WoW performance in OS X vs. Win XP

How come WoW runs extremely smooth in Win XP on my Macbook Pro Bootcamp, but when I play it in Mac OS X, performance has declined significantly in terms of FPS on the same settings?

Why isn't the performance the same on the same hardware and settings?

 

its just like the preformance difference between xp and vista

 

One thing to consider would be DirectX vs OpenGL. OS X has poor implementation of OpenGL.

 

Video drivers most likely. They're updated with more performance enhancements and bug fixes more often in Windows. Since they're so integrated into OS X, those updates don't come around nearly as often.

 

Since Windows dominates the gaming market, why not license DirectX to Apple?

 

I'm not sure I understand you here.
Why would Microsoft license DirectX to Apple?

 

A lot of Mac users either are not gamers or play on consoles. Any PC gamers who have a Mac (or at least have a Mac with hardware that's remotely capable of running modern games) would install Windows anyway. Allowing DirectX to run on OS X would be like allowing it to run on BSD, which creates a whole other can of worms for Microsoft. They want to keep as tight a control on the API as possible, and I can't blame them for it.

 

One last question here then... Why is OpenGL so crappy compared to DirectX?

 

Dunno if there's a good answer for this... Apple just never implemented OpenGL very well and I guess they don't see a good reason to work on it (since Apple's aren't really gaming computers).

 

then why apple bother to put gaming graphic cards in their macs instead of the professional version.

 

^^hmm thats a good point i never though of that

 

Graphics cards aren't only used for playing video games. Theres other things that the cards are made for. Also it is a "professional" version, not a "gaming" version, so yea.

Also opengl is/was on par with directx. I -think- that UT3 uses opengl, since it is playable on linux, which i dont think is possible cause no dx. So there are games and game companies that use opengl over dx.

 

Actually, the Mac Pro (the cheese grater Mac) offers a business graphics card (Quadro). So not all their Macs use gaming graphics .

Actually, I don't think its necessarily this case...from what I've heard, OpenGL is pretty good, its just Apple hasn't implemented it that well in OS X.

 

Heh, the Quadro is the same as it's "gaming" counterpart.. it's just another name to make it sound more business oriented..

If you need to game on your Apples, use Bootcamp with Windows XP, plain and simple.

 

While technologically better then Direct X, Apple has never implemented OpenGL well. GPUs are used for virtually ever task involving a GUI so, they are used for things other then gaming such as: 3D rendering. If someone wanted to game on there Mac they would install Windows which means more money to MS. You can't blame them though Linux & OS X would have a larger market share if Direct x was used.

 

Quadro cards are oriented on 3D applications and don't co-opearate very well with games (as good as 'gaming' cards).

 

I'm under the impression that the only difference between Quadros and the standard 8xxx series is the bios on the card. Other than that they're identical.

EDIT: I have the same problem. The only way to make WoW playable in OSX is the cap the framerate at 30, otherwise its waaay too choppy.

 

Show me where you think this is true.. cause it's a load of crap.. Quadros are IDENTICAL to the Geforces.. Identical, IDENTICAL. It's marketing, get used to it.

 

Identical physically yes.. BIOSes can easily change the speed of the card... Thats why you see some Geforce 8600gts performing worse than others in different makes of notebooks.. BIOSes have a huge influence on how the card performs.. But it's still the same card before the BIOS.

 

A quick search on nvidia's own forum site.

http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=49080

 

So what exactly can I do on my Macbook Pro in OS X that will utilize the 8600 that I can't do on say....a regular Macbook?

 

Still the same hardware, BIOS differences can change all of that difference in performance. The problem is that some Quadros don't have a dedicated video bios and therefore can never be altered/changed to perform differently.. Such as my Dell 1420, it doesn't have a dedicated video bios, therefore I can't load on a "changed/different" bios into my video card to overclock at all.. I have to rely on software only to do such things.

Jay

 

Everything may look the same except the bandwith. So to me, its obvious that Nvidia has turned off something, thus a pretty good reason why it can have an affect on gaming. It may not matter with 3d apps or CAD apps, which may not use those register/pipelines/shaders or whatever, but the difference is there.

Also, if I google some more and from my recollections, quadros and wildfires perform slower in games then their counterparts.

edit - nope seems i am wrong on that, they perform the same.

 

When playing PC games, I always found that games that used OpenGL seemed to be a lot smoother. I'm not sure if it was Call of Duty but I used to play this particular game a lot that let me choose between DirectX or OpenGL and I always the game played a lot smoother with OpenGL.
Well, thats just my personal experience.

 

So how could Apple possibly "fix" OpenGL implementation. They "should" do this since they apparently want to appeal to gamers.

 

Well i think to fix it they just have to code it better.

Its just how like in windows you get better performance with a new set of drivers. Nothing in the computer has changed at all, but the coding helps a lot.

Maybe apple is waiting for developers to come onboard and make games/ports for osx, but then the developers could be waiting for apple to implement opengl better.

So I guess its almost like a waiting game until someone takes the first step

Although I must say that epic may start the push forward since they'll be releasing ut3 for osx at some point. So maybe others will follow after them.

 

I believe it's because Windows uses virtual vram to boost ur vram to 512. Mac OSX does not do this.