*MAC* Graphics

I am beyond frustrated with graphics stutters and screen freezes. This is my current graphics info:

Radeon Pro 570:

Chipset Model: Radeon Pro 570

Type: GPU

Bus: PCIe

PCIe Lane Width: x16

VRAM (Total): 4 GB

Vendor: AMD (0x1002)

Device ID: 0x67df

Revision ID: 0x00c5

ROM Revision: 113-D000AA-931

VBIOS Version: 113-D0001A1L-025

EFI Driver Version: 01.00.931

Metal Family: Supported, Metal GPUFamily macOS 2

Displays:

iMac:

Display Type: Built-In Retina LCD

Resolution: Retina 5K (5120 x 2880)

Framebuffer Depth: 30-Bit Color (ARGB2101010)

Main Display: Yes

Mirror: Off

Online: Yes

Automatically Adjust Brightness: Yes

Connection Type: Internal

I am considering an external GPU. Can any MAC users offer suggestions for what I might get? The only other option I can see is a new $$$$ gaming computer that I really don't want. Thanks in advance for your guidance.

Quote from Jet-Pack (IPACS)

At what resolution do you play? It might help to decrease the resolution to increase speed.

Thanks, Jan for responding. After tweaking the resolution this morning, 2880 X 1620 is working better. No freezes so far.

**MAC USERS FIX** I found on my iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2017), that if I change the resolution to 2880 X 1620 the stuttering and screen freezes go away. The way to change resolution on this machine is to open system preferences/display/resolution/scaled/2880 X 1620

Thanks to Jan for the suggestion.

When this sim runs smoothly, it is the best SIM I have witnessed.

Quote from KP164

I have similar problem too on my 4K 2017 iMac. I have constant 60fps, but every 15 sec. short freeze occures. It appears regardless of selected resolution, grafics quality and resolution, both during flight and in menu. What could be the reason of this problem?

I don't know. This was a chronic problem in the heavily animated and (HD) areas. Paris, Chicago, Hawaii etc. On my computer, I fixed it as outlined above.

Agreed. Perhaps another MAC user will come up with some advice. MAC users are either scarce or very quiet on these forums which has frustrated the hell out of me.

How To Optimize Mac For Gaming

1. Check The Status Of Disk Usage

This is one of the best ways to keep your Mac in good shape as well as optimize it for gaming. If you go through the details of Mac, you can find startup apps, resource-hogging or unwanted apps or other utilities that keep running in the background without our knowledge.

Status Of Disk Usage:

For this, Disk Inventory X is a free and potential tool that has been running for years and quickly displays the status of disk usage in a textual and visual manner. This step is essential as it will help you understand how much space on your Mac is occupied. So, you will know precisely how much space you need to retrieve to play games seamlessly and get optimum performance.

Although you can also find the disk space of your Mac by clicking Apple icon > About this Mac > Storage, yet the minute details are easily covered by Disk Inventory X and hence recommended.

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Clean The Clutter & Optimize Mac For Gaming:

Disk Clean Pro is our favorite tool, and we highly recommend this optimization suite to all the gamers. As it keeps Mac healthy by retrieving chunks of space, improving boot time and deleting redundant data like duplicate files, unwanted apps, etc. Its automatic scanning and cleaning not just improves the overall performance of Mac but also can be helpful for Mac games.

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You must be aware of the fact that some games require gigabytes of space whether you play it from Steam or download them on your Mac. That’s why it is recommended that at least 15% of free space or 18GB space is available on your Mac, for it to function seamlessly. Maintaining it manually can be cumbersome. For it, you must rely on a third-party tool like Disk Clean Pro, which can clean your junk files, duplicate, old and partial downloads which in turn, recovers space and maintains the system health.

2. Disable OS X Features (Notification Center & Dashboard)

The native features are hardly used for everyday purposes, yet they take up the processing power and RAM, hindering the good gaming experience. Thankfully, they can be easily disabled or enabled using Terminal as and when required.

