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smallbit
1328
Sep 18, 2018
I am typing on one of these now! It is currently at 91 degrees Celsius. I am streaming Netflix and posting here, not doing much. BUT THIS THING IS HOT! And besides the class action lawsuit for the keyboard... It is not capable of playing fortnite on ANY setting. You cannot hdmi out to another source through a dongle because it drops signal and resolution every couple minutes. I build computers. I fix computers. You cannot fix what Apple did here. DO NOT BUY! Tim Cook is just trying to make everything smaller and it is ruining their thermals and therefore longevity.
mickus
9
Sep 18, 2018
smallbitIf your intention is to play 3d games on a macbook then please consider buying an external GPU.
DimaG
610
Sep 18, 2018
smallbitThey must've did something magical on the update, because I'm doing all of that on this year's model and have none of these problems. Also, if you're trying to play anything on the screen's native resolution, you're up for a rude awakening (and about 15 fps).
smallbit
1328
Sep 18, 2018
DimaGThis years model or the 2017? We are talking about the 2017 MBP DimaG. Yeah the native resolution is torture, maybe we are talking about the same one. Do you have SMC Fan Control to see what temps you are at? I have a custom fan profile setup at a higher than stock rpm and still run IDLE at about 145F with a 3k fan rpm.
smallbit
1328
Sep 18, 2018
mickusI just wanted to see if it could since my phone can.
mickus
9
Sep 18, 2018
smallbitPhone uses completely different LOD models, shaders, and particle effects. Phone rendering also minimizes rendered object to line of sight ± 20° because it's much harder to do a 180° quickscope on a phone than it is with a mouse set to high sensitivity thus the program buffers much more 'peripheral vision' on the PC versions. The two versions are quite incomparable in terms of resources required and I suspect Epic isn't going to backport 'Fortnite Lite' to PC.
EDIT: there's a fascinating GDC talk on how Epic managed to port Fortnite to mobile devices, it's worth a watch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xiwJukvb60
smallbit
1328
Sep 18, 2018
mickusDamn that is awesome. Thanks for the info :D!
mickus
9
Sep 18, 2018
smallbitOh yeah, set the resolution to 1080p like @DimaG said. Trying to render the game in 4k might be the main performance culprit.
smallbit
1328
Sep 19, 2018
mickusOH I have a trick that got me close to 20fps. Check this out. If you go to [ ~/Library/Preferences/FortniteGame/MacClient ] you will find a file called "GameUserSettings.ini" and you can change anything. I had to rip out a bunch of stuff and take it down to 480p with the graphics accelerator turned all the way up to "where did all these pixels come from?". Once you save the file DO NOT change your settings in game or it will reset all that.
But with all this it will still freeze frequently, you will not exceed 20fps, and you will overheat.
Trust me, I have troubleshot this all the way down. This is a really bad laptop.
Ecne
269
Sep 19, 2018
smallbitYou can HDMI out indeed but you need a quality dongle. Shitty ones (possibly including Apple's own) are finicky.
smallbit
1328
Sep 19, 2018
EcneI have tried two different CharGenPros with similar performance. I switched to a usbc - hdmi dedicated adapter and really had no difference. Another thing to point out is the screen flashes. If you have just a black screen like the top and bottom letterbox or dark chart like bitcoinwisdom open you can see screen flashes in the black sporadically on the MacBook screen ON THE LAPTOP when not using any adapters. What could it even be doing to cause the power to fluctuate in the background like that? I really think they just keep trying to fit more and more into a smaller package and eventually that will hit a tipping point with durability degradation.
BoognishFloats
2
Sep 19, 2018
smallbitSo the Chargen doesn't work? Dongle or the two pronged one that sits flush?
Ecne
269
Sep 20, 2018
smallbitCould be a faulty laptop perhaps? I had my share of troubles with USB-C Macbooks but never anything like you described.
smallbit
1328
Sep 20, 2018
EcneI thought it was faulty too until I saw the Louis Rossman video.
Overheating Problem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgeh7ZJRhZU
This thing runs idle at 165F+. Any stress and it is DESIGNED to reach temps upwards of 80 degrees celsius. It is unfortunately designed that way. Genius bar dudes just laugh at me whenever I tell them I tried to use my Macbook Pro, which cost almost 2k originally, to play Fortnite. I don't care, I'll just use it as my beat up work laptop till it explodes in a firey display of Apple's prowess; hopefully in public.
