so like all Blizzard games, Diablo 3 will be released on the Mac platform, so my question is whether to play this game natively on OSX or run the windows version on bootcamp? which one will be better?
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Diablo 3 on OSX or Bootcamp?
- Thread starter kingping14
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well as with all Blizzard games i'll play it natively on OS X just because its too much hassle to always boot up into windows to play and its not worth it either to install it on both imo.
It would depend on how old your Mac is I guess. I have the 2011 21.5" base model iMac and it runs diablo3 beta on max settings perfect. For me I don't think i'd get much of a boost, if any, that would warrant me wasting my time to have to load up bootcamp every time I want to play.
If you have a older machine, it may or may not be worth it. Blizzard is really good at making sure there games run good for both platforms.
Blizzard have always optimised their games for both Mac and PC and their games run just as well on equivilant Macs. I would say just play it under OSX.
I'm going to try on OSX first. I have a Mac Mini with a dual core 2.7 i7, 8GB of RAM and a Video card with 256MB of VRAM. if it runs well and looks good then I will stick with that. Hopefully I can run it at least at medium settings.
I'm going to try on OSX first. I have a Mac Mini with a dual core 2.7 i7, 8GB of RAM and a Video card with 256MB of VRAM. if it runs well and looks good then I will stick with that. Hopefully I can run it at least at medium settings.
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As a current BETA player myself (and on a 2011 13" MBA). I would suggest running in bootcamp.
I am running D3 beta on win 7 64 on 720p and all settings on high except for shadows (which is off) and physics (which is on low) and is much more playable and enjoyable on windows. I can even run AA if its just me playing in the game.
Things to note: In windows I have everything disabled from aero, indexing, features, any extra windows software. I have just have all the updated drivers from their manufactures and windows. I did this specifically so I can enjoy Diablo 3 with the best performance that I can get.
I am running D3 beta on win 7 64 on 720p and all settings on high except for shadows (which is off) and physics (which is on low) and is much more playable and enjoyable on windows. I can even run AA if its just me playing in the game.
Things to note: In windows I have everything disabled from aero, indexing, features, any extra windows software. I have just have all the updated drivers from their manufactures and windows. I did this specifically so I can enjoy Diablo 3 with the best performance that I can get.
Consider graphics drivers...
When I first started playing StarCraft II I installed in both OS X and Win7. I thought I was going crazy when I noticed graphics were better on the Windows side than on the OS X side. I then read an article about OS X using an older version of Open GL than Windows did (I believe it was Open GL, but may be wrong). SCII could take advantage of the newer Open GL functions making the graphics look better in Windows than on OS X. I haven't followed anything that identifies what version of Open GL that OS X is using in 10.7 or 10.8. Does anyone know? Does anyone know what version of Open GL Diablo 3 takes the most advantage of?
Yes, I know I could google some of this... 2 lazy.
When I first started playing StarCraft II I installed in both OS X and Win7. I thought I was going crazy when I noticed graphics were better on the Windows side than on the OS X side. I then read an article about OS X using an older version of Open GL than Windows did (I believe it was Open GL, but may be wrong). SCII could take advantage of the newer Open GL functions making the graphics look better in Windows than on OS X. I haven't followed anything that identifies what version of Open GL that OS X is using in 10.7 or 10.8. Does anyone know? Does anyone know what version of Open GL Diablo 3 takes the most advantage of?
Yes, I know I could google some of this... 2 lazy.
Drivers are almost always superior on the Windows side since they're more frequently updated, so depending on your specific Mac, there might be a minimal difference or a potentially noticeable difference.
I would wager for any 2011 Mac the performance is probably about the same. Anything older is where varying performance could come into play. Even then, it might not matter much, but it could be the difference between running Medium/High smooth in Windows vs. just Medium in OSX.
Just check out both when the game launches and see what's best for you. If the performance difference is significant enough to warrant booting into Windows, that's up to you.
I would wager for any 2011 Mac the performance is probably about the same. Anything older is where varying performance could come into play. Even then, it might not matter much, but it could be the difference between running Medium/High smooth in Windows vs. just Medium in OSX.
Just check out both when the game launches and see what's best for you. If the performance difference is significant enough to warrant booting into Windows, that's up to you.
Just a quick update on diablo 3 performance on OSX Lion.
They updated the beta today and added a command to view FPS.
