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OSX Lion Performance

G

GrayApple

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 20, 2010
48
0
This may be too early to ask, but has Lion improved the performance on any Native games?
 
GrayApple said:
This may be too early to ask, but has Lion improved the performance on any Native games?
Click to expand...

I wouldn't recommend gaming on Lion for a few updates at least... there are still issues with the OpenGl drivers in many cards, and some games won't even run, or has graphics problems... let alone run faster. Snow Leopard was horrid for running games next to Leopard when it first came out too... after a few updates it got much better.
 
I hasn't improved gaming performance YET. Lion has a forward context version of OpenGL that supports OpenGL 3.2 that game developers would have to move to for us to see any benefit. The OpenGL drivers are there, just nobody is using them yet.
 
As it stands at the moment, Tomb Raider Anniversary seems to run fine, but The Sims 2 on the other hand suffers frequent frame-rate drops for no apparent reason. I am using a 13" MacBook Pro with the NVIDIA GeForce 320 M. As posters above have mentioned, this is all subject to change as Lion progresses.
 
I just installed lion on my mbp 2011 13" base model. I usually got ~30fps on larger levels on snow leopard but I just tried on lion and now i get 40-50fps on large levels!
 
superericla said:
I hasn't improved gaming performance YET. Lion has a forward context version of OpenGL that supports OpenGL 3.2 that game developers would have to move to for us to see any benefit. The OpenGL drivers are there, just nobody is using them yet.
Click to expand...

yep.. as the drivers get fixed/improved and as game makers start making Lion only OpenGL 3.2 apps... it will get better, and eventually be the best gaming version of OSX.
 
My games all run marginally worse or better depending on the game. Once developers start releasing updates that take advantage of GL3.2 then I think we'll start seeing some decent performance boosts.
 
Smalss said:
Anyone know if WoW performance has increased at all with the new Lion?
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On my machine (late 2009 iMac i7), I can now enable sun shafts without going down to 8 fps, so there's some difference at least. :)

Other than that, low fps during certain 25-man raid fights are still problematic, so I haven't really noticed any significant performance increase. Mind you, though, I haven't done any kind of benchmarking and am only reporting my subjective experience.
 
Generally games are the same with some being faster. This being a .0 release their are still a few bugs with some cards (mostly the newer ones) for example I know we have a few draw issues on the HD3000 that we are working through now and I am sure the first few patches for Lion will fix a lot of the smaller side effects.

I have no knowledge of Lion patches however the first few updates for all OS X releases usually fix small issues and improve the OpenGL / card drivers so I think Lion will be the same.

Edwin
 
PowerGamerX said:
My games all run marginally worse or better depending on the game. Once developers start releasing updates that take advantage of GL3.2 then I think we'll start seeing some decent performance boosts.
Click to expand...

the real question is...

does Lion really support OpenGL 3.2?

When I check OpenGL on my Radeon 6750 in Lion, it reports back as OpenGL 2.1
 
doh123 said:
the real question is...

does Lion really support OpenGL 3.2?

When I check OpenGL on my Radeon 6750 in Lion, it reports back as OpenGL 2.1
Click to expand...

Run "GL View" (found on the Mac App Store) it will show you what your card supports.

Your card likely supports 100% of 2.1 but large amounts of the newer versions. For example my NV 9600 card is as follows on Lion. Hence you get 2.1 as your latest fully supported version.

  • OpenGL 2.1 = 100%
  • OpenGL 3.0 = 95%
  • OpenGL 3.1 = 25%
  • OpenGL 3.2 = 70%

Edwin
 
edddeduck said:
Run "GL View" (found on the Mac App Store) it will show you what your card supports.

Your card likely supports 100% of 2.1 but large amounts of the newer versions. For example my NV 9600 card is as follows on Lion. Hence you get 2.1 as your latest fully supported version.

  • OpenGL 2.1 = 100%
  • OpenGL 3.0 = 95%
  • OpenGL 3.1 = 25%
  • OpenGL 3.2 = 70%

Edwin
Click to expand...

Make sure when you run GL View to switch the mode from "Compatibility" to "Core" to see the new OpenGL.
 
thats cool.. didn't know about the Core and Compatibility thing.

Switched it to Core and my 6750 says OpenGL 3.2

3.0 100%
3.1 100%
3.2 100%
3.3 22%
4.0 0%
4.1 0%
 
doh123 said:
thats cool.. didn't know about the Core and Compatibility thing.

Switched it to Core and my 6750 says OpenGL 3.2

3.0 100%
3.1 100%
3.2 100%
3.3 22%
4.0 0%
4.1 0%
Click to expand...

Compatibility mode allows applications such as games to be compatible with pre-Lion capable machines such as the core duo. If the developer wants to use the new OpenGL then the application will only be compatible with Lion unless the developer somehow has the application detect the OS and switch accordingly. I'm not sure of the details on how that would work.
 
superericla said:
Compatibility mode allows applications such as games to be compatible with pre-Lion capable machines such as the core duo. If the developer wants to use the new OpenGL then the application will only be compatible with Lion unless the developer somehow has the application detect the OS and switch accordingly. I'm not sure of the details on how that would work.
Click to expand...

It's easy enough :) most games look for what the card supports and have different paths per manufacturer and also in some cases per card if a specific bug exists.

Edwin
 
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