Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Heat and Performance issues with MacBook Pro, 7 and COD4

MrCheeto

MrCheeto

Suspended
Original poster
Nov 2, 2008
3,531
353
I just spent a full 25 hours getting Windows 7 fully installed. Sheesh, I remember why I told my friends I'd never fix their Windows computers again. It's hell searching for every little puzzle piece online, especially when the computer can't get online!!

(every time I use Windows, I feel more blessed that I have a mac ;) )

Anyway, after all of this I get Call Of Duty 4 installed (first game) and give it a try. Within 3 minutes my fans are hollering like a rabid banshee. I have set EVERYTHING to extreme low, even turned anti-aliasing off. What gives?!

Now remember, I was playing COD4 within OS X on the Mac version, the thing ran like butter down Kirstie Alley's chin. What is this? Is OpenGL THAT MUCH better than DirectX? I mean really the performance differences are...well...you'd have to be some sort of brainwashed cultic psychopath to think that Windows was a better gaming platform.

So what's to do? I know I have all my drivers right and I played with the Nvidia control panel, any thoughts? The thing starts skipping and then if I pause the game, total lock up =\

Thanks in advance
 
MrCheeto said:
I just spent a full 25 hours getting Windows 7 fully installed.
Click to expand...
Was there any problem with the installation? It's about an hour on my Macbook.

MrCheeto said:
Anyway, after all of this I get Call Of Duty 4 installed (first game) and give it a try. Within 3 minutes my fans are hollering like a rabid banshee. I have set EVERYTHING to extreme low, even turned anti-aliasing off. What gives?!
Click to expand...
There's no proper SMC driver for Windows so the fans are very aggressive when temperatures go up. Reducing your graphical settings is only going to increase your frames per second and not reduce your temperature.

MrCheeto said:
Now remember, I was playing COD4 within OS X on the Mac version, the thing ran like butter down Kirstie Alley's chin. What is this?
Click to expand...
Once again there are proper SMC drivers under OS X and very lax at that. In addition CoD4 under OS X is run under a translation layer. You're getting fewer frames per second when compared to the Windows version. Check your temperatures and there are plenty of threads about hot Apple notebooks.

MrCheeto said:
So what's to do? I know I have all my drivers right and I played with the Nvidia control panel, any thoughts? The thing starts skipping and then if I pause the game, total lock up =\
Click to expand...
Check the logs and download the latest drivers from nVidia.
 
Wrongity wrong about one thing.

No matter how hard I try my system locks up. I've turned EVERYTHING down to where there's nothing but tan blobs shooting eachother up with pixelated blurs. And in OS X? Beautiful framerates and beautiful graphics. Screenshots? I got em ;)

CLICK!

All 1280x800




shot0003.jpg


Also, you couldn't be more wrong about the temps. Even if Apple keeps the fans low it stays comfortably cool to my lap, whereas my gameplay today on Windows induced flashbacks of inadvertent unorthodox sterilization by the PowaBooks.
 
MrCheeto said:
Wrongity wrong about one thing.

No matter how hard I try my system locks up. I've turned EVERYTHING down to where there's nothing but tan blobs shooting eachother up with pixelated blurs. And in OS X? Beautiful framerates and beautiful graphics. Screenshots? I got em ;)
Click to expand...
I can't do anything if you're not going to put forth the effort to troubleshoot.

MrCheeto said:
Also, you couldn't be more wrong about the temps. Even if Apple keeps the fans low it stays comfortably cool to my lap, whereas my gameplay today on Windows induced flashbacks of inadvertent unorthodox sterilization by the PowaBooks.
Click to expand...
Here's the latest thread I've posted in.

If you really, really don't believe me there are at least a dozen threads where I explain how the fan behavior works on the Unibody notebooks because someone noticed in iStat Pro that their CPU hit 101° C.
 
Eidorian said:
I can't do anything if you're not going to put forth the effort to troubleshoot.
Click to expand...

I've done all I can. Updating/changing drivers, playing in the Nvidia control panel, downloading different DirectX versions and yet I still can't play on 480 res even!

If you really, really don't believe me there are at least a dozen threads where I explain how the fan behavior works on the Unibody notebooks because someone noticed in iStat Pro that their CPU hit 101° C.
Click to expand...

Did I not say it FEELS cooler? I don't care if the fans cut OFF when it gets hot, the fact is it feels cooler when playing in OS X and the fact that I can run at medium high in OS X yet it will hardly chug along in Windows is deaply disturbing, I thought Windows was the platform of choice -.-' psychos, I tell ya.

As for the 25 hours of work put into it, it only took an hour and a half MAYBE to format and install. The issues arose with drivers..drivers...ALL THE DRIVERS!!! I like how with OS X one disk gets it all done automatically, NOTHING to configure. I just got the sound working 2 or 3 hours ago.

Thanks but has anyone played COD4 in 7 on a 13" 2.53ghz MacBook Pro?
 
MrCheeto said:
I've done all I can. Updating/changing drivers, playing in the Nvidia control panel, downloading different DirectX versions and yet I still can't play on 480 res even!
Click to expand...
Did you check the crash logs? I can't find anything specific to hard locks in Call of Duty 4 on the 9400M G.

