Performance was solid during that time. Gaming on the Mac has a semi-tragic history. Catalina helps the Mac play in Apple's services strategy, bringing Apple TV Plus and Apple Arcade to. Running Catalina without full graphics acceleration will result in extremely poor system performance. 2008 Mac Pro 3,1 AMD GPU Support: FIXED as of Catalina Patcher 1.2.0. Jan 24, 2018  Question: Q: Poor gaming performance in Boot Camp I recently purchased the base model iMac Pro which includes Radeon Vega 56 GPU. I am running Windows 10 in Boot Camp with the latest updates and have installed the latest drivers from Apple, but the performance when trying to play games in Boot Camp is pretty poor.

Apple's current MacBook Pro design is is sleeker than ever before, with a wide-gamut Retina display, multiple USB-C / Thunderbolt 3 ports, and smoking-fast SSD storage. They're also rated for 10 hours of battery life on the 13-inch model, and 11 hours on the new 16-inch MacBook Pro. But if you're not getting that much life out of your MacBook Pro, here's a few troubleshooting tips!

Note: Apple's battery life estimates are based on reduced brightness and light internet load like browsing the web or checking email. If you've got the screen at 100 percent, are downloading gigs in an area with poor Wi-Fi, and are transcoding video while you do it, your battery life will be substantially less. This article focuses on what to do when otherwise good battery life goes bad.

Mac Catalina Poor Gaming Performance 2017

Walk away

In addition to a lot of processes running when you set up a new Mac, you're likely to be using it a lot as well. It's your new toy, after all! You want to see how the world looks on that wide color display, how easy it is to authorize with Touch ID, and how many apps you can try out on the Touch Bar.

But that also means the screen might stay on longer than normal and Wi-Fi and other systems might likewise get a lot of abnormally high use.

In other words, if your battery feels like it's only lasting half as long, the first step to fixing it is figuring out if you're using it twice as much.

So, note down how much battery life you have left. Then walk away for 20-40 minutes. When you come back, note down how much battery life you have left again. If there isn't a big change while your MacBook Pro is asleep, you're probably okay, and your battery life will return to normal when your usage returns to normal (after the novelty wears off).

If your MacBook continued to drain and drain fast, even when you weren't using it, keep reading!

Restart

Mac owners love to make 'restart Windows!' jokes but, the truth is, every computer system can sometimes use a good, swift kick in the bits. Whether it kills a rogue process or just gives bad apps a clean start, rebooting can often be a simple solution to a complex problem.

1. Click on the Apple menu button in the upper left corner of your screen.

2. Click Restart...

   Source: iMore

3. Click the Restart button on the pop-up menu to confirm.

After doing so, the pop-up window begins a countdown from 60 seconds, so if you select Restart and walk away, the computer will complete its task. You can also click the Restart button immediately to end the countdown and reboot the machine.

Once your MacBook Pro has rebooted, repeat the previous steps and see if battery drain has returned to normal. If not, keep reading!

Update everything

Newer versions of macOS and apps are often better optimized for current-generation hardware. Sure, regressions happen, but for the most part making sure you're running the latest and greatest macOS and the most recent releases of Final Cut Pro, Photoshop, Office, and other heavy-duty apps will help you get the best battery life possible.

For macOS updates and Mac App Store updates, the process is easy: Penguin game on a mac computer.

1. Launch the App Store from the Dock or Finder.

2. Click Updates in the side panel menu.

   Source: iMore

3. Games like house flipper for mac. Click Update next to each app you'd like to update, or click Update All.

   Source: iMore

4. Enter your Apple ID password if prompted.

For non-Mac App Store apps, you can typically go to the Menubar and find Check for Updates in the app menu or help menu section.

If you do think a newer version is worse on your MacBook Pro battery than a previous version, check forums, social, and ask around. If you find a consensus, consider holding off on upgrading or switching back temporarily until the new version gets its battery act together.

Check usage

Apple invented the concept of 'battery shaming' on the Mac as a way of showing us just which apps were consuming a lot of power, and encouraging the makers of those apps to fix them. Yes, even when that maker is Apple.

1. Click on the Battery icon on the right of your Mac Menubar.

2. Click on the name of an app to inspect its power usage.

   Source: iMore

Sometimes there might be a legitimate reason for an app to be consuming a lot of power. For example, if you're transcoding or rendering video or have a silly amount of tabs open with scripts and movies playing in the browser.

Other times there isn't. (Looking at you Chrome and Slack!)

When there isn't, quitting the apps (even killing tabs you're not currently using) can radically improve battery life.

Run native apps

Safari is better on battery life than Chrome because Apple only makes Safari for macOS and can code it to be as efficient as possible. Chrome is cross-platform and has become almost Internet Explorer-like in its desire to make the browser a platform.

Some tests have shown turning off Chrome can save you up to an hour in battery life, which is significant. So, if you don't need something that's Chrome-only, consider running Safari. Even consider running Safari for normal browsing and Chrome only when you need it for heavy Google work. (That's what I do.)

