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Performance problem with the GeForce GT 650M (and workaround)
Lunder89
Posts: 155 Member
A little copy below of a text from a different post. I was advised by EA Support to write here, to see if my issue is a standalone issue.
I have experienced that my Mac won't use all it's performance, it's not even running hard enough to get the fans to kick in. Then I change the resolution to Retina resolution, now it kicks in all of its performance, and fans, and I can go back to the 1440x900 resolution (where the game seems to perform the best). (And no leaving it in Retina resolution won't solve the issue)
However this might not even be a problem with The Sims 4.
I do play other games (totally weird), like F1 2013, Hitman Absolution and Tomb Raider 2013. All the games are ported by Feral Interactive. And they all have in common that they can't get all the power out of my Mac. They all lagg. But that is a problem that came with OS X Yosemite, on OS X Mavericks the games work fine.
I have been in contact with Feral Interactive about it, and they can confirm there is issues with the GeForce GT 650M graphics card, and Apple are working on a fix. Feral Interactive thought it would be released in Yosemite 10.10.2, since it was in the beta of Yosemite. But for some reason it didn't make to the final release. Havn't heard from Feral Interactive since. Other than I have highlighted the issue.
My Mac is a MacBook Pro Retina 15"
Intel Core i7 2,4 GHz, 8 GB Ram, nVidia GeForce GT 650M 1 GB, 256 GB SSD
I have experienced that my Mac won't use all it's performance, it's not even running hard enough to get the fans to kick in. Then I change the resolution to Retina resolution, now it kicks in all of its performance, and fans, and I can go back to the 1440x900 resolution (where the game seems to perform the best). (And no leaving it in Retina resolution won't solve the issue)
However this might not even be a problem with The Sims 4.
I do play other games (totally weird), like F1 2013, Hitman Absolution and Tomb Raider 2013. All the games are ported by Feral Interactive. And they all have in common that they can't get all the power out of my Mac. They all lagg. But that is a problem that came with OS X Yosemite, on OS X Mavericks the games work fine.
I have been in contact with Feral Interactive about it, and they can confirm there is issues with the GeForce GT 650M graphics card, and Apple are working on a fix. Feral Interactive thought it would be released in Yosemite 10.10.2, since it was in the beta of Yosemite. But for some reason it didn't make to the final release. Havn't heard from Feral Interactive since. Other than I have highlighted the issue.
My Mac is a MacBook Pro Retina 15"
Intel Core i7 2,4 GHz, 8 GB Ram, nVidia GeForce GT 650M 1 GB, 256 GB SSD
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Comments
Could you give me feedback on how the performance is?
I'm always cautious of companies who blame Apple and say that they have to fix it. EA used to do this with TS3 then miraculously a patch would fix the issue, most notably when users updated to Lion. It's very easy to blame the manufacturer when the software companies should be signed up to the Developers Program so they can test their products thoroughly.
Your Mac can run the game fine. I am just experiencing a series of issues with the performance. When the games runs, it generates from 40 til 25 FPS, depending on the situation and location. Most settings are on high. 1440x900 resolution.
And I am running OS X 10.10.3 beta, the currently most stable version of OS X Yosemite. There is no update to the graphics card though.
But the performance problems I am experiencing, it seems I am the only one with???
Seems so. Have you had Apple run AST over your Mac? Or can you get access to it yourself? Have you reset the SMC and NVRAM(PRAM)?
The other issue I am still suffering from. And since other games can easily get the performance out of my system without problems, I suspect somewhere in the game there is something that isn't working right, that wouldn't be the first time with the Sims either
I've updated the bug thread with the freezing problems related to the March patch. It's a real pain and pretty much everyone is suffering. I didn't mean AHT, AST is Apple's in house diagnostic tool but some people have access to it. You could always get them to test it at the Genius bar
We don't have an Apple Retail store in Denmark
Do you have any Apple Premium Resellers (APRs)? They should have the AST tool too.
https://www.apple.com/dk/buy/apr/
Besides, my Mac works fine, it is just Sims that has a few bugs. Other games that are far more requiring works fine all the time.
A genuine APR should never charge for something like AST. All they'll do is plug an ethernet cable into your Mac and run the diagnostic, normally in front of you at the counter.
Whilst I'm not suffering the freezing issues you are, and we have the same GPU, I do think there's possibly a NVIDIA bug in the game. Intense fan usage when the temperatures aren't stupidly high and I remember when the game was launched users reporting little graphics issues who had NVIDIA cards, mainly in older 13" MBPs. I've also seen a few Windows problem threads where the users have NVIDIA GPUs.
Hehe, welcome to Denmark