Terrible Gaming Performance on 15" MacBook Pro Retina Mid 2015

After a little tests, this hasn't completely killed the Throttling issue... But I've now found how to fix this on my macbook pro retina (finally). I've made a step-by-step article on how to fix this :

http://bigbeatworld.blogspot.com/2017/01/a-solution-to-lagthrottle-in-bootcamp.h tml

From http://www.notebookcheck.net/Apple-MacBook-Pro-Retina-15-Mid-2015-Review.144402. 0.html,

Gaming Performance

Even though the differences fluctuate significantly from game to game, our gaming benchmarks confirm the previous statement: The GeForce GT 750M (GDDR5 model) is roughly 30% slower than the Radeon R9 M370X, which is another 30% behind the GeForce GTX 950M. Unfortunately, the M370X is not powerful enough for the native display resolution, so it is recommended that you reduce the resolution to 1680x1050 in combination with medium graphics settings. Rivals like the ZenBook Pro or the Aspire V 15, both equipped with a GeForce GTX 960M, are certainly better options for gamers.

Unfortunately, the MacBook Pro is affected by a very annoying problem when you use Windows, which results in frame rate drops during prolonged gaming sessions: The Radeon GPU cannot maintain its core clock of 800 MHz. The clock often fluctuates between 675 and 725 MHz, but occasionally drops to 400 MHz. The resulting stutters are very annoying, particularly when you play shooting games, and seem to be caused by thermal throttling when the core temperature reaches around 74 °C (~165 °F).

no mostly both games and video card drivers are more optimished toward windows

use the bootcamp drivers rather then other drivers from the gpu maker or windows update

and MacBooks will never be true gamer laptops

ianskiracer303 wrote:

Is there any way to fix this or improve this <snip>

Get a gaming computer.

I had sort of the same problem, the GPU clock would jump between 675 and 400 MHz at regular intervals after a minute of stress in Windows for no reason.

Also on OS X the R9's graphics performance was bad enough that it couldn't have been the card being pushed too far high: there was something wrong software wise. Not even a SMC reset helped. No, it wasn't the Iris Pro in use.

I reinstalled OS X and then Windows 10, reset the SMC and once I finished installing Boot Camp drivers I've rerun the AMD driver setup. I tweaked some more with the settings and now I'm getting consistent 800/725/675 MHz of core clock based on the temperature. The GPU seems to be designed to automatically step between those clocks to not go beyond the 75°C mark, while fans are already going at full speed.

I went back in OS X, the graphics performance noticeably improved after reinstalling the OS, definitely something had been fixed in the process. I called AppleCare and they confirmed my experience: the throttling is a known and wanted thing to ensure system stability. However it wasn't normal at all that it would jump between 400 MHz and 675 MHz prior to reinstalling, hence why I did the right thing to fix the issue.

I tried stressing the GPU a lot in Windows, no more lag or stutters: the clock doesn't fall to 400 MHz anymore but jumps between 800/725/675 and keeps itself as cool as 75°C. It delivers the performance you'd expect from a laptop due to the thermals (the MacBook Pro is just one of the many to thermal throttle when needed: some others do even harder mind you).

Just do not install Macs Fan Control or any other app that gains access to the EFI to control the fan speed. I did have it before reinstalling Windows, as soon as I did on Windows the first issue struck back violently, clock speed falling again. Luckily I had just made a restore point, reverted back the system and reset the SMC before re-booting up. Issue disappeared once again: it seems the system controller does not want to be touched. As soon as I hit the 75 degrees mark with the app installed and running in the background the clock went full crazy. After removing it the way I said performance stabilized and the GPU would apply mild down clocks, even returning to full speed if the temperatures allowed it to. Needless to say I removed it from the OS X side as well: it can't have been a coincidence, all of this happened in less than half an hour last week (including the call to AppleCare) and the ambient temperature did not change. Computer plugged in and fully charged all the times.

Thank you. This is good to know. ℹ

I had horrible performances with the same macbook pro and windows 10.

The fix was the power plan setting in windows 10... couldn't believe it (the games were running on the intel Iris card instead of the m370x !!!)

http://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/21434-power-plan-choose-windows-10-a.html

I hope this helps you, it definitely cured my worries 🙂

You might want to consider investing into a external graphics processing unit as this will take the processing work load off the internal graphics processing unit. This will allow you to enjoy your gaming or any kind of graphic demanding applications (programs). Also, there are affordable "EGPU's" online just do some research and there are tons of youtube's that share the comparison and reviews. You will need to bootcamp windows of your preference. I've actually tried playing games in the windows mode on my mac and its worked very well. So, try doing bootcamp and running the games and see if it runs to your likings. I myself am working on doing a egpu, I'll give you a heads up if you're interested. Sorry for the late response. You might want to look at this link: https://www.techinferno.com/index.php?/forums/topic/8132-2015-15-mbp-r9-m370x-gt x97016gbps-tb2-akitio-thunder2-win81-gatsby/