Blizzard working to fix graphics issues on Macs
by Mike Schramm 
Aug 18th 2009 at 7:00PM
Reader Catsby sent along news of an issue that's apparently plaguing Mac users. Blizzard has confirmed that people using Macs with Nvidia 7300GT and 7600GT graphics cards in them (you can see what you've got by going to the Apple, "About this Mac," and then hitting more info) are having issues with framerates, especially around water and during boss fights (which is exactly when you want the graphics to mess up, right?) Unfortunately, there's no fix yet -- Blizzard says the issue is known and reproducible, and they're working to put a fix in "the next patch" (originally they say it'll be in a PTR patch 3.2.2 build, but a hint at the end of the thread suggests we may see it even sooner than that). So if your Mac has one of those graphics cards installed and you're having this issue, just sit tight -- Blizzard is working as fast as they can to get a fix out to you.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Kaile Aug 18th 2009 7:06PM
Thank god. World of Warcraft actually broke my Mac.
Colin Aug 18th 2009 7:15PM
additional instances cannot be launched.
Falcom Aug 19th 2009 2:26AM
Additional comments cannot be posted.
Seriously. It's no secret, this site can't fix it. Give it a rest here.
Colin Aug 19th 2009 6:05AM
i'm sorry if i implied that i thought the bloggers at wow.com were in any position to repair blizzard's servers. (WTF?)
Falcom Aug 19th 2009 11:40AM
It gets old seeing this every where. Almost like a "first"
Colin Aug 19th 2009 12:48PM
my apologies. i was not aware that it was a trollish meme.
Coldforge Aug 18th 2009 7:19PM
what about the shadow flickering thats been affecting ATI graphic cards? I hope that will be fixed soon also.
Zoe Aug 19th 2009 5:22AM
There's a quick fix for that (for now) just type /console shadowinstancing 0 then restart your game.
According to a blue post the next Ati driver release should fix it.
Izzy Aug 19th 2009 8:22AM
Thanks Zoe, I was having the same problem.
Maeb Aug 18th 2009 7:21PM
I would be interested to know if there are any issues with NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT on the Macbook Pro. This thing has no issues at all with having enough power or pumping out a high framerate, in fact I ended up putting a limit on it. But I am noticing on my shaman during boss fights abilities like stormstrike do not animate I am just standing there and the dmg shows up and everything else around me is animating fine, other player actions. It really sucks the fun out of it when you appear to just be standing there.
Glaras Aug 19th 2009 11:37AM
Yes, there's an issue. In fact, there was a bad run of chips installed in MBPs, and that video chip will fail a test run by Apple, if it's one of the bad ones. Apple is currently replacing the motherboard in affected MBPs, so you should take it to have it tested.
See this thread: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=16903579081&postId=171042255850&sid=1#3
Renevant Aug 18th 2009 7:23PM
The fix to this is simple: get a real computer.
(Go ahead, fan boys, rate it down, I'm just kidding, and I know you can't take a joke ;p )
deluded spider Aug 18th 2009 7:51PM
I guess the punchline is that my Mac works a 100 times better than my PC ever did, and it was actually cheaper than my PC. I'll accept a temporary minor graphics error (which, btw, I haven't had on my Mac) for the extra 100 fps I get compared to my old PC.
I know WoW is old and not really computer-taxing, but seriously, this is just an iMac. I'm pretty impressed with it.
boatarific Aug 18th 2009 9:13PM
but you see, theres more than one type of PC, if you didnt already know. if you bought one from, lets say, sony, then of course your gonna pay a lot more money for a lot less computer because your paying for the name. now if you buy something of asus for around the same price as your mac then im most certain the asus would dance on your mac's pretty-boy face. hehe.
Agerath Aug 19th 2009 12:46AM
boatarific:
I own both a Mac and a PC and use both in equal measures.
Both have their own pros and cons, which I won't discuss here.
That said, Macs will always work better--or rather, smoother--than PCs. This is because, more often than not, the software is designed to work exclusively on hardware chosen and configured by apple themselves. The drivers are all standard.
Microsoft cannot choose what hardware their operating system will be bundled with, and so cannot guarantee smoothness in any way. Once you add in third-party drivers, OEM software and so on, you lose the edge in terms of performance just because of compatibility.
Any failures WoW experiences running on Mac is likely not a failure of the operating system or the hardware but of the coders who are charged with porting wow to Mac.
Yakuko Aug 19th 2009 12:54AM
Because PCs *never* have issues, amirite?
Gareth Aug 20th 2009 5:50AM
Actually agreed with the original poster, looking at the 7600 its the same sort of performance I get out of my middle of the range 2008 laptop.
The difference here I guess is most people here are running desktops, if you want to be limited to being able to run WoW only and the rest of Blizzards low res offerings then accepting a computer with a £30 graphics card is fine, otherwise I'd recommend as the original poster said to go get yourself a real computer, if you want proof look at this
2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
2GB memory
320GB hard drive
NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics
Starting at £940, that's more expensive then my mid range Toshiba laptop with a better graphics card (HD2600, and Toshiba have a quality reputation too), that graphics card they've bolted in there costs £30 to buy retail, someone's making a sucker out of someone with this deal.
I do like supporting the other guy when they have a better product, but Apple are raking it in, and here they are quite content to leave their customers with low end hardware for a high end price.
traptinacivicsi Aug 19th 2009 8:54AM
@Yakuko: Yeah.. pretty much. As long as you keep your anti virus on, and don't look at porn/hack sites you should never have a real problem..
Also boatarific's second post was entirely valid. Downrating him shows the fan-boy attitude that seems to be seeping from this comment section.
Personal preferences aside, looking at performance only, it is LEAPS and BOUNDS cheaper to by a PC, not to mention the heaps of aftermarket support makes it limitless on how you can customize your rig. Main point: performance and compatibility.
Now if you want to just buy a computer, use it to listen to/edit music and never play anything more complicated than wow, in regard to graphics, then sure, a mac is a decent, simplified choice.
Apple's big boom in sales recently is a direct result of the current status symbol of owning one. The ads depicting that apples 'can not' get viruses is simply silly, any OS upon reaching the popularity that is Windows, will then have more people using it, and thus, you have people trying much much harder to hack them. Right now it's 'Hack-a-Mac? LOLOL who owns a mac?' which will undoubtedly become less true over time, as more and more people pick up the brand.
Also, Apple's biggest argument over PC's was Vista.. the OS that has been refined to the point it seems like a completely different(read: better) OS than it was initially a few years back. And windows 7 will only improve the PC's current status.
And remember, an issue you had with ONE PC from 5 years ago, does not validate the current status of the computer system you are complaining about, be it Microsoft, Linux, Apple, or whatever.
..Of course, I own both PC/Mac... :P
QQinsider Aug 19th 2009 9:37AM
Idiot fanboys. A computer is a tool, nothing more. Use the tool that best suits your requirements, other peoples requirements may not be the same as yours.
Shevaresh Aug 18th 2009 7:26PM
Hmm, I have a 7600 on my PC. I'd noticed issues starting with the last patch - 5 FPS during boss fights in Ulduar that I had no issues in before. I wonder if the issues isn't limited to Mac ones?