Important information: "ESO does not support mobile graphic card"

bitsquare · June 2016

I will let the Elder Scrolls Support Team speak for themselves:

[...] the MAC minimum system requirements are:

Operating System: OS X 10.9
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo processor
System RAM: 4GB
Hard Disk Space: 85 GB free HDD space
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 or AMD Radeon 6850 (1GB of VRAM)
Media: DVD-ROM
OpenGL: 4.1
Internet:Internet Broadband Connection**

I know that your graphic card memory is above the minimum requirements, but ESO does not support mobile graphic card (reason why you have framerate issue) and for this reason we cannot guarantee that the game will run on your MAC and we have limited troubleshooting to provide.

[...]

bitsquare · June 2016

Your brand-new MacBook Pro... Unsupported.

Your brand-new iMac... Unsupported.

Your brand-new MacBook Air... Definitely unsupported.

The only Mac supported by Elder Scrolls Online seems to be the Mac Pro.

Turelus · June 2016

Just an FYI OP you might want to remove the support staff name from the post.

The information is good but ZOS don't like when you list sauces of tickets in posts as it is against their rules.

bitsquare · June 2016

Thanks, Turelus.

I had already removed the last name, but I wouldn't want to violate any rules, so I've removed the name entirely.

Slammer99uk · June 2016

Surely the support staff are referring to the Intel 3000 gfx card built into the portable Macs. They cannot be suggesting that the discrete card in Macbook Pro's etc. are not supported.

My 2015 iMac 5K has an AMD Radeon R9 M395X with 4 Gig and my 2015 Macbook Pro's discrete card are showing no frame rate problems whatsoever.

bitsquare · June 2016

The support staff was referring to the discrete GPU built into my MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, mid 2014).

Which graphics setting are you using (Low, Medium, High, Ultra) and framerate do you get in regular gameplay, if I may ask?

Slammer99uk · June 2016

Macbook Pro Retina 15" Mid 2015
AMD Radeon R9 M370X 2Gig

Open world standing out in Gold Coast 37-45 FPS - Graphics look fantastic.

Custom quality:-
Texture - High
Subsampling - High
Shadow - Medium
Water reflection - Off
Ambient - Off
Bloom - Off
Depth of Field - On
Distortion - On
Sunlight - Off
Grass - Off

KhajitFurTrader · June 2016

@bitsquare, please refer to my 64-bit mac client FAQ (see signature for link), as I have provided there a link to Apple's OpenGL compatibilities table. As long as your Mac's IPG (Intel's Integrated Processor Graphics, HD 4000 and onwards) or mobile graphics card is listed as being able to support OpenGL version 4.1, you should at least be able to start the game, even if the specific IGP or GC is not explicitly listed in the minimum system specs. But keep in mind that IGP uses a part of ordinary system RAM as its frame buffer, so on order to fulfill the minimum of 1 GB of VRAM, you might have to up the total amount of system RAM, too. I have also mentioned that contrary to the current minimum of 4 GB of RAM, 8 GB should be listed as the new minimum amount,

It's true that MBAs are pretty much useless by now, but they never were intended to be gaming machines in the first place, so there's no surprise at all. Same goes for standard-issue iMacs and MBPs, as they continue to rely on IGP only for reasons of simplicity and high sales margin. If you want a Mac that's fit for gaming, the higher-priced BTO option with dedicated GCs is the way to go, but that has been true for several years by now.

Personally, I'm quite curious on how the upcoming BTO options on the iMac will develop, because certainly Retina displays are becoming the new standard, and in order for them to be able to be usable in gaming, some powerful BTO options will have to be offered...

bitsquare · June 2016

@KhajitFurTrader

To clarify, the Elder Scrolls Support Team were stating that discrete mobile graphics cards (and not only integrated mobile graphics cards) are not supported, including the NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M (2GB VRAM) built into my MacBook Pro.

They are contradicting your FAQ and seem to be suggesting that the Mac Pro is essentially the only recent Mac fully supported by Elder Scrolls Online.

KhajitFurTrader · June 2016

Uh, this has to be an error on their side, as there are no Mac models without the mobile version of any dedicated graphics chip, for both power consumption (laptops) and thermal budget (desktop) reasons -- with the sole exception of the Mac Pro, ofc.

Neither the knowledge base (http://help.elderscrollsonline.com), nor the ZOS shop page (https://account.elderscrollsonline.com/store/product/eso_standard) explicitly state in their system requirements that mobile graphics chips are unsupported. They mention GeForce and Radeon GC models which, as mentioned above, can only mean mobile versions as far as Macs are concerned.

bitsquare · June 2016

@ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_JessicaFolsom

Can you please confirm the official position of ZOS on the above?

bitsquare · June 2016

Seriously, no official position on the system requirements to run Elder Scrolls Online on Mac?