iMac vs MacBook Pro performance issues.

[Drop Zone]

Hey folks. Just salvaged a late 2012 iMac from work, 3.2 i5, 16gb system memory, 2gb GTX 680mx, running Catalina - CoH loads just fine, but anything really reflective is just rendered as a base color with no actual reflectivity.

 

I also have the game loaded on a mid-2012 MacBook Pro, 16gb memory, integrated intel graphics, running Mojave - that has no issues with the game, everything looks amazing there.

 

Any ideas as to what could be causing the discrepancy? I've got the iMac settings dialed in higher than the MacBook, so I don't think it's an issue there.

Screenshot taken just now. I'd toss one up from the MacBook as well, but I don't have it with me at the moment.

 

 

Just to make things *more* interesting, I just finished installing Win10 onto the 128GB SSD that made up part of the original fusion drive. nVidia drivers show from 2015, this is literally a stock install of 10 Home and no driver updates yet, nothing but the bootcamp software to get the network and such up and running. Now look at Chrono.png and Xenovolt.png

 

 

So strange..

 

 

Edited March 21, 2021 by DropZone
Update

[WanderingAries]

Depending on which exact Mac you have, there are known issues with things each generation. For example, I know the pre-Mid 2012 MBP series have a GPU issue that caused them lots of problems (there IS a mechanical "fix" that some people offer to do). I call mine (Mid-2012 MBP) a unicorn because it's what I was told to get to do what "I" want to do on a Mac.

 

In terms of what's going on, it might be a good idea to have someone (who knows what they're doing) take that iMac apart and redo everything related to thermals. IE: Replace all the thermal pads, blow out the insides, etc. At that age I'd also suggest throwing in an SSD for performance or at least replace the HDD if it's never been done (so it doesn't fail randomly on you). If after all that (or before if you wish), it wouldn't hurt to back it up and reinstall the OS. I 'think' that device caps out at either Mojave or Catalina. If you wipe the drive and us the internet recovery (Command+Shift+R at boot), then it 'should' load whatever the device needs. Normal recovery (Command+R at boot) might work as well, but you 'should' really just create a bootable installer either way in case the device ever fails in general.

 

Other than that, You may want to simply turn the GFX to minimum and then step it up slowly to find the sweet spot for this device. I'd have to check my MBP to see what it's at, but I'm guessing Performance as I know it doesn't like Ultra without doing something like the above.

[Drop Zone]

I'm actually an Apple Certified Mac Technician by day, alt-ridden Hero by night! I stripped this thing down, cleaned and re-pasted everything, and popped an SSD in it with a clean install of Catalina before I posted. I've even gone so far as to put my MBP next to it and copied the video settings exactly, same issue. At this point all I can think of is that although the MBP is running integrated graphics, it's having a hell of an easier time pushing that 13" display compared to the 1440 27" display on this iMac. If I think about it I'll snag a thunderbolt cable and toss this thing into Target Display Mode sometime this week to test that theory.

 

Attaching screenshots of settings and textures from the MBP too.

Edited March 20, 2021 by DropZone

[WanderingAries]

5 hours ago, DropZone said:

I'm actually an Apple Certified Mac Technician by day

 

Heh, any tips on how to strip and redo the thermals on a MBP, Mid 2012? This thing likes to get toasty (according to the GPU/CPU sensors) a little too often. I've heard others talk about using thermal pads (as opposed to paste) and I've not dared take the heat pipe off this thing without being prepared.

Edited March 20, 2021 by WanderingAries

[Drop Zone]

The iFixit guide on those is really good. Just me mindful of what screws come from where, and use a decent thermal paste like master gel or some such and you’ll be just fine. 

[WanderingAries]

1 hour ago, DropZone said:

The iFixit guide on those is really good. Just me mindful of what screws come from where, and use a decent thermal paste like master gel or some such and you’ll be just fine. 

 

As opposed to this (assuming I still have it)? I do need to investigate a case screw though as it doesn't seem to grip. Hoping it isn't actually snapped as It's clearly shorter of the short ones. :/

 

https://www.newegg.com/arctic-silver-as5-3-5g/p/N82E16835100007?Item=N82E16835100007

 

Edited March 20, 2021 by WanderingAries

[Drop Zone]

The Arctic silver will work too. Higher grade will work a little better but it’s not that important. 
 

By case screw do you mean one of the bottom panel screws? 

[WanderingAries]

20 hours ago, DropZone said:

The Arctic silver will work too. Higher grade will work a little better but it’s not that important. 
 

By case screw do you mean one of the bottom panel screws? 

 

Yeah, the one nearest the left rear foot (short screw) has a piece of electrical tape over the hole at this point, but the rest keep the bottom in place otherwise. When I bought it (OWC), I think that one gave me trouble from the start, but for the longest seemed to not give me issue until I could no longer get it to come out just by unscrewing. I've had PC laptops do the same with no damage as sometimes their threads would grip the plastic shell.

[RogerWilco]

The Apple client runs on the Wine emulator. It could be a setting in Wine that it doesn't like. I'm no expert on that, but maybe digging around and some googling could help.

 

I can also suggest trying the drivers from Nvidia themselves, but those will only run on High Sierra and below. They are much more up to date than the drivers that Apple provides as those were never really updated after Apple stopped putting Nvidia in their computers.

I think it's these: https://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/159341  version 387.10 from March 2020

Support goes all the way up to the GTX1080 even though it doesn't say so, I run on a MacVidCards GTX980, Mac Pro 2010 High Sierra, X5690, 32 GB RAM, bootable PCIe SSD.

Nvidia supported their hardware on MacOS with better drivers for a long time, until Apple blocked them and did not allow them to write a Metal version for Mojave.

Some of the advanced graphics options just not supported on the Mac version though, as far as I could test. ( Also have a Macbook Pro 2018 with AMD graphics) Might be a limitation in Wine or the OpenGL version that Mac supports.

These might solve a lot of graphics problems, If you are willing to run High Sierra instead of a newer version.

 

The GTX680m should not have a problem driving this game, unless you want to run at 4K, then the GTX980 I have is about the minimum (~ 40 fps)

Edited April 21, 2021 by RogerWilco