[Mac] Horrific FPS lag and game stuttering on high-end Mac Pro

[Rawkes]

Hi there,

I love the game, though unfortunately it's becoming unplayable due to the amount of severe FPS lag and stuttering that I'm experiencing no matter what graphics settings I try.

Here's a list of the things I've tried, none of which have had a noticeable effect:

• Reducing every graphics setting to its lowest option or disabling it entirely
• Using both fullscreen and windowed mode
• Changing to lower display resolutions
• Zooming in (I thought it might be due to the amount of objects visible)
• Restarting my computer
• Closing other applications
• Disabling the Steam Overlay

Here are my system specs (which seem far more than what's required):

• Mac Pro (Mid 2010)
• Mac OS Yosemite 10.10.2 (14C109)
• 2 x 2.4 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
• 26 GB 1066 MHz DDR3 ECC
• ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024 MB
• Primary display: 27-inch Cinema Display @ 2560 x 1440
• Second display: 24-inch Dell U2410 @ 1920 x 1200

What else can I try? Other 3D games perform absolutely fine at high-quality, including *cough* SimCity (hoping that's not too bad a word on here).

Any help is appreciated.

 

[Pearlseattle]

Same thing on Linux (tried with both my "Gentoo" distribution and the official SteamOS).
On the other side on Windows it works perfectly (running all 3 OS - Gentoo Linux, SteamOS Linux and Win7 - on the same machine).
Additionally, concerning Linux: it's not able to use the network (hangs for a while whenever it tries)

Summarized: the game currently is not usable on Linux & MacOS.

p.s.: On Linux using a nVidia GTX 760, the GPU seems to hardly have anything to do - only 30% GPU usage reported.

 

[Couq]

Same thing on Linux (tried with both my "Gentoo" distribution and the official SteamOS).
On the other side on Windows it works perfectly (running all 3 OS - Gentoo Linux, SteamOS Linux and Win7 - on the same machine).
Additionally, concerning Linux: it's not able to use the network (hangs for a while whenever it tries)

Summarized: the game currently is not usable on Linux & MacOS.

p.s.: On Linux using a nVidia GTX 760, the GPU seems to hardly have anything to do - only 30% GPU usage reported.

GTX 760 is triple the output that HD 5770 does.

I'm not sure how this game operates with a dual CPU setup... might be a problem, anyone? And game is set to a min. of dual core 3 GHz processor, yours might be quad but is only 2.4 GHz.

 

[Chris Upchurch]

Hi there,

I love the game, though unfortunately it's becoming unplayable due to the amount of severe FPS lag and stuttering that I'm experiencing no matter what graphics settings I try.

Here's a list of the things I've tried, none of which have had a noticeable effect:

• Reducing every graphics setting to its lowest option or disabling it entirely
• Using both fullscreen and windowed mode
• Changing to lower display resolutions
• Zooming in (I thought it might be due to the amount of objects visible)
• Restarting my computer
• Closing other applications
• Disabling the Steam Overlay

Here are my system specs (which seem far more than what's required):

• Mac Pro (Mid 2010)
• Mac OS Yosemite 10.10.2 (14C109)
• 2 x 2.4 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
• 26 GB 1066 MHz DDR3 ECC
• ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024 MB
• Primary display: 27-inch Cinema Display @ 2560 x 1440
• Second display: 24-inch Dell U2410 @ 1920 x 1200

What else can I try? Other 3D games perform absolutely fine at high-quality, including *cough* SimCity (hoping that's not too bad a word on here).

Any help is appreciated.

I'm having some similar issues with the game on my Macbook Pro.

 

[Pearlseattle]

GTX 760 is triple the output that HD 5770 does.

I'm not sure how this game operates with a dual CPU setup... might be a problem, anyone? And game is set to a min. of dual core 3 GHz processor, yours might be quad but is only 2.4 GHz.

It runs perfectly when I reboot into Win7 => cannot be because of the HW... .
(p.s.: my CPU: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E31270 @ 3.40GHz)

 

[gbrads1980]

I have the same problem on my iMac as well, mine is the mid 2011 i5 with the Radion graphics card, the game is very laggy although it will get better and worse as the game progresses.

also, the screen is very dark, you can only just see the icons on it.

I thought that the performance was bad because my mac wasn't powerful enough however other mac users have reported thatwhen booting to windows in boot camp it is much better. I have also tried to run the game on my macbook air 2013, which is much less powerful and the game runs great.

So it seems that the issue is with the iMac graphics cards on OS X only.

 

[muchmore777]

17 fps with i7 4810mq and r9 m290x (best mobile amd graphic card) and flickering screen every few minutes. yes dedicated is activated.

 

[gaerraty]

I tried the game yesterday on my both Macs with Windows and results where puzzling – performance on OS X is clearly very poor.

