First, what resolution are you trying to play at? That's not clear in your question.
Second, I notice you have 2 Gig of RAM. This is not a whole lot. Maybe you are running out of memory. Considering that CoH is being emulated, it may take quite a bit of memory. More memory, possibly, than on the Windows side. Are you running lots of other apps in the background? Those would suck memory as well.
Usually low memory would not necessarily cause low frame rates though. Unless memory is *really* low. I have 4 Gig of RAM in my MBP and don't have serious performance problems. But I have a friend with one of the new 15" MBPs and he only has 2 Gig of RAM right now. He mentioned he was seeing the same frame rate on both the 9400 and 9600 chips. Seems kinda suspicious to me.
I would run the Activity Monitor program. Once the game is launched, Alt-Tab out and look and see what your memory usage is.
First, thank you for your help.
I am playing at 1024 x 768 resolution.
I ran activity monitor to check RAM usage.
COH is using 1.05 GB of memory and 3.15 Virtual
the memory display says:
Free : 11 mb
Wired: 230 mb
Active: 1.17 gb
Inactive: 600 mb
used: 1.98 gb
So it seems as your assumption is correct. I need more memory to run the mac client, since the windows version doesn't need as much memory. Is this correct? If so I'll have to pick some up.
Edit: only other applications besides COH running were Ventrillo, safari,
and activity monitor.
Also, ensure that you have the latest Mac drivers for your video card. That may be the key difference between your Windows partition and your OS X partition.
Easier said than done, unfortunately. According to the Nvidia's driver download webpage, they apparently "do not support the Macintosh operating system at this time," despite having built the Nvidia 8800 GT card that's in many of the Mac Pros (like the OP's and mine).
I have no idea how that is supposed to make sense, but there ya go. 
Even though hubby's system ran smoothly and with nice 50+ FPS on test, his gaming today on live was not so slick. He'd start a FPS slowdown, getting down to about 0.5 FPS and then have to use /unloadgfx in order to correct the behavior. Needs to say he now has it macro'd on the toons he plays regularly. Meh.
What kind of framerates are you getting? If you're getting around 30 that's probably normal for that particular video card. Since you're going through a couple of emulation layers to get to it, you're bound to lose a few fps (like around 2 to 5 in my tests) over the PC version.
Another factor may be that the game servers have been struggling a bit this weekend for some reason. You might just be getting lag. Try typing /netgraph 1 (/netgraph 0 turns it off) and if you're getting tall green spikes, that's lag. Tall red or yellow spikes are net connection problems.
If you're running 10.4.x, upgrading to 10.5.x (and patching up to the latest version) will give you newer and smoother Nvidia drivers. The 8800 was released after 10.4, as an OPTIONAL component at the time, and therefore the driver isn't quite as efficient as it could be.
Manga @ Triumph
"Meanwhile In The Halls Of Titan"...Titan Network Working To Save City Of Heroes
Save Paragon City! Efforts Coordination
Are both cores enabled by default? The -renderthread 1 flag was able to be used during beta, but I can't get it to work Live.
Only 1 core could contribute to lower frame rates.
Ideally, the tank will die precisely as everyone else starts fighting, allowing aggro to be spread evenly among the blaster. -seebs, "How to Suck at CoH/CoV" Guide
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What kind of framerates are you getting? If you're getting around 30 that's probably normal for that particular video card. Since you're going through a couple of emulation layers to get to it, you're bound to lose a few fps (like around 2 to 5 in my tests) over the PC version.
Another factor may be that the game servers have been struggling a bit this weekend for some reason. You might just be getting lag. Try typing /netgraph 1 (/netgraph 0 turns it off) and if you're getting tall green spikes, that's lag. Tall red or yellow spikes are net connection problems.
If you're running 10.4.x, upgrading to 10.5.x (and patching up to the latest version) will give you newer and smoother Nvidia drivers. The 8800 was released after 10.4, as an OPTIONAL component at the time, and therefore the driver isn't quite as efficient as it could be.
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I'm not sure how to check the actual frame rate. I could visually tell the rates were slowing. eventually I crashed while jumping near the BM in Cap. next time I log in, i'll check using the /reloadgfx command.