Base Model 2011 21.5" iMac OSX Lion
Maximum settings average 20-24fps normal, seems low now that i see the number, but to my eyes it ran just fine.
All Settings maxed except shadows on low, 30 fps
All settings maxed except shadows off, 35-40fps
I haven't tried running it on bootcamp. too lazy to install it, but I honestly don't think its going to be that much of a improvement. Maybe for some older models.
They updated the beta today and added a command to view FPS.
Base Model 2011 21.5" iMac OSX Lion
Maximum settings average 20-24fps normal, seems low now that i see the number, but to my eyes it ran just fine.
All Settings maxed except shadows on low, 30 fps
All settings maxed except shadows off, 35-40fps
I haven't tried running it on bootcamp. too lazy to install it, but I honestly don't think its going to be that much of a improvement. Maybe for some older models.
As Bonut mentioned, they made a update last night.
After the update, with texture and cluster details on high, and shadows on off and physics on low, running at 1280x768. I was getting anywhere from 30-45 FPS, with average of 34 or so. Toggling AA on dropped it to about 30 FPS steady.
It was pretty playable, but it also did have a couple FPS drops from here to there.
Hopefully Intel will make a update driver within a month or so to address/specifically update Diablo 3. If it could get another 6-8 FPS from Intel drivers, I'd be ecstatic.
For me Starcraft II runs muuuuch better on my bootcamp partition than on OSX. If it's the same for diablo III I'll most definatly play in on bootcamp.
I don't think Windows is worth the partition space ... but that's just me. I cave every once in a while and give Bootcamp a try but I often find it a hassle to reboot into a different OS each time. Most of everything else I do besides games is on the OS X side ... and Windows on a Mac has never felt optimized since Bootcamp was released. Brightness settings and Mac specific hardware features seem off and unoptimized and battery life normally suffers (when I'm not gaming and trying to do normal tasks. I strictly use laptops and am on the go.
Bootcamp for sure, that is if the extra performance is worth it to you. I'm on a Macbook Pro with a quad core i7 and an AMD 6750m (1gb VRAM), and I get a difference of anywhere from 15 to 20 fps on Diablo, which at equivalent settings seems to be super demanding in comparison to SC2, perhaps due to its perpetual online sync... Anyways, the new patch 16 killed performance on mac dramatically, by about five to eight frames per second on average, and therefore my beta time is usually spent in Windows. Hope this helped.
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The reason the FPS counter was so low after the patch is because there's conflict with other beta servers, and there's a huge performance drop after P16. Esp. with Macs. And Bootcamp makes a major difference, of around 10 to 15 FPS for me, and I'm on drivers from two months ago, relatively new.
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The reason the FPS counter was so low after the patch is because there's conflict with other beta servers, and there's a huge performance drop after P16. Esp. with Macs. And Bootcamp makes a major difference, of around 10 to 15 FPS for me, and I'm on drivers from two months ago, relatively new.
IMO it runs in bootcamp hands down 100times better then in native mac os.
My mac Late '11 Macbook Pro 15", 16GB Ram, 256M4 SSD, 1GB GPU is a decent machine and I am in the beta and have played both version the mac os and the windows 7 pro via bootcamp.
I also have the 27" TB display and with it hooked up via mac os I struggle with about 15FPS on low settings with the screens native resolution.
Now via bootcamp, I am playing on max settings with the 27" with same resolution and I'am getting 50FPS solid......
There is only 4 graphic setting with in D3 beta, and 2 out of the 4 the options are either high or low, no medium settings.
arg the life of a mac, tiz a shame we don't get better performance.
p.s with playing on the 15" laptop screen I will get about 20-25fps in mac os with lowered settings and -40-50fps on max settings via bootcamp.
on side note, I also notice the macbook is a lot cooler while running in bootcamp playing games vs mac os, about 10-15 degree's C.
My mac Late '11 Macbook Pro 15", 16GB Ram, 256M4 SSD, 1GB GPU is a decent machine and I am in the beta and have played both version the mac os and the windows 7 pro via bootcamp.
I also have the 27" TB display and with it hooked up via mac os I struggle with about 15FPS on low settings with the screens native resolution.
Now via bootcamp, I am playing on max settings with the 27" with same resolution and I'am getting 50FPS solid......