Set ups:

MacBook Pro Retina 15"
Intel i7 2,3 GHz Quad-core
Nvidia GT 650M 1024 Mb
16 Gb Memory
SSD
Operating systems and drivers are up to date.

On Windows all settings can be as high as possible. Screen resolution is 1920x1200.
Performance is excellent and there is no stuttering or lag. Opening panels doesn't affect performance. Following car is very smooth.

On OS X all settings except Shadows and Shadow distance are as high as possible. Shadows are set to Low and Shadow distance is set to Short. Screen resolution is 1920x1080 (!).
Performance is mediocre and there is slight stuttering and lag. Opening some panels cause noticeable FPS drop. Following car isn't smooth.


iMac 21,5" (mid-2011)
Intel i5 2,5 GHz Quad-core
AMD 6750M 512 Mb
12 Gb Memory
HD
Operating systems and drivers are up to date.

On Windows all settings except Shadows and Shadow distance are as high as possible. Shadows are set to Medium and Shadow distance is set to Short. Screen resolution is 1920x1080.
Performance is good and there is rare and occasional stuttering and lag on dense areas. Opening panels doesn't affect performance. Following car is smooth.

On OS X all settings must be on minimum and shadows must be turned off. Screen resolution is 1920x1080.
Performance is poor and there is constant stuttering and lag. Opening panels causes noticeable FPS drop. Following car isn't smooth at all.

 

[gaerraty]

And I know that games usually perform better on Windows but here the difference is extremely noticeable compared to other titles such as Civilization 5 and SimCity 2013.

 

[rofrano71]

same here , have 2 macs , a iMac 27" mid 2010, ( ok works but after a while it slows down ) , macbook pro mid 2012 starts but after colossal screen it goes green screen

 

[rofrano71]

i love the game but disappointing for apple users

 

[Luiz Thiago]

When I use the Bootcamp + Windows, the game runs perfectly on my Macbook Pro, but on OSX, the game does not open. When he gets 70% of loading, the game crash ...

 

[fglundgren]

Even that you usually get a little bit better performance on Windows than OS X, the difference in this game is way to much for OS X to be the cause.

Really hope they will optimise it better for the Mac.

Also, on the mac when you go to the menu, the fps drops to like 4-5 which is weird.

 

[Azurespecter]

Just wanted to drop in and let you know that CO has been compiling as much data as possible in order to fix these low FPS issues we've been seeing with certain Mac users. We hope to get your FPS back up to where it should be!

 

[Rawkes]

Thanks Azurespecter, please let me know if there's anything specific I can do to help solve this or to test a potential fix

 

[fglundgren]

I wish it ran as good in game that it does in the map editor.

Did some random terrain, some water, rivers, maxed out the map with 250 000 trees and it ran it around 55-60 fps. And exit to paus menu didn't drop the fps to 5 fps like it does when playing a regular game.

I know that when playing the game there is a lot more for the game to calculate and stuff, but seems weird that it should drop the fps by around 30 fps when playing the game.

 

[LGABoarder]

FWIW, I have the top-of-the-line Mac Pro- 12-core 2.7 Ghz Xeon E5 processor, 64 GB RAM, and dual AMD FirePro D700 GPUs, and I still get around 20 fps. Really unfortunate that the game is so choppy. If I'm running water in the map editor I'll be lucky to get 1 fps.

 

[Puuh]

Hi there,

I love the game, though unfortunately it's becoming unplayable due to the amount of severe FPS lag and stuttering that I'm experiencing no matter what graphics settings I try.

Here's a list of the things I've tried, none of which have had a noticeable effect:

• Reducing every graphics setting to its lowest option or disabling it entirely
• Using both fullscreen and windowed mode
• Changing to lower display resolutions
• Zooming in (I thought it might be due to the amount of objects visible)
• Restarting my computer
• Closing other applications
• Disabling the Steam Overlay

Same here!

Adding to the List:

• Opening the app in low resolution
• Disabling App Nap

My Specs:

• MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012)
• Mac OS Yosemite 10.10.3 (14D105g)
• 2,7 GHz Intel Core i7
• 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
• NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M 1024 MB

 

[ABSTK]

Just wanted to drop in and let you know that CO has been compiling as much data as possible in order to fix these low FPS issues we've been seeing with certain Mac users. We hope to get your FPS back up to where it should be!

Thanks for the info Azurespecter, its always good to know the problem is recognized and that help is coming.

 

[Z0NE]

Also experiencing pretty poor performance on Mac OS. My FPS seems to hang around in the teens in a large city if I'm lucky. Even if I put all the graphics setting on minimum it doesn't make a lot of difference.
My specs are:

Mac Pro (Late 2013)
Operating System: Mac OS Yosemite 10.10.3 (14D105g)
Processor: 2.7 GHz 12-Core Intel Xeon E5 (3.5GHz Turbo Boost)
Memory: 64 GB 1866 MHz DDR3 ECC
Graphics: Dual AMD FirePro D700 6144 MB