Also I will try the /netgraph 1 command as well to check it out.
Currently I'm updated to OS 10.5.6, so I'm current in that regard.
how do I add the -rethreaded 1 command into the info.plist file?
I know it's supposed to go with this line but not sure where to put it:
<string>c:\coh\cohupdater.exe</string>
any attempt I made would cause the application to not launch, and I would have to delete it, re-save file to launch COH.
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I'm not sure how to check the actual frame rate. I could visually tell the rates were slowing. eventually I crashed while jumping near the BM in Cap. next time I log in, i'll check using the /reloadgfx command.
Also I will try the /netgraph 1 command as well to check it out.
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I believe it's /fps 1 (/fps 0 to turn off) but I usually just go to the Keybind options and scroll to the end where there's an item for "Framerate" and set it to Ctrl-F.
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Currently I'm updated to OS 10.5.6, so I'm current in that regard.
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Good.
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how do I add the -rethreaded 1 command into the info.plist file?
I know it's supposed to go with this line but not sure where to put it:
<string>c:\coh\cohupdater.exe</string>
[/ QUOTE ]
You change it to look like this:
<string>c:\coh\cohupdater.exe -renderthread 1</string>
Save that for a last resort, though.
Also before you change the info.plist make a copy of it somewhere in case.
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any attempt I made would cause the application to not launch, and I would have to delete it, re-save file to launch COH.
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See above.
Other things that might floor your fps are: If you're using a video resolution that pushes the 8800 too hard (like a huge monitor with 1680x1150 or something), or if you're running a background application that tends to slow the computer down like "one-touch" backup hard drive software or scanner/printer software that listens for commands sent from buttons on the printer/scanner.
To check that open System Preferences and check your Login Items on your Accounts page.
And are you using Unsanity's APE, Fruitmenu, or Windowshade?
Manga @ Triumph
"Meanwhile In The Halls Of Titan"...Titan Network Working To Save City Of Heroes
Save Paragon City! Efforts Coordination
CuppaManga, could you say a little bit more about why you are wary of the -renderthread 1 tag? In beta, it seemed to alleviate frame-rate problems for many players. You mentioned that OS X deals with the dual cores in a different way from Windows - how does this make the renderthread tag a last resort?
I have tried several different tags to my .exe string (-renderthread, -cov, etc.) and all of them cause the updater to not launch at all. Is this a separate issue?
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CuppaManga, could you say a little bit more about why you are wary of the -renderthread 1 tag?
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Not wary really, I just find on my Macbook Pro it produces very little benefit (a few fps) for lots of extra heat. Plus you also have to remember to put it back in every time the Updater patches, and you have to remember you put it in when you post about your comp running hot. And it adds yet another factor into troubleshooting.
For me it seems like the umbrella in a drink - it looks nice, it's harmless, only mildly useful, and it might poke you in the eye sometimes. 
That said, the case may be different for other video types. The ones I tried were 8600M and 9600M.
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You mentioned that OS X deals with the dual cores in a different way from Windows - how does this make the renderthread tag a last resort?
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Windows will fill the first processor core until it's maxed out, and then start using the 2nd core and so on. MacOS will assign the cores dynamically instead.
The renderthread flag creates a new "thread" (like an independent mini-program) that is more likely to be assigned to a 2nd core in Windows. On a Mac it also increase efficiency a little bit because of the nature of its multitasking, but not as significantly as on Windows.
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I have tried several different tags to my .exe string (-renderthread, -cov, etc.) and all of them cause the updater to not launch at all. Is this a separate issue?
[/ QUOTE ]
That's a seperate issue. I haven't tested that yet.
Manga @ Triumph
"Meanwhile In The Halls Of Titan"...Titan Network Working To Save City Of Heroes
Save Paragon City! Efforts Coordination
[ QUOTE ]
Other things that might floor your fps are: If you're using a video resolution that pushes the 8800 too hard (like a huge monitor with 1680x1150 or something), or if you're running a background application that tends to slow the computer down like "one-touch" backup hard drive software or scanner/printer software that listens for commands sent from buttons on the printer/scanner.
To check that open System Preferences and check your Login Items on your Accounts page.
