Bootcamp or mac client?

Vivifier · April 2018

Hi. I own a 2017 27" iMac with a i5 proccessor and a 650 radeon pro 4Gb. The game playes flawlessly with updated amd drivers on win 10 x64 and on ultra high settings ( not maxed particles + suppression ) which is quite good compared to my 1060 nvidia i7 pc. My question is rather simple ; Can I do anything to have the same settings on my Mac OS high sierra? On HS i play with medium and takes time to load some textures. The game doesnt look bad at medium and i d prefer to play on my Mac os partition . Is bootcamp the only option for ultra high ESO? Can I do something with a wine port on mac, or it will be a waste of time? Thanks for reading.

DeadlyRecluse · April 2018

I used to play on a bootcamped mac (admittedly with much lower specs) and found I got better performance in every way on my windows partition. I've heard similar experiences from others.

Probably not the best news, but the general consensus I've heard is that you are better off playing on the bootcamp side.

Vivifier · April 2018

I see. thank you deadlyrecluse.

henrycupcakerwb17_ESO · April 2018

I disagree , the Mac OS violent runs perfectly well with all setting on max
I won't even install anything released by Microsoft

Dasovaruilos · April 2018

Funny you post this because I JUST tested this, though I'm on a more limited MacBook Pro Retina 2014, with Nvidia 750M...

I downloaded the game on Sierra, tested it for a few days, then installed Windows on a bootcamp partition and downloaded the game there.

For me, the difference is abysmal. I can run the game on High on most settings on the bootcamp partition and still get mostly 30+ FPS, except in Alik'r dolmen train.

On macOS, I have to decrease the quality of stuff by A LOT more to get a little less FPS and I think it stutters and freezes a lot more.

The difference is night and day for me at least.

I've decided I'll keep the Windows partition just to play ESO because of that. Results were really that good.

Lady_Scorp72 · April 2018

I find it does run better on Windows. I love my Mac and usually play via the Mac client simply because I much prefer OS X in general, and I often multitask (safari, Netflix) while grinding/fishing etc., but when I use bootcamp I can run higher graphics settings, I get higher avg. fps, and the PC client loads super fast (3 mins avg.) compared to my Mac client (10 mins avg.). I also find the load screens in game are much faster with the Windows client.

Also, I recall reading in a Mac forum that the disparity is largely due to optimization, i.e., Nvidia/AMD can optimize their cards for PC how they choose and are always updating the drivers accordingly. Apple requires they be optimized to their hardware/OS specs and they control when/if the drivers are updated.

anamenobodyelsehas · April 2018

Xandria72 wrote: »

I find it does run better on Windows. I love my Mac and usually play via the Mac client simply because I much prefer OS X in general, and I often multitask (safari, Netflix) while grinding/fishing etc., but when I use bootcamp I can run higher graphics settings, I get higher avg. fps, and the PC client loads super fast (3 mins avg.) compared to my Mac client (10 mins avg.). I also find the load screens in game are much faster with the Windows client.

Also, I recall reading in a Mac forum that the disparity is largely due to optimization, i.e., Nvidia/AMD can optimize their cards for PC how they choose and are always updating the drivers accordingly. Apple requires they be optimized to their hardware/OS specs and they control when/if the drivers are updated.

The biggest difference, imo, is that the Windows client uses DirectX, whereas the macOS client is still stuck with a fairly old OpenGL implementation. Yes, metal2 is a thing that could help, but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for it.

rwelshmub17_ESO · April 2018

Hi There,

I'm running the game both in Windows 7 (Bootcamp) and on my Mac and to me both are the same. I run both on the highest settings with no issues. My mac is a little older late 2009 here are my specs:

Intel Core i7-2600 @3.4GHz
Ram - 16GB
Windows 7 Service Pack 1 64Bit
AMD Radeon 6970M 2 GB

I have been playing the game since Beta on my MAC with no issues but the mouse pointer issue drives me nuts so installed bootcamp and play mostly there. From a graphics and game play perspective for me its the same. MACs are very versatile platforms that offer a lot of flexibility, I prefer to play on OSX but the game is running smoother on my windows partition and I dont have the mouse disappearing on me every couple of minutes (dont want to change the focus of the OP there are other posts about the mouse pointer and High Sierra).