Likewise, Slack is currently a big drain on batteries. (Because, like all Electron-based apps, it's really just a Chome instance in a Slack wrapper.) That's harder to change because you need to be where your team and friends are, but you can shut it down or check it only on your phone or tablet when your MacBook Pro battery gets low.

Same for Final Cut Pro X vs. Premiere or a native app like Acorn or Pixelmator vs. Photoshop. Even if you just keep them around as a light-weight alternative, they can help you in a pinch.

Extend your battery life

If you're stuck without power for an extended period of time and really need to squeeze every ounce of juice out your MacBook Pro that you can, here are a few other hacks you can try.

• Turn down the screen brightness.
• Turn off Wi-Fi if you don't need to be online.
• Use headphones instead of the speakers if you have to listen to audio or music.
• Turn on Automatic Graphics Switching, Put hard disks to sleep when possible, and Wake for Wi-Fi network access options under the Energy Saver section in System Preferences.

Another good way to save battery life is to quit apps that are running in the background. You can check on what's currently running on your Mac by launching Activity Monitor (Applications > Utilities > Activity Monitor), and closing any unnecessary processes. You may be surprised to see how many things are running in the background.

You can also get a power brick. Thanks to USB-C, they're not just for phones or tablets anymore.

Contact Apple

Every once and a while, you get a problem you just can't solve. Like any electronics, sometimes things go wrong. If you have AppleCare, you should absolutely book a Genius Bar appointment and avail yourself of it. If you don't live close to an Apple Store, you can call 1-800-MY-APPLE in order to set up a mail-in repair.

Your power saving tips?

If any of these power-saving tips worked for you, let me know! If you've got any tips of your own, let me know that too!

December 2019: Updated for 16-inch MacBook Pro and macOS Catalina.

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An eGPU can give your Mac additional graphics performance for professional apps, 3D gaming, VR content creation, and more.

eGPUs are supported by any Thunderbolt 3-equipped Mac¹ running macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 or later. Learn how to update the software on your Mac.

An eGPU lets you do all this on your Mac:

• Accelerate apps that use Metal, OpenGL, and OpenCL
• Connect additional external monitors and displays
• Use virtual reality headsets plugged into the eGPU
• Charge your MacBook Pro while using the eGPU
• Use an eGPU with your MacBook Pro while its built-in display is closed
• Connect an eGPU while a user is logged in
• Connect more than one eGPU using the multiple Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) ports on your Mac²
• Use the menu bar item to safely disconnect the eGPU
• View the activity levels of built-in and external GPUs (Open Activity Monitor, then choose Window > GPU History.)

eGPU support in apps

eGPU support in macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 and later is designed to accelerate Metal, OpenGL, and OpenCL apps that benefit from a powerful eGPU. Not all apps support eGPU acceleration; check with the app's developer to learn more.³

In general, an eGPU can accelerate performance in these types of apps:

• Pro apps designed to utilize multiple GPUs
• 3D games, when an external monitor is attached directly to the eGPU
• VR apps, when the VR headset is attached directly to the eGPU
• Pro apps and 3D games that accelerate the built-in display of iMac, iMac Pro, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro (This capability must be enabled by the app's developer.)

You can configure applications to use an eGPU with one of the following methods.

Use the Prefer External GPU option

Starting with macOS Mojave 10.14, you can turn on Prefer External GPU in a specific app's Get Info panel in the Finder. This option lets the eGPU accelerate apps on any display connected to the Mac—including displays built in to iMac, iMac Pro, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro:

1. Quit the app if it's open.
2. Select the app in the Finder. Most apps are in your Applications folder. If you open the app from an alias or launcher, Control-click the app's icon and choose Show Original from the pop-up menu. Then select the original app.
3. Press Command-I to show the app's info window.
4. Select the checkbox next to Prefer External GPU.
   
5. Open the app to use it with the eGPU.

You won't see this option if an eGPU isn't connected, if your Mac isn't running macOS Mojave or later, or if the app self-manages its GPU selection. Some apps, such as Final Cut Pro, directly choose which graphics processors are used and will ignore the Prefer External GPU checkbox.

Set an external eGPU-connected display as the primary display

If you have an external display connected to your eGPU, you can choose it as the primary display for all apps. Since apps default to the GPU associated with the primary display, this option works with a variety of apps:

1. Quit any open apps that you want the eGPU to accelerate on the primary display.
2. Choose Apple menu  > System Preferences. Select Displays, then select the Arrangement tab.
3. Drag the white menu bar to the box that represents the display that's attached to the eGPU.
4. Open the apps that you want to use with the eGPU.

If you disconnect the eGPU, your Mac defaults back to the internal graphics processors that drives the built-in display. When the eGPU is re-attached, it automatically sets the external display as the primary display.

About macOS GPU drivers

Mac hardware and GPU software drivers have always been deeply integrated into the system. This design fuels the visually rich and graphical macOS experience as well as many deeper platform compute and graphics features. These include accelerating the user interface, providing support for advanced display features, rendering 3D graphics for pro software and games, processing photos and videos, driving powerful GPU compute features, and accelerating machine learning tasks. This deep integration also enables optimal battery life while providing for greater system performance and stability.