And are you using Unsanity's APE, Fruitmenu, or Windowshade?
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I'm running a resolution of 1024x768.
I just purchased the machine I'm running, so the only applications
I've loaded besides the OS and default apps (itunes, imovie, etc)
are COH and Ventrillo. I'm not running any backup software or printer software. I don't even have a printer hooked up.
I'm not even sure what Unsanity's APE, Fruitmenu, or Windowshade are.
I think my main problem is running out of memory which I posted about earlier in this thread.
Using activity monitor, It showed that I was using 1.98 Gb out of 2 Gb of memory. This was with COH, Ventrillo, and Safari browser running. Ventrillo and Safari were using an extremely small amount of memory compared to COH and it's associated processes.
I'm going to pickup more memory this week, and then go from there to see if my problem is solved. Also going to try using the /reloadgfx command to see if that helps.
[ QUOTE ]
Using activity monitor, It showed that I was using 1.98 Gb out of 2 Gb of memory. This was with COH, Ventrillo, and Safari browser running. Ventrillo and Safari were using an extremely small amount of memory compared to COH and it's associated processes.
[/ QUOTE ]
Oh yes, lack of memory will definitely kill the framerate. I don't know why I didn't ask that first - possibly because some of the new Macs ship with 4 GB I assumed that's what you had.
Manga @ Triumph
"Meanwhile In The Halls Of Titan"...Titan Network Working To Save City Of Heroes
Save Paragon City! Efforts Coordination
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Using activity monitor, It showed that I was using 1.98 Gb out of 2 Gb of memory. This was with COH, Ventrillo, and Safari browser running. Ventrillo and Safari were using an extremely small amount of memory compared to COH and it's associated processes.
[/ QUOTE ]
Oh yes, lack of memory will definitely kill the framerate. I don't know why I didn't ask that first - possibly because some of the new Macs ship with 4 GB I assumed that's what you had.
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I only have 2 Gb. Buying memory from Mac is sooo expensive. It's so much cheaper to buy elsewhere. I just need to get some more.
Thank you sooo much for the help everyone!!!!
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I only have 2 Gb. Buying memory from Mac is sooo expensive. It's so much cheaper to buy elsewhere. I just need to get some more.
Thank you sooo much for the help everyone!!!!
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Actually, with the most recent releases, that's less true. You still can buy cheaper, but you're no longer foolish to buy a computer with more RAM if you're buying online.
My arcs are constantly shifting, just search for GadgetDon for the latest.
The world beware! I've started a blog
GadgetMania Under Attack: The Digg Lockout
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I only have 2 Gb. Buying memory from Mac is sooo expensive. It's so much cheaper to buy elsewhere. I just need to get some more.
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Here's a decent price for RAM: Transintl (4 GB for $88)
You can probably find cheaper at Newegg.com (beware non-brands there though) but Transintl guarantees it'll work.
Manga @ Triumph
"Meanwhile In The Halls Of Titan"...Titan Network Working To Save City Of Heroes
Save Paragon City! Efforts Coordination
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I only have 2 Gb. Buying memory from Mac is sooo expensive. It's so much cheaper to buy elsewhere. I just need to get some more.
[/ QUOTE ]
Here's a decent price for RAM: Transintl (4 GB for $88)
You can probably find cheaper at Newegg.com (beware non-brands there though) but Transintl guarantees it'll work.
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SWEET!!! Thank you for the link!!!!!
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I only have 2 Gb. Buying memory from Mac is sooo expensive. It's so much cheaper to buy elsewhere. I just need to get some more.
[/ QUOTE ]
Here's a decent price for RAM: Transintl (4 GB for $88)
You can probably find cheaper at Newegg.com (beware non-brands there though) but Transintl guarantees it'll work.
[/ QUOTE ]
SWEET!!! Thank you for the link!!!!!
[/ QUOTE ]
I recently bought 4gb of RAM for my MacBook Pro from crucial.com for $44. Super cheap!
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I only have 2 Gb. Buying memory from Mac is sooo expensive. It's so much cheaper to buy elsewhere. I just need to get some more.
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I upgraded my Macbook Pro from 2GB to 4GB for $49 at Fry's. That was buying a complete new 4GB set. I gave the old 2GB to a friend.
"Sometimes you have to roll the Hard Six." -- Adama
Teabagging Ms. Liberty - http://kk-comics.com/allmmproject/rsf21.jpg
Unfortunately, I cannot get the renderthread 1 switch to work on mine. After switching it,either with Dashcode or Property editor, it just bounces once in the dock and quits.
Please make sure that the RAM that you buy for the Mac Pro is qualified to run on them. MacBook memory is a very different beast than Mac Pro memory.
In particular, I believe that your Mac Pro (2008 2x 2.8 GHz 2GB base configuration) uses DDR2 FB DIMMs that have specified timing results that may not be in generic FB DIMMs from some manufacturers.
AFAIR, if the specific timings aren't in the DIMMs, your fans may default to a higher setting to ensure that they are properly cooled. Not a big deal, but your Mac Pro will be louder than usual. This might only apply to DDR3 in the 2009 Mac Pros but I do recall there being some issues with potential issues with 3rd party RAM and Mac Pros in 2008.
Not all Mac qualified RAM will be sky high in price, many vendors will be very close if not identical to PC channel suppliers for likewise capacity memory.
Vendors that I've had good results with are macsales.com, transintl.com and smalldog.com. They deal specifically with apple products and have always been competitive on pricing. I've got no interest in those companies other than being a satisfied customer. I've had luck with newegg/NCIX/TigerDirect/local PC shops, but it's never been guaranteed as far as Mac support is concerned.
Edit:
I found the link with the reference
apple technote on mac pro memory
[ QUOTE ]
Advanced Memory Buffer [AMB]
In order for the Mac Pro to maintain a safe operating temperature of the FB-DIMMs, the AMBs for each FB-DIMM must provide a functional temperature sensor.
Note: The Mac Pro will run the fans at full speed when detecting FB-DIMM's without a functional temperature sensor, which will maximize cooling on the FB-DIMM's. While the full speed of the fans maximizes the preservation of thermal integrity, FB-DIMMs with inadequate heat sinking may still overheat depending on ambient temperature and system load. In this case, the Mac Pro may shut down the system to protect the FB-DIMM from possible thermal damage.
[/ QUOTE ]
What it doesn't say on the technote is which products besides "Mac Pro". Having a date of 2006-11-10 doesn't give me much confidence on which generations of Mac Pro that needing the AMB will cover, perhaps all of them. This is why I prefer to use Mac experienced vendors when choosing memory, sometimes it can be a bit tricky to figure out what works best for Apple products.
Generic heat spreaders vs. Apple spec'd heat spreaders
Strange that you'd need special heat spreaders for a macbook pro. The heat spreaders manufacturers put on RAM these days is just for show. They're not in any way needed, nor have they ever been.
The OP has a Mac Pro, and not a laptop. The desktop towers can be pretty demanding when you have 8 cores demanding to fed with data, hence larger heat spreaders.
The MacBook Pro that you are referring to is an entirely different beast.
[ QUOTE ]
Here's a decent price for RAM: Transintl (4 GB for $88)
You can probably find cheaper at Newegg.com (beware non-brands there though) but Transintl guarantees it'll work.
[/ QUOTE ]
Update:
I bought the 8 GB (4 x 2Gb) kit from TransIntl.com.
The machine runs COH great!!!
I'm getting beautiful frame rates now.
Thanks all for your help.
I have a brand new Mac Pro 2 x 2.8 Ghz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
with 2 GB RAM. Graphics card is the Nvidia Gforce 8800 GT.
Until now, I had played COH on a windows partition within Bootcamp
running the PC client. The graphics look AMAZING at the highest
quality setting.
Today, I have tried out the Mac client on the live servers and my frame rates are terrible. I even reduce the graphics slider to performance and am still getting bad frame rates. Bad enough that I am tempted to just boot into windows and play the PC client again.
The only applications running on the mac are COH and Ventrillo. The exact same applications when I boot up in Windows.
My Mac OS and the Windows XP OS are using the same machine, processor, RAM, Graphics card, Monitor, etc.
How does this explain the poor frame rates I am getting?
Please help.