There is only 4 graphic setting with in D3 beta, and 2 out of the 4 the options are either high or low, no medium settings.
arg the life of a mac, tiz a shame we don't get better performance.
p.s with playing on the 15" laptop screen I will get about 20-25fps in mac os with lowered settings and -40-50fps on max settings via bootcamp.
on side note, I also notice the macbook is a lot cooler while running in bootcamp playing games vs mac os, about 10-15 degree's C.
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Your performance problems are due to the fact that Patch 16 severely damaged OSX performance concerning Diablo 3. That said, I'm not sure there's a game out there that runs better or takes better advantage of hardware in Mac OSX.
In beta, the game is having performance issues for Mac and PC and Blizzard has clearly stated 100+ times on its forums that the game hasn't been optimized yet because it truly is a beta and it will run a lot better when the full game is released on the 15th of May.
I know on my MBP that's in my sig, the beta would run sluggish in Bootcamp and Lion. I got rid of Bootcamp and have been running it on my desktop PC that should be destroying it hardcore on max settings and it still gets some from framerate hangups here and there and doesn't feel completely smooth.
On my MBP right now, I have to lower everything to the lowest settings and play it at a lower resolution for it to have a somewhat smooth gameplay. While playing, the temperature of the CPU easily hits 88c with fans maxed out, which a lot of people are reporting, and Blizzard said it'll be fixed before release. WoW btw puts me at 60c with the fans at 4500 rpm so something was obviously wrong there on Diablo 3.
I will for sure be playing Diablo 3 mainly on my gaming PC, but my MBP should be able to easily play it on Lion once the game is released at probably my screen's native resolution and on medium/high after looking at their recommended setup.
I know on my MBP that's in my sig, the beta would run sluggish in Bootcamp and Lion. I got rid of Bootcamp and have been running it on my desktop PC that should be destroying it hardcore on max settings and it still gets some from framerate hangups here and there and doesn't feel completely smooth.
On my MBP right now, I have to lower everything to the lowest settings and play it at a lower resolution for it to have a somewhat smooth gameplay. While playing, the temperature of the CPU easily hits 88c with fans maxed out, which a lot of people are reporting, and Blizzard said it'll be fixed before release. WoW btw puts me at 60c with the fans at 4500 rpm so something was obviously wrong there on Diablo 3.
I will for sure be playing Diablo 3 mainly on my gaming PC, but my MBP should be able to easily play it on Lion once the game is released at probably my screen's native resolution and on medium/high after looking at their recommended setup.
uhhh... so your solution is to buy/build a PC? thanks for sharing... thats all he's doing in that video is using his iMac as a monitor.
Yeah and it's pretty damn amazing. If Apple gave us the green light to change out graphics cards then we wouldn't be here in this thread happy to play modern games at low settings.
Plus using a mini display port cable to run this thing through an iMac is impressive.
Now what would you suggest?
Look at PS3 and Xbox 360. They both don't use good OS's to run games. If all you do is use windows for gaming then it really doesn't matter what the OS is or which one you use.
The truth is that OSX sucks at gaming. People here want to game. I'm no PC loving tool but I am giving the best answer to a gaming problem.
I personally play games through boot camp. But I wish OSX would have updated drivers and a few other options for those of us that like gaming, along with better graphics cards.
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I have Windows 7 on Bootcamp so I'll try both.
I just got a 27 inch iMac with the 3.4 GHZ i7, 16 GB DDR3 RAM, and the AMD Radeon HD 6970M 2GB video card, I'm assuming it should be good to go for D3.
I just got a 27 inch iMac with the 3.4 GHZ i7, 16 GB DDR3 RAM, and the AMD Radeon HD 6970M 2GB video card, I'm assuming it should be good to go for D3.
You will have no issues. I played at everything at high, shadows off and native resolution. 60 fps
I'm excited too. Played the beta with zero issues. I have an early 2011 15" MBP, 8GB RAM, 2.2ghz quad core, 1GB VRAM and just last night ordered a 256GB SSD.
Unfortunately, I won't really get to play until the weekend but I'm expecting decent FPS on high settings. I run SC2 maxed out on ultra and highest res with 40-50FPS no problems.
Unfortunately, I won't really get to play until the weekend but I'm expecting decent FPS on high settings. I run SC2 maxed out on ultra and highest res with 40-50FPS no problems.