Apple develops, integrates, and supports macOS GPU drivers to ensure there are consistent GPU capabilities across all Mac products, including rich APIs like Metal, Core Animation, Core Image, and Core ML. In order to deliver the best possible customer experience, GPU drivers need to be engineered, integrated, tested, and delivered with each version of macOS. Aftermarket GPU drivers delivered by third parties are not compatible with macOS.

The GPU drivers delivered with macOS are also designed to enable a high quality, high performance experience when using an eGPU, as described in the list of recommended eGPU chassis and graphics card configurations below. Because of this deep system integration, only graphics cards that use the same GPU architecture as those built into Mac products are supported in macOS.

Supported eGPU configurations

It's important to use an eGPU with a recommended graphics card and Thunderbolt 3 chassis. If you use an eGPU to also charge your MacBook Pro, the eGPU's chassis needs to provide enough power to run the graphics card and charge the computer. Check with the manufacturer of the chassis to find out if it provides enough power for your MacBook Pro.

Recommended graphics cards, along with chassis that can power them sufficiently, are listed below.

Thunderbolt 3 all-in-one eGPU products

These products contain a powerful built-in GPU and supply sufficient power to charge your MacBook Pro.

Recommended Thunderbolt 3 all-in-one eGPUs:

• Blackmagic eGPU and Blackmagic eGPU Pro⁴
• Gigabyte RX 580 Gaming Box⁴
• Sonnet Radeon RX 570 eGFX Breakaway Puck
• Sonnet Radeon RX 560 eGFX Breakaway Puck⁵

AMD Radeon RX 470, RX 480, RX 570, RX 580, and Radeon Pro WX 7100

These graphics cards are based on the AMD Polaris architecture. Recommended graphics cards include the Sapphire Pulse series and the AMD WX series.

Recommended Thunderbolt 3 chassis for these graphics cards:

• OWC Mercury Helios FX⁴
• PowerColor Devil Box
• Sapphire Gear Box
• Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box 350W
• Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box 550W⁴
• Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box 650W⁴
• Razer Core X⁴
• PowerColor Game Station⁴
• HP Omen⁴
• Akitio Node⁶

AMD Radeon RX Vega 56

These graphics cards are based on the AMD Vega 56 architecture. Recommended graphics cards include the Sapphire Vega 56.

Recommended Thunderbolt 3 chassis for these graphics cards:

• OWC Mercury Helios FX⁴
• PowerColor Devil Box
• Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box 550W⁴
• Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box 650W⁴
• Razer Core X⁴
• PowerColor Game Station⁴

AMD Radeon RX Vega 64, Vega Frontier Edition Air, and Radeon Pro WX 9100

These graphics cards are based on the AMD Vega 64 architecture. Recommended graphics cards include the Sapphire Vega 64, AMD Frontier Edition air-cooled, and AMD Radeon Pro WX 9100.

Recommended Thunderbolt 3 chassis for these graphics cards:

• Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box 650W⁴
• Razer Core X⁴

AMD Radeon RX 5700, 5700 XT, and 5700 XT 50th Anniversary

If you've installed macOS Catalina 10.15.1 or later, you can use these graphics cards that are based on the AMD Navi RDNA architecture. Recommended graphics cards include the AMD Radeon RX 5700, AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT, and AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 50th Anniversary.

Recommended Thunderbolt 3 chassis for these graphics cards:

• Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box 650W⁴
• Razer Core X⁴

Learn more

• Learn how to choose your GPU in Final Cut Pro X 10.4.7 or later.
• To ensure the best eGPU performance, use the Thunderbolt 3 cable that came with your eGPU or an Apple Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) cable. Also make sure that the cable is connected directly to a Thunderbolt 3 port on your Mac, not daisy-chained through another Thunderbolt device or hub.
• If you have questions about Thunderbolt 3 chassis or graphics cards, or about third-party app support and compatibility, contact the hardware or software provider.
• Software developers can learn more about programming their apps to take advantage of macOS eGPU support.

Mac Catalina Poor Gaming Performance Center

1. If you have a Mac mini (2018) with FileVault turned on, make sure to connect your primary display directly to Mac mini during startup. After you log in and see the macOS Desktop, you can unplug the display from Mac mini and connect it to your eGPU.

2. If you're using a 13-inch MacBook Pro from 2016 or 2017, always plug eGPUs and other high-performance devices into the left-hand ports for maximum data throughput.

3. macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 and later don't support eGPUs in Windows using Boot Camp or when your Mac is in macOS Recovery or installing system updates.

4. These chassis provide at least 85 watts of charging power, making them ideal for use with 15-inch MacBook Pro models.

5. Playback of HDCP-protected content from iTunes and some streaming services is not supported on displays attached to Radeon 560-based eGPUs. You can play this content on the built-in display on MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and iMac.

Mac Catalina Poor Gaming Performance Center

6. If you use Akitio Node with a Mac notebook, you might need to connect your Mac to its power adapter to ensure proper charging.