Sims 4 on MacBook
I currently use The Sims 4 on a MacBook Pro 2015 (2.7 Ghz Intel i5, 8GB 1867 MHz DDR3 RAM, Intel Iris HD 6100). However, I have noticed that it has started becoming sluggish and stuttery and I am th...
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Smashing article. One other observation: the MBA i7 says only Intel Iris Plus Graphics but no other numbers right after it. The i5 MBP say Intel Iris Plus Graphics 645. Can one get more specific about the former's graphics card when trying to go through the benchmarks?
@hybridace101
Yeah, I thought it was a great article too 🙂
MBA - https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i7-1060NG7+%40+1.20GHz&id=3727
MBP - https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i5-8257U+%40+1.40GHz&id=3605
Side by side comparison - https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/Intel-i5-8257U-vs-Intel-i7-1060NG7/3605vs3727
Yeah, I thought it was a great article too 🙂
MBA - https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i7-1060NG7+%40+1.20GHz&id=3727
MBP - https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i5-8257U+%40+1.40GHz&id=3605
Side by side comparison - https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/Intel-i5-8257U-vs-Intel-i7-1060NG7/3605vs3727
Any side-by-side comparisons between MBP 2020 high-end and either the MBA 2020 or MBP 2020 entry-level? What do I need to enter to get an appropriate comparison on the website you shared?
- @hybridace101
That website compares CPUs and GPUs. In your case the GPU is integrated into the CPU so you look up the CPU. Find out the specific CPUs in the model Mac you are looking at (everymac.com is a good source) then look them up on that site and add for comparison. Interesting that my old 2015 MBP has a higher Max TDP value (23W) than the lower-end MBP 2020 (15W) and MBA 2020 (10W). Though the higher-end MBP 2020 has a value of 28W.
- @hybridace101
Yes, because technology advances. Maybe they have managed to get the same, or better, performance using less power. This may be a stupid question, but for my reference, how do you think TS4 would perform on iMac (non-pro) machines, especially the low-end and mid-range ones? Are they more durable against the heating issues that plague the lower-end MBPs and MBA?
- @hybridace101
Yep, definitely. All computers get hot when running intense apps, you can't get away from that. The better the graphics card, the less hard work it has to do so the less heat it produces. iMacs aren't squished into portable thin cases so can cool down more efficiently. You get more for your money too.
Choose one with AMD graphics but NOT the Vega GPU. If you find one within your price range post a link and I'll take a look. I presume the Mac mini suffers the same problems as the MBA i7? How would it perform vis-a-vis my existing MBP 4-core? I am talking about the higher-end MM with six cores.
As you have probably heard, Apple has released new MacBooks with the M1 chip. Given that they feature up to 16 cores and their claims to be power efficient, would you recommend this in the future for TS4?
- @hybridace101
No one knows how the new ARM equipped Macs are going to perform yet although I'm hoping people will start posting comments when they start shipping this week (I have the bog standard entry level MBA on order) 🙂 I've had the privilege of testing the game on an M1 MacMini. It is fairly quiet, not as heat generating, and functions. But there seems to be a catch (and maybe this is due to the nature of a MacMini requiring the user to source the other accessories): the FPS seems capped to correspond to the refresh rate the monitor is capable of if the game is to run without crashing. I've switched Vertical Sync on as advised on another forum to prevent crashing. But one thing I did not anticipate is that since I am using a TV monitor (as large as a standard PC monitor) capable of only 60 Hz refresh, I won't be able to go north of 60 FPS. Even weird is that if I attempt playing at full screen 1080p, the refresh rate drops to 24 Hz on the M1 Mac mini. My Intel-based MBP has a 60 Hz refresh rate too but does not crash without Vertical Sync on and sometimes the game performs north of 100 FPS.
Is this what should be expected when Vertical Sync is on and if we use the game on an external monitor (especially a TV one)?
I have also tried The Sims 4 on an MacBook Air with M1 and tried a side-by-side comparison with my mid-2020 13-inch MacBook Pro (high-end with four ports) by having identical graphics settings (including Retina display on but Laptop Mode off) and making my Sims do almost exactly the same tasks. After 10 minutes in each, I noticed that the MBP battery life dropped by 8% and was usually playing around 35-50 FPS (it did go occasionally to 60 but not too often). Meanwhile the MBA M1 battery for some reason rose by 1 point (86 to 87% though I think there might have been an error in the battery's reading of the percents). Also, the FPS of the MBA M1 has gone smoother, much less lag and stayed close to 60 most of the time.
Is this what was expected?
