M2Max video frame rate disappointment

[BlueMacawBird]

I just replaced my 2017 27" iMac with an M2Max Studio with the Apple 27" Studio display. It's a lovely set. For grins I ran the benchmark in Rise of the Tomb Raider and I only got 30 FPS. Which is disappointing, as my iMac (it has the video upgrade) was able to produce 59 FPS despite having a 60hz screen. And my M1Pro MBP was also able to produce 59 FPS. I know the MBP has what, a 120hz refresh rate so at least it matched the video performance of the iMac. I was hoping that the M2Max Studio would have enough graphics muscle to offset the 60hz refresh rate on the Studio Display but evidently not.

All of which is a tribute to the graphics power that the iMac has. I may try a separate gaming display with the new computer to see how it works with a higher refresh rate, but I was hoping to not have to run two displays. At least the HDMI port on the M2 Studio is far better than the earlier versions and from what I've read supports much higher refresh rates.

John

 

[Homy]

Very strange! How many times did you run the benchmark? First time I ran Shadow of the Tomb Raider benchmark on my MBP it underperformed greatly, but then I got what I expected. I think it was due to Rosetta translation the first time you run a x86 app. Which settings btw in RotTR? Are you sure you don't have VSYNC on? It's on by default and set to value 2 which means 30 fps.

 

[Homy]

On my base Studio M1 Max 24c with LG 27" 4K monitor I get these results with everything on and maxed out/very high with FXAA. The preset doesn't max out eveything. I have even "pure hair" on.

1080p

1440p

2160p/4K

SMAA 2160p/4K

 

[BlueMacawBird]

OK, setting VSYNC to setting 1 got me to 60 FPS max. I played around with the graphics and screen settings and wound up with 58 FPS with these settings which are good considering the limitation of the 60hz synch on the Studio Display:

 

[BlueMacawBird]

Homy, thanks for your suggestions, they helped fix my issue.

Best,

John

 

[Homy]

Homy, thanks for your suggestions, they helped fix my issue.

Best,

John

Glad it works better. You get about 20 fps more than I. Which M2 Max do you have GPU-wise? Here is a performance guide by Nvidia. I never use VSYNC. I rarly see screen tearing in games. I'm sure you can have better performance without. I always turn off unnecessary settings too, like Depth of field, Vignette Blur, Film Grain and Chromatic Aberration. Anisotropic filter has almost no impact on fps so you can use 16x.

 

[BlueMacawBird]

My computer is the base line M2 Max with 30 GPU cores.

I tried running the benchmark with VSYNC turned off and got about four extra FPS.

And I've got to say that this is one unstable game. It keeps crashing and when it does it commonly destroys the saved game position. It's been like this for the longest time and I've reinstalled it repeatedly and nothing helps. Fortunately I'm 98% complete and don't really need it to run but it was fun revisiting all the areas. Time to move on, but keep it for the sake of the benchmark which is useful.

 

[Homy]

My computer is the base line M2 Max with 30 GPU cores.

I tried running the benchmark with VSYNC turned off and got about four extra FPS.

And I've got to say that this is one unstable game. It keeps crashing and when it does it commonly destroys the saved game position. It's been like this for the longest time and I've reinstalled it repeatedly and nothing helps. Fortunately I'm 98% complete and don't really need it to run but it was fun revisiting all the areas. Time to move on, but keep it for the sake of the benchmark which is useful.

I haven't played it yet. I'm still on Monterey so maybe it will work better. I'm affraid of updating macOS and breaking older games.

 

[Velin]

Those 4k fps numbers are pretty underwhelming.

 

[BlueMacawBird]

Those 4k fps numbers are pretty underwhelming.

Well, yes they are. The 60hz of the Studio Display is a significant limitation. Have you seen significantly better numbers with a Studio Display?

 

[BlueMacawBird]

I haven't played it yet. I'm still on Monterey so maybe it will work better. I'm affraid of updating macOS and breaking older games.

While old, it is a good game and I had a lot of fun with it. It ran fine for a long time, and after completing the game I had a good time running through the areas again and again. For whatever reason after a year or so it became unstable and I never figured out why. Feral was only helpful in telling me how to restore damaged game positions, and telling me to reinstall the game.

I understand concerns about new OS versions breaking things. Right now I'm on Ventura and most of my programs run OK. I keep old machines around to run games and utilities that are not compatible with current operating systems. One thing in particular that I need to watch is the continued availability of Rosetta II. I hope Apple keeps it longer than they did back in the PPC to Intel transition.

 

[Homy]

One thing in particular that I need to watch is the continued availability of Rosetta II. I hope Apple keeps it longer than they did back in the PPC to Intel transition.

I think they will since the whole Game Porting Toolkit is dependent on Rosetta.

 

[Homy]

Those 4k fps numbers are pretty underwhelming.

In what way? Every Mac gamer knows that Rise of the Tomb Raider is an unoptimized x86 app running under Rosetta. According to Notebookcheck my base M1 Max 24c gets similar results to GTX 1080, RX 5700 XT and RX Vega 64 and is better than RX 6600 at 4K high and 1080p ultra. That's pretty good and expected.

4K high

1080p ultra