Cheers,

Ray

Vivifier · April 2018

I read all the posts and ty for replying. Has anyone tried to use WINE/macports or any similar "dx emulator" on high sierra and then run the game with that, bypassing metal api alltogether? Would that be wise? winehq shows tests from linux between silver and gold. I guess a gold rating wouldnt be bad if it improved texture loading. If not I ll stick with the bootcamp partition. Any tips or help from the devs please on the matter?

Vivifier · April 2018

rwelshmub17_ESO wrote: »

Hi There,

I'm running the game both in Windows 7 (Bootcamp) and on my Mac and to me both are the same. I run both on the highest settings with no issues. My mac is a little older late 2009 here are my specs:

Intel Core i7-2600 @3.4GHz
Ram - 16GB
Windows 7 Service Pack 1 64Bit
AMD Radeon 6970M 2 GB

I have been playing the game since Beta on my MAC with no issues but the mouse pointer issue drives me nuts so installed bootcamp and play mostly there. From a graphics and game play perspective for me its the same. MACs are very versatile platforms that offer a lot of flexibility, I prefer to play on OSX but the game is running smoother on my windows partition and I dont have the mouse disappearing on me every couple of minutes (dont want to change the focus of the OP there are other posts about the mouse pointer and High Sierra).

Cheers,

Ray

So you run the game in high sierra on max and acceptable 60+ fps? Please let me know how.

rwelshmub17_ESO · April 2018

"So you run the game in high sierra on max and acceptable 60+ fps? Please let me know how. "

TBH I dont know, ive never measured FPS before I just have my settings set to high and everything turned on. Sometimes I get lag but for the most part the game performs well. One correction the Mac I play on is a Mid 2011 not 2009 (thats another one I have).

Good Luck!

Cheers,

Ray

Vivifier · April 2018

rwelshmub17_ESO wrote: »

"So you run the game in high sierra on max and acceptable 60+ fps? Please let me know how. "

TBH I dont know, ive never measured FPS before I just have my settings set to high and everything turned on. Sometimes I get lag but for the most part the game performs well. One correction the Mac I play on is a Mid 2011 not 2009 (thats another one I have).

Good Luck!

Cheers,

Ray

Really weird since I play in a 2017 imac and i can't. anyway ty for your input

Vapirko · April 2018

This is interesting I’ve never considered boot camp since the game seems to function pretty well. I’ve never thought the windows client might be better.

rwelshmub17_ESO · April 2018

Vapirko wrote: »

This is interesting I’ve never considered boot camp since the game seems to function pretty well. I’ve never thought the windows client might be better.

I think if you go back in the forums some guys did a full analysis of running the game in Mac OS vs running Windows in Bootcamp. I find the game runs about the same. I use Bootcamp for ESO only now, for me the kicker was once I upgraded to High Sierra the Mouse pointer issue started and for me and it became very irritating. There are several forum posts here already about it and nobody from ZOS acknowledges it as an issue. I craft a lot and even with the addon that restores the pointer it becomes very irritating.

Back on topic it is a viable way to play if you are having OSX issues with the game.

Cheers,

Ray

Vapirko · April 2018

This is all very interesting, never thought about trying bootcamp. Maybe I’ll have a shot at it and see what happens. I’ve got a 2017 MacBook Pro with the Radeon Pro 560, i7 2.8ghz, 16gb ram, and I find it handles even pretty big cyro battles well. Only in the worst most crowded keep battles do we go to slideshow mode. Generally running medium textures with high subsamping, low shadows.

alterfenixeb17_ESO · May 2018

Playing currently on iMac, model year 2013, GeForce 775M GTX + 24 GB RAM. On high settings I get fps drop only in Cyrodiil and heavily crowded areas. Normally it is easily around 50 fps. With some more action going around (such a in Cyro) it drops to 20 - 30 (unless there is 100+ people fighting around then it can get to 10).