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Graphics and slow cutscenes during dragon age

B

boodr

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 31, 2010
4
0
Hello everyone,

I recently bought dragon age for the mac. I like to have fairly good graphics and textures when I'm playing a game so I adjusted the visual settings accordingly. The framrate in the game is decreased in the game dramatically when I do this. I've played the game on a windows os and had the same settings and the framerate was better. I have heard that pc games are better if played on a windows os but if someone could explain in a bit more detail why this is so and if there is anything I can do to increase framerate without having to give up texture and graphic detail. Is there a spot on my mac that I can configure something differently or tweak it. I have a MacBook Pro with Mac OS X version 10.6.4 with a 2.53 intel core 2 duo processor with 4 GB of memory (I believe that is ram....)

Thanks in advance for the help,

Boodr
 
Performance in DAO will be better under Windows than under OSX on the same hardware. Sad fact of life.

Having said that, it's possible to have a perfectly good-looking DAO on a mac too, depending on your hardware.

Which graphics card do you have? This is more important than your RAM etc.

There are various reasons why performance is generally worse under OSX but one important one is because Apple rarely updates the graphics drivers for their video cards, while Windows drivers are updated extremely frequently. Traditionally, Apple hasn't seen gaming as a particular interest. This has changed a little recently (q.v. the recent Graphics Update which has seriously improved performance on Valve titles and some installs of SC2).

Play around with your graphics settings and see what works for you.

You could consider using bootcamp to install Windows and play the Win version if you are desperate to squeeze quality out of your hardware. I probably wouldn't bother myself, just for one title.

But anyway, your graphics card is the issue.

Good luck and enjoy the game, it's fantastic!
 
As mentioned in the previous post, the main issue is that laptops don't usually have the capable graphics card needed to max out games. On Windows too.

But another important factor is that the drivers aren't upto the mark usually on Mac OS X ( compared to Windows ) and that hinders performance. A lot.

The current iMacs and MacPros are better suited for gaming at high settings because the graphics card in them are quite powerful.
 
I have NVIDIA GeForce 9400M. I'm not a computer software/hardware expert so I'm not sure how powerful this is. If it is a decent graphics card is there anything I can do on the mac that can improve the game besides adjusting the graphics within the game.
 
I am afraid not. You can add more RAM but that won't make much difference.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-9400M-G.11949.0.html

The above is a detailed breakdown of where the 9400M stands in the laptop graphics chart.

As you can see, its an entry level chipset. 5 year old games will run well on medium/high settings but don't expect to run current games on anything other than low settings. And thats on Windows ! The exceptions are Valve and id Software games ( e.g Doom, Quake, Left 4 Dead, Half Life series as they are old games )

Speaking of expectations, I think that people should learn about hardware more and not expect to run games at max settings on their laptops 'because its the latest one they bought'. Its like complaining about not having a V12 engine in their new Ford Focus. :eek:
 
My brother has MBP with 9400M as well, he played dragon age in windows on it and it ran pretty bad to be honest.

According to systemreqslab.com is also my i5 MBP a bit too weak to run it very well.

Recommended Specifications
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad 2.4Ghz Processor or equivalent
RAM: 4 GB (Vista) or 2 GB (XP)
Video: ATI 3850 512 MB or greater / NVIDIA 8800GTS 512 MB or greater
DVD ROM (Physical copy)
20 GB HD space

As you see, your CPU is lower than minimum reqs and your graphics too.
(8800GTS is about twice, if not more, as fast as your 9400M)
 
Thanks for the information everyone! I have a better understanding now. I did a quick search on the web and it seems there isn't an improved graphics card for the MacbookPro 5. Plus, because I have a laptop I can't add to it because the point of a laptop is for everything to have a snug fit in it to reduce space. Am I correct?
 
boodr said:
Thanks for the information everyone! I have a better understanding now. I did a quick search on the web and it seems there isn't an improved graphics card for the MacbookPro 5. Plus, because I have a laptop I can't add to it because the point of a laptop is for everything to have a snug fit in it to reduce space. Am I correct?
Click to expand...

Yes.

The 5 series had two different versions, one with 9400m and one with both 9400m and 9600GT. The 9600GT versions is much better at gaming, unfortunately you cannot upgrade to the 9600GT card.
 
... but, you still have to play DAO because it is the goddesses' gift to humanity. So find another machine asap.

:D
 
aki said:
... but, you still have to play DAO because it is the goddesses' gift to humanity. So find another machine asap.

:D
Click to expand...

fact is, DAO is just not a good looking game, even on the best machine it has a tendency to do some odd things, its just a kind of buggy game, on any system or any machine, but it takes a big hit the older the machine that you are using....
 
redraidermacman said:
fact is, DAO is just not a good looking game, even on the best machine it has a tendency to do some odd things, its just a kind of buggy game, on any system or any machine, but it takes a big hit the older the machine that you are using....
Click to expand...

Yeah actually I wish I could deny this, but I can't. It's one of those games where people on the forums discuss wether they should play under patch 1.02 or 1.04 (no one thinks 1.03 is any good).

Apparently the best plan is to patch 1.04 with Quinn's "fixpack", which is about to be updated from 1.03 to 1.04 any moment now, though it works ok with 1.03 more or less according to most people... well you get the idea.

Having conceeded all that, I played under I think 1.01 when the game first came out and it was great fun bugs aside.

Hoooopefully, by the time DAO2 is released next year, DAO1 will be ready to play. Harhar.

Seriously, as soon as 1.05 and/or quinn's fixpack for 1.04 comes out I will replay.
 
boodr said:
Thanks for the information everyone! I have a better understanding now. I did a quick search on the web and it seems there isn't an improved graphics card for the MacbookPro 5. Plus, because I have a laptop I can't add to it because the point of a laptop is for everything to have a snug fit in it to reduce space. Am I correct?
Click to expand...

Laptops are not made for gaming. Unless you buy those 17" beasts from Alienware / Asus but even then, you will have issue with portability and heat.

You won't be able to change the graphics card in your MacBook Pro.

If you are hell bent on experiencing Dragon Age at the highest settings on a Mac, you'd need to purchase the latest iMacs/MacPro.
 
Okay then, That's how it goes. Thanks again everyone for the info. I can't do anything about it now but I may be getting a new desktop computer in the future and now I know what I should be looking at.
 
I was wondering if this would work on my Imac if I upgraded to Snow Leopard?

I have 3 GB of RAM, 2.4 GHz, and the ATI Radeon HD 2600.
 
The system specs for the Mac version are as follows:
Mac OS X 10.6.2 Leopard or higher
Intel Core 2 Duo Processor
2 GB RAM
ATI X1600 or NVIDIA 7300 or greater
At least 17 GB of hard drive space for installation
This game will not run on PowerPC (G3/G4/G5)-based Mac systems, or Intel GMA class of video cards.

you might have to turn everything down a lot, but it should run in leopard.....
 
redraidermacman said:
The system specs for the Mac version are as follows:
Mac OS X 10.6.2 Leopard or higher
Intel Core 2 Duo Processor
2 GB RAM
ATI X1600 or NVIDIA 7300 or greater
At least 17 GB of hard drive space for installation
This game will not run on PowerPC (G3/G4/G5)-based Mac systems, or Intel GMA class of video cards.

you might have to turn everything down a lot, but it should run in leopard.....
Click to expand...

So is my ATI Radeon HD 2600 >= ATI X1600 or NVIDIA 7300.
 
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