Can't play, lagging like crazy (Mac)

[USA Patriot 49]

I'm not sure what is wrong here.  I think I have all the right requirements to play.  I unfortunately had to download the game for Mac off Steam, and it downloaded really fast, under 5 minutes.  No problem and game started up.  But as soon as I went to start the map editor or a new game, it lagged as high heck.  I couldn't do anything.  So I them put all the settings to their lowest setting, and I am still lagging and can't do anything.  I also downloaded the game not to my applications, but to an external drive.  Not sure if that makes a difference.

 

My computer specs seem like they should easily handle the game, but I could be wrong.  Any ideas?

 

Processor  3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo

Memory  8 GB 1067 MHz DDR3

Graphics  NVIDIA GeForce 9400 256 MB

oftware  OS X 10.9.3 

[iviaarten 534]

Is the game actually using your NVidia card? I read that for a lot of people (especially on laptops) the game auto-detects the Intel graphics chip and runs on that.

[TheGermanDoctor 8]

Put the Textures,Shadows,Details to Medium and restart the game... It really helped. Also make sure the external Card is running.

Mine is running fine now, a bit laggy sometimes but acceptable 

[Panos 29]

I'm not sure what is wrong here.  I think I have all the right requirements to play.  I unfortunately had to download the game for Mac off Steam, and it downloaded really fast, under 5 minutes.  No problem and game started up.  But as soon as I went to start the map editor or a new game, it lagged as high heck.  I couldn't do anything.  So I them put all the settings to their lowest setting, and I am still lagging and can't do anything.  I also downloaded the game not to my applications, but to an external drive.  Not sure if that makes a difference.

 

My computer specs seem like they should easily handle the game, but I could be wrong.  Any ideas?

 

Processor  3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo

Memory  8 GB 1067 MHz DDR3

Graphics  NVIDIA GeForce 9400 256 MB

oftware  OS X 10.9.3 

 

Your graphic card is below the minimum requirement.

Well bellow by 2 generations

[USA Patriot 49]

All my settings are on low, and I am running on a desktop.  21.5 inch late 2009. 

 

I think the issue is my graphics card and from all my research, I don't see a good way to replace a graphics card.  Thank you for the help.  If anyone has more advice, I would happily listen.  Hope I didn't waste $30.  

 

 

I have a Macbook Pro as well but I don't know if it can run the game. 

Is the game actually using your NVidia card? I read that for a lot of people (especially on laptops) the game auto-detects the Intel graphics chip and runs on that.

 

How would I go about changing what the game reads?

[aprilrose07 0]

I'm guessing this is the same problem i'm having on my Mac. Game is having major lag issues. 

 

My specs: 

Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 320M 256 MB

Memory: 8 GB 1067 MHz DDR3

Processor: 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo

Software: 10.10

 

I really have no clue when it comes to specs. I hope I didn't waste $30 either 

[Zelgadis 638]

I'm not sure what part is slowing you down. My guess is that it's the graphics card. 

 

For the record, in case anyone is interested, these are my specs and the game runs pretty well.

 

27" iMac Mid-2011.

2.7ghz i5

20GB RAM

Radeon HD 6770M 512MB

OS 10.10.1

 

A Mac of that era purchased used might not be a bad investment. Mine still runs everything I throw at it pretty well... Except for the newest SimCity...

[aprilrose07 0]

Mine runs the latest SimCity fine with no issues but not this game. I'm a bit disappointed but then again it's my fault for not understand specs. 

 

Is there anything I can do regarding my graphics card? 

[Indiana Joe 1,750]

Mine runs the latest SimCity fine with no issues but not this game. I'm a bit disappointed but then again it's my fault for not understand specs. 

 

Is there anything I can do regarding my graphics card? 

 

Since it appears you have a laptop, no.  Except buy a new computer.

 

The 256 MB of video RAM you have isn't enough to run new games.  You want a video card with 1 or 2 gigabytes (1024, 2048 MB) of v-RAM.  These are are usually found in rather recent, higher-end gaming computers.

 

It's not surprising a lot of people are having trouble running the game.  It's very resource intensive.  That's the sacrifice for a good game.

