Hey, anyone still gaming on your trashcan?
I am, so I thought I'd start a post to share information about what games work, issues, tips and tricks. I'm not a huge gamer, but these days everything I do play is in Windows 10 on a bootcamp partition.
I'm currently using the bootcamp drivers from AMD's website. I tried several of the 18.x series drivers on bootcampdrivers.com site but one of the games I play (eve online) wouldn't launch with any of them. Also, I've encountered multiple issues with various driver packages installing correctly. Best advice I can give is to absolutely use the latest DDU utility (outlined in the readme's) and run it in SAFE mode at least 2 times in a row (some recommend 3). The only issue I have seen with the drivers didn't load any gaming profiles. It's unclear to me if a AMD delivered game profile can/does set parameters for a game that can't be done in the settings interface. I've made profiles for all of the games I play to tweak various settings.
I also use MSI Afterburner to overclock when gaming. My d700s are currently clocked at 950Mhz core and 1500Mhz memory. No issues with heat management with anything I play, and temps rarely exceed 80C while using the macfancontrol utility.
Best bump in performance is to use MSI Afterburner to disable PowerPlay and raise max power +20. Couple this with macfancontrol and it will give you a solid 20% boost in performance in both single and CF games. Add a modest overclock to memory and GPU and you can eek out another 5% - in my experience memory has better impact than GPU speed. My d700s will clock to 1Ghz, however I stay at 950Mhz so I can safely stay at or under 80c for long durations.
I run a single display at 2560x1440 @ 75Hz over display port (TB Bus 0)
Games I play and performance I'm still seeing:
Feel free to share your tips, tricks, and thoughts on keeping these systems playing for as long as possible! Also, please keep the discussion to Windows and bootcamp please. Plenty of other threads for native mac gaming already!
If your playing any games in bootcamp send me your config, screen resolution and low/high/avg frame rates and I'll post it here.
***Update 8/13
- AMD released 18.40.20.10 bootcamp drivers for the Mac Pro 6,1 and other systems. Works great on latest Windows 10 (1903)
- I have found a great way to manage system temps when using games in Crossfire! In some games like Eve Online, Final Fantasy XIV, and SWTOR i can hit 150FPS in CF configurations which can ramp the GPUs up into the mid 90c's - not ideal. I have been using RivaTuner to keep an overlay on showing CPU/GPU temps and FPS but had no idea it could act as a frame limiter until i read a good thread about it. It works great and even better in some cases than a games built in limiter! I was skeptical at first but have a good amount of experience with it and can absolutely recommend. Not a single issue in any game I've tried it with in terms of micro stutter, lag, or other ill effects.
Use RivaTuner's built in frame limiter to lower FPS to 1/2 monitor refresh rate. My HP Omen does 75Hz so i make an individual profile for each game i want to run in CF mode and set the limiter to 37fps. This works awesome and usually keeps the GPUs under 80c with plenty of headroom should it be needed. I game at 1440p. When using games with just 1 card, just set the "general" profile to "0" so your frames are not limited (only the ones you specify and run in CF).
I am, so I thought I'd start a post to share information about what games work, issues, tips and tricks. I'm not a huge gamer, but these days everything I do play is in Windows 10 on a bootcamp partition.
I'm currently using the bootcamp drivers from AMD's website. I tried several of the 18.x series drivers on bootcampdrivers.com site but one of the games I play (eve online) wouldn't launch with any of them. Also, I've encountered multiple issues with various driver packages installing correctly. Best advice I can give is to absolutely use the latest DDU utility (outlined in the readme's) and run it in SAFE mode at least 2 times in a row (some recommend 3). The only issue I have seen with the drivers didn't load any gaming profiles. It's unclear to me if a AMD delivered game profile can/does set parameters for a game that can't be done in the settings interface. I've made profiles for all of the games I play to tweak various settings.
I also use MSI Afterburner to overclock when gaming. My d700s are currently clocked at 950Mhz core and 1500Mhz memory. No issues with heat management with anything I play, and temps rarely exceed 80C while using the macfancontrol utility.
Best bump in performance is to use MSI Afterburner to disable PowerPlay and raise max power +20. Couple this with macfancontrol and it will give you a solid 20% boost in performance in both single and CF games. Add a modest overclock to memory and GPU and you can eek out another 5% - in my experience memory has better impact than GPU speed. My d700s will clock to 1Ghz, however I stay at 950Mhz so I can safely stay at or under 80c for long durations.
I run a single display at 2560x1440 @ 75Hz over display port (TB Bus 0)
Games I play and performance I'm still seeing:
- Guild Wars 2: Between 40 - 65fps in most places. In large battles can drop to 30'ish but still very playable. I run this game with CF off and all settings at High except distance which is set to Ultra. CF works, but results in poorer performance than a single card.
- World of Tanks: Between 40 - 65fps all settings maxed. CF off
- World of Warships: Between 50 - 75fps all settings maxed. CF off
- Black Desert Online: Between 55 - 70fps all settings High (don't forget to disable low power switch in display settings of this game. CF On - set to 1x1. Some flickering when switching between desktop and game, but quickly disappears.
- Eve Online: 75fps solid all setting maxed. During large fleet battles it can drop to 30'ish. Very CPU dependent game. CF works well with this game "1x1". Launcher required an obscure system environment variable to be set before it would launch: (QT_OPENGL = desktop). **Update 8/16: Environment variable not required with latest launcher and 18.40 AMD bootcamp drivers.
- Final Fantasy XIV: 50-75fps using crossfire. Use CivilizationBE crossfire profile for almost perfect scaling!
- Elite Dangerous: 60-75fps max settings CF off
- Star Wars The Old Republic: 75+ fps using CF on 1x1, max settings
- Mech Warrior Online: 35-65fps max settings, CF off
Feel free to share your tips, tricks, and thoughts on keeping these systems playing for as long as possible! Also, please keep the discussion to Windows and bootcamp please. Plenty of other threads for native mac gaming already!
If your playing any games in bootcamp send me your config, screen resolution and low/high/avg frame rates and I'll post it here.
***Update 8/13
- AMD released 18.40.20.10 bootcamp drivers for the Mac Pro 6,1 and other systems. Works great on latest Windows 10 (1903)
- I have found a great way to manage system temps when using games in Crossfire! In some games like Eve Online, Final Fantasy XIV, and SWTOR i can hit 150FPS in CF configurations which can ramp the GPUs up into the mid 90c's - not ideal. I have been using RivaTuner to keep an overlay on showing CPU/GPU temps and FPS but had no idea it could act as a frame limiter until i read a good thread about it. It works great and even better in some cases than a games built in limiter! I was skeptical at first but have a good amount of experience with it and can absolutely recommend. Not a single issue in any game I've tried it with in terms of micro stutter, lag, or other ill effects.
Use RivaTuner's built in frame limiter to lower FPS to 1/2 monitor refresh rate. My HP Omen does 75Hz so i make an individual profile for each game i want to run in CF mode and set the limiter to 37fps. This works awesome and usually keeps the GPUs under 80c with plenty of headroom should it be needed. I game at 1440p. When using games with just 1 card, just set the "general" profile to "0" so your frames are not limited (only the ones you specify and run in CF).
Last edited:
