For Mac Users!

Just started POE under parallels (latest version) on a 2011 imac. Runs great, no issues so far after a few hours play.

Looks very pretty, and runs smooth after I turned down various graphic options in POE. I'll post here a bit later the exact specs for people who commonly ask about Mac versions etc, just so the info is available. Its a pain to run in boot camp, parallels makes it easy.

update on specs:

Processor 3.4 GHz Intel Core i7
Memory 16 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
Graphics AMD Radeon HD 6970M 2048 MB
OSX: Mountain lion 10.8
Parallels: 7.0.1

works great, I'll update again once I progress a bit more, to note any possible slowdown when lots of enemies etc, only level 4 atm, but so far, zero issues.

Update #2
Ok, after all the posts about bootcamp, I installed. Took about an hour, and installed windows 64 bit. POE performs much better in bootcamp than parallels. Completely playable in parallels, and convenient of course. However, running it in bootcamp with nearly all graphics/sound options to the max is glorious! Visually stunning. So its bootcamp for me from now on for gameplay.

I continue to be impressed by this game. Like many others, D3 lost its zing for me when the AH/gear dependency reared its ugly head...

POE on the other hand, what a breath of fresh air!

Not sure if this is related, maybe you can post on the MAC Client V.2 thread as well?
http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/29460

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Morbsta wrote:

Its a pain to run in boot camp, parallels makes it easy.

It may be a pain to go through the hassle of installing Windows but then I don't have to turn off any graphical options, and I'm running on a late 2009 iMac with a 4850M... I do turn off anti-aliasing but most people do on a 27 inch screen.. it's just not worth the framerate drop.

That said the game is probably still smoother on your graphics card with Parrallels. I get 60 FPS in dungeons but it can drop to 24 FPS in a party in outdoors with lots of effects going.

I can't wait to upgrade mine when the new iMacs come out, but even so I'll be installing Windows 7 for getting the most out of the GPU.

I got used to rebooting in Windows. I actually like to have a partition for gaming and one for working. What I ended up doing is I have Google Chrome setup with gaming bookmarks in Windows, and my work bookmarks in OS X :) So basically I don't reboot after a game, I can still surf or check emails and stuff.

You can also take advantage of Dropbox for synching todo lists and such :)

Running parallels is easier to do without rebooting, but then all processing has to happen twice, Windows to Parallels, then Parallels to OSX.

Bootcamp allows Windows to run natively on the hardware.

The smoothest running Windows machines all have an Apple Logo on them. Don't get me wrong, there are faster machines, and faster graphics, but Apple writes their own drivers for the Windows software to run. You get OSX level stability in the Windows environment.

I am BootCamping Win7 64bit on a MacPro with 32Gb RAM. No lag, no issues. I have yet to have Win7 crash.

2009 iMac 12gb ram. Bootcamp win7 64bit. POE running all good.

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Chris wrote:

I use Bootcamp on my 2012 Retina MBP. Runs PoE fine. It's the first time we've seen it in 2880x1800!

Just boot camped my rMBP this morning to have a look. I wish Apple would enable 2880x1800 in OS X w/out having to get a 3rd party app to do it as I don't find fonts too small at all and love the extra real estate. Nice to see the PoE forums take up only 1/3 of my screen without squishing. :)

Had to set Windows' display scaling to 100% in order to have a cursor in fullscreen but I wouldn't want the setting higher anyway.

FPS is pretty spiky, especially in town, but it's easily playable. Oddly, reducing the graphics settings didn't seem to help much but increasing them stabilized it a fair bit, if at an overall lower rate. Will have to tinker some when I get more time.

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Durentis wrote:

Oddly, reducing the graphics settings didn't seem to help much but increasing them stabilized it a fair bit, if at an overall lower rate. Will have to tinker some when I get more time.

That may be due to FPS spikes.

It would be very nice for this kind of game to have a Max FPS option as in Diablo III, smoothing out the FPS when moving around.

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I do turn off anti-aliasing but most people do on a 27 inch screen.. it's just not worth the framerate drop.

False. Most people that seriously game wouldn't play on a lolMac in the first place, and would use a gpu capable of AA.
If you get a framerate drop enabling AA in this game, it kinda says your hardware is bad. This game ( fun though it is) is pretty quaint graphically.

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DeF46 wrote:

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Durentis wrote:

Oddly, reducing the graphics settings didn't seem to help much but increasing them stabilized it a fair bit, if at an overall lower rate. Will have to tinker some when I get more time.

That may be due to FPS spikes.

It would be very nice for this kind of game to have a Max FPS option as in Diablo III, smoothing out the FPS when moving around.

I suspect I just needed another reboot after installing stuff. I didn't mean high spikes, more like a sharpened sine wave pattern where each poll produces another peak between 9fps and 30fps in town (upward shift at The Ledge).

Tried it again today and I get a pretty solid ~30fps in town and a slightly but not too spiky ~55-60fps at The Ledge waypoint.

@DamageIncorporated:

I don't mean for this to come across as nasty so much as informative, but your argument(s) would be more compelling with supporting information. Yes, the screen dimensions have nothing to do with the level of AA one can support, while the resolution and graphics pipeline does but you don't mention this.

Your reference to playing on a "lolMac" comes across as simply perpetuating ignorance and instead of saying why you feel (because you really don't have stats, right?) serious gamers don't use Macs you just turn on the hostility against Macs in general and those who do use them. Not only are Macs on at least equal footing with PCs for gaming (as they use essentially the same hardware), OS X has far more power under the hood (built on Unix) and a more intuitive and user-friendly interface (imo) compared to Windows 7. I can't speak for everyone, but overall I'm much more content gaming seriously on a Mac even if I have to Bootcamp it into Windows for some.

I suspect that if someone gave you a recent Mac and took away your PC you'd be an instant convert like everyone else I've recently introduced to Mac - though I would have agreed with you beyond a year and a half ago (doh! :o). But who knows, maybe not..

There seems to be a misconception that 250fps is better than 245fps (despite a general lack of knowledge as to how fps affects vision with various types of content) and totally worth an extra $3000 to achieve. Sorry for the extremes; your mileage may vary.

@Morbsta:

I got to wondering.. perhaps it's Parallels that is causing something of a performance drop for you. Even on my early 2011 MBP I can crank the graphics up while in Windows and it's very playable at 1920x1080 on my TV. Your iMac should have more power. If you have the time/inclination, I'm curious to see if you get a performance boost running PoE with Bootcamp. Regardless, I can understand the convenience of not having to boot out of Lion.. easily worth some loss of performance.