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2.1 Disable/Enable Dashboard:

• To disable, click on Spotlight icon from the menu bar and type ‘terminal’ or go through Applications > Utilities > Terminal.
• Enter the command: defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean YES
• Next enter: killall Dock

These two commands above will restart the Finder with the dashboard being disabled.

In case you want to enable it again, follow these steps:

• To enable; defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean NO
• Next enter: killall Dock

2.2 Disable/Enable Notification Center:

• To disable: Open terminal once again and enter command: launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.notificationcenterui.plist
• Next enter: killall NotificationCenter

• To enable: Open terminal once again and enter command: launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.notificationcenterui.plist
• Next open Finder, press Command + Shift + G and copy-paste /System/Library/CoreServices/
• Restart your Mac, and you will be able to get back your Notification Center.

As both processes keep running in the background, it is better to keep them disabled and utilize it to get better gaming experience than ever.

3. Stop The Apps From Starting Automatically

Does this happen to you as well that when you log in to the system, various apps start automatically and hog the system resources? Well, if it is happening, you can disable login items and optimize your Mac for gaming.

For this;

Go to click on Apple icon > System Preferences > Users and Groups > Login items. Here, you can select the app that you do not want to pop-up or rather select all of them and click on the ‘-’ sign below.

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4. Close All Applications & Menu Bar Apps

Your Mac will inevitably run at a slow speed, and your performance of your games would not be as expected when multiple applications are running behind. Hence, this step is another necessity of the list.

Check your dock and quit all the running applications by right-clicking on them and selecting Quit. Looks like a small process but believe me it’s an effective one!

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5. Configure Game Settings

Your games’ in-built settings can be tweaked side by side while you optimize Mac for gaming and learning how to make the gaming experience better. These settings can be different, depending on the game. Hence we will tell you some generalized tips here that will help you with most of them.

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• Go to Graphics settings from the options and select in between Low, Medium and High to suit your graphics card.
• Go to Game settings or Options within and make the screen resolution settings appropriate as per the game requires.

Play the game, and you will be able to decide which settings ideally suit your game.

6. Play In Different Viewed/Windowed Mode

Not many people believe this, but playing games in different modes do help in recognizing the speed and graphics variation of the game. You can always try for both the options, including Windowed mode or full-screen mode one by one.

You can switch between modes by visiting Video or Graphics settings of the game itself. Switch the options and find the most suitable mode as per speed, texts display and transient graphics. [Blocked Image: https://wethegeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Screenshot-2020-04-22-at-12.05.27-PM.png]Image source: Macworld

7. Keep Checking Activity Monitor

Activity Monitor is an in-built tool of Mac, which is capable of explaining where and how Mac is using memory, CPU usage, Energy consumption, etc. It can also show you which application is running behind when you are enjoying your favorite games on Mac.

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Other than this, you can also keep track of RAM and CPU usage, especially when you hear the fans running at speed while playing games on Mac. If any of the tasks is taking a toll on resources, you can simply choose to end it right from here.

8. Keep Software Up To Date

Now, this seems obvious, but the step helps in maintaining the process of the system as well as optimizing Mac for gaming. Keep visiting the App Store to find any new update on the game as any kind of bug might be slowing down the gaming speed. You can even let Mac update all the gaming or other applications to stay up to date with a simple tweak.

Just go to System Preferences > Applications > Tick mark the ‘Automatically check for updates’.

Also, make sure that you update all software, including OS for the smooth performance of Mac, which, in turn, helps in removing any bugs or glitches as well.

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And you are good to go!

9. Run Windows To Play Window-Specific Games

We know that your Windows users’ friends might be telling you the story of cool games that they enjoyed last week, but it is still not available for Mac. Even in this case, you are at luck as Mac lets you install Windows on your system and let you enjoy the same way your friends are.

There are various methods by which you can install Windows on Mac. So, check out how to run Windows on Mac?

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Got this from wethegeek.com

It has helped tremendously.