[mutton noir 170]

I can run SimCity 2013 no problem on my macbook. I am also able to run Cities Skylines- although on reduced settings. Your spec seems fine but of course you cannot upgrade a graphics card on a mac!

[aprilrose07 0]

Well i am looking to purchase a gaming computer. Sims 4 is barely hanging on on my old pc.

Would this conputer be more suitable for running Cities Skylines & Sims 4?

https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1Y3HWTA_enUS543US564&sboxchip=Shopping&biw=360&bih=615&tbs=vw:l,p_ord:p,cat:325,pdtr0:950630%7C950631&tbm=shop&q=gaming+computer&sa=X&ei=HqoBVabgNcz3oAT16ILABw&ved=0CBUQvSs#spd=16476287851155685994

[USA Patriot 49]

Well it seems to all stem from the graphics.  I am going to try this on my laptop and find out it's specs.  Otherwise I am looking on not being able to play this game and out $30, as well as many others it seems. :-/

[Panos 29]

Well i am looking to purchase a gaming computer. Sims 4 is barely hanging on on my old pc.

Would this conputer be more suitable for running Cities Skylines & Sims 4?

https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1Y3HWTA_enUS543US564&sboxchip=Shopping&biw=360&bih=615&tbs=vw:l,p_ord:p,cat:325,pdtr0:950630%7C950631&tbm=shop&q=gaming+computer&sa=X&ei=HqoBVabgNcz3oAT16ILABw&ved=0CBUQvSs#spd=16476287851155685994

 

Most of these have integrated graphic cards. So no. (the AMD 8xxxx series is integrated GPU)

[Sabretooth78 808]

I fired it up on mine tonight and all-in-all it ran pretty well.

 

MacBook Pro, 15", Mid-2012 (9,1)

2.3 GHz i7

8 GB RAM

NVidia GeForce GT 650M, 512 MB, 1680x1050

OS X 10.9.5

 

It might also be worth noting that I have the app installed on an OWC SSD data doubler; user libraries located on the OEM HDD.

 

This was probably the first time I'd ever heard the fan on this machine; usually it has eaten up anything I've thrown at it in the past without breaking a sweat - not that I ever run anything too intensive...

 

I was able to improve performance slightly by reducing texture quality and turning off shadows.  IMHO, it didn't really cause any kind of quality hit; it still looks really good.  Memory load stayed in the green the whole time.

 

You could also explore playing windowed, that seemed to yield better performance for me although I stuck with full screen anyway.  Or maybe it's just because the resolution was lower as would be expected - something else you could try.

[YUUU 65]

I ordered a new laptop just to be albe to run this game, and well I needed and update anyway:

 

My old laptop specs cause the game to lag a lot even on medium. Not that my processor is that bad, it was one of the first generation i7 but my grahpics card is just not good enough and the clock speed is to low. So I bought a laptop whitin my price range. I didn't had a whole lot of money to spare but I think the news specs look ok.

 

Old specs: (bought this in 2012 and it was good back then)

Packerd Bell Easynote TS11 (not sold in the USA)

Intel Core i7-2630QM 2GHz

RAM 6GB (-2GB used by the NVIDIA card)

GT 540M

price I payed: €960 (now sold around €600)

 

 

New specs:

msi apache GE70-2PC

Intel Core i7-4720HQ 2.6 GHz (boost 3,6GHz)

Cores: 4

8 GB DDR3

GTX 850M

price I payed: €1240

[USA Patriot 49]

I am actually building a new Mac just to play this game.  Wow... thankfully I just got my tax money back.

 

I really am excited to play this game. it will soon be the most expensive game I have ever bought, if I include computer upgrades.  

[cheeseypebbles 0]

I have the newest model of the iMac (just not the retina one) and have a graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce GT 755M 1024 MB

 

I can change the settings to low and it'll still lag, but also change them to high and it will lag EXACTLY the same.

 

People keep saying about making sure the correct graphics card is running but can someone please actually tell me how you do that?

[YUUU 65]

^What is your processor?

