So I've been playing World of Warcraft for about a total of 7 months now, and finally got fed up with the way that it runs on my mac. I've had to turn every setting down to the lowest possible, after discovering a few months back that having anything NOT on minimum would cause my computer to heat to 180 degrees, and cause a Kernel crash. I also had to turn my maximum FPS to a miserable 8 FPS. My mac's specs are: 2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Macbook, 2 GB of 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM, with an Intel GMA 950 video card. I realize that it's probably the graphics card that causes such a problem, but i also realize there is no way to remove the current one, so I'm pretty out of luck on that. I would really appreciate any help if anyone has advice on how to get my performance up in any way. I'd also like to know if any other WoW player has a newer Macbook Pro (like the ones with either a NVIDIA GeForce 9400M, or the one with a NVIDIA GeForce 9400M + 9600M GT with 256MB), and would like to know how it runs on those machines. Thanks in advance for any help.
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WoW Advice- Performance Issues
- Thread starter mr2gtr
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GMA950 is seriously old tech, and I really can't believe you played wow with it for 7 months before looking it up as the source of your problems?
Anyway, notebookcheck.net has the 9400m running an average 3dmark2005 benchmark score of 3000, with the 950's average score of 407.
Bottom line: you need a computer with a better graphics card if you want to play wow at higher FPS.
Anyway, notebookcheck.net has the 9400m running an average 3dmark2005 benchmark score of 3000, with the 950's average score of 407.
Bottom line: you need a computer with a better graphics card if you want to play wow at higher FPS.
Believe me, I have no clue how I can stand it either, it kills me to watch how others play the same game. Thanks for the link too, it was pretty helpful.
And to the post about a discreet graphics card; I'm usually pretty good about keeping up to date on tech options, if that makes sense, but I've never heard about this. Is there anyone/thing that can elaborate on this for me?
I used to play on the 950 macbook, I now play WoW on a Macbook with the 9400m card and 4GB RAM, it runs great. I cap it at 30 fps. Goes down to about 20-25 in Dalaran and 25 man raids.
Discreet graphics cards refers to where there graphics solution on the computer has its own dedicated memory. The 9400M and Intel 950 series are not discreet solutions in that they require use of system memory. Though the 9400M is night and day better than any Intel solution I have ever seen. For average game play it works fine.
If you require an Apple laptop for whatever reason your options are limited to the Pro line. I would suggest browsing the Apple Refurbish store and look for systems featuring a combination of 9400m/9600GT. The 9600GT with only 256mb of dedicated ram will smoke your system. You can also buy an older pro model with the 8600 series chips and do fine for WOW.
iMac solutions include any system with the 8800 series chips, GT120, GT130, and ATI 4850 chipsets. All will clearly state 256 or greater ram for video.
I am able to run WoW just fine on my three year old 15" MacBook Pro (I use it to play WoW while on travel away from home). I don't have the specs handy to post here so I'm not sure how helpful that comment is. If someone was inclined to do some research, it was a top of the line MBP purchased about 2 months after the first iPhone was released (my first Mac!).
One thing I did notice that made a huge difference for me back in the day though was system memory. When I bought my first iMac (to replace the MacBook pro as my primary WoW machine, hehe) it came with 2 Gigs of RAM and despite better tech specs, it had issues with FPS, particularly in high population areas. I ordered 4 gigs of RAM from a third party vendor, popped it in...and zoom, enormous improvement in game performance and much higher graphics framerates as well, even with high settings. Once I replaced my system memory (moving frmo 2gigs to 4 gigs) the iMac finally outperformed my MacBook as it would be expected to given it's better and newer hardware.
Hopefully this post is at least a bit helpful and somewhat instructive. If I were to guess, your primary issue is probably the amount of system memory you have since you stated you only had 2 gigs. My 3+ year old MacBook Pro handles WoW just fine...but it has 4 gigs.
One thing I did notice that made a huge difference for me back in the day though was system memory. When I bought my first iMac (to replace the MacBook pro as my primary WoW machine, hehe) it came with 2 Gigs of RAM and despite better tech specs, it had issues with FPS, particularly in high population areas. I ordered 4 gigs of RAM from a third party vendor, popped it in...and zoom, enormous improvement in game performance and much higher graphics framerates as well, even with high settings. Once I replaced my system memory (moving frmo 2gigs to 4 gigs) the iMac finally outperformed my MacBook as it would be expected to given it's better and newer hardware.
Hopefully this post is at least a bit helpful and somewhat instructive. If I were to guess, your primary issue is probably the amount of system memory you have since you stated you only had 2 gigs. My 3+ year old MacBook Pro handles WoW just fine...but it has 4 gigs.