Proletariat
71
Sep 21, 2018
smallbitI have a 13" MBP without the touch bar and it's insanely hot also. I mean, it's fine as long as you don't "use" it. I finally bought a cooling pad for underneath. I even contacted Apple about it and they were like 'yup -- it gets hot.' The cooling pad solved the problem.
smallbit
1328
Sep 21, 2018
Proletariat:D Exactly! I use this little guy: https://www.amazon.com/Jelly-Comb-Aluminium-Non-slip-Blasting/dp/B00Q4INX0G/
The nonstick mat on the bottom sticks to whatever and makes me happy. Of all the geek tools I have bought, this mouse pad has been insanely helpful and versatile at times. Really great work surface for tiny stuff too. But the only problem it solves with the laptop is the heat getting to your legs. The laptop is still hot as the sun on top.
techwiz
235
Sep 22, 2018
smallbitJust thought I'd put in my 2 cents on the subject... Yes, Macbooks tend to run pretty warm, but that's to be expected when you have a powerful CPU in such a tight space. Personally, I'd rather a bit of heat over something that weights 2x as much. I just won't place the laptop on my jewels while I do any actual work. If you're looking for something cool and fast, look at a gaming laptop not a Macbook. However, those things have 4h battery lives not 10ish like this machine and are basically portable tanks sans main cannon. It's a give and take, so you gotta find what suits your needs. With Macs, the software might be reason enough for you.
As for the Fortnite performance, I bet it's because you're running it in macOS, which uses either Metal or OpenGL. If you can, try running it on Windows installed on the Macbook. DirectX probably has better performance. But also it's because the 13" models don't have discrete graphics, only integrated. So you're basically running Fortnite on an Intel Iris Pro. This machine is really only a touch over the minimum requirements on the graphics side, so of course your FPS is shit. They're called minimum requirements for a reason, it just needs to turn on and does a thing.
That being said, keyboard issues aside I think you should have brought your Macbook to the genius bar because it shouldn't be doing any of the things you mentioned. Except the video dongle cutting out, that's probably because your dongle is no bueno. You could try resetting the SMC, but that's hit or miss. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295
smallbit
1328
Sep 22, 2018
techwizI just posted a video demonstrating that it is designed to do exactly what I have described and I already mentioned the Geniuseses. I addressed everything you just posted about already.
Fortnite was just an example of the fireball's inability to render a 3d environment well. I play video games on a grown up computer, this was just for testing. I also mentioned it has a hard time streaming video and doing anything else at the same time as well. I did mention that I am already using an overclocked fan profile. This mod to the software profile was done after resetting SMC and running the basic genius bar once over.
But yeah, maybe I got 3 bad dongles bro. In a row. From different manufacturers.
techwiz
235
Sep 22, 2018
smallbitI've seem Rossman's videos, and I'm well aware of how aggressively anti-Apple he is. But I think he's biased because he focuses on Apple. The Razer Blade Stealth, a "gaming machine" is built very similar to the MBP and has a number of the same thermal issues. As it turns out, you can't exactly beat physics with regards to thermals. Something of this form factor will run into thermal issues, period. You gotta pick and choose based on what you feel is most important, and these form factors fit the bill for a lot of people.
Also, with regards to the questions you posed before your many ninja edits, I own an i9 2018 Pro and it handles whatever I throw at it just fine (software development). I don't see any of those issues you're mentioning with any of the dongle I own, so I'm not sure if it's your bad luck or your machine has a hardware issue that should have been sorted/replaced by a genius. It runs warm, yes, but I have it sitting on my desk so I'm not bothered by the heat. I'd rather have strong bursty performance and portability over cool temps any day.
However, I'm not trying to run a 3D game on integrated graphics. At the very least I would use an external GPU or a model with discrete graphics. That much should be obvious, you need a graphics card to get good graphics performance. This 13" doesn't have a graphics card. Plus, gaming performance on macOS is going to be trash because developers don't optimize for macOS. Windows is simply going to perform better on the same hardware because Microsoft, the creators of Xbox and Windows, are quite interested in keeping it that way.
But seriously, if you want a machine to play games, why are you even looking at a Macbook? Everyone on the god damn planet knows Macs don't make good gaming machines. What exactly is your point with Fortnite? Let's talk about Apple's bread and butter Final Cut or Logic Pro? How about compile times for software? There's more to computers than video games.
smallbit
1328
Sep 22, 2018
techwiz
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techwiz
235
Sep 22, 2018
smallbitThat's fine. I'm not posting this for you, you've already made your decision and you're just flaunting it at this point. My posts are for people who are actually considering this product. The "other side of the story," so to speak.
smallbit
1328
Sep 22, 2018
techwizYou didn't read any of the above posts and are just trolling so...

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Edit: It's 2018 so I really wasn't sure if I would ever get a chance to make this gif. Do fanbois still exist? They do. I appreciate the opportunity.