[aprilrose07 0]

Well it seems to all stem from the graphics.  I am going to try this on my laptop and find out it's specs.  Otherwise I am looking on not being able to play this game and out $30, as well as many others it seems. :-/

 

I'm in the same boat as you for right now. Hopefully soon i'll be able to come up with the money to get a better computer. 

[cheeseypebbles 0]

^What is your processor?

3.2ghz i5

[YUUU 65]

Your processor is good enough. Then I don't understand how it would still lag if you lower the settings. You graphics card is not that good but still ok to run it at medium quality without lagging.

 

Try and go to your NVIDIA settings. I dont know how you that in an Apple laptop (it just takes a right click on your desktop in a Windows system), but you should be able to tweek your settings there by lowering them. Maybe it just takes only one lower setting on the graphics card itself to get rid of the lag.

 

Go to 3D settings in the settings menu, select the program you want to set settings for. Then it takes a lot of patience finding out wich settings cause the game to lag. But I bet you're willing to try that to run the game smoothly?  :kitty:

 

 

Edit: Just found out that games installed on your pc through steam don't show in the settings option menue for tweeking. I don't why that is. Does anyone here knows how to solve that?

[Marvel773e 0]

cheeseypebbles I'm having the same issues.  I couldn't find help anywhere on this issue but here... Some people have said to turn off Steam's in-game overlay.  Did that but it still didn't work.  It still lags.  I've watched youtube clips and i'm in awe of how smooth it looks but on my Mac its just so lag.  I also have the same specs as you do...

 

Processor  3.2 GHz Intel Core i5

Memory  16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3

Graphics  NVIDIA GeForce GT 755M 1024 MB

Software  OS X Yosemite 10.10.2

 

Have you found a way to fix this?

[Zelgadis 638]

I'm getting the notion that this is an Nvidia problem. I've not noticed a single person posting here using a Radeon. I'm using a Radeon with zero problems on high graphic settings.

[Azurespecter 506]

 Hey Marvel773e and CheeseyPebbles,

 

I'm deeply sorry you're having trouble playing Cities: Skylines. There does seem to be a few technical issues with Mac users and NVIDIA cards, especially on laptops, and I've been collecting as much information as I can to pass on to Colossal Order. I just wanted to let you know that they are working furiously to find the source of this issue, and hope to have it fixed with the first patch.

 

Thanks for your patience and undestanding,

 

Jonathan

[Brokenshakles 0]

I'm having a similar problem in Linux, I have a First gen mobile i7 (740qm) and a Nvidia Geforce GTX 680 w 4gb GDDR5 (So you know its not the card with me, this was top of the line for it's generation.)  I'm getting slideshowing at only 20k  - 30k and 4 squares unlocked.  I think multithreading on non-windows platforms may be broken/nonfunctional.

[Azurespecter 506]

Ya, it seems that Linux users with high-end machines are also having an issue. I believe they are separate problems, but we're working on fixing both!

[Cities for life 0]

Mines also lagging it is a 2009 iMac can anyone givemore info?

[cheeseypebbles 0]

 Hey Marvel773e and CheeseyPebbles,

 

I'm deeply sorry you're having trouble playing Cities: Skylines. There does seem to be a few technical issues with Mac users and NVIDIA cards, especially on laptops, and I've been collecting as much information as I can to pass on to Colossal Order. I just wanted to let you know that they are working furiously to find the source of this issue, and hope to have it fixed with the first patch.

 

Thanks for your patience and undestanding,

 

Jonathan

Okay thank you so much, just knowing that something is being done is very reassuring, I no longer have to worry that this is permanent lag  

[USA Patriot 49]

Mines also lagging it is a 2009 iMac can anyone givemore info?

Need the specs if you have them.  If it is anything like my 2009 iMac, the video card is probably too weak.  

[ex-machina 0]

A bit of a PSA here - I am having the exact same issue on my mid-2014 Macbook Pro (2.5GHz i7, 16GB RAM, GeForce GT 750M 2GB) with the game running on a connected 1080p display (not the retina display) and I can report that when I install it on my Windows 8 bootcamp, it runs smooth as silk. So until Paradox sort the issue, if you have a Windows partition knocking around, you might consider using that instead.