://support.amd.com/en-us/kb-articles/Pages/latest-catalyst-windows-beta.aspx.

With the one I am using, the fps are still very low. I can't find your version, but are you sure you are running an Early 2011 MBP? As far as I know, newer macs have fewer problems when it comes to FPS and Windows 10.

(And btw, Merry Christmas!)

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.

[Early 2011 MBP] Low FPS in Windows 10