Diablo 3 on OSX or Bootcamp?

[throAU]

Its the classic trade-off.

Code flexibility/complexity/correctness vs execution speed.

Windows has a highly optimised, gaming-dedicated graphics pipeline - and the drivers have settings for rendering quality vs speed that both the user and software can easily tweak for performance.

OS X has a general purpose OpenGL pipeline, that hasn't focused on gaming performance.

Has anyone managed to do any quality comparisons? It would not surprise me (though I'm not saying it is a sure thing) if the graphical quality on the OS X drivers is slightly better, but slower.

 

[mikeo007]

Its the classic trade-off.

Code flexibility/complexity/correctness vs execution speed.

Windows has a highly optimised, gaming-dedicated graphics pipeline - and the drivers have settings for rendering quality vs speed that both the user and software can easily tweak for performance.

OS X has a general purpose OpenGL pipeline, that hasn't focused on gaming performance.

Has anyone managed to do any quality comparisons? It would not surprise me (though I'm not saying it is a sure thing) if the graphical quality on the OS X drivers is slightly better, but slower.

Graphical quality is equal at best. Like you said, Apple's APIs just aren't as robust as those available in windows. The other issue is Apple's sandbox. Great for security, not so much for performance, especially where graphics are concerned. No direct access to hardware means that there's an extra step involved in every GPU call.

 

[antonis]

I don't think it's a matter of Apple's APIs specifically, rather than DirectX vs OpenGL drivers speed difference. In addition, the 2 GPU manufacturers are optimizing their h/w for the DirectX side, for years now. Things should change slowly, as more Mac games are hitting the market.

 

[mikeo007]

I don't think it's a matter of Apple's APIs specifically, rather than DirectX vs OpenGL drivers speed difference. In addition, the 2 GPU manufacturers are optimizing their h/w for the DirectX side, for years now. Things should change slowly, as more Mac games are hitting the market.

No, as I said: even if software is using the OpenGL standard on both Windows and OSX, it will still run faster on Windows. Take it from a developer, it's the drivers and APIs that are the biggest problem.

 

[JronMasteR]

Played the game on both platforms, in Windows 7 via Bootcamp an under OSX. The performance in OSX was pretty poor, I got about 15-20 fps in OSX an above 30 fps in Windows.
Then I decided to give it another try an reinstalled the game in OSX and now it runs even better than in Windows. I have no idea why.
I have everything on high, anti aliasing enabled and I get constant 30+fps in OSX. Might be worth a try to reinstall the game...