DrMORO.4627

Hi High Sierra users!After the resent Mac OS update, has your GW2 64-bit app situation improve in any way?Better? Worse? Unchanged & good, or & still bad?Is it time to finally update Mac OS X to High Sierra? Or, should we El Capitan and Sierra users wait?Feedback ALWAYS very much appreciated!

Hi, high up there!Anything new came (or coming) to GW2 Mac 64-bit app lately?Awful quite around here.Calm before the storm, or something 'wicked' cometh this way?

Great idea!Signed up, but on the waitlist.Not sure when, if ever, will get beta access, though... Today, I luckily & finally received an invitation to the NVIDIA GeForce NOW Mac Beta program! Hurray!!!Free for now while in beta, yet subscription price not announced yet. Signed up, installed and tested (played) a bit on my work Mac mini (2011 i7 + Radeon), and my home MBP13 (2011), both still OS X 10.11.6 El Capitan (NOT going to upgrade yet!) On my work Mac mini, the 64-bit native app was already 'playable' and 'stable', at low settings and windowed small. The NVIDIA GeForce NOW app at first ran a built-in "Test my network" analysis tool, and said my work network was 'NOT optimal' for streaming. Hmmm, continued anyways, and it was way too choppy and totally 'unplayable'. My work network is totally firewall-ed, so not for game streaming, I get it. (ONLY AFTER work hours...)On my home MBP13, the story was totally opposite. Even though running off an external Thunderbolt 2 SSD drive (best for home AND work GW2-ing...), the 64-bit Mac app would only run for 10~30 minutes until it would crash, and I have to type & send an in-app crash report. The MBP13 would need a restart after this every time, or opening & clicking "Play", the 64-bit Mac app would freeze/lockup the entire system, requiring a hard power down and restart with a long press of the power button. Could not play long and stably at home at all, without the fear of DC-ing in the middle of any event or story. The NVIDIA GeForce NOW says my home network is an "Excellent network"(!) and optimal for streaming. Okay, let's see... WOW! THIS IS THE FUTURE!!! Playing was very smooth, and way higher and stable FPS at lowest graphics setting I am used to. I have not fiddled with the graphic settings that much, yet could easily think that I can 'up' a few things to have a much nicer graphical experience while playing GW2, even at home. LOVE IT!!! Well, this also means that I would NOT be playing the 64-bit Mac app at home for while, unless major improvements in performance & stability to the native app. Really wish this to happen, yet this unfortunately has not arrived yet. Depending on the subscription price, I might just continue playing GW2 via NVIDIA GeForce NOW even after beta ends.My initial thoughts. Anyone else playing GW2 on NVIDIA GeForce NOW Mac Beta program?How is your experience, compared to the native 64-bit Mac app?

Hi all!One thought. If been using the now-unsupported 32-bit Mac app at first, then installed & started using the 64-bit Mac app in parallel, it MIGHT help with performance that you 'move' the main Gw2.dat file from the 32-bit app into the 64-bit app.My old post here, and some of related posted before and after this may help you on how to do this.https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/comment/192646/#Comment_192646Just a thought.

Is your internal storage drive a 'spinning' Hard Disk Drive (HDD), or a 'non-spinning' Solid State Drive (SSD)?If the former, I would say Yes, an external SSD will 'improve' your playability of the Mac GW2 64-bit app, from my own experience, and possibly as mentioned by a few others here. Not cheap, yet it does not have to be a big SSD drive, and even a 128 GB SSD should do a good job.If already have a SSD inside, then I would say your issue is possibly not from a slow storage drive, and probably from something else within the app itself or other specs of your Mac. Adding memory will also help your Mac feel snappier, yet a HDD to SSD exchange is quite a big speed improvement to make your Mac feel 'like new' speedy, kinda. Then again, I have not experienced such prolonged delay of reading and displaying the game environment.Your situation is definitely 'unplayable'. Feel sorry for you.Let's all hope that 'up there' has some great improvements waiting to be released, and (most) all Mac GW2-ers play happily on their beloved Macs soon.Hope...

