Finally jumped from Intel to M1 - LOTRO experience so far.

[WhifOfDespair]

For those who are still on Intel Macs and wondering what that will mean for LOTRO when/if they upgrade to an M1 Mac, here is my experience.

Short version: Seamless and awesome.


Longer version: I've been running LOTRO on an old (2014) MacBook Pro for a looong time, through many versions, including the embedded WINE versions, later manually on Wine and then for a long time on Crossover. Tralfazz' tutorials and help postings have been a huge help over the years.

It has been very stable, but given it was such an old machine, performance was ... not the best. Frame rates varied from around 20-40 fps, on 'Very High' graphics settings. I could not get DirectX11 to ever work so always stayed with DirectX9. So usually playable, but sometimes aggravating. Gave up on raids long ago.

I finally upgraded to an M1 Max MacBook Pro a couple of weeks ago. I upgraded to the latest Crossover before doing so, but other than that, I just used Apple's standard Migration Utility to transfer over everything from my old laptop to this new one. LOTRO ran perfect right off the bat. Not a single hitch.

And the performance uptick has been phenomenal. I'm able to run full DX11, ultra-high graphics settings and get frame rates that range from 100 - 200 fps, with the 'typical' fps bouncing between 120-140. And that holds true even when. driving an external 27 inch monitor at 5K. Remote object detail rendering happens so quick now and scenery views are just stunning.

Note: When you want to put LOTRO on an external display, you need to first make that display your 'primary' display in the System Preferences: Display panel and then start LOTRO.

I'm very impressed with just how seamless it was to use my existing WINE bottles in Crossover while jumping from one chip architecture to the other. Kudos to them.

I hope this is helpful for anyone else still pondering the jump.

[Tralfazz]

Thanks so much for sharing your experience! That's a beast of a computer, I'm jealous.

Note that your Mac's built-in display has a maximum refresh rate of 120Hz and any external display will be driven at a max of 60Hz. You can reduce heat generation and, if you're running without AC, battery drain by capping your frame rate to 120fps or 60fps. Any frame rate higher than the refresh rate of the display has no effect except for the demand it puts on your system. The game's frame rate can be capped in the OPTIONS->TROUBLESHOOTING section. And for LOTRO, which is not a "twitch" game, 60fps ought to be indistinguishable from 120fps even on a 120Hz display.

[WhifOfDespair]

Good tip. I'll make sure to set that, though battery drain isn't a problem when hooked up to the external monitor (it acts as a charger).

[YamydeAragon]

For those who are still on Intel Macs and wondering what that will mean for LOTRO when/if they upgrade to an M1 Mac, here is my experience.

Short version: Seamless and awesome.

Longer version: I've been running LOTRO on an old (2014) MacBook Pro for a looong time, through many versions, including the embedded WINE versions, later manually on Wine and then for a long time on Crossover. Tralfazz' tutorials and help postings have been a huge help over the years.

It has been very stable, but given it was such an old machine, performance was ... not the best. Frame rates varied from around 20-40 fps, on 'Very High' graphics settings. I could not get DirectX11 to ever work so always stayed with DirectX9. So usually playable, but sometimes aggravating. Gave up on raids long ago.

I finally upgraded to an M1 Max MacBook Pro a couple of weeks ago. I upgraded to the latest Crossover before doing so, but other than that, I just used Apple's standard Migration Utility to transfer over everything from my old laptop to this new one. LOTRO ran perfect right off the bat. Not a single hitch.

And the performance uptick has been phenomenal. I'm able to run full DX11, ultra-high graphics settings and get frame rates that range from 100 - 200 fps, with the 'typical' fps bouncing between 120-140. And that holds true even when. driving an external 27 inch monitor at 5K. Remote object detail rendering happens so quick now and scenery views are just stunning.

Note: When you want to put LOTRO on an external display, you need to first make that display your 'primary' display in the System Preferences: Display panel and then start LOTRO.

I'm very impressed with just how seamless it was to use my existing WINE bottles in Crossover while jumping from one chip architecture to the other. Kudos to them.

I hope this is helpful for anyone else still pondering the jump.

Congratulations on your new machine! Glad that you found 1 that works for your personal preferences & run LOTRO smoothly.