MrCheeto said:
As for the 25 hours of work put into it, it only took an hour and a half MAYBE to format and install. The issues arose with drivers..drivers...ALL THE DRIVERS!!! I like how with OS X one disk gets it all done automatically, NOTHING to configure. I just got the sound working 2 or 3 hours ago.
Click to expand...
The BootCamp/64.msi takes about 5-10 minutes. Why didn't you use that?
 
MrCheeto said:
As for the 25 hours of work put into it, it only took an hour and a half MAYBE to format and install. The issues arose with drivers..drivers...ALL THE DRIVERS!!! I like how with OS X one disk gets it all done automatically, NOTHING to configure. I just got the sound working 2 or 3 hours ago.
Click to expand...

Doesn't Apple supply the drivers in a neat little package? What on earth did you do?
 
Thanks to 7 it just took matters into its own hands and decided it was best not to install certain drivers because of compatibility. In the end I had to manually install those and got things running at least -.-' I hate when Windows makes decisions for me, it's like the simple groundskeeper at church, sure he means well but he's more of a burden than a help/amusement.


How would I find the logs? And it's supposed to be the 9400m.

32bit Windows 7 Ultimate =\
 
MrCheeto said:
Thanks to 7 it just took matters into its own hands and decided it was best not to install certain drivers because of compatibility.
How would I find the logs? And it's supposed to be the 9400m.
Click to expand...
Which Boot Camp drivers are you using? 3.0 is what I and others have been using for Windows 7. You're not going to need to elevate the installer for 32-bit though.

It's technically the MCP7A-U with the 9400M G if you really want to be specific. I've always just overridden the compatibility complaints.

You can use the search with "event log" to bring it up or the Event Viewer is a snap-in to the Computer Management Console. You can bring that up by right clicking on Computer and then clicking on "Manage".
 
Crap thanks, never would have figured out the log location.

Version 3? Apple's site says 2.2 is the latest, what's going on? Do you have a download link?
 
MrCheeto said:
Crap thanks, never would have figured out the log location.

Version 3? Apple's site says 2.2 is the latest, what's going on? Do you have a download link?
Click to expand...
3.0 comes with Snow Leopard and any Mac that ships with Snow Leopard preinstalled is going to have some slightly newer version of 3.0. It should say 3.0 with a build number after it in the installer.

On a side note, the windows search in the start menu is damn useful.
 
The search in the start menu is the ONLY way I'll ever find anything on this damned half ass system explorer. I tell you, and I've said this since XP, Windows devs leave scaffolding and paint buckets lying around, CLEAN UP AND MAKE IT RIGHT, gnarbs!

I can't find my build number, however when I tried to manually install each driver I got nothing but complaints from the hamsters running the wheels inside. I downloaded 2.2 from Apple's site and BOOM, sound works. I did manage to get the Nvidia drivers from the disk, though. Still unsure what version.
 
Right click on the desktop and choose nvidia control panel, then under one of the menus, there's an info selection. You can also find out the driver version for your graphics card in Device Manager.
 
OK I see nothing about forceware, anything in particular like Physx or something?

Driver Version 186.81
DirectX Version 11.0

Anything else?

Man I'm going to be hugely dissapointed if this doesn't perform BETTER under Windows than OS X.
 
It performs so much better on my MacBook Pro on Windows that I only use the Mac side of it for multiplayer. A major part of that is being able to overclock in Windows. I recommend updating your Nvidia drivers. The ones that come with Bootcamp are always outdated.

Windows 7 32-bit: http://www.nvidia.com/object/notebook_winvista_win7_195.55.html
Windows 7 64-bit: http://www.nvidia.com/object/notebook_winvista_win7_x64_195.55.html

I also suggest SMC fan control. I use it to set my fans to 7000rpm before I boot into Windows.
 
Isn't it a bad idea to run the fan's motor that high?

I can't believe it, but it worked somewhat. It's playable now!!! :D However the heat is still an issue...oh the PowerBook has scarred us all 8o

Anyway, I'll play with the settings. Have you played COD on a MacBook Pro using the 9400m? What's optimum for ya?
 
I've only played multiplayer with the 9400M on the Mac side and had all the settings at maximum. I've had the fans running at that speed for almost 2 years and have had no problems, my computer is always on. As for heat, my MBP gets up over 90C while running any game on Mac OS. My GPU temp doesn't go below 79C in Mac OS, even when idling. I use a cooling pad to help overclocking in Windows though. Even overclocked though, the GPU doesn't seem to go much above 80C.
 
Crap, that's the thing, I wanted to see what people do with their 9400m when on Windows because on MacOS I had it at medium-high.

*sigh* I guess I'll have to wait for MW2 to be ported =\
 
MrCheeto said:
Crap, that's the thing, I wanted to see what people do with their 9400m when on Windows because on MacOS I had it at medium-high.

*sigh* I guess I'll have to wait for MW2 to be ported =\
Click to expand...

If you have it med-high on Mac OS, you should be able to run it on high on Windows. I get about double the fps on Windows.
 
Well then something is terribly wrong :p I have a feeling it's my settings. Damn it's so tricky, 5,000,000 combinations of settings. Some in the Nvidia control panel, some in the game >< Damn just make it Apple-simple PLEASE! hahaha
 
Well every combo I try just comes out choppy as Porky Pig's speech. =\

Is there a chance that enabling anti-aliasing could IMPROVE the performance? I turned everything waaaay down or off so if there's anything that would do BETTER if higher then gimme an idea.

Thanks a ton.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back