There are no macOS-specific changes in today's update. Seems like we haven't heard of any updates on the Mac 64-bit app in a while.How's everything going up there?Like many, I look forward to hearing and actually playing the updated and improved version soon.We all really appreciate your ongoing efforts.Please keep up the great work!Hmmm, it's been a month since last message posted by Jon from 'up there', and has been much longer than that for anything about the Mac 64-bit app to actually receive any true update within. More than 1/12 year has passed, and that's a lot of game time, even for a very casual GW2-er like me. Sooooo, What's going on 'up there', Jon?Hopes are VERY high, but there is a limit in how long one can wait.

There are no macOS-specific changes in today's update. Seems like we haven't heard of any updates on the Mac 64-bit app in a while.How's everything going up there?Like many, I look forward to hearing and actually playing the updated and improved version soon.We all really appreciate your ongoing efforts.Please keep up the great work!

Yeah, good points! I bought the machine ~4-5 years ago (can't remember exactly). At that time 8GB was all I needed. I'd like 16GB nowadays but RAM is really expensive nowadays and I didn't run into situations where RAM limited me a lot so far. I do app development etc. using Xcode/Android Studio/Visual Studio with simulators but that runs fine. I just recently bought the GPU which also enabled me to install macOS. It didn't work with the GPU I had before (AMD R9 290). I also have another 256GB SSD where Windows is installed. I'll probably kill Windows and then use this one as a second drive for the Mac. :) I WANT A FAST HACKINTOSH, NOW!!!

Yep, you're right. A "normal" desktop mac with hardware like a GTX 1070 Ti would be awesome. I hope the new Mac Pro can live up to that.The specs of the 'Mackintosh':Intel Xeon E3-1230v3 (basically i7-3770k without iGPU)8 GB DDR3-1333GTX 1070 Ti256 GB SSD1440p DisplaymacOS High Sierra 10.3.3 with the newest Nvidia Drivers Guild Wars 2 runs with pretty much everything on high. Native or supersampling makes no difference therefore the client is CPU-limited for me. It doesn't run as well as on Windows (like I said there's a bit of stutter). Pretty satisfied with the performance though. I'd assume GW2 will run worse when using an external GPU since the CPU is a limit for me and the dual- or quad-cores in MacBook Pros are probably worse. Great stuff (envy...), and useful info!Thanks!

This is on a 'Hackintosh' I presume, and not on an Apple brand Mac, correct? Or, an external GPU box with Thunderbolt 3 connection to your Mac?No Apple brand Mac has a GTX 1070 Ti on them, yet... (WISH!) BTW, in detail, I would like to know what other 'specs' does your 'Mackintosh' have?

There are no macOS-specific changes in today's update. Thanks for the clarification, Jon! VERY MUCH look forward to receiving updates/improvements/patches/fixes for the Mac OS 64-bit GW2 app.Waiting...

Thanks for the update is your words, Jon!New MASSIVE patch is now out, but I did not see any mentioning of 'Mac' within the descriptions.Any bit of update/fix/patching for us anxious Mac 64-bit users in this patch?

Great idea!Signed up, but on the waitlist.Not sure when, if ever, will get beta access, though...

FYI, for those unhappy with even worse High Sierra's GW2 64-bit performance after upgrading Mac OS X. "Video: How to downgrade from macOS High Sierra to Sierra"http://appleinsider.com/articles/18/01/29/video-how-to-downgrade-from-macos-high-sierra-to-sierra

YW, NP & GL! Aside, Yes, external SSD (and probably internal SSD as well) should make quite a few things faster.Definitely recommend switching to SSD for those playing on a 'rotating platter' HDD.

Oh, something new and SUPER-FAST just been announced at CES today. "THUNDERBOLT 3™ 480GB NVME SOLID STATE DRIVE" WANT!!! And it seems like even more & more super-fast external drives are to be available for Mac, as it says in many Mac news site talking about the on-going CES. WANT!!!!

Awesome! Good for you!And, great to hear there is light in getting a newer Mac system, to better play GW2 on a Mac. BTW, FOI (For Our Interest), and even more FFR (For Future Reference), could you elaborate a little more about your new MacBook Pro's actual 'spec'?15 inch, or 13 inch? Touch Bar? Hard drive or SSD, and how large? CPU speed, memory amount, discrete GPU or not, etc., etc.? Thanks for sharing, in advance!

Has any 'lucky' one been playing GW2 Mac 64-bit app, on the all new iMac Pro??? Please please indulge us down here about how it plays with a supposedly wicked-fast iMac Pro.

Oh, something new and SUPER-FAST just been announced at CES today. "THUNDERBOLT 3™ 480GB NVME SOLID STATE DRIVE" WANT!!!

There is NO dumb question.Be not ashamed to ask, and you escape a lifelong shame. Well, I am not sure if understand your configuration of "my Mac Mini has an actual slot in the back to plug in a SSD", as I have never seen nor heard about such 'slot to plug in an SSD" with a Mac mini, or any other Mac.A pictures of the specific slot and SSD enclosure would be very helpful. In any case, although depending on your Mac mini, USB port is not the fastest, unless you are sure you have USB 3.0 like the latest Mac mini. The older USB 2.0 is even slower and no suitable for SSD usage. For speed, at least USB 3.0, better USB 3.1, even better would be Thunderbolt 2, and for the latest the speediest would be Thunderbolt 3 connections, I presume.FYI, I suggest reading through this article to know about all the connections, names, and speed."Thunderbolt 3, USB 3.1, USB Type-C: Making Sense of Connections" And Yes, if the crowd gets bigger, the load time will get longer, together with graphics getting a hit as well. Hope this helps.

Annnnd, may I ask on how the performance of the 64-bit Mac app is on your Mac setup?And also what specifically is your Mac setup? iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2017) with 1TB SSD and Radeon Pro 580 8 GB, 4,2 GHz Intel Core i7......Thanks for your reply.Very nice system! (envy...)

FYI, about playing off external SDD drives, I just bought off Amazon a Monster Digital Overdrive Thunderbolt (SSDOT-0240-A), a 240 GB SDD connected by Thunderbolt 2 to my Macs. The disk speed is VERY fast, faster than the USB3 external SDD drives I've tested so far. Minimum 2 times, maybe 3 times as fast. The game loads very quickly, with minimal wait time. Did I say 'Macs'? Yes, I also love the portability. I can play at home AND at work (after-hours...) with all the same, and no need to download updates individually. Just plug into your Thunderbolt port, and zippy GW2 game play.(Well, still not anywhere up to the native Window$ app playing experience yet, which should become very close as the 64-bit Mac app matures. Let's hope it grows up quicker.) Hope this helps.

Just copy the app to another drive. Macs do not care if it is in /applications or not. I am running the 64 bit on my SSD because I had plenty of room and am enjoying the speed boost. Back in the 32 bit days I just had it on one of my non-boot HDDs in a non-standard folder. Amusingly, when people were migrating to the 64 bit version (which used the old dat) I had to re-download the dat because the 64 bit version did not see it in the default location. You can move/transfer the dat file 'inside' the 32-bit app 'into' the 64-bit app.If you started playing with the 32-bit app, then later played also with the 64-bit app, the 64-bit app will 'look for' the dat file 'inside' the 32-bit app first, and if found , the 64-bit app will use it. If dat file NOT found, then it will newly download everything and this will that a very long time. I was able to move/transfer the dat file from the 32-bit into the 64-bit app, and now successfully playing the 64-bit app with no 32-bit app, off an external SSD drive. Good Luck!

Annnnd, may I ask on how the performance of the 64-bit Mac app is on your Mac setup?And also what specifically is your Mac setup?

May I ask in detail about what external GPU setup you use? I'm using AKiTiO Thunder2 PCIe Box, you can find guides on google easily :)Thanks for your reply, leoh.7239!And other than the issue you've encounter, how is the overall game play of Guild Wars 2, with your external GPU setup?If a working system, following that as much as possible should be the shortest way to a successful